of consequence, david brooks on happiness, humility, and the road to character. >> so one of the things, they >> woodruff: those are some of keep moving. >> 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: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> 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: cuba is being taken off the u.s. list of state sponsors of terrorism. president obama informed congress of his plan today. it takes effect in 45 days unless lawmakers vote to block it. cuba's been on the list since 1982, but it's removal was expected as part of the diplomatic warming between the u.s. and cuba. the president met in washington today with iraq's prime minister haidar al-abadi, and praised his efforts to fight "islamic state" militants. the two discussed the military campaign, and the president said abadi's efforts to gain support from sunnis, shiites and kurds alike, is critical to that effort. >> it sends a clear message that ultimately iraq is in control of its own destiny. part of that means that those who process arms and have the ability to apply force to defend their country have to be under a single government. >> woodruff: the united states is backing the fight against isis with air strikes and military advisers. the president made no additional military commitments today. he did pledge $200 million in humanitarian aid. al-qaeda's branch in yemen has announced that a u.s. drone strike killed its top religious leader on sunday. ibrahim al-rubaish was a saudi arabian national. he'd been released from u.s. detention at guantanamo bay in 2006, and joined al qaeda in yemen. he had a $5 million bounty on his head. the u.n. security council imposed an arms embargo today against shiite houthi rebels in yemen. the council also demanded the rebels withdraw from the capital, sanaa, and other territory they've seized. at the same time, iran said it's preparing a four-point peace plan for yemen. but the yemeni ambassador to the u.n. rejected any iranian role. >> we refuse the influence of tehran in our domestic affairs. we think that the houthis, if they want to be part of the solution, they are welcome. if they don't want to be part of the solution, they will be persecuted by international law, by national law, by all means of force that we have. >> woodruff: iran has denied it is supplying military aid to the rebels. but saudi arabia and other sunni nations are carrying out air strikes against the houthis. >> woodruff: in somalia, the islamist militant group, al- shabaab, struck again today, killing at least ten people. attackers stormed a government complex housing two ministries in the capital, mogadishu. they overran the compound after a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at the gate. security forces eventually recaptured the site, but at least 20 people were wounded. back in this country, the city of chicago agreed to pay $5.5 million to black victims of police torture in the 1970's and '80's. that follows revelations that a former detective and his subordinates forced confessions by using electric shocks suffocation and even mock executions. victims lawyers say 120 people were tortured. eight former educators in atlanta will serve one to seven years in prison, in a test cheating scandal that rocked the city's public schools. they were sentenced today. two others received lighter sentences after accepting deals with prosecutors. district attorney paul howard said it's a tragedy that most of the teachers rejected the deal and chose prison instead. >> of course the right to reject it was certainly a right that each one of those defendants had and i certainly respect that right but i think the deals we offered or the recommendations were very reasonable. and i wish it had been something different. >> woodruff: all of the defendants were convicted of feeding test answers to students and even changing incorrect answers. prosecutors said they were under intense pressure to meet testing targets. an unmanned space-x dragon spacecraft blasted off today headed for the international space station. the supply ship launched from cape canaveral with a payload of groceries and other supplies. they included a specially designed espresso machine. space-x hoped to salvage a booster from the launch by dropping it on a barge in the ocean, but it broke up on impact. on wall street, news of falling oil output in north dakota lifted oil prices, energy stocks, and the broader market. the dow jones industrial average gained 60 points to close back above 18,000. the nasdaq fell 11 points. and the s-and-p 500 added three. and singer percy sledge, who gained fame for the classic soul ballad "when a man loves a woman", died today. he'd been in hospice care in baton rouge, louisiana. that song became a number one hit in 1966 and sustained sledge's career for years afterward. here he is performing it in the 1960's. ♪ when a man loves a woman, he down deep in his soul ♪ he can bring her to him if she plays him for a fool, ♪ he's the last one to know lovin' eyes can't ever see >> woodruff: sledge had several other hits, and was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in 2005. at his death, percy sledge was 74 years old. still to come on the newshour: what's behind today's compromise on capitol hill; missing a year, the latest on the search for the abducted nigerian school girls; using the power of gravity to draw electricity from drinking water; david brooks on building character; mapping what can't be seen in the universe; and iraqi americans reflect on their war-torn home. >> woodruff: now, a bipartisan breakthrough on capitol hill, to let congress vote on a final nuclear deal with iran. a compromise bill won committee approval today, 19 to nothing, and a presidential veto threat evaporated. >> woodruff: news of the compromise came as senators entered a briefing by secretary of state john kerry. tennessee republican bob corker chairs the senate foreign relations committee. >> i believe congress should play a role in ensuring that all the details that need to be in place are there, and that on behalf of the american