special that comes with taking a page, opening a book and reading that page yourself. >> ifill: 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. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: milwaukee joined the list of cities today in the spotlight over fatal police shootings. that came with the news that a white policeman who killed a mentally ill black man to death in april, won't face criminal charges. officer christopher manney shot dontre hamilton 14 times. he said hamilton fought with him and grabbed his baton. the district attorney ruled it a case of self-defense. >> in reviewing this case, we came to the conclusion that based on all the facts, all the circumstances present to a reasonable officer in officer manney's position at the time the circumstance occurred, that his use of force was privileged and was justified. >> woodruff: officer manney has since been fired. hamilton's family today asked for a federal investigation, and also called for calm. >> ifill: president obama announced his pick for the number two spot at the justice department today. sally yates is federal prosecutor for the northern district ofeorgia. if she's confirmed by the senate, she'll oversee day-to day operations at justice. >> woodruff: the french firm alstom-s.a. will pay a record $772 million for violating u.s. laws against overseas bribery. the power and transportation company pleaded guilty today in federal court in connecticut, where one of its american affiliates is located. justice department officials say alstom used bribes to win more than $4 billion in projects abroad. >> ifill: fierce clashes raged in northern iraq again today as kurdish peshmerga forces battled islamic state fighters for control of a key town. the clashes center around sinjar. in recent days, the kurds broke a months-long siege of the mountain that overlooks the town. the plight of thousands of people trapped on the mountain led to the initial u.s. air strikes against islamic state units last fall. i a chaos today over efforts by hindu hard-line esches to convert christians and muslims by force. opposition lawmakers threw papers and swarmed the center of the upper house of parliament, halting its proceedings. the prime minister has not spoken on the forced conversion. he is himself a hindu nationalist. >> and >> woodruff: and in tunisia, a veteran of previous regimes, 88- year-old beji caid essebsi, has won the north african nation's first free presidential election. he ran as an anti-islamist and claimed victory in sunday's runoff. tunisia's 2011 revolution inspired the arab spring uprisings. >> woodruff: back in the country, wall street posted its forth winning session in a row. the dow jones industrial average gained 154 points to close at 17,959; the nasdaq rose 16 points to close at 4,781; and the s&p 500 added nearly eight to finish at 2,078. >> ifill: and "rolling stone" magazine asked today for an independent review of how it handled the story of an allege gang rape at the university of virginia. the account, by sabrina erdely, was called into question when it came out she never contacted the accused attackers. "rolling stone" now says the columbia journalism school will examine its editorial process. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour. tensions rising in the wake of the murder of two new york city police officers. a massive internet failure in north korea has people wondering if the retaliation for the sony hack is already underway. a young inventor offers a new tool for the blind out of a simple children's toy. a closer look at obamacare in year two, and the impact on your wallet. pope frances stuns in vatican city as he delivers a most unusual christmas message to the cardinals. the art of communication from an american treasure. and finally, remembering joe cocker, a voice like no other. >> ifill: the murder of two new york city police officers ignites a volley of blame between the police department and the mayors office and exposes the deep rifts dividing a city in mourning. new yorkers stopped all day, to place flowers at the site in brooklyn, where two policemen were killed on saturday. and the murders dominated the day for new york mayor bill deblasio, including at a luncheon for the city's police athletic league. >> we have to understand an attack on them was an attack on all of us. it was an attack on our democracy, it was an attack on our values, it was an attack on every single new yorker and we have to see it as such. put aside political debates, put aside all the things we will talk about in due time. >> ifill: the two officers, rafael ramos and wenjian liu were shot as they sat in their cruiser on saturday. their killer, 28-year-old ismaaiyl brinsley, who had a history of violence and apparent mental instability, shot his girlfriend shaneka thompson in baltimore, before traveling to new york, shooting the officers and then taking his own life. earlier, he posted social media references to the police killings of eric garner, on staten island, and michael brown, in ferguson, missouri. on instagram, he wrote, "they take one of ours, let's take two of theirs." over the weekend, leaders of protests over the garner and brown cases, as well as family members, condemned the killings of ramos and liu. >> we are going in peace, and anyone who's standing with us, we want you to not use eric garner's name for violence because we are not about that. >> ifill: but the head of new york's police union charged the mayor, and protest leaders, set the stage for what happened saturday. >> we tried to warn, it must not go on, it cannot be tolerated. that blood on the hands starts on the steps of city hall in the office of the mayor. >> ifill: police officers even turned their backs on de blasio in protest, saturday night, when he visited the hospital where the two officers had been taken. this afternoon, the mayor, and new york city police commissioner bill bratton responded at a joint news conference. i will keep reaching out to everyone that serves this city. they don't have to all agree with me. >> can you point out to me one mayor that has not been battling with the police unions in the last 50 years? name one. name one. so the experience of this mayor