Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20160205

Found a way to turn this into a living. Ifill all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial, committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Supporting innovation and education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill its been another day of hard campaigning, and hard words, in New Hampshire, where primary day is just five days off. As democrats prepared to debate tonight, the Top Republican contenders took new shots at each other. Political director Lisa Desjardins reports. Cruz fired off a broadside. Donald trump is very rattled right now. You know, he said, how stupid could the people of iowa donald trump is very rattled right now. Told the entire world he was gonna win iowa and he didnt win. His reaction was very angry. He said how stupid are the people of iowa. Next, hes going to say how stupid are the people of New Hampshire. While in exeter, trump suggested again that cruzs win in iowa was tainted. Well find out what happened. There was something very strange that happened there. Reporter in the meantime, the socalled establishment candidates kept their fire trained on one another. Marco rubio made his own appearance in portsmouth. I am the conservative that can win. And if we win, we can turn this country around. Reporter but Chris Christie dismissed that claim, telling abc news that in fact, the florida senator is the most coddled candidate in the race. The heat that hell get from Hillary Clinton, if hes ever the nominee, will be much greater than anything any of us could ever throw at him. Reporter whilst among the democrats. Are you really progressive . Reporter clinton herself was feeling the heat last night, at a cnn town hall in derry, New Hampshire. At issue, still whos the true progressive. Bernie sanders ahead in New Hampshire polls appeared separately, and argued that clintons ties to wall street are a disqualifier. I do not know any progressive who has a super pac and takes 15 million from wall street. Thats just not progressive. applause reporter clinton was pressed, in particular, for speaking fees shed previously collected from goldman sachs. But did you have to be paid 675,000 . Well, i dont know. Thats what they offered, so. Reporter but, she insisted the money wouldnt sway her policy toward banks. Name anything theyve influenced me on. Just name one thing. Im out here every day saying im going to shut them down, im going after them. Im going to jail them if they should be jailed. Im going to break them up. I mean theyre not giving me very much money now. I can tell you that much. Reporter in between the barbs, there were also glimpses of how the candidates view the world, at their core. I worry very much about a society where some people spiritually say, it doesnt matter to me, i got it, i dont care about other people. So my spirituality is that we are all in this together and that when children go hungry, when veterans sleep out on the street, it impacts me. Be grateful for being a human being, being part of the universe. Be grateful for your limitations. Know that you have to reach out to have more people be with you, to support you, to advise you, listen to your critics, answer the questions. But at the end, be grateful. Reporter clinton and sanders face each other directly tonight, at a debate just added to the calendar, hosted by msnbc, in manchester. Ifill now to our political director Lisa Desjardins in manchester. Lisa, you have been on the ground there. You have been going to events, talking to voters. What are you hearing . What do they want to hear . Reporter i think this is the moment where New Hampshire is fully turning its attention to this race. Gwen, i think that this is not a time to look at polls coming out of New Hampshire because from my talks with voters today, even those who have told pollsters that they made up their mind told me today that theyre still squishy, that theyre still looking at all the candidates. I think what it feels like today in New Hampshire, gwen, is a moment of great and profound evaluation. Voters here feel like it was a very important contest on both sides, and there are some voters i talked to today who said theyre not even sure which party theyre going to vote with. Ifill so at these events you go to, whether ladies who lunch, meeting with surrogates, or donald trump at a pligz accomplice station, or political tourists from all over the country, what is it that people are feeling, are looking for, are actually searching around for . Reporter its a good question because im not sure the campaigns coming out of iowa have fully embraced what voter heres in New Hampshire are looking for. In iowa, it seemed clear there were a lot of supporters looking for their candidates. They wanted exposure, and they wanted those big, large speeches. Here in New Hampshire, the voters are telling me again and again they want that personal contact. They demand it. Its nothing to them to see a candidate four or five times. I know our viewers have heard that before, but i think its especially worth putting a spike in right now. When ted cruz, donald trump, and marco rubio all seem number a real horse race, they have a pool of voters that just from talking to them on the ground, gwen, arent sure which one to go with. Those republican voters, gwen, that i talked to today, they want a strong, tough leader, but they also want one who they think will represent this country with dignity. They see three candidates who all represent very different