people, before the congressionally- mandated sanctions are lifted that we on their behalf ensure that this is something that holds iran accountable, is enforceable, and certainly very transparent. >> woodruff: that was echoed by corker's opposite number on the committee, ranking democrat ben cardin of maryland. >> i think this is the right way for congress to take up this issue. i think this is congressional prerogative and we're the ones who imposed the sanctions, we're the ones who have to take it up for permanent changes. >> woodruff: under the compromise, congress will have 30 days to review a final nuclear deal with iran. if it disapproves the deal, the president gets 12 days to veto that action. then, congress has ten days to try to override any veto. but, the congressional review period reverts to 60 days, if a final agreement with iran comes after july 9. that's nine days past the negotiators' deadline. senate supporters have been working to make sure the measure would garner a veto-proof majority of 67 votes. but the white house suggested today a veto is no longer in the cards: >> we've gone from a piece of legislation that the president would veto to a piece of legislation that's undergone substantial revision such that it is now in a form of a compromise that the president would be willing to sign. >> woodruff: that set the stage for this afternoon's session of the foreign relations committee. while, in madrid, spain: >> i think we are, in fact, close to an agreement. >> woodruff: iran's foreign minister announced talks on the final deal will begin april 21st. but he insisted again on lifting the sanctions all at once something the u.s. has rejected. >> whatever happens inside the u.s. and however they want to spin it, all the sanctions economic and financial sanctions that have been imposed on iran by the un, by the e.u. and by the united states must go in the first stage. >> woodruff: all of which suggests negotiators still have a way to go, before there's any agreement for congress to review. for more, we are joined by republican senator jeff flake of arizona, a member of the foreign relations committee. welcome to you, senator. you know, it's so unusual to see any compromise at the capitol. how did this come about? >> you know it is. 19-0 vote, that's something that's quite odd now but this came as a result of a lot of work between bob corker and ben cardin and a number of people on the committee. so over the past several days they've been working to try to make a bipartisan product. they did so. >> woodruff: well some of your republican colleagues had staked out some pretty tough positions on the iran nuclear deal. >> right. >> woodruff: they were asking for, among other things, compensation for the iranian hostages going back to the 1970s and '80s. they were asking for iran to recognize israel's right to exist. what happened on that? why did they back down? >> well, i think we all recognize that these are legitimate issues that need to be addressed at some point but i think we came to the realization or at least agreed enough to put that off and to address that at another time and not part of this agreement. this nuclear agreement is too important. >> woodruff: i know you were among those who had been working to try to see something worked out. for example, you didn't sign that letter to the iranian leaders urging them against a deal a nuclear deal. why do you think it got to this point? i interviewed secretary kerry last week. he said after all... he said the senate already has a vote on lifting any sanctions. why was there the need for this additional role for congress? >> well, this role is really related to the sanctions. what this legislation does is just spell out what we will do when the final agreement is submitted, and our role comes because of the sanctions. we impose them and only congress can lift the sanctions. so i think that this role really is because of the sanctions. and the fact that it's coming now is just kind of setting up what happens after and if a final agreement is reached. >> woodruff: senator we've seen so much push-back on the part of many members of congress about this nuclear deal, a lot of criticism. how would you describe the atmosphere now? do you think the tension is gone? are the suspicions still there? how do you size it up? >> well, there is justified scepticism about iran's ability to abide by the terms of the deal once we see the deal. what the ayatollah said a couple days ago just reinforces that scepticism because he seems to have a different interpretation of the agreement than we've haired. so there's a lot of scepticism, but i think when we look at the alternatives, there are no good alternatives. so i think it behooves us to see what's in the final agreement and take it from there. >> woodruff: we know or we believe there are still going to be attempts on the senate floor to amend this, to make changes. what do you expect to happen? >> yeah, the amendments everybody kind of agreed to put off whatever amendments weren't part of the so-called "manager's amendment." so we didn't entertain any amendments today in the committee, but they probably will come on the floor but my guess is there will be a sufficient number of people who realize that we can't have those amendments if we're going to have the final deal, and therefore we'll have votes on those amendment, but in the end the final bill will look pretty close to what it look like now. >> woodruff: so senator, what is your expectation, that there will be a deal that will come out of u.s.