in terms of some cops to the liking him, is nothing new. >> ifill: new york governor andrew cuomo has appealed for calm on all sides. and a number of big city police departments put their officers on alert, amid the new surge of tension. >> ifill: joining us now for a deeper look at the questions raised by these police killings are two men with different perspectives. patrick colligan is president of the new jersey state policemen's benevolent association, the largest law enforcement union in the state. and mark levine sits on the new york city council, representing washington heights. >> mark, do you see a connection between ferguson, staten island and now what happened in brooklyn at all? >> i think that's a very dangerous conclusion to draw. this was a man who was mentally and emotionally ill, documented history of such problems. and he didn't appear to have a strong ideology or history of movement activism so we should be careful ascribing logic to his actions. i think we should be careful to inflame this moment by blaming protestors, blaming the mayor. i think we all need to unite and grieve at the loss of two of our own. and pause for a moment to reflect and remind each other that we have a responsibility to care for citizens and police united. and that vision, i hope, will put us on a path towards the kind of police reform which serves communities and police both. >> pat coblligan you are in new jersey but you heard your counterparts on the streets of new york this weekend. do you see a connection? >> it's tough to ignore what happened, you know, despite, you know, despite the mental capacities. it's tough to ignore what happened since august the 9th, since the shooting occurred. and you know, it was impossible for police officers. we're human. it's impossible to watch the new reports, watch people wishing for our death, watching the violence against the officers. and unfortunately watching two officers literally slaughtered in a patrol car doing nothing. and just let it go away and just make it a time for healing. it's a time for vigilance for us. we have to be extra careful. >> woodruff: do you believe that this tragedy has been used by anybody as a political opportunity? >> it hasn't been used by the new jersey state policeman's benevolent association, we put a warning out to our 33,000 members throughout the state, just to be extra vigilant. not to get into the routines that we find ourselves in. it's been a tough time. i've been a police officer for 23 years. and i got to be honest with you, this has been the toughest-- toughest couple of months that i have had to deal with just the feeling and the pervasive actions of people, even in new jersey. people putting their hands up when we pull up, things like that. it's been a difficult few months for us. >> woodruff: mark levin, what do you think about that, is there a political opportunity being grabbed here. >> there are been plenty of political opportunities from the likes of george pataki, bernard carrek, rudy giuliani, all of whom have attempted to blame mayor de blasio for this horrific incident, an incident by a mentally ill person. as i mentioned. i will say that today i think we have perhaps taken a step back from the press i business in new york cit city-- precipice in new york city. my sense is that police union leadership has pulled back from some of the heated rhetoric and that there will be a pause on this kind of language, at least through the date of the funerals of the officers, four or five days hence. and a number of prominent protest lead ares in new york city have also called for the temperature to be lowered. and for a period of respect. >> woodruff: but the officer colligan said it has been a difficult time for police officers in the last few months. dow believe police officers have been at greater risk? >> because of the protests, no. absolutely not. policing is an incredibly dangerous job. and it deserves our respect, for people who are willing to put their life on the line to protect us. but the facts are, that the number of police killings are down dramatically, if you take the perspective of several decades. in 1971 there were 12 officers killed in the line of duty in new york city. this year there were two. one death is one too many. and we need to do everything in our power to prevent it. but the city does remain safer today for the general population and for police, arguably, than at any point in its history. >> woodruff: officer colligan, dow believe this was about one deeply troubled individual or is it a symptom of something larger? >> look, the problem is we have one individual come up on saturday, and again, murder two police officers. but what the media doesn't have access to and what the general public doesn't have access to are the law enforcement reports. the credible threats against us. we get those. we have gotten a lot in the last 48 hours. not only credible threats but arrests have been made, an arrest in new york today, arrest by secret service in tennessee and another arrest. so to say it's one individual, that is pretty disingenuous. >> woodruff: do you believe that our nation's leaders or mayors like mayor de blasio or in other public settings are weakened by these debates? or is it a debate that we need to have? >> i think the debate that needs to be had, you know, the vast majority of police officers throughout this country, i'll speak throughout the country, are hard-working dedicated police officers. and to watch, to watch the protests in new york and wish 9 death of cops, i am all about a peaceful protest, you know. you watch, i see the die-ins in grand central station. that's a peaceful protest. and the people are getting their point across. but when you are throwing garbage cans off the level of a bridge and punching police officers in the face and of course murdering two in a police car, it's hard not to-- i don't know what they are missing here. if you let it continue and let a protest get out of hand, then i don't know what else you are going to expect. you're going to have to expect violence. >> woodruff: mark levine, as you mentioned, the mayor has called for a pause until after the funerals in public protest. some activists said this is