combinations of those things they want. And i have not heard many voters today who said they are 100 sure about which one of those three are on top. And on top of those three, there are other republicans that are very much in the game here. Ifill i want to get to them. I want to talk about the dignity piece. We have seen a lot of squabbling on both sides but does that allow someone like marco rubio, who seems sooemed to have at least come out of iowa, looking better than expected here, said, to walk through the middle of all of that . Reporter that certainly is the rubio campaigns hope, but to be honest, gep, as much as we hear so much about marco rubio, im not sure hes hes surging quite yet in New Hampshire. What i felt from voters today is that those who had not really given him a hard look before now are look at him closely. So i think over this weekend, maybe that surge will start to happen. The doors open for him. I think youre right that there is a question of dignity. Donald trump has used more colorful language than before today and in the past couple of days. And heard more than one voter who said that they liked trump saying that they dont like the way hes questioning the results in iowa. They say he needs to move on, and its making it look at him in a little bit of a different way. Ifill well, tonight, another democratic debate. Last night we had a forum. Tonight, both of them are on stage. What are we expecting . Reporter right, this is a huge moment for both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Of course, Bernie Sanders way out in front in the polls but when you talk to voter heres there are a lot of question marks about not just whether his agenda is feasible but is it doable could anyone at some time in the future create this pril revolution, but in the next eight years when voters feel they need economic help, could Bernie Sanders bring some of that economic help. For Hillary Clinton its almost the opposite. Her strength is that voters feel she can get things done. Weve seen her talk about that, but there is a lot of mistrust of her, we talked about that before. And whats interesting, gwen, its from voters who feel they know her very well. She and bill clinton have campaigned here for many cycles. So so she has to present a new side to a face that is very well known here. That is not always easy to do. Ifill from the ground in manchester, New Hampshire, tonight, Lisa Desjardins, thank you. My pleasure. Woodruff in the days other news, the former head of a drug company, martin shkreli, took the fifth today on why he raised the price of a critical drug by 5,000 . The onetime boss of Turing Pharmaceuticals appeared at a congressional hearing, but he repeatedly refused to testify. On the advice of counsel, i invoke my fifth amendment privilege of self incrimination and respectfully decline to answer the question. Woodruff lawmakers on both sides blasted turings decision to raise the price of medicine for a deadly parasitic infection. But shkreli appeared to make light of it all, and maryland democrat Elijah Cummings took him to task. The way i see it, you can go down in history as the poster boy for greedy drug money executives. Or you can change the system. Yeah you. You detailed the knowledge about Drug Companies and the system we have today. And i truly believe are you listening . Yes. Thank you. I truly believe you can become a force of tremendous good. Woodruff the appeal may have fallen on deaf ears. After he left the hearing, shkrelis official twitter account flashed a message that read hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people of our country. Ifill the latest numbers are in, and 12. 7 Million People signed up for private Health Insurance this year, under the Affordable Care act. That means enrollment is in line with the administrations projections. This was the third signup season under the president S Health Care law. Woodruff on the zika virus outbreak, brazilian Authorities Say theyve identified two cases transmitted through blood transfusions. The virus is most commonly spread through mosquito bites, and is being linked to birth defects. The outbreak has now spread across much of latin america. Ifill in greece, Public Transit and Services Ground to a halt in much of the country today as thousands of people walked off the job in a general strike. Farmers, doctors and others joined Public Workers to protest Pension Reforms tied to greeces Third International bailout. translated this cannot go on. They Must Withdraw this monstrous bill right now. This reform plan is against the workers and the people. We will continue fighting until victory. Ifill demonstrations were largely peaceful, but some anarchist protesters and police exchanged fire bombs and tear gas in clashes outside the Parliament Building in athens. Woodruff back in this country, word today Hillary Clinton was not the only secretary of state to receive classified information in personal emails. The departments Inspector General has found Sensitive Data in emails sent to former secretaries colin powell and condoleeza rice, or their staffs. Clintons Campaign Says state has gone overboard on classification. Ifill theres another big air bag recall. Continental Automotive Systems says up to five million vehicles worldwide are affected. Something less than two million are in the u. S. Moisture can damage the air bags so they dont deploy in a crash. And honda has recalled another 2. 