and not being able to settle on either of those poles. >> ifill: plus, private contractors, nasa and the f.a.a. investigate what caused a space station supply rocket to explode seconds after take off. >> woodruff: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> 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 friends of the newshour. 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: the ebola death rate in west africa may be slowing. the world health organization reported today that total cases now top 13,700, but the death toll remains at just under 5,000. that's partly due to liberia's death count being revised downward. meanwhile, president obama warned again about quarantine policies that might discourage doctors and nurses from volunteering in west africa. >> we can't hermetically seal ourselves off. the nature of international travel and movement, means that the only way to ensure that we are safe, is to make sure that we have dealt with the disease where right now it's most acute. >> ifill: before the president spoke, the pentagon announced that all u.s. troops who serve in west africa will be placed in 21-day quarantine when they leave the region. and, health officials in california ordered the same restriction for anyone who has traveled to west africa if they have had contact with ebola patients. >> woodruff: a legal battle is shaping up between the state of maine and a nurse who treated ebola patients in sierra leone state officials said today they will get a court order to enforce a home quarantine of kaci hickox who has tested negative. she had already spent three days under medical isolation in new jersey. today, in a skype interview hickox told abc she will challenge maine's policy. >> i remain really concerned by these mandatory quarantine policies for aid workers. i think we're only just adding to the stigmatization that again is not based on science or evidence. if these restrictions are not removed for me by the state of maine by tomorrow morning, thursday morning, i will go to court to attain my freedom. >> woodruff: officials in maine want hickox to remain home for 21 days since her last contact with an ebola patient. that's the incubation period for the virus. >> ifill: the federal reserve has officially ended its long- running economic stimulus effort. citing an improved economy, policy makers at the central bank announced today they've completed the phase out their bond-buying program. but, they also said, again, they mean to maintain short-term rates near zero for a considerable time. >> woodruff: reinforcements from two sources headed to the syrian town of kobani today, to battle islamic state forces. activists said 50 rebels from the "free syrian army" faction entered kobani from neighboring turkey. separately, about 150 iraqi peshmerga troops traveled by convoy through turkey. they have the blessing of the turkish government, and turkish residents cheered their passage. >> ifill: a monsoon mudslide hit sri lanka today. the disaster management minister reported more than 100 dead, with upwards of 300 others missing. the mudslide was triggered by heavy rain that inundated the island nation's central hills. it hit this morning, and wiped out a number of workers' homes at a tea plantation. >> woodruff: back in this country, white house officials said they're acting to address a breach of its unclassified computer network. "the washington post" reported today that investigators believe hackers working for the russians were behind the attack in recent weeks. at the white house, press secretary josh earnest declined to speculate today. >> there are a number of nations and organizations around the globe that are engaged in efforts to collect information about u.s. government activity. and it's not a surprise. we're certainly aware of the fact that those individuals or organizations, or even countries, might view the white house computer network as a valuable source of information. >> woodruff: the post report said there's no evidence that any classified networks were hacked. >> ifill: the u.s. securities and exchange commission is investigating whether medicare and medicaid employees leaked information to stock traders. today's "wall street journal" says three separate inquiries are looking at the centers for medicare and medicaid services the agency that oversees the programs. one involves allegations that an outside firm was tipped off in advance about a prostate cancer treatment. >> woodruff: wall street failed to make much headway today. the dow jones industrial average lost 31 points to close at 16,974; the nasdaq fell 15 points to close at 4,549; and the s&p 500 slipped two, to finish at 1,982. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour. with just a week to go until voting, president obama hits the campaign trail. state voters to weigh in on key issues through ballot initiatives. how the fed manages its dual mandate to boost job growth and keep inflation low. the risks of teen sexting. the red cross response to super-storm sandy, two years ago. the probe into what caused a shuttle supply rocket to explode. and the allman brothers last gig. >> ifill: as the midterm elections head to at least a dozen critical tossups, one prominent democrat has been largely missing from the campaign trail, but president obama is on the road again. in carefully selected friendly territory. >> you can tell i'm out of practice, i'm losing my voice. >> ifill: only a week before election day, president obama is finally hitting the trail in earnest. >> it's good to be back in wisconsin! >> ifill: last night, he rallied support for wisconsin democrat candidate mary burke, the businesswoman challenging republican governor scott walker. >> you have a chance to choose a governor who doesn't put political ideology first. who's not thinking partisan first. she's going to put you first. >> ifill: until now, the president has more often than not put fundraising first appearing at private events instead of at big public rallies. many democrats, mindful of his sagging popularity, have largely kept their distance. their distance, but now the president is pitching in, focusing on states he's won