muzzling their right to continue to speak. where do you come on that? >> well, the work of reforming police in new york city is still under way. and we have a long way to go. there are real policy debates that we need to continue to play out. but i think we need to do them understanding that we have a chance to make policing safer for communities and for cops themselves. when we install cameras as part of standard gear for police officers, we're not only protecting communities, helping to build trust, but we're giving officers a defense against unwarranted accusation. when we provide officers with handheld devices like tablets and smart phones as new york city now will be doing thanks to funding from the manhattan da, we give them new tools, a tool that incidentally might have avoided bloodshed on saturday if we had gotten a picture of the attacker outside to all cops on the beat. so we need to continue this debate on how to make new york city ever safer and ever fairer. safer both for police and for citizens, and these questions will remain controversial. but it's essential that we have this debate in a civilized way, not only without violence but without violent language. and that goes for both sides. i mr. optimistic that more and more people are coming to this conclusion and that perhaps, perhaps out of this tragedy, we'll get to a better place where we can have a passion with civil discourse on these issues. >> woodruff: mark levine, a city of the new york city council and pat colligan of the new jersey state policemen's benevolent association. thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: while much attention in recent days has been paid to accusations that north korea hacked into sony's computer systems. the isolated country was in the spotlight at the united nations security council this afternoon for another reason. the groundbreaking meeting, which north korea boycotted, focused on that country's dismal human rights record and could lead to the international criminal court. meanwhile, "the new york times" reports that north korea's links to the internet went completely dark this morning. the outage is being described as one of the worst north korean network failures in years, and comes just days after president obama warned that the u.s. would seek retaliation for sony attack. joining me now for more on that is david sanger of the new york times. david, thank you for being with us. so the outage of the internet in north korea is being described as toast. what do we know about it? >> well, not a huge amount, judy. other than the fact that as you know north korea doesn't have many internet connections. it's got about a little over a thousand official internet protocol addresses which would be probably you would find more on some city blocks in new york city. so as a target for turning off the internet, they're pretty vulnerable. but it also means that if an accident happened or something like that which seems possible but not entirely likely right now, it would be fairly easy to go turn it off. you have to remember that north korea does almost no business over the internet. it does almost no banking. in fact, the internet connections are really only for the military, the elite and of course their propaganda -- >> so is this a mere inconvenience for the north koreans? what is the practical affect? >> well, the practical affect is that that elite group wouldn't be able to communicate outside of the country. inside the country, north koreans can use an intranet that is completely controlled by the state. and of course its content is completely controlled. so it's not as if you can do a google search from north korea. unless you are the privileged few. so the question is, when the president talked the other day about a proportional response to what he told cnn was an act of cybervandalism, is this what he had in mind. now some have argued that what happened to sony pictures, if you believe that was the north koreans which the president has said he has no doubt about it, was actually an ago of vandalism, whether it was an act of terrorism, it's very hard to tell because in cyberconflict, it's all short of war kind of stuff. and the united states government was a little bit caught on this back heels here by the destructive nature of the attack on sony. >> now i'm reading this afternoon that u.s. officials are denying not for atrix but they're denying that the u.s. government had any role in this, what you have learned about that? >> you know, we haven't learned a whole lot. if, in fact, it was a covert program that was approved by the president, then a denial would be completely consistent with american policy. but we reported over the weekend that the united states had gone to china and asked the chinese to cut into north korea's ability to send malwear, malicious code outside of the country. all of north koreas or just about all of north korea's internet connections run through china. they go through a state-run company called china unicom, so if the chinese decided to go along with the u.s. q and that's a very big if, then it's possible the chinese cut them off. >> woodruff: so what is the thinking on that? i mean there's been some reporting that there's debate inside china among chinese leaders about how much they should come down on north korea. is it the sense that shall did -- is it that maybe they did participate. maybe they did help in this. >> well, maybe they did. over the weekend i was told by u.s. officials that the chinese had not responded to the u.s. request. and it's possible that they're acting on their own. we have seen moments when the chinese have tried to keep north korea under control by turning the spigot down on the pipelines that send oil into north korea. we've seen them at various moments cut down on trade. so it is not inconceivable that they would do so here. at the same time, the chinese of course have seen the united states indict five members of-- 61398, the cyberhacking unit of the people's lib racial army just last may. that froze most official discussion between china and the u.s. on cyber. so it's not clear the chinese would be interest in doing us any favors. and of course sony is-- sony pictures is the