2 million vehicles in north america. They have takata air bags that can fire metal shards. Woodruff and wall street managed modest gains today. The Dow Jones Industrial average was up nearly 80 points to close at 16,416, the nasdaq rose five points, and the s p 500 added three. Ifill and, the founder and leader of earth, wind and fire, maurice white, has died. The band formed in the late 1960s, and sold more than 90 million albums, with hits that included september, shining star and boogie wonderland. They joined the rock and roll hall of fame in 2000. Maurice white was 74 years old. Still to come on the newshour colombias president on his countrys prospects for peace after 50 years of conflict. Billions of dollars pledged to syria as its peace talks break down. The economic booms and busts of Fantasy Sports. And much more. Woodruff this afternoon the white house announced a proposed 450 million aid package for the south american nation of colombia. This comes as its president is in washington to meet with it will go to reinforce an aid public called plan colombia, what president obama dubbed peace colombia to cement a peace deal spearheaded by the colombian president. Juan Manuel Santos came to the white house this afternoon at a critical moment in his nations history the potential end to latin americas longestrunning war. The fight between the colombian government and the leftist farc the revolutionary armed forces of colombia has lasted more than 50 years, killed more than 220,000 people, and displaced millions. But after three failed attempts at peace accords, and four years of talks, a deal may be within sight. So far, negotiations hosted in cuba have yielded agreements on land reform, prisoner releases, and efforts to find missing persons. Ivan marquez is lead negotiator for the farc. translated this Peace Process has progressed like no other in colombia. It should not have the armed confrontation as a backdrop, nor the sad death of young uniformed soldiers, policemen and guerrillas. Only in an atmosphere of trust and harmony can we agree on what is needed to reach the final agreement. Woodruff if that happens, the government will need to expand health and Education Services into rebelcontrolled areas. Its a job made all the more challenging by the emergence of the zika virus and its link to birth defects. More than 20,000 cases have been confirmed in colombia among them some 2,100 pregnant women. All of that means major new outlays of funds, and colombian president santos brought just such a request to president obama today. Just as the United States has been colombias partner in a time of war, i indicated to president santos, we will be your partner in waging peace. Woodruff indeed, over the last 15 years, the u. S. Has provided almost 10 billion dollars in antinarcotics and counterinsurgency aid, through a program called plan colombia. And, at the cuban talks yesterday, a farc leader urged that america contribute to a lasting peace. translated a country that was engaged in the conflict in colombia should also be engaged in building a new era, with resources for peace, for reconciliation and for the prosperity of all those who suffered, with an emphasis on the victims. Woodruff now, for both sides in colombia, the pieces seem to be falling into place the u. N. Security council has o. K. d sending a mission to monitor an eventual agreement, a move that santos hailed last week. translated the decision taken by the Security Council means that we are no longer alone, we have the hand of the united nations, of the whole world to the end of this war. Its the best guarantee this will happen. Woodruff indications are that an overall peace accord could be finalized as early as next month. Earlier today i sat down with president juan Manuel Santos of colombia. Welcome, president santos, to the United States. You come at what many see as a time of a turning point for your country. Is that how you see it . Yes. Weve been at war for 50 years. The only and longest Armed Conflict in the whole of the western hemisphere. And were about to sign a Peace Agreement that will end this conflict, so it is a turning point for colombia. Woodruff americans have thought of colombia for decades as a place run by drug cartels, wracked with internal conflict. Its hard for them to understand how now there may finally be peace with these leftist rebels. How do you do you explain that . Well, theres been a substantial change in colombia, thanks in many ways from the help we have received from the United States, the plan colombia which was launched in the year 2000, when launched was colombia was on the verge of being declared a failed state, and as you say, we were a country that was always related to drug trafficking, violence, homicides, kidnappings. But today, the country is fundamentally different. Today, we are leaders in the economic growth, leaders in the reduction of poverty, leaders in the region in the creation of employment. Our democracy is working. Our security has improved tremendously. And we are about to sign a Peace Agreement that will open up opportunities at colombia never imagined because most of colombians have lived during all their lives in a country at war. Woodruff but the deal is not done yet. There are still obstacles that have to be overcome. And how do you reintegrate these fighters who have spent years and years of thinking of themselves as opposing the government . How do you reintegrate them into normal society . We have experience. We have reintegrated more than 50,000 combatants. The former paramilitaries, and mexico of the guerillas. We have reintegrated them into