twice-- maine, connecticut, rhode island, michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. whether for lack of invitation or lack of interest, he's largely avoided states where democrats are locked in competitive senate races. those candidates have opted instead for surrogates like hillary clinton and massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. >> make sure you get out to vote for the kind of north carolina and america you want! >> ifill: clinton has stumped in north carolina over the weekend, and heads to iowa, kentucky and louisiana this week while warren has toured new hampshire, iowa, colorado and kentucky. lame duck midterm elections are not typically friendly territory for sitting presidents. on average, past presidents have lost 26 seats in the house and about seven see the in the senate. dan balz of the "washington post" and presidential historian michael beschloss are here to explain why. so how does the white house make these kind of decisions about what to do with the president in these kinds of complicated times? >> well, they make them in concert with the campaigns and particularly at this point, senate campaign committee and the others who are directly involved in the races. he's going place where's he's welcome. he's not going place where's he's not welcome. and i think one of the interesting things, he is campaigning mostly on behalf of gubernatorial candidates. there are a lot of competitive gubernatorial races, as we know, but not nokey senate battle grounds. i think the only state he's going into with an even modestly competitive senate campaign is in michigan, and that one looks pretty strong for the democrats at this point. he's avoiding all the real battlegrounds in the senate races. >> ifill: >> by design. >> by design. >> ifill: how unusual is that, michael? >> not very unusual at all. the record usually is even popular presidents don't help that much. ronald reagan in 1986, gallup poll approval rating was 86%, won reelection by a landslide and went to around 13 states around this time in october that year and yet the results was the republicans lost control of the senate, lost five seats in the house. if that's sort of the acid test of what a popular president can do, the les-popular presidents have a harder time. >> ifill: let's go back to more recently, george w. bush. did the same thing happen thoim? >> yes, his gallup poll approval rating was about 38%, not very different from president obama's, lost both houses of congress. there was great anger because the war in iraq was going very unwell. there were other reasons for dissatisfaction with george bush, and the voters tended to take it out on his party. >> gwen, i went back yesterday and looked through some old clips from 2006, and found a piece di, almost literally this week, eight years ago, about george w.s about spuive not being welcome on the campaign trail and the limited number of places he could go. >> and that could have been written yesterday about president obama. >> ifill: everything old is new again. >> indeed. >> ifill: here is where it's different to me, maybe where the competitive seats hab took place, louisiana and north carolina, and georgia and arkansas, southern state, is he also less welcome in southern states? >> well, he's very less welcome in southern states. southern states, with the exception of north carolina, he did not win at all, and high only won north carolina once. in a number of those states the african american vote is very important and i think they are looking for ways under the radar or without a presidential visit for him to speak directly to african american voters or you can do direct mail. >> robocalls. >> robocalles, you can do that. gwen, i think moose more interesting is not that he's not going into arkansas. that's not terribly surprising. but if you look at other places he's not going in competitive races, colorado, for example. he send the nomination in denver in the summer of 2008. he was very popular there. he is very unpopular there, particularly with undecide voters. iowa, the state that launched him in the caucuses by beating hillary clinton and john edwards, he's not welcome there, and one of the most crucial battleground senate races in the country. >> ifill: where does an incumbent president help? >> money, and that's the difference between these times and most of american history because money is now so cardinale important that i think the white house now and in 2006, george w. bush did argue that perhaps the best thing a president can do to help is not appear at rallies, which they found, at least in '06, helped some, had no effect in some other places, and hurt some, but better for them to-- the president, then and i think would be said this year for the president to raise a lot of money from the base of his party. that's what president obama is doing. >> ifill: i do want to ask you about the base but i also want to ask you about very interesting the thing that is going ojude segoing to kentucky this week to do a piece on the senate race. the democratic nominee there could barely be convinced to say she even voted for the president, which one would be surprised if she hadn't, right? >> of course, one would be surprised. and i think everybody in the aftermath thought that was a mistake, and assumed that when she got into a debate with mitch mcconnell right after that, that she would kind of clean up that and clarify and say, "yes, i did." and instead, she said, "you know, we have a secret ballot in this country." now, she was quite willing to say she had voted for hillary clinton against barack obama in the 2008 primaries, but she wouldn't say that she had voteed for the president. it was-- it was a very odd set of circumstances and surprising. >> ifill: it was very odd. i am very curious, though, in the end here, which is to what extent does running away from the president for democrats in this case, or even for republicans in other years, to what extent does that hurt in getting turnout, in getting the base out? >> oh, sure it does because people feel that this is something that if a president does not come in, there isn't a connection with burning national issues that