u.s. subsidiary of a japanese firm and the chinese and the japanese are not exactly on the greatest terms these days. >> woodruff: so finally, david, and just quickly, am i right that there are still other options for the obama administration to use to exercise against north korea? >> absolutely. and this might not be the only one. this might not be one at all if it turns out that this wasn't the united states. the president referred in an interview with candy crowley of cnn over the weekend to the possibility of putting north korea-- on the list of state response-- that would be a lengthy process. it also probably wouldn't make that big a difference since there were so many sanctions against the north. there is the possibility that they could try to cut off funds to the elite again which the bush administration did by cutting off funds in the bank in macao that was used by kim jong il. there are possibilities that the u.s. could mess with other infrastructure inside north korea through cyberattacks if the u.s. is that well inside the country. and we don't know how good those connections are. >> woodruff: david sanger watching the story for "the new york times", we thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> ifill: next, the story of a teenager who's the founder of a start-up, and quite possibly the world's youngest entrepreneur to get venture capital backing. that would be compelling enough, but it's his project that makes it all the more unusual, he is creating a new low-cost, braille printer for the blind to improve access and literacy. and it involves the use of-- of all things: legos. special correspondent jackie judd has this report, another in our "breakthroughs" series. at the age of 12 shubham banerjee learned how random the universe can be. one seemingly inqening thing occurs and in this case the ring of a doorbell and life changes, in a big way. >> i looked out and no one was there. but i did see a flyer over there and whiched ask for donations for the visually impaired. i asked-- i didn't know y i just asked a random question to my parents, how do blind people read. they didn't really have time for me so they said sorry, i'm busy. can you go google it. >> and one thing lead to another. shubham whose previous ambition had been to quarterback his football team, learned that a diminishing number of the blind read braille. in part voice recognition technology has taken away the need. but the now 13-year-old became convinced that the cost of a braille printer which expands the reading universe for the blind is prohibitive. >> i found out it was $2,000 onwards. many people don't really have the-- are not that privileged to own one. and that's when i decided to try and hack together a braille printer and a lego's mindstorms ev3 kit. >> yes, you heard correctly. he ordered a robotic lego kit. after seven attempts and many, many late nightsing voila, he had an inexpensive portable braille printer. >> i had to make it myself, program it myself. and i just seemed to make a braille printer so there are actually three motors. in motor over here, it rotates the paper over here so you would get the imprint or output, sorry. this motor moves the head left and right. this motor over here moves the head up and down. >> shubham's one person focus group is hendry wedler, blind since birth and a doctoral student in chemistry at the university of california davis. wedler learned about the lego printer from a local newspaper story and then got in touch. >> i explained to him is that what we really way is for blind people to produce braille, not necessarily quickly, but sort of on the go, just like sighted people can produce print on a printer. that sort of printer, that sort of technology has never existed for me or any other blind person that reads braille. >> so shubham kept going. the lego version needed a sighted person to operate it. >> is there much paper left on this. >> right here. >> and it just wasn't practical for mass production. >> he cannibalized a standard printer and converted it. all with a little help from some new and moneyed friends. >> what began as an at-home project, then a science fair exhibit, then a winning entry at a technology symposium eventually lead to attention and dollars from a major player in silicon valley. intel capital the venture capital arm of intel where shubham's father works, decided to back the project. but did so only after putting the boy through the ringer to make sure no one would question whether this was about nepotism or innovation. >> i started calling my friends, dude, i got funng from intel. i was telling my mom, i was screaming. i was really happy. >> in addition to funds, intel asked shubham to experiment with its new microprocessor called the edison. to determine how it could make the printer far more functional for the blind. >> what is inside here is the processor, the memory, the storage and wifi and bluetooth so it can communicate with things around it. and we made that, you know, super, super simple for people to innovate on top of. >> and that's what the 8th grader did. >> it i used this for a visually impaired person to use. >> yeah. >> this one is. >> this one actually-- i'm not fully done with it, but soon i will actually add voice to text where you can say it through phone, perhaps, print out a. >> so you and i wake up in the morning and we look at our phones or the newspaper to find out what is going on with the headlines. somebody without sight can't do that. so what he had intel edison do is intel edison now goes out and grabs from the cloud the headlines from cnn or bbc or newshour and has those automatically print. >> you know, when you all can listen to a book or we can listen to our computer talk to us, which is what i do with my computer every day, i don't have a way to print braille easily, there is something so special that comes with taking a page, opening a book, and reading that page yourself-- yourself. i think you can say that as a print reader as well, is that true? >> absolutely. news of intel's investment went viral and the middle schooler is now something of a celebrity in the tech world. and even got invited to a white house tech event. >> shubham's parents created a company