-iran negotiations by the end of june? >> you know, i think it's... i don't know. i really don't. every time i hope that they're making progress you hear statements that make me think we're stale long ways off. i've been supportive of the negotiations being very sceptical that iran will agree to it. whether they agree or not, this is an important process to go through. we have to make sure this international coalition that we've maintained stays together, and if we need to impose tougher sanctions, those sanctions need to be multilateral. so it's been important to go through this exercise even if it were not to lead to an ultimate agreement. >> woodruff: senator jeff flake, member of the senate foreign relailingses -- relations committee, we thank you. >> thanks for having me on. >> woodruff: now let's turn to margaret warner and our political reporter lisa desjardins. you've both been watching this all day long. before that margaret what happened here? i asked senator flake that but he went from 48 hours ago the president was saying i'm going to vie to this to everybody saying, we're all on board. >> it became apparent to the white house that even many democrats who support the diplomatic track saw this was a conditional prerogative. they imposed sanctions. they needed to have a role. so the white house was trying to push this watered-down verdicts saying after we get a deal you get to look at it and your viewing can be known. that would be meaningless because the president could waive those presidential sanctions. this bill forbids him from doing that. his hand is stayed for 30 days. faced with the possibility you could have waves of defection, that would have left secretary kerry in a weaker position dealing with the iranian and they feel senator corker is someone they can do business. with you saw him very effectively corral all of these members including two presidential candidates on that committee, to all join in unanimously. it was quite a coup. >> woodruff: senator flake was marveling to me that they got all the members of the committee. lisa, fill us in a little bit more about what's in this agreement, this compromise. >> there are a number of trig centers this bill, 30 day, ten days. margaret was talking about this. if you want to talk big picture this deal gives congress just under two months to react to an iranian deal it doesn't like. they have two months to try and basically oppose it. what's important here margaret also mentioned this, is you heard jeff flake say in the interview, only congress can roll back these congressional sanctions. only congress can roll them back permanently. the president has power under the sanction law to roll them back temporarily. what this deal does, it freezes that. it says during this period of about two months when congress is reviewing the deal the president cannot roll back these sanctions. iran wants him to, this says, no, you can't do it. that's an important power for congress. it gives them the room the maneuver. ultimately, though, if congress does get approval of the deal they will need a super majority to block it. >> woodruff: margaret does this mean the white house has given up some of its prerogative to congress? >> yes and no. in other words, the president... a lot of the sanctions that robb is most upset about were imposed by the treasury. they have to do with iran's access to the international banking system. congress had nothing to do with that. this bill does not prevent the president from rolling those back right away. it doesn't prevent the e.u. from rolling them back. you heard zarif talk about them. it doesn't say anything as i understand it about the white house's position about the u.n. sanctions. i think the one thing it does it does somewhat tie secretary kerry's hands. he can now say to zarif, to his counterpart, look, the alternative was the prospect of a hugely disorderly process with members, republicans all the time coming up with new sanctions. we've got a game plan now, a blueprint, and, you know we're going to... if you want a good deal and you want to satisfy the congress, you might have to give a little more on centrifuges. so the white house doesn't buy that argument. they would have rather had nothing, but you heard some democrats making that point today. >> woodruff: lee centennial park it's clear the president did some backing down on -- or the white house did. there was also some backing down on the part of republicans. >> absolutely. talking to republicans it was fascinating, judy because they kept saying, this is a difficult decision but a little bit of what jeff flake said, we felt we had no other option because the president could waive these sanctions without us. >> woodruff: the white house was making that argument all along. >> they felt this was their only chance to have a choice. it doesn't mean they can get the votes they need. they need 67 votes in the senate. could get them, maybe not. but they like this because, judy, if they can get 67 votes that means it's a bad deal. >> it sounds like for both of you, it sounds like senator corker had to do some real talking and i don't know arm twisting? what do you want to call it? >> also incredibly reasonably every person, thank you so much for your input. it's been so valuable. he's just been very cool and measured about it. he said, i'm just a businessman. i knew nothing about iran. one interesting distinction it's not like a treaty where the burden is on the white house. you know, when you send up a international treaty, the senate can sit on it for years. you have to get 60 senators willing to bring it. here, as one republican senator very upset about it was complaining, this isn't like a treaty. we've got 30 days to make up our mind and otherwise if we don't disapprove, the president can just roll right on by us. so the white house, it sounds like a technical timing issue but it is quite important. >> woodruff: it sounds like at the same time it does give secretary kerry some legal room in negotiating? >> absolutely. >> both sides got something out of. this the white house wanted nothing, but at least they got a shorter time line and the white house importantly got a time frame for a congressional reaction. so if congress disapproves there's a veto back and forth. that could stay open forever. this says you only have this amount of time to ring in on this deal. also republicans judy got a seat at the table now. they didn't have a seat at the negotiating table. it's not a full seat but they do have a seat. i think perhaps the american people got a win for statesmanship honestly out of. this >> but it's a seat in the back of the room, and it's no, you know, no