oftentimes enjied jooiz campaign. and the other thing is that any lame duck president is trying to make himself relevant for these last two years. this is one reason why there is some pressure on the president to get out there, at least to some except, so that whoever comes into congress this time, he can say, "i helped you. i was relevant in this election. you and i still can do things together these last two years." >> ifill: is there back lash possible among people who would normally show up and vote for a democrat but who now feel a little insulted? >> i talked to a democrat recently who thinks it has been a big mistake for the president not to go into these competitive states. the argument made to me was the people who are going to vote against the president's party are going to vote against the president's party. >> they know who is president. >> they know who is president. and it is difficult for the democratic candidates to distance themselves when they have voted with the president most of the time. this argument was we need our base energized, and president obama may be uniquely capable of doing that, at least in part of the communities of his coalition. >> ifill: when i asked kay haig an about that this weekend, she said she's for north carolina. we'll see how this works. there will be exit pose you'll be reading on election night, dan balz, michael beschloss,. >> can't wait. >> thanks, genl. >> woodruff: most of the election talk this year is centered on the battle to control the u.s. senate. but some other contests may affect americans lives and issues more directly the scores of ballot measures up for a vote. newshour political editor and reporter lisa desjardins begins our coverage with a powerful battle in north dakota which is one of the largest fights this year between environmentalists and energy companies. >> reporter: in north dakota, the profits of drilling are gushing in, and as a result, so are tax revenues. the industry sends around $2 billion in taxes to the state each year. conservationists now are trying to ensure that some of that money going gz to preserving land and water. so an alliance of groups placed this amendment to the state constitution on the ballot. ballot measure number 5 would devote 5% of that energy tax revenue to a clean water, wildlife, and parks fund. that's likely somewhere around $100 to $150 million a year. >> the land, our water, they' our heritage, and our livelihood. we have to protect it. >> reporter: ads like these featuring north dakota farmsers and hunters are running, thanks in part to millions of dollars from national groups. that includes ducks unlimited, the nature conservancy and the world wildlife fund, groups that see ballot measure 5 as a battle line in a national fight. and so do their opponents. north dakota's expenditure files showed that the american petroleum institute has pumped $1 million into the state in recent weeks, helping launch ads like this, saying more money for conservation would mean lesmoney for other things. >> it will take money from our schools, law enforcement, programs for the elderly, and road. >> reporter: conservationists call that argument misleading. they say that schools and other needs can still use the vast majority of energy tax funds. the fight took on new life in just the past few months as state polls showed conservationists ahead. that's when the american petroleum institute got involved and the most recent polls, they show the energy versus environment measure is too close to call. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now, your first on-air appearance with the newshour, lisa. welcome. >> reporter: it's an honor,. >> woodruff: we talked about the state of north dakota but we know there are some 140 ballot initiatives across the country, there are a number of them, including minimum wage. tell us where it is on the ballot and what its says. >> minimum wage is on the ballot in five states. there's a political context important here. in a way minimum wage has been democrats' answers to the health care onslaught. we're democrats, we believe in increasing wages for workers. it's a political aspect but this is something that really affects real people's lives. there are minimum wage increases in arkansas, alaska, south dakota, nebrask and illinois. we see in arkansas, the minimum wage is below the federal wage. it's actually $6.25. arkansas wants to raise it to $6.50. in alaska and south dakota they want to index the minimum wage to inflation. that's significant because there's a signal that the states don't want to deal with this issue again. they want to automatically have a kick-in for minimum wage. a very political issue. washington is not dealing with it, but some of the states will be voting on it just next week. >> woodruff: looking at it in different ways, different wording in different states. we know marijuana is also on the ballot. but i want to ask you about a couple of other issues. abortion is on the ballot in a few plays places. >> for years, we've seen opponents of abortion gain in straights statewhere they haven't gained nationally, in supreme court rulings and et cetera. this year we're seeing three states take on the abortion issue. tennessee would basically allow state lawmakers to further restrict abortions but the two i think are most worthy of looking at are colorado and north dakota. both of them have different variations on something called the personhood amendment, basically defining life, defining a person at a very early stage in conception. colorado is interesting for political reasons. we can get into that later. but i think north dakota may be more significant, judy, because up until now, no state has passed one of these personhood amendments. they've all failed but it look likes in north dakota they could pass this amendment that would define life not just at conception but at any moment in life. those who are against gaens it say this could block birth control. those who are for it say it is an important advance for those who oppose abortion. >> woodruff: and the one other one i want to ask you about is guns, only on the ballot in, what, a limited number of states. >> that's