society. There is a process, even a psychological process. Many times they have to go back to school, kids that only know,000 shoot, they were born in the guerilla catches, and they have to be retrained and reeducated. And theres a process. Its cumbersome. Its difficult, but its necessary. Woodruff youre also asking that this group, farc, this these rebel fighters, be removed from the u. S. List of terror groups. How do you justify giving a pass to people who are responsible for countless deaths what is it several hundred,000 deaths in your country, not to mention their role in drug drugtrafficking, cocaine production . . How do they deserve forgiveness . First of all, were not going to forgive them. The most responsible for transitioned to justice, they will be investigated. They will be judged, they will be condemned, and they will be sanctioned. This process is a process with no impunity, and weve been taking a lot of care that this is the case. Now, were trying to end a war, a war that has caused more than 250,000 people dead, and we have to make the transition to peace. So you have to strike a balance. And thats what i think we have found, a correct balance, a Peace Agreement is never perfect. Always you have people from one side or the other criticizing it. Woodruff but i know you know, mr. President , that you have people in colombia, people here in washington who are saying they are troubled by the idea that not only will they not face serious retribution but this actually will strengthen them, and that they could come back to commit terror again in the future. No, because if they cothat, they will lose all the benefits. They will go to prison through ordinary justice, 50, 60 years in prison. They know that. And thats why i am sure they will take very good care of not continuing their criminal activities. But what we want is to finish the war. We are sitting down with them from a position of strength, 10 or 15 years ago, this would have been impossible. But i think my country deserves to have peace after 50 years of war. Woodruff the United States has already given colombia, what, 10 billion over a number of years, socalled plan colombia you mentioned. Youre asking for more money from the u. S. This is at a time when, yes, there may be a peace deal, but theres still a serious problem in your country with cocaine production, drug trafficking, other issues. What is the rationale that the u. S. Should continue to give money to colombia. Well plan colombia is probably the most successful, bipartisan Foreign Policy initiative that the u. S. Has launched in the recent past, in the past decades. Its very successful. We were a country that was destroyed, worst recession ever, on the verge of being declared a failed state. Today, we are a flourishing democracy. We have a strong economy. We have progressed tremendously. So those are the results of plan colombia. Now plan colombia allowed us and is allowing us to finish the conflict, and i think this is a cherry on the cake of this policy. Now we have to Work Together and colombia is the most important, and i call it strategic partner, that the u. S. Has. Now, the u. S. Wants to help us in the construction of peace. You end the conflict, and you start constructing peace. And thats why the corporation of both countries, because dont forget 95 of plan colombia was financeed by our own resources. Woodruff is there anything hopeful to be said about drug, cocaine production, exporitation, the drug, frankly, crisis that still exists in colombia, and as it affects the americas . We have diminished the number of families that are dedicated to the cultivation of the cocoa crops by twothirds, and we have caught we have interdicted more cocaine, for example, last year than ever before. We have learned how to dismantle the big drug cartels. But if you continue to demand the cocaine here in the United States or in europe, you will always have somebody to supply that. Woodruff fair point about the demand. Just finally, mr. President , you have a new worry with the zika virus. Theres Something Like 20,000 cases as we reported in your country, 2100 women who are pregnant with this virus. How are you managing this . How concerned are you . I am very concerned because this is, for us, something new. Its new for the world. We know very little about the zika, consequences, we now have some evidence that a pregnant woman might give birth to babies with a very serious very serious illness, which is the microcephaly. We have some evidence that this might produce a illness in normal persons. To what extent, how many people that are affected by the illness, will have these consequences, we still dont know. There was a meeting, an emergency meeting of all the Health Ministers two days ago. We are watching the situation very closely, and this is one of the subject subjects that we aro cooperating with u. S. To see if we can do more research on this type of illness to be better prepared for the future. Woodruff we certainly wish you well with that. And as we do every other place thats dealing with it. President juan Manuel Santos, we thank you very much. Thank you for this opportunity. Ifill now, from a conflict that may soon end, to one that rages still in syria. William brangham has this update on the fiveyear civil war there, and the International Efforts to stop it. Brangham recriminations erupted in full force just one day after peace talks stopped in geneva. The syrian army confirmed today it expects it will soon surround the city of aleppo, syrias largest