pot shots being thrown from the sidelines. at least that's what the white house thinks this deal means. i think when you were talking to senator flake it was pretty clear. on the floor it's probably not going to be quite as orderly as it was today. >> woodruff: it has to be a weight off the shoulders of secretary kerry. >> yes. >> i predict this goes fast. corker and cardin have made a deal. they will block all amendments. >> woodruff: we heard it here. lisa desjardins, margaret warner, thank you. >> always a pleasure. >> woodruff: it's been one year since school girls in northern nigeria were kidnapped by the militant group, boko haram, making headlines around the world. gwen ifill has the story. >> bring back our girls now! and alive! >> ifill: nigerian activists paraded in the country's capital, abuja, to mark the grim anniversary, and renew their demands. >> we are here to appeal to the government to do better. we want our girls now and alive. >> ifill: boko haram militants kidnapped 300 girls from this school in the northeastern town of chibok, a year ago today. dozens of the girls managed to escape, but 219 disappeared. their plight triggered worldwide calls for their release, with the hashtag "bring back our girls" and first lady michelle obama even took part. but boko haram's leader dismissed the outcry, in a video last may. >> ( translated ): just because i took some little girls from their western education everybody is making noise. i repeat, i took the girls, and i will sell them off, there is a market for selling girls. >> ifill: the attack on chibok was part of a larger "boko haram" campaign to create an "islamic caliphate," allied with the "islamic state group," in northeastern nigeria. in the process, the militants have killed thousands, and "amnesty international" estimates they've also abducted at least 2,000 women and girls since the beginning of 2014 >> we found that boko haram is using torture, that they've also raped and forced these women and girls into marriage with their members, and is even training some of them to fight. >> ifill: since the chibok attack, nigerian president goodluck jonathan repeatedly promised to bring the captives home safely. but, in the end, his failure to make good on those promises contributed to his defeat in last month's election. today, the man who ousted him, president-elect muhammadu buhari, left open the possibility that the chibok girls may never be rescued. he said in a statement: "their whereabouts remain unknown. as much as i wish to, i cannot promise that we can find them." even so, today's protesters underscored that while the girls are gone, they are not forgotten. >> our chibok girls will remain an open sore on the conscience of our nation, that when it >> we ought to have protected them. we failed them, each and everyone of us we failed them. and the next best thing we ought to have done is to have rescued them and up till now we have not done that. >> ifill: there were also tributes to the missing girls around the world. demonstrators in paris carried banners and signs voicing their solidarity at a rally near the eiffel tower. and tonight in new york, the empire state building will be lit up in purple and red, the colors of the "bring back our girls" campaign. >> woodruff: one year later, we look deeper into the story behind the still-missing girls, the rise of boko haram. for that, we turn to christopher fomunyoh, regional director for central and west africa at the national democratic institute. >> thanks for having me. >> ifill: it's hard for those of us who watched this a year ago to imagine that a year later, so many of these girls are still missing. are there any working theories about what'sk become of them in >> well, it's a very sobering day for nigeria and i would say for humanity because this has become a worldwide story with "bring back our girls," and there was some hope the girls would have been found and reunited with their families, but it's sad to say that as of today, it's difficult to say where many of the girls are whether they're still alive and whether they will be found in the not-too-distant future. >> ifill: has the search in the girls take an back seat in some ways to the fight against boko haram? is that the the bigger problem? >> no, i would say the girls have come to represent the face of all of the brutality and all of the atrocities of boko haram. in the past two months we've seen boko haram lose ground to the nigerian military and also to the multinational forces from chad and niger republic and cameroon, as well. in that process, i think finding these girls remains a priority because they are like... they represent the worst of what boko haram has done the human life in that part of nigeria and i think unless the girls are found or unless that story is brought to closure, there will be open questions as to how effective the nigerian government is being in bringing down boko haram. >> ifill: explain to people who are not familiar with the geography of nigeria where this problem is right along the border right? >> in the northern part of nigeria in a state. about three months ago boko haram had expanded its reach into neighboring states of first borneo. but as of two weeks ago, boko haram has been pushed back into one or two counties in borneo state. so in terms of the geographic area of coverage, boko haram has really suffered some casualties and losses in recent weeks but at the same time, the heart of the boko haram operations in the forest as well as in some of the neighboring towns remain really prominent. and until boko haram is driven out of those locality, it's difficult to say they're gone completely. >> ifill: as amnesty international reports, there have been other mass abductions. this hasn't stopped. >> there have been other mass abductions and other mass killings. there have been story of boko haram when they're driven out of villages just going out and slaughtering ordinary civilian, men and women and children, sometimes people who had been under... who had been captured by boko haram in the past. so this phenomenon has caused a lot of mayhem