called brego, a combination of braille and lego, to push the invention forward. his mom is c.e.o., dad is on the board, and wedler is a consultant. it's a lot for an adolescent to handle, the money, the fame, the pressure to succeed. >> you have said it's hard for him to be a 13-year-old. >> yes. >> in what ways is? >> first of all, he does double work. he has to maintain his grades, but at the same time, he has also other obligations, especially working with investors, working with technology, people. >> do you worry about that? >> yes. as a mom, yes, i do. i worry a lot. because you know, now people recognize him, you know, that he goes places. he is just my baby. >> do you see moments where you think the pressure, the pressure got to him today. >> yes, i do. but then you know, it's opposite. he tells me, mom, it's okay, i can do it. >> no one is saying how much intel capital put into the project but enough to hire engineers to kept testing and refining the printer which shubham hopes will sell for less than $500. >> what's next? >> next is still bringing my company forward. i do have a couple of ideas that are starting in my head. >> like? >> secrets. >> ah. >> they're all secrets. >> but we'll be hearing from you again. >> yeah. >> most start-ups fail. but as shubham banerjee has found, life is random. and he may just be the one to score. this is jackie judd in santaclara, california, for the newshour. >> ifill: random indeed. we have more on teen inventors, including one high schooler who created a flashlight powered by heat generated from your hand. that's on our homepage at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: let's turn to the latest on expanding health insurance coverage and the real costs for people. the law is called the affordable care act. and while there's been much attention on enrollment, there's been less discussion about a key question: affordability. the first month of the new enrollment season through has gone a lot more smoothly than last year. more than 2.5 million people have selected a plan through the federal exchange so far. but what about premiums and out- of-pocket costs? mary agnes carey covers this for kaiser health news. i sat down with her the other day to discuss the latest. mary agnes carey, welcome back. >> thanks for having me. >> so let's talk first about enrollment. we understand there has been a surge in interest just in the first month. what are you seeing? >>. >> from november 15th to until december 10th which was the last set of reported figures, 2.5 million people had signed up for a health plan on health care.gov. and by comparison, this is what happened in the first three months of last year when you had all those web site problems. we're not seeing those this year. but there seems to be real interest. >> can you, so is it just the fact that the web site is up and working? is there something else going on here? >> it's certainly more appealing to go to a web site that actually works and sign in. >> but we've had a year of information about the affordable care ago. perhaps people that didn't get in a year ago are seeing people that are in the affordable care act and getting insurance and decided to sign. >> woodruff: so and just quickly, what is it that is smoother about the process? is it the response, what is it? is it the delay time? >>. >> if you had already been in the exchanges, a lot of the information on your application was prefilled in for you. that made it faster. the whole experience of getting on, comparison shopping, signing in and getting a plan, for the most part, has been phenomenalically smoother. i think it's just a smoother consumer experience that has been your their focus. they talked about that quite a bit. >> and people have heard that message. >> they have heard that message. and they will continue to hear it because opening enrollment doesn't end until february 15th. >> woodruff: okay, let's talk about cost. this is a big piece of this puzzle. what are you finding out. because in some places we're hearing premiums have gone up. in other places they've gone down. what is kaiser seeing there? >> well, what's really interesting is health insurance like politics is local. you have variance between states. you have variance within counties internally. there are someplaces where premiums are going up by 10% or higher there are other counties where they are dropping by 10% or lower, so you really have to get on there and see what you can find. >> woodruff: and so how do you explain that. i mean why in the places where it's going up, where are they if. >> well, for example, if you look at my colleague jordan and juliy looking defect of competition and what's happening around the country with these premiums, they looked at some counties in southern indiana where the number of insurers went from one to four. it's an increase in petition. -- competition and so the premiums dropped by 25%. but then they looked at chattanooga which is already one of the least expensive areas in the country to get experience, while the number of insurance companies doubled there, the premiums still went up by 16%. so even competition sometimes doesn't guarantee you're going to get a lower price. >> woodruff: is there something in common, though, about the places where prices have gone up or have gone down? you can find anything in common with these places? >> it could be-- if prices are dropping it could be more insurers got. in some insurers held back in 2014 an decided to wait to see what the marketplace was. for a place where premiums are increased, it could be you have a monopoly insurer with a big piece on the market or an insurer that got in on 2014 looked at the claims experience and think they may have thought i didn't price in right. i need to raise my premiums. >> woodruff: mary agnes, what about rural versus urban s that making a difference. >> it absolutely does. in an urban area you tend to have more competition to keep prices down. but in the rural areas you tend to have fewer insurers, rather, and that can make prices go up. >> woodruff: so is this, was there a way to predict that this was going to happen? or is it just the vag arees of the marketplace. >> i think it's the vag arees of