city. Its an advance that could have farreaching consequences. Faizal atani, sp a fellow at the Atlantic Council in washington. Aleppo would be the crowning acheement of this trend, thanks in large part to russian ire support. The main supply line that transfers ammunition, weapons, other supplies from turkey, for example, to the rebels who are in aleppo city has now been severed. Brangham a britishbased Monitoring Group reported today over the last week, syrian and russian warplanes have mounted one of the most intense bombing campaigns in a month paving the way for the offensive north of aleppo. That brought warnings todayave new mass exodus of refugees. Turkeys Prime Minister spoke in london on a conference. People in the camps, in north aleppo, are moving towards turkey. My mind is not now in london but in our border, how to relocate these new people coming from syria. Brangham turkey is already sheltering more than 2. 5 million syrians, making it the biggest refugee host country in the world. The turkish Prime Minister insisted today that the u. S. Take a stronger stance against russian action in syria. In turn, u. S. Secretary of state john keri said the Russian Foreign minister has now agreed to at least consider a ceasefire. We discussed and he agreed that we need to discuss how to implement ceasefire, and, also, how to get access by both parties. The opposition needs to allow access for humanitarian assistance, and the regime in syria needs to allow access. Brangham the depth of that need was made clear in this drop video of the devastation in the city of holmes, after five years of civil war. It was shot by the Film Company Russia works. Secretary keri said the 70 donor nations gathered in london cannot turn away from the horror. Obviously, if people are reduced to eating grass, and leaves and killing stray animals in order to survive on a daytoday basis, that is something that should tear at the conscience of all civilized people, and we we all have a responsibility to respond to it. Brangham the conference ultimately pledged some 10 billion over the next four years to assist syria and countries like jordan, lebanon, and turkey. That brought a glimmer of hope to some refugees housed at the sprawling zatarks re refugee camp in jordan. translated god willing, this conference will help us. We need help to feed our children. Reporter still, there is little sign that the conflict will end soon. Russia today accused turkey of planning its own invasion into syria. translated we have serious grounds to suspect that turkey is preparing for a military incursion. We have presented undeniable evidence to the International Community proving turkey opened artillery fire over a residential area. Brangham and saudi arabia announced its of its poised to send Ground Troops into syria. For the pbs newshour, william brangham. Woodruff stay with us, coming up on the newshour oregons hidden canyon. When breath becomes air, a doctors account of his dying days. And an essayist honors the fearlessness of black artists. But first, pro football is getting ready to wrap up its season with the super bowl on sunday. One fan story that was a big part of this nfl season was the furious growth of daily Fantasy Sports for many games like football. In its short lifespan, that industry has gained 57 million players. But now theres rising scrutiny of Fantasy Sports legality from legislators and regulators across the country. Economics correspondent paul solman has the story, part of his Series Making sense, which airs every thursday on the newshour. Reporter it was an ad blitz to attack even the most innocent bystander. Ahead of the 2015 nfl season, the two leading daily Fantasy Sports companies, fanduel and draftkings, aired a national ad every 90 seconds. Together, they outspent the entire Beer Industry in the month leading up to opening kickoff, 207 million. Comedian john oliver made it a subject of his weekly hbo show, including this spoof commercial. Ive been using fanduel since i saw all those bleep commercials on all the time. Daily fantasy is the best. I get to play every day. You mean, you get to gamble. Its not gambling. Oh its definitely gambling. You have a massive gambling problem. Its actually a skills based game that is going to make us rich one day. Youre an idiot. Reporter journalist Jay Caspian Kang is no idiot. I met up with him at brooklyns 200 fifth avenue sports bar, where the sports junkie, who played the sites for 17 weeks and wrote about it for the New York Times magazine, explained that for him too, the blitz worked. The ads actually convinced you you could make a Million Dollars . No, no no no no. I dont think i was that much of a mark, but it also sort of showed me that this was an actual thing, it wasnt just a shady underground gambling operation and i think the ads made it seem very legitimate. Reporter and the ads helped bring 15 million more players to the game in 2015. There are now 57 million players in north america who pay anywhere from a quarter to thousands of dollars to pick an Imaginary Team made up of real players and compete online against anonymous strangers. Thats what i did, with kangs help. Lebron, i want lebron james on my team. I can see already how i can lose money easily in this, its just. People really enjoyed playing these games, i mean i enjoyed playing them. Reporter because it gives you a reason to root in every single game. Sure, yeah. This is sort of like normal Fantasy Sports sped up on steroids. Reporter which is why fanduel and draftkings have each achieved