in northeastern nigeria as well as neighboring countries of cameroon and niger. >> ifill: a new president takes other at the end of may. you're just back from nigeria. how has the change in the political situation affected if at all or helped the search in >> there is some hope and some optimism amongst nigerians that the new president will be better able to tackle the boko haram crisis than his predecessor. he's a retired military general. he's had some familiarity with the need to beef up the morale of the nigerian military and to better equip and train the forces. he's also a modern muslim so he'll know how to deal with boko haram as opposed to his predecessor, a christian from the south. >> ifill: is there anything expected of the u.s., anything the u.s. is still doing, should be doing as this moves forward? >> i think there's an expectation, given that the u.s. has always said publicly, manifested its desire to have the people of nigeria deal with these forces, they will quickly have bilateral relations between nigeria and the u.s., especially with regard to security-related matters. you may remember that the government took our funds when we couldn't supply apache helicopters. that weakened the diplomatic relations. there's an expectation that this new president will do better so the expertise the u.s. has can help train and better equip the may jeerian military to further fight boko haram. >> ifill: we hope the ultimate goal is achieved. christopher fomunyoh of the national democratic institute, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: next, the possibilities of getting more energy through water. humans have long harnessed the power of water to perform work. hydroelectricity, generated by in modern time hydroelectricity, generated by the power of water flowing through turbines at the base of dams, has been a small but key sorce of renewable energy. but experts say there is a lot of potential for new sources of hydropower. a startup in portland, oregon has developed one system that may one day be in cities around the country. hari sreenivasan has our report. it's the latest story in our on- going "breakthroughs" series on invention and innovation. >> sreenivasan: industrial engineer susan priddy takes advantage of rare sunny days in portland to ride her harley to work. and in her job as director of operations for lucid energy, she takes advantage of the regions abundant water supply. this small startup has developed a new technology. >> hey guys! how's it going? >> going well. >> how's the energy output today? >> about 40 kilowatts for two turbines. >> sreenivasan: priddy and lucid engineers were monitoring the energy generated by drinking water as it flows through turbines integrated into these pipes. lucid has designed the first hydroelectric system designed to harness the energy in gravity fed drinking water pipes found throughout portland, and in many municipalities around the country we dropped in recently for a tour: >> so here we are down in the vault, we've got water flowing in this direction. the turbines right here and the flow of the water, because its a lift-based system, turns the turbine is connected to the generator it goes through some power electronics across the street to the grid. >> sreenivasan: so how much energy is this thing generating? >> two hundred kilowatts, so roughly enough energy to supply electricity for a hundred and fifty homes. >> sreenivasan: the system was installed in portland late last year and recently began operating at full capacity. unlike some parts of the country, there's no shortage of water here. the city's well-known downtown fountains, and most homes and businesses are supplied with gravity fed drinking water from a pristine forest watershed near mt. hood. >> there's no mystery to what were trying to do, were just recovering energy that's embedded in the flow of the water. >> sreenivasan: gregg semler is president and c.e.o. of lucid energy. the privately funded company currently employees a handful of bike-riding engineers who spend their days thinking of new ways to tap liquid energy flowing through pipes. their office is based in a portland incubator called hatch with other small environmentally and socially focused startups. >> the advantage of the lucid pipe system is that we produce electricity all the time, around the clock. without any environmental impact. it's very unusual to find sources of energy that you can produce electricity without any environmental impacts in today's world. >> sreenivasan: and how does it compare to the renewable energy sources that most of us are familiar with today, solar and wind? >> when you compare the cost of the lucid pipe power system with other traditional sources like wind and solar, to generate the same amount of energy that lucid is generating would cost three of four times more for the same amount of energy. >> sreenivasan: the sixty foot pipe and four turbines inside cost nearly two million dollars to build and install, far more than a conventional section of water pipe. but a group of private investors are taking the risk, so it costs the city nothing to try. the citys power utility portland general electric, p.g.e., has agreed to buy the energy at the same price as other renewable energy sources for the next 20 years. the plan is for lucid energy, the city's water bureau, and the investors to share profits. >> this is the first check for us delivering energy and being paid for it, so we are very excited. >> sreenivasan: representatives from p.g.e. recently meet with the lucid team to see how the new system is working. >> those two meters over there are meters that go to the purchase agreement. and that's where the money is. >> we want to see the cash register go up! >> sreenivasan: you want it to spin? >> we want to produce as much energy as possible! >> sreenivasan: charlie allcock is p.g.e.'s business development director. >> here in oregon we have the renewable portfolio standard where we have to meet, by the end of this year, 15% of our customers energy use with renewable sources. we've been doing it mostly with wind, and some