the marketplace. you have to remember before the affordable care ago became law, you had all sorts of price variation in individual markets. you might have had premiums that went up eight or ten percent a year. so now you're looking at the for example the kaiser family foundation did a study where they looked at all the counties across the country. and for the benchmark silver plan, the secretary cheapest silver plan, they have an average increase of 2%. so again, that's a national number. but when you get down and look at counties, you could see a lot of variance. >> woodruff: and hhs, department of health and human services put out a report saying that premiums are rising about five percent, but that has evened out, average across the country. >> right. and that's where these averages, they are interesting and they are important, but they don't tell the whole story. that is where people really have to shop around. this is a message you have heard from hhs officials. you will continue to hear it. if you are currently have coverage on the exchanges, you have to get back in there and look because if there is more competition in your area, your prices may change. >> woodruff: and just a reminder, we're not just talking about premiums here. because there are other-- it's deductibles, it's copays. >> you've got to look at all the money that will come out of your pocket to get health care. it's not just the premiums. and that's a really important message. people look at that premium and it's understandable and they focus on it but there are a lot of things. your copays, your deductibles, your cost sharings, the total package you have to think about. >> woodruff: mary agnes carey, kaiser health news, we thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: pope francis took church leaders and catholics around the world by surprise today when he used an annual christmas event in rome to sharply rebuke and audience of top church officials for their shortcomings. the cardinals, bishops and priests of the curia, who run the holy see, sat mostly silent and unsmiling, as the pope delivered a scalding review of their behavior. >> ( translated ): let's start with the sickness of feeling immortal, immune or, even more, indispensable and therefore of neglecting the necessary routine check-ups. >> ifill: francis said the vatican officials have a "spiritual alzheimers" that makes them forget their real purpose, and he listed 15 "illnesses," or sins, from vanity to gossip-mongering to materialism. >> ( translated ): there is also the sickness of the stony mind and spirit, of those who have a of those who along the way lose their inner serenity, their vivacity and their audacity and end up hiding behind papers, becoming machines for practices and not men of god. >> ifill: the first non-european pope in 1,300 years has increasingly confronted the italian-dominated curia. internal power struggles were widely blamed for pope benedict's decision last year to resign. for some insight on what led to the pope's remarks today, i am joined by kevin eckstrom, editor in chief at "religion news service." feld like that was building for a while, that was quite a lot he unloaded today. >> yeah from the day he was elected what has been clear he would be a reformer and some heads with probably role. but what we are starting to see realtime is how extensive that is going to be, just a couple of weeks ago he fired a leading american conservative cardinal berk who was sort of leading the opposition. and so what he has shown is that he is going to do what it takes and maybe even fire who he needs to fire to kind of get his way. >> ifill: when he talks about reform, has any of that happened other than this firing? >> or is he exhorting mostly. >> he is still sort of laying the groundwork. it seems like he has been pope forever but it hasn't even been two years. he is still sort of getting his grounding. he has moved to reform the vatican bank and he has moved on issues like sex abuse. but he's really getting going now laying the foundation for the kind of church not only that he wants, but the church that he wants to pass on to the men who are you going to come after him. >> is it significant that he is an outsider. as we mentioned he ask the first non-european pope in 1500 years and he's not benedict? >> yes, and the other thing to remember he is the first jesuih pope, the church's largest religious order. and it had a long history of tense relations with rome. they've always viewed actions coming out of the vatican with a lot of suspicion and uncomfortableness, i guess. and so he embodies that. so when he challenges power, when he asks why are we doing things the way that we do, that's very jesuit of him, very much a part of his dna and you see it playing out in his programs. >> ifill: he talked about ailments and diseases. it didn't sound like he is saying here say problem we can fix, like, for instance, the priest sexual abuse scandal. let's fix that he's saying there is something that goes pretty deep. >> right, and it's not just a policy problem or you know, an administrative problem but these are really spiritual problems. and he's talking about clicks and gossiping and back biting and careerism. and the sorts of things that are not the kind of middle management that he wants in the church or in the men that surround him. i mean he's really talking about qualities of people, particularly the qualities that he doesn't want. >> what fixes does he have in mind? >> well, he started by, you know, making some appointments. so if you looked a couple of weeks ago when he appointed a bishop to chicago, he a pointed somebody who was very past oral, fairly progressive, not an administrator, not a ladder climber. so you know, the pope has unlimited authority in some ways. he's an absolute monarch. but there are constraints. he faces a huge bureaucracy there are only certain things can do. one of the most powerful things can do, the people that he surrounds himself with. so the people that he appoints and also the people that he demotes. >> ifill: pope benedict is seen as more-- more of an academic. pope francis more a man of the people, the way he has been hailed. but can any pope change a system that