right. the main place to watch there is washington state, where faceinatingly enough, they actually have competing ballot measures. one would prohibit background checks, until the federal government requires it, essentially prohibiting background checks at gun shows. and the other would require background checks at gun shows and private sales. what is happening right now in washington state is we're seeing millions of dollars being put into this gun fight. the nra has gotten involved in the last couple of weeks. i think this is particularly fascinating because, remember, this is the first national election that this country will face after the newtown massacre, and in washington state, they just had that shooting in marysville last week where two high school students were killed. >> sreenivasan: and as you said a minute ago an example of an issue not dealt with in washington, they're trying to 2 deal with in the state. are these ballot initiatives expected to get more people to the polls? some of them we know were put on the ballot deliberately to get interest in this midterm election? >> no question, the ones we've talked with here, the base wants to drive out their votes. that's why i think colorado is very interesting where they have the personhood amendment in a year with a major senate race. on the other hand, colorado has anti-fracking, pro-environmental measures on their ballot as well. alaska is interesting, they also have the minimum wage increase. they also have environmental measures. they're hoping to get young people out. we talked about marijuana. alaska would legalize marijuana use, small amounts, for adults. they're hoping that get out democrats,. >> woodruff: and you'll be with us on election night. >> yes, i can't wait. >> woodruff: welcome once again, lisa desjardins, thank you. there is more online. lisa has post aid list of key ballot initiatives by state. you can see those on the rundown. >> ifill: the mission of the federal reserve has long been the subject of debate, especially since the 2008 financial crisis. six years later, the economy is recovering but the fed's role is still being questioned. paul soloman has the story, part of his ongoing reporting making sense of financial news. >> reporter: for the federal reserve, today marks an historic moment: the end of six years of unremitting financial stimulus the money creation programs known as quantitative easing. this has actually been q.e. three. we visited the new york fed back in 2009, when brian sack was running q.e. one. >> the way we create money is by buying securities. >> reporter: securities like u.s. treasury bonds and mortgage-backed bonds, from banks and other financial institutions. >> so when the federal reserve buys a treasury security it's putting funds into the financial sector. >> reporter: now since the crash of '08, the fed has created three-and-a-half trillion dollars. why? to lower interest rates and thus spur consumer and business spending creating new jobs. but of course, creating too much money risks serious inflation. so the fed frets about both, jobs and sound money. >> i've considered a lot of factors. foremost among them is an understanding of the fed's dual mandate sound monetary policy to make sure that we keep inflation in check, but also increasing employment and creating jobs, >> reporter: now, stories about the federal reserve can be pretty hard to follow. but the fed's dual mandate is so straightforward, it can actually be put into song, as harvard- trained, nashville-based money manager jon shayne proved to us via his country and western alter ego, merle hazard. >> ♪ i've got a dual mandate dual mandate ♪ i gotta keep prices stable while giving jobs to those ♪ who're able >> reporter: okay, a dual mandate. but which matters more, prices or jobs? liberal economist paul krugman of princeton acknowledges the appeal of price stability. >> this kind of visceral sense that easy money is a bad thing. but, you know, it's even if it is, lack of jobs is a worse thing, and that's, that's what we should be worrying about. >> reporter: but columbia university economist charles calomiris insists that conservatives worry about employment too. >> that's all we really care about, but the reason we focus on inflation, and should focus more on it, is because it's a tool, a tactic, to achieve full employment. >> reporter: now columbia is a campus of statues, none more familiar than auguste rodin's thinker. but even this guy can't be pondering the perils of inflation, can he, currently running at a measly 1.7%, below even the fed's modest target of two percent. but calomiris is concerned. >> the fed has purchased something like 1.7 trillion of mortgage backed securities, a very large amount of long term treasury securities. it's grown its balance sheet from under a trillion to four times that, just in a few years. >> reporter: banks have been holding on to that money. but once they start lending again, says calomiris. >> all of a sudden we have a major risk of inflation. and then the question is well, can the fed move quickly enough to shrink its balance sheet or do something else to prevent that inflation? >> people who are complaining about the fed are people who've been predicting runaway inflation for five years, six years, and it hasn't happened. >> but look, says paul krugman. >> ♪ it's awfully hard to be a central banker rich folks like ♪ to see the currency strong but the average joe's not ♪ overjoyed if he's destitute, and unemployed. ♪ seems like every time i choose, i'm choosing wrong. >> reporter: rich folks like to see the currency strong because they are creditors, lenders. with inflation, borrowers pay them back with money that's worth less than when it was loaned. an expansionary fed, by contrast, appeals to both borrowers and to labor, hoping for jobs. yes, unemployment is down, but, says krugman. >> one way to tell if the labor market is really tight, are there jobs available, is to look at wages. wages are going nowhere. >> reporter: they actually went down last month slightly. >> yeah, so this feels like a very, a weak labor market. >> reporter: but the average joe's not overjoyed when he's destitute and