solar. but if this technology performs well, it will be on our list. >> sreenivasan: oregon isn't alone. hydroelectric power is getting new attention from scientists and investors. several east coast companies are developing turbines to harness the power of tides in new york's east river and off the coast of maine. portland state university vice president jonathan fink studies urban sustainability issues, we met him at one of portlands ubiquitous food truck lots. >> sreenivasan: can we get two minted lemonades? as we began to chat, portland's notorious wet weather began to create streams of potential energy all around us. this is awesome! fink sees lucid's technology contributing to a broader effort by communities to move away from non-renewable energy sources. >> in portland, we get a lot of our energy from a coal fire power plant two hundred kilometers east of here. that's not great. so how do we replace that? were not going to replace it with one big nuclear power plant, were going to replace it with a lot of conservation, a lot of smaller steps like what lucid is doing, with solar, with wind. what has to happen nationally, and globally, is each city does these experiments, figures out what works, and then they have to exchange that info, and then you add it all up, and cities can really save a lot of energy. >> sreenivasan: c.e.o. semler says the focus is now on developing turbines that could be placed in smaller drinking water pipes found closer to homes. >> they might be able to power like an electric vehicle charging station, essentially with free energy. >> sreenivasan: the company is currently negotiating agreements with several cities in the u.s. including san antonio and new york, as well as in other countries. and they hope to have more pipes and turbines in place in portland over the next few years. for the pbs newshour, this is hari sreenivasan in portland oregon. >> woodruff: now, our newest addition to the newshour bookshelf. in "the road to character" our own david brooks urges us all to rethink our priorities. i talked with him late last week at "busboys and poets," a restaurant and bookstore chain in and around washington. >> woodruff: david brooks thank you for talking to us about this. >> good to see you in a strange setting. >> woodruff: so the people who see you every week on the "newshour" analyzing the news or read you in the "new york times" may not realize that you have a lot of interest in things that go beyond politics and policy and they may be asking is this the same david brooks i see on television, who wrote this book. >> i wasn't born with a tie or with mark shields stapled to my left hip. i have another life. that's the balance of what this book is about. the idea is based on the idea we have two separate sets of virtues, which i call the resume virtues and the eulogy virtues. the resume virtues are what we bring to the marketplace. are we good at being journalists or teachers or account. s. jewel yes virtues are what they say when you're dead were you honest caring, capable of deep love. we live in a culture that's spent a lot more time thinking about the red my virtues but the eulogy one, but we all know the eulogy ones are more important. this book is about people who develop those deeper virtues. >> woodruff: why did you want to spend time thinking about that and writing. >> sometimes you achieve a few things in life. i achieved more career success than i ever thought. and i just realized it doesn't make you happy. it's an elemental truth. it's so true. i was in frederick maryland. i ran into some ladies who tutor immigrants on how to read english. it takes years for them to do this. i walk in a room with 30 or 40 or them. i was struck by wave of inner light of graciousness, hope, good cheer. they were patients. they weren't bragging about what wonderful work they were doing. they weren't thinking about themselves at all. i remember looking at that inner light they had and i think i've achieved things in life that i don't have that. i would love to have that. and the book doesn't get you, there but i wanted to study people that have that and figure out how they did it so i could at least some day try to get closer to that inner spiritual goodness they have. >> woodruff: you pick out at least half a dozen extraordinary people, people who live lives of consequence from st. augustin to samuel johnson jane adam george elliott. >> francis kirkland. >> woodruff: why did these people make the cut? what was it that sets them apart? >> there were two things they did really well. first they started out as sort of a mess. they were all sort of disorganized. they all had a core sin. for george elliott she was so emotionally needy. for the great civil rights leader, he willed an ego. dwightizeen-hour it was a temper. dorothy day, just fragmentation. and they all overcame it. they identified their core sin, what was weakest in themselves, and they did spiritual exercises and activities that turned their weakness into a strength. and by middle age they had achieved remarkable depth, remarkable goodness and really a tranquility. so i wanted to see people who transformed themselves inside. of course they achieved great things outside but it was more important than what they did, but who they were is so inspiring. it's nice to have that sort of community of friends and inspiration. >> woodruff: if you could boil it down to one thing in a very simplistic way we all need to be... just think less about ourselves to be more self-effacing? >> humility is what they all have. some people think humility is thinking lowly of yourself. some people think it's not thinking about yourself. but to me the best definition of humility is radical self-awareness from a distance. seeing themselveses from a distance and saying what's my problem? so for eisenhower he had this furious passion and an anger and a hatred, but he knew he could not lead from a point of anger and hatred, so he constructed a persona that was gentle, that was convivial and sort of a country club guy. and in some ways he did it very, very shallow and superficial means. he hated