is as entrenched as the problems that he has identified here. >> well, you have 2,000 years working against him. but the thing that he does have is the charisma and the power of his personality. and it's very clear he has a lot of people behind him. he's got a lot of popular support. and you can't understate the importance of that. >> ifill: they didn't look thrilled in the curia. >> not all of them. but some of them have been the victims of the behaviors he has been talking about. back biting and stabbing and that sort of thing. so there are people in there that support him and want to see a lot of change. >> ifill: kevin eckstrom, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the holidays are a time of the year when people get together with their loved ones and it's often a period for reflection an intimate conversations. tonight, we look at a kind of unique oral history project that's built a legacy from gathering thousands of those kinds of conversations and many more. its founder just won a major award for his work, which may be well known to many of our viewers. hari sreenivasan recorded this conversation in our new york studio. >> time now for storycorps. >> sreenivasan: for more than a decade, the storycorps project has been recording and archiving the stories of everyday americans, more than 50,000 in all so far. that are as varied as a family of five becoming homeless and forced to move into a shelter. >> i remember pulling my hood over my head because i was embarrassed. i didn't want her to see me, you know. or a colleague says, "we're going to go volunteer and we're going to feed the families," and it would be at my shelter. >> sreenivasan: to an alzheimer's patient speaking with his wife about his losses. >> one thing that i experience with alzheimer's is, i live in the moment, because i can't remember what happened yesterday. i can't remember what happened ten minutes ago. >> sreenivasan: to a mother speaking with the man who killed her son. >> i just hugged the man who murdered my son, and i instantly knew all that anger and animosity, all that stuff that i had held onto for twelve years, was gone. >> sreenivasan: storycorps' vision comes from its creator, dave isay. the idea: get two people together in a room or booth with a microphone, primarily friends or loved ones, and let them talk and listen to each other. it began with a soundproof booth in grand central station in new york city. today, the project has a van that travels around the country as well as recording rooms in several cities. the stories are archived at the library of congress in washington d.c., but they also are made available to the public more easily. excerpts are heard each friday on npr, often emotional ones, like the case of an arkansas woman who took it on herself to provide caring for aids patients in the early days of the crisis when no one else would. >> i said-- i said, "can we call his mother?" and they go, "honey, his mama's not coming. he's been here six weeks. nobody's coming." and so i went back in, and he looked up at me, and he said, "oh, mama, i knew you'd come." i stayed with him for 13 hours while he took his last breath. >> that morning we loaded into the vehicle and i get tapped on the shoulder. and i got told that i need to bounce up to the next vehicle. i said catch you guys on the flip side. and that was the last thing i ever said to him. next thing i know, i just hear the loudest explosion. and i see that's my squad's vehicle that got >> sreenivasan: storycorps has found ways of refinfing its mission over the years. it has special initiatives for military families, teachers, gays and lesbians, and others. now isay has won a one millar dollar prize from ted talks and a chance to continue expanding the storycorps model. with me now is dave isay founder of storycorps. >> good to be here. >> six peabodies, a macarthur genius, more than 50,000 interviews. how did we get here? >> well, you know, it's a very simple idea. we set up a booth if grand central terminal where two people can come and have a conversation about their life with a trained facilitator. crazy idea and it just worked. and here we are. it's really a project about connection. giving people a chance to listen one another and recognize, you know, the value in their lives and the lives of others. >> so what is it that empowers people to share the way that they do. i mean some of these are very intimate and personal stories. >> i mean, all of them, 50,000, as you said. i think, you know, it's the-- i think there is a formality in that interview setting. the fact that every interview goes to the library of congress. and of course as you know, the power of the microphone to give the licence to ask things and to say things you don't normally get to say. i think a lot of people think of storycorps, there is kind of a mortality piece to it. and it's a chance for people, they know that this is an record that is going to outlive them. they know they are speaking to future generations. and magical things happen. >> srennivasan: a lot of our viewers listen to npr in the morning. how difficult is it to distill a 40 minute conversation down into three minutes or two minutes or five minutes, or whatever it is. >> we distill one out of every 340 minute conversations down to three minutes. so we have a brilliant production team who edits these things. but you know, to us, every interview is equally valuable. we think of it as potentially a sacred moment in people's lives. but some of them have this universal quality about them which almost demand that they be shared with a larger audience. >> srennivasan: you have essentially an archive of america in a way that history books don't. that you've actually captured the stories of the citizenly. >> yeah. >> srennivasan: that's different than when schoolkids thumb through a history book to see what is happening at that time am you actually have a cross-section of people, at least in the last 11 years of what america was like. >> through the voice of every day people, yeah. the great oral historian studs turkel cut the ribbon on our first booth those many years ago. hes with a great proponent of bottom up history. history is often told from the top down