unemployed, right? >> absolutely. he's also not overjoyed when interest rates are so low that if he has a savings account in the bank, he's earning very little interest. it's really the rich who've mainly benefited from hyper loose monetary policy recently. >> reporter: at a photo op recently, yellen surrounded herself with unemployed bostonians. calomiris wasn't happy about it. >> what message is she sending out? and why would a fed chairman do this it's unprecedented. >> reporter: krugman, by contrast, loved the photo-op. and so, the fed's dilemma: tighten to protect the currency versus loosen to create jobs; right versus left. ♪ it's tough for me to make our economy grow. ♪ my job is tougher than you'll ever know. ♪ >> i'm paul solman, reporting for the newshour. >> ifill: and we have more from singer merle hazard watch the nashville money manager perform his latest ballad on our making sense page. >> woodruff: now, teen sexting. if a young teen uses a smart phone to share nude pictures or semi-nude with friends is this just questionable behavior or actually a criminal act? that's the key question in this report the first in an ongoing series of collaborations for the broadcast and online between the atlantic and the pbs newshour. >> the images themselves, they went from a fully nude picture to partial nudity, to just what i would call inappropriate, being in underwear. >> woodruff: last march, deputy sheriff donald lowe received a phone call from a concerned parent in this small town just a few hours south of washington, d.c. sexually explicit photos of local teenaged girls, some only in middle school, had been posted to a public page on the web site instagram. >> and then the whole thing seemed to just grow every day. after every interview is seemed like it took on a whole new life. >> woodruff: but now, seven months later, after wading through thousands of sexting texts, hundred of interviews, and bins of confiscated phones, no charges have been filed. >> we had talked to probably 100 students, and the majority of them admitted to participating in sexting. >> woodruff: most of them had simply shared the photos privately with a boyfriend or someone they thought they could trust. none had given consent to sharing them with the world. >> it did surprise me when i learned just the sheer numbers of how many people actually participate and feel like there's nothing wrong with it. >> woodruff: data is scarce, but one study by the national campaign to prevent teen and unplanned pregnancy and cosmogirl.com, found that one in five young people in their upper teens had sexed at least once. that study was back in 2008, before new sharing technologies like snapchat and instagram even existed. for reporter and parent hawna rosen, it hit close to home. why did you want to do this story? what attracted you to this? >> a couple of things, for one, i have a teenaged daughter at home, and a couple of more sons coming along, so i was just curious about this issue. second, i've always wondered, there's the paradox about sexting, which is that i hear it's very common but it's also very illegal. so i just wondered how those two things fit together in society, and then this case came along and it seemed like a perfect test case to explore this issue. >> woodruff: the young people you were able to talk to, why did they do this? what's motivating them? >> this is th has been studied, and there's a lot of motivations for why people sext. the most common one by far is because a boyfriend or girlfriend wanted me to. or because "i'm in a relationship." and then there are other motivations, "i wanted to interest someone in dating me." or, you know, i just wanted to get attention, "or "i wanted to be popular." >> woodruff: school superintendent deborah pettitte grew up here, but that was before technology entered the picture. >> i think i was surpriseed by that because, you know, i just thought maybe students knew better than, you know, to share that kind of thing. on the other hand, maybe it didn't surprise-- it shouldn't have surprised me because our students live on their cell phones. >> woodruff: friday's night football in this close-knit community louisa county, virginia, it's the biggest show in town. everyone's here-- parents, kids, teachers, and law enforcement. but mention the sexting case, and it's clear everyone has a different perspective. >> the first thing that went through my mind was i hope my daughter wasn't involved. >> it was terrible. like, people were sit sending nude pictures on the internet. that's-- is wrong. >> it's freedom of expression that, you know, it should stay private, but, you know, i mean, it's not hurting anybody, unless it gets out. >> i have no word for it. it's just too much. they're doing too much. >> girls are just letting their bodies hang out. they should keep that to themselves. you know, your body is sacred. it's like a temple, you know. >> i got in trouble for it myself. when i was-- like, younger. but i don't-- i know it's bad. you should get in bad trouble for it. >> these kids, you can tell them all you want to that the internet is a dangerous place. >> woodruff: let's talk about the role of law enforcement here. i mean, are they dealing with an innocent prank or adventure on the part of a tiernlg? or are they dealing with a crime? >> well, virginia, like the vast majority of states in the u.s. covers this under child pornography laws and that's really the problem. you have this disconnect how it's being used in the culture and how the law is addressing it. >> by the letter of the law, when you take the picture, you're actually producing child pornography. >> woodruff: chuck love is investigating the case here in n louisa county for the department of justice's internet crimes against children task force. >> if you hut putt it into a separate folder, now you've reproduced child pornography. so there's another offense. a fourth offense is possessing it. >> woodruff: what makes sexting is a peculiar crime is by law in many states, the child is both victim and perpetrator. it makes it very difficult to prosecute. >> do you prosecute the person that took the image? do you prosecute the person that asked for the image? the person that took the imooj is now committing four felonies where the person that asked for it is only committing one once they get it. >> woodruff: it seems that a lot of the people involved -- law enforcement, parents, even the young people themselves-- were baffled at some aspect of this. and even you, that there was a point when you were trying to clarify. >> almost in every case, like the one they described, you see law enforcement and parents going back and forth from, "oh, my gosh. this is a disaster." to, "well, everybody does it." and not being able to settle on either of those polls. >> it puts a strain on officer discretion totally. is it okay to charge somebody with a felony for taking a picture of themselves and causing them a lifetime of sexual offender registry? basically, you ruin their lives for taking a picture of themselves, something that takes literally seconds. >> woodruff: still, investigator love says there are even darker possibilities that can't be ignored. >> what sexting does is it's adding millions and millions of images to an already over-filled bucket of child pornography. so it's adding to something that we've already tried to control, and it's basically getting out of control. >> woodruff: at least 18 states have passed specific sexting laws, but virginia's legislature rejected the idea. >> even states that have passed sexting laws, they generally don't make the distinction between "i sent a sexed t s to my boyfriend of a year" and i have someone's picture on instagram. >> woodruff: and you're saying those laws don't address it. >> almost all of them make consensual sexting a crime. >> woodruff: school present pettit is looking to young people themselveses. >> the parents can't possibly monitor every bit of cell phone use annual of their child. neither can we. so i believe it comes down to a student has to monitor him or herself, and i hope that, that they will do that. >> ifill: today, marks two years since super-storm sandy slammed into the east coast leaving enormous damage in its path. as is the often the case, the red cross was at the center of major relief efforts, but its efforts and coordination at the time are now the subject of new scrutiny. howling winds and sheets of rain pounded new jersey and new york when the storm made landfall late on october 29th, 2012. millions of people lost power as water poured into streets flooding subways and tunnels. when it was over, ocean-front communities lay devastated, with thousands of homes damaged or destroyed, and 182 people dead. the red cross helped lead the relief effort, with endorsements at the highest levels. >> the red cross knows what they're doing. they're in close contact with federal, state, and local officials. they will make sure that we get the resources to those families as swiftly as possible. >> ifill: but today, a report released by npr and propublica painted a starkly critical picture of the agency's actions. >> in many cases after sandy, the red cross just didn't show up to the most devastated areas until weeks after the storm in other cases when they did show up, they didn't have the appropriate supplies. >> ifill: propublica reporter justin elliot says internal documents and interviews with current and former red cross staffers found some decisions were dictated by appearances. >> several red cross officials who worked on the sandy effort complained at the time, that emergency response vehicles that are used to deliver relief items like blankets and also food, were diverted by headquarters to be back drops at press conferences as well as at photo ops with celebrities. >> ifill: the report says logistical problems and communication snafus led to wasteful spending and unmet needs. >> there was a lot of uh wasted food in the aftermath of sandy in the red cross relief effort, partly because the red cross was um failing to get intelligence about where victims where so they were making meals that they couldn't find people to distribute them to. >> ifill: the red cross today defended its performance, and called the report "distorted and inaccurate. >> ifill: for more response, we turn to suzy defrancis, the chief public affairs officer for the american red cross. thank you for joining us. >> the, gwen. >> ifill: one of the things the report cites is a lessons learned memo, minutes of a lessons learned meeting in which red cross officials themselves said multiple systems failed. >> well, gwen, after every major disaster, we take a look at everything, and we want to know what went wrong and what went right. what's wrong with this report is it doesn't show any of the good work that the red cross did. as you showed, this was a massive disaster with huge challenges in getting food to people and relief to people. and yet the red cross, we were able to distribute about 17.5 million meals and snacks. we had 7 million relief items that we distributed, and not just the typical cleanup kits. we were distributing gloves and hat, because as you remember, there was a snowstorm on top of it. we had 17,000 people deployed and most of them were volunteers. >> ifill: i guess the question raised is what didn't get done, not what did get done. >> gwen, as i said we look at all these things after disaster and we know a disaster by definition, something is going wrong. and you pull together a whole bunch of volunteers who may not have always worked tbught you're trying to get food and relief to people. and, of course, there are going to be problems but the reason you look at it is to make sure you find them and fix them and make sure they don't happen again. >> ifill: let me ask you specifically about some of the findings in the report. for instance, when we thought hurricane ice eyesac was headed to tampa, the red cross deployed a lot of folks to tampa. the hurricane never hit and the people never moved. >> well, i wish weather forecasting could be-- hindsight is 2020. we were following the hurricane cone that the national hurricane center puts out. and we have to move people five days in advance. we can't wait until everybody know where's it's going to land. tampa is a very vulnerable area, hases a lot of seniors. it was prone to flooding. and, yes, we put our people there because that was the right thing to do. we had an agreement with local officials in tampa that we would staff about 100,000 people in shelters ?ren but not move them once-- >> well, you can't move people right away as the storm is going up the coast because we don't want to put our volunteers in harm's way. >> ifill: what about the charges or findings that so much happened because of public relation purpose oodz trucks were deployed to back up press conferences, for instance. >> this one i have to really smile at because i'm the chief public affairs officer at the american red cross and i don't tell anybody where the emergency response vehicles go. that's the job of the disaster responders. the example that pro publicca cited. that was a staging area where we were sending relief trucks, praerld at the request of the borough president from staten island, because they had huge need at staten island. those trucks were full of food. they were delivering food. so when the cameras went away from a press conference, the red cross was still there delivering food. >> ifill: how about the food that wasn't delivered, the meals that were wasted, that went to the wrong place, the people who remained hungry, even after the effort? >> well, as i said, we served 17.5 million meals and snacks. at one point, gwen, if you took all the people in a sold-out yankie and giants stadium, we were reaching all of them every day for weeks. now, there's also going to be in that much food some waste, but certainly nothing along the lines that was reported by pro publicca. >> ifill: so what did you mean then-- coming back full circle-- to multiple systems failing. what was that admission. >> i can't comment on multiple systems failing. what we saw was a very effective response that served millions of people when their help was urgently needed. and we learned some lesson it that we continue to apply and continue to improve. we haven't been a response organization for 130 years without make something changes to get better, and we'll be there at the next response and we'll be even better. >> ifill: lisa desjardins of the american red cross, thank you 3eurbgs. >> thank you, gwen. >> woodruff: let's turn to some concerns being raised all over again about the privatization of the u.s. space program. this follows the explosion last night of a rocket that was scheduled to go to the international space station. seconds after launch, the rocket exploded at the wallops flight facility, in virginia. owned by orbital sciences corporation and contracted through nasa it was supposed to deliver 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the space station. nasa reported no problems just before the launch. now, there are many questions about what went wrong and whether old engines are to blame. our science correspondent, and resident space expert, miles o'brien joins us from south carolina tonight. so, miles, welcome back. problems with the engine. what's known about what happened? >> well, we can't say for certain, but all roads lead to suspicion about the engine. you have to ask yourself what is operating at that stage of flight? first, you know, 10 seconds, give or take, is the first-stage engines which are these 40-year-old engines. and we're not talking about 40-year-old technology. these are actually engines that go back to the soviet era, were put in a warehouse, and were purchased by orbital sciences, refurbished and put on this rocket. these were old engines, old designs. and you see the rocket kind of lurch, almost stop in its traction. you see something falling through the plume. you see a discoloration in the rocket plume. ask then very shortly thereafter things go bad very quickly. not long after that, they pushed the red button which terminates the vehicle, as they say, the destruct button. so the suspicion is focused squarely on the engines. >> woodruff: was there reason to suspect these engines ahead of time? >> well, they've had some difficulty with them on test stands, a couple incidents, as they tested them, where they actually blew up with fuel line problems, and other issues. they date back to the soviet effort to go to the moon with the giant n1 rocket, which had multiple launchpad failures. so these rockets have had trouble, but all rockets have trouble. this is a very difficult business going from 0 to 17,500 miles per hour in the the span of about 8.5 minutes. if you have the tiniest little leak or a turbo pump that goes awry, you're going to have problems. things have to work perfectly. >> woodruff: miles, how typical is it that engines that old are being used in space flight? >> i don't know of any other scenario where that has occurred, judy. this is unusual. and this is-- says a lot about overall policy. orbital sciences, when it came time to pick an engine, didn't have a lot of places to go. there were no home grown u.s. engines available to them. the russians make another type of engine called an rd-180, a much bigger engine, but that engine was being purchased en masse by a consortium of boeing and lockheed martin called the unites launch alliance and they were precluded from purchasing those engines. so they really didn't have any place to turn. this idea of taking these engines that were sitting in a warehouse, refurbishing them, and using them seemed to be the only oomentive, and i think we can all agree it's probably better to build your own engines if you can. >> woodruff: i notice the russians had a successful takeoff of one of their own rockets shortly after this explosion and failure. miles, just quickly, no safety issue with regard to the space station? >> no. and that launch point it out. there are plenty of paths to the station. the russian progress freighter is on its way. california-based exaised "x" is on the dock to launch in december and february. nobody on the station is going to go hungry. >> woodruff: and finally, commercial space travel, does this raises a question about its viability in the future? or is this considering a one-off? >> well tissue should raise questions and wyattly so. if you have an accident and you don't ask questions you're never going to learn. the real