people and he would write their names on papers and rip them up and throw them in a garbage can. in other ways it was a deeper level of self-discipline. so success is earned externally by being better than other people. but character that unfakable goodness, is earned by being better than you used to be. >> you also say toward the end of the book, the prescription is something like we all have to stand against the prevailing winds of whatever the culture is telling us to do. that's hard. >> yes. we live in a culture of a big me. we raise our kids to think how great they are. we have to market ourselves to get through life. we're on social media where we broadcast highlight reels of our own lives on facebook. and, you know, especially me, i'm a pundit. i'm paid to be a narcissistic blow hard and be in front of the camera, but the key to this kind of world and this kind of life is stepping outside that. so one of the conclusions i came to was that it's your ability to make connections, the people who really have character make deep unshakable connections to something outside themselves. they're capable of a web of unconditional love and committed to a path that can't be completed in a lifetime. one of my great heroes in the book was committed to the cause of worker safety. she was sort of committed to it for a little while. then she witnessed a factory fire and saw hundreds of people die. that was her call within a call and after that crucible moment her self quieted her personal ambition went by the way side, she became an instrument for the cause and she was a remarkable, remarkable person. >> woodruff: you said you wrote this to save your own soul. did you succeed in doing that? did you save your soul? >> reading a book and writing a become don't get you, there but i think it gives you map. i hope in the years ahead i can follow that map and become gradually a better person. i think in the last five years, hanging around and being inspired by these people i've changed a little. hopefully i've gotten a little better, now people confide in me. they didn't used to confide in me, but hopefully people show a little more vulnerability. i've read so much about what suffering does to you, what love does to you. i put it in the book. hopefully i have something to say to these people. i made a little progress. i believe i'm capable of great bad behavior. i wouldn't want to hold myself up, but i do think trying the live each day as a bunch of moral occasions did i live up to what i would hope if i didn't, what can i do tomorrow to be better, we can improve. we get better at life as we get older. >> woodruff: david brooks we're glad to be able to talk to you about it, "the road to character." >> thanks so much, judy. >> woodruff: scientists have announced the creation of the largest map yet of the invisible material that helps make up the universe, what's known as dark matter. jeffrey brown explores some of the very cosmic questions around this story. >> brown: that's worth saying again: we can't see it, but we can, apparently, map it. what's called "dark matter" is, in fact, everywhere, and it's believed to play a crucial role in forming and holding together galaxies with its gravitational pull. in findings announced monday, researchers used a "dark energy camera" and a large telescope in northern chile to create this color-coded map, showing a small piece of the visible sky. orange and red areas represent denser concentrations of dark matter. blue areas are less dense. sean carroll joins me to tell us about it. he's a cosmologist and theoretical physicist at the "california institute of technology." thanks so much for joining us and helping us here. can we start with a basic question: what is dark mattered? >> sure. dark matter is some kind of particle, just like ordinary matter. you andry made of atoms. there's some other kind of particle, not anything you find in at toms not anything we've ever found here on earth it's dark, it's invisible but it's most of the matter in the universe. >> brown: how do we know it exists? >> because of gravity. everything that exists creates gravity and is affected by gravity. so the dark matter, which is most of the matter in the universe, creates a lot of gravity and it pushes around things in the universe, including light from distant galaxies when they passes by the dark matter. >> brown: i refer to it as somehow holding together galaxies. that's through its gravitational pull? >> without dark matter they would still be held together but they would be moving much more slowly. the stroker gravitational field held together by dark matter is what sets it spinning with the speed it has. >> brown: we're talking about the latest thing, which is mapping this stuff we can't see. sounds strange. how do you map it? what are you actually looking at? >> well what they're looking at is the part we can see. you can see the light from galaxies that fill the universe. our universe has over 100 billion galaxies. this new image has looked about two million of those galaxies. they've looked for slight distortions in the images caused by the fact the light from those galaxies passes through more or less dark matter on its way to us. >> brown: that's done through this, describe the camera i was referring to, a dark energy matter... dark energy camera, excuse me, right? >> it's confusingly called the dark energy camera. it's in the mattered of dark energy. >> brown: not perhaps first confusion, but let's stay with that one. >> one of the confusions we can clear up there is this thing called dark energy. it's not matter, as you might guess. dark matter is actually kind of understandable. it's just some particle we can't see that's invisible but nevertheless gives rise to gravity. dark energy is something that isn't even a particle. it's something that's intrinsic to space itself, it's some field of energy that's smoothly distributed throughout the universe and it's pushing it apart. the dark energy camera its whole design purpose is to measure properties as dark energy. as a bonus along the way, we get an unprecedentedly good map of where the