from statesmen and politicians and famous people and rich people. but there's such value, there is such richness to hearing these stories through our voices, through the voices of regular people. >> srennivasan: how has it made you and your team producers different. this is, we only hear of tiny fraction of all the stories that come through storycorps. >> yeah. >> well, i mean, it's-- in many ways it's history but it's also kind of collecting the wisdom of humanity because of the nature of what is talked about in the booth. we have a small production team. we have lots of facilitators who travel the country, you know, bearing witness to these interviews. and i think, you know, personally for me, it's made me much more hopeful these last 11 years. you know, we've been in all 50 states, thousands of cities across the political spectrum. every kind of person you can imagine. and the facilitators were out there connect chring the wisdom of humanity, invariably come back. if you ask them what they have learned. it is a very high stress job. they are very emotional interviews. it's boom, boom, boom, interview after interview, if you ask them they say people are basically good. every one of them, you know. and the other thing they will say is if you think you can judge the interior life of someone by how they look or how they're dressed you will always be wrong. >> srennivasan: as you said the interviews are archived forever in the library of congress. you have made it a point to go into different communities as well. you focused in on military conversations. you focused in on the lgbtq community, why? >> well, you know, storycorps, i used to make documentaries, social justice documentaries. and storycorps-- and i created storycorps because i came to believe when i was doing these interviews and wherever it was i was, prisons, homeless shelters, that people being listened to the act of being listened to, you could almost see people's back straighten, you know. and we have a commitment at storycorps to make sure that the voices of those who may feel least heard are celebrated through storycorps. and that you know people can recognize the grace and beauty and power in their own stories, wrefer they are. >> srennivasan: going forward, where does storycorps go. are you 11 years old now. let's say in ten years from now we're having this conversation, what is happening. >> we're working hard to turn storycorps into a sustaining national institution. i feel like we're at the first yard line, like at the very beginning of a long game. storycorps is about, you know, it's about listening. it's about this time of like huge divide. it's about recognizing the value in everybody's story and really if you are just going to sum it up in one language, it's realizing that, you know, every life matters. and every life matters equally and infinitely. i feel like we have a very, very, very, very long way to go. but i have an amazing group of people who i work with at storycorps and we're going to fight body and soul with every cell of our body to really make this take root and move the need nell this country, we hopement becoming a more kind of compassionate, thoughtful, better listeners. and a country that treats everybody with dignity. >> srennivasan: dave isay of storycorps, thanks some of. >> thanks, hari. >> ifill: we end tonight with a remembrance of joe cocker, the grammy-winning rock legend died today at the age of 70 of lung cancer. cocker was known for his raspy voice and a forceful, signature style of singing in which he would throw his entire body into the performance. his career lasted four decades, more than 20 studio albums, and countless live performances. his string of hits included the ballads "you are so beautiful" and "up where we belong." his breakout came at woodstock, with his version of the beatles song, "with a little help from my friends." here's an excerpt of that song from a 1970 performance. ♪ ♪ ♪ what would you do if i sang out of tune ♪ would you stand up and walk out on me ♪ lend me your ears and i'll sing you a song ♪ and i'll try not to sing out of key ♪ oh baby i get by with a little help from my friends ♪ 'mm i get high with a little help from my friends ♪ 'mm going to try with a little help from my friends ♪ what do i do when my love is away? ♪ does it worry you to be alone? ♪ how do i feel by the end of the day? ♪ are you sad because you're on your own? ♪ no i get by with a little help from my friends ♪ yes i get by with a little help from my friends ♪ going to try with a little help from my friends joe cocker the rock legend. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. tensions spiked between new york city police and mayor bill de blasio after saturday's murder of two officers. and pope francis publicly rebuked vatican officials for focusing on greed, gossip and getting ahead. >> ifill: on the newshour online right now, from ancient greece to the reign of the classic mayans, anthropologist arthur demarest argues the key strengths of successful civilizations have often led to their eventual collapse. but will the same be said of modern western civilization? demarest, known as the real indiana jones, says yes. read his explanation on our home page, pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, the heavy rains of el nino threaten one of the oldest and most fragile archaeological sites in the western hemisphere. 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: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> 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... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. funded in part by -- >> thestreet.com and action alerts plus where jim cramer and fellow portfolio manager stephanie link share their investment strategies, stock picks and market insights. you can learn more at thestreet.com/nbr. the holiday spirit. investors were in the buying mood sending the blue chips to record highs 50 times this year the s&p 500 has hit uncharted territory. should you be wary? deflated. natural gas prices plunge making many a home owner feel a little better about their winter heating bill. is this another shot in the arm for the economy? and what now? the president says north korea's