question is, you know, nasa never has built a rocketots own. it's always used contractors, boeing, and lockheed mart and i know their predecessor companies. what's different now is the way they do the contract. they're not on the factory floor as it were watching how every bolt is turned. instead of being on the floor with the ford is made, they're purchasing the car in the showroom, but with setting some parameters. and working out the right balance there, how to set the safety standards and how to fine tune the level of scrut thee is kind of a work in progress, and this will be one of the things that will come out of this investigation is has the bar been set properly both on safety and the level of scrutiny that nasa is applying to these commercial entities. >> woodruff: again, thankfully, no loss of life, no injuries. >> yes. >> woodruff: miles o'brien, we thank you. >> you're welcome, judy. >> george: and finally tonight, one of rock's most renowned and long-lasting groups the allman brothers band moves on. jeffrey brown helps the band close it out. ♪ ♪ >> brown: last night in new york was the last night for the allman brothers. a group that's been aroun in various forms for 45 years. famed for ts live performances and hits like the song "jessica." two-years-ago, gregg allman told me it started when he and his brother duane brought together the music they each loved. >> it was out two loves of music. he, sort of, leaned toward the country blues, which is un- electrified, like robert johnson, elmore james. and i was really into bobby bland, james brown, you know people like curtis mayfield. >> brown: the sound they created with two lead guitarists and two drummers made rock and roll history. anthony decurtis is a contribution editor at "rolling stone" magazine. >> they had this amazing kind of twin guitar attack, you know, dickey betts and duane allman relly defined a beautiful harmonic sound that was simultaneously tough but really lyrical and they were based in the blues, but this was a hardcore rock and roll band that just came tearing out the south and kind of took over. >> brown: duane allman, acknowledged as one of rock's all-time greats guitarists, died in 1971, exactly 43-years-ago today in a motorcycle accident in macon, georgia. it was just as the band was starting to gain some commercial success. >> at first i screamed and ideal, shook my fist at the sky and yelled "shortchanged." >> after that, gregg allman told me the band members debated whether to continue. >> i toad them, we're going to wind up a bunch of street junkies, or we can forget all that crap and go back to business as usual. and that was pretty much a landslight. >> brown: but just a year later, bass player berry oakley died in another motorcycle accident, and their deaths, as well as the drugs, alcohol, broken marriages, and lot and lots of money took their toll. >> these were, like, hard-living, tough guys, about the through it all, you know, the allman brothers kept restoring themselves and reviving themselves. and this latest version of the band, you know, with warren haynes and derek trucks on guitar was one of the strongest lineups that the band had had since the very beginning. >> brown: warren haynes, in fact, has been involved with the band for 25 years and a regular for last 15 as a lead guitarist and singer. this afternoon, by phone, i asked him what had been the key to keeping the band alive and thriving? >> incorporating the original spirit allowed the band to have a good springboard for where to go in the future, and i think we were all pleasantly surprised at the chemistry of the new band and the the sky was the limit. >> brown: haynes says band members began talking three years ago about the right time to quit and go out on a high note. >> this isn't a band that can just go through the motions. this isn't a band that can just walk on stage and play the hits. this is a band that's created a legacy of playing a completely different show every night, breathing new life into the old songs on a nightly basis, allowing improvisation to be the life blood of the music. >> brown: anthony decurtis says that legacy will live on at concerts around the country. >> they became more important as time went on. in addition to inventing southern rock when they started out, they were a band that invented the jam band. i mean, they're icons on that scene. and have influenced all of the bands from the world. >> brown: and going forward, the music will also live on in the various solo projects band members have planned. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day, ebola cases in west africa increased again, but the world health organization reported the number of deaths held at just under 5,000. and the federal reserve ended its economic stimulus effort, but said it's keeping short-term interest rates near zero for a while yet. >> ifill: on the newshour online right now, there's a giant spot on the sun wide enough to lay ten earths across it, and it's acting a bit unusual. learn what's puzzling scientists about the largest sunspot to appear in 24 years. that's on our science page. and photographer ian mckell spent the last ten years documenting a tribe of hippies who travel across the u.k. in horse-drawn carriages. see a gallery of his work, called "the new gypsies" on art beat. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we'll look at the current massive sun spot and the slow but sure advance of a lava flow on the big island of hawaii. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and 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: >> at lincoln financial we believe you're in charge. you're the chief life officer, and this is your annual shareholders meeting. you're overseeing presentations on research and development, and welcoming new members of the team. you're in charge of it all. lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future. life, intrk retirement, group benefits, and advice. lincoln financial. you're in charge. >> 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 friends of the newshour. 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 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