dark matter was. >> brown: i like hue you took us from the understandable stuff to the completely obscure. >> that's my job description, my expertise right there. >> brown: i appreciate that. why is this important? why should the rest of us care about this? >> well, you know, the 1990s will go down in human history as the decade in which we figured out the inventory of the stuff from which the universe is made. 70% dark energy, 25% dark matter, only 5% of the universe by mass is the ordinary stuff out of which you and i are made. so if you care about understanding the universe, 95% of it is dark matter and dark energy. if you want to know how the universe works, you have to understand that stuff. >> brown: in terms of what's next, i know this map is a very small... it's huge. it covers a lot of space. but still very small. >> well what we're trying to do is figure out more about the physics of the dark matter. it's very annoying to us as scientists because we know it's. there we know how much is there. we know where it is. but we don't know what it is. we don't know what it's actually made up of. so the more we can study its property, how it collect, how it evolves over time, the more of a hope we get to understand what it is made out of and why there is dark matter at all. >> brown: all right. sean carroll, thank you so much. >> sure. my pleasure. >> woodruff: iraqi prime minister haider al-abadi's visit to the u.s. came as the battle against the islamic state appears to be making headway. but many iraqi americans are still wary of the chaos that's unfolded in the last year at the hands of the extremists. we recently spoke with three iraqis living in the washington area about their fears for their homeland, and their hopes for its future, as they watch the fight from afar. >> when isis came along, i remember the morning i was walking to work and i got a text on my phone from my friend. all it said was "we lost mosul to isis." it literally felt like the whole world stops. >> my country will never get back to the country that i used to know before. >> you couldn't imagine. >> i started thinking about my daughter. i thought, i don't want my family or my daughter to see that. >> no one is going home. i know i'm never going to move back home and even saying it, it kills me. >> march 2012, i got shot two times by really bad people in my neighborhood. even the people that were shot, they say why did they do this? but this is the situation of baghdad. if somebody just dislikes you for a simple, silly thing they can kill you for this with no problems. >> when the isis thing happened and we lost mosul and i felt that falling sensation that the world is coming to an end, at least i know i still care. >> criminal isis they are killing and torturing people by the name of islam religion. i am muslim and i do practice, but i have not heard or seen islamic things like this. >> i'm not the only person who cares about iraq and who has the tools to make it better. one of the really amazing things is how quickly people adapt. their resilience is really mindboggling. if you think about if you can channel that into reconstruction, into rebuilding the country, i mean you could have one of the greatest countries in the world. >> my sincere hope for iraq as a country is to live in peace, to deliver these criminals isis to, get them out of the country, for the central government to let the people express whatever they feel let everybody feel deep down in their heart the sense that they do belong to iraq. >> woodruff: finally, to our newshour shares of the day, something that caught our eye that might be of interest to you, too. when abraham lincoln was shot on this day one hundred and fifty years ago he had a full beard, an image of lincoln we are all familiar with. but when he was a presidential candidate, lincoln was clean- shaven. he may have grown the beard in response to a letter from 11 year old grace bedell. in the letter dated october 15, 1860, she wrote "if you will but let your whiskers grow i will try and get the rest of my brothers to vote for you, you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin." lincoln wrote her back, "as to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if i were to begin it now?" despite this skepticism, a month later president-elect lincoln was beginning to grow a beard. on our website you can find a live stream of a tribute event at ford's theatre, commemorating lincoln's assassination. it begins tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. a compromise bill to let congress vote on an iran nuclear deal sailed through the senate foreign relations committee. and, the white house signaled president obama would sign it. and president obama notified congress that he's removing cuba from the u.s. list of state sponsors of terrorism. on the newshour online, mixed- media artist greg gossel layers pop culture imagery with vintage cartoons, billboard scraps and lots of texture. the result is his take on "urban decay." see how he assembles his wall- size art, on our home page. and it's college decision time for high school seniors, while a four-year bachelor's degree is a good investment for most students, there are things you need to know to get the most bang for your buck. find six rules to help you make the best choice, on our making sense page. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll look at gospel, blues, country and jazz. rhiannon giddens shows off her rangein her first solo album. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> 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 newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this is "nighlty business " with tyler and sue herera. >> some of the most widely owned stocked issues cards to investors. too nice? larry finch tells some to stop being so generous with shareholders. crunch time for those who still haven't filed taxes. all of that and more tonight on "nighlty busin for tuesday, april 14th. >> good evening and welcome. it was report card time for three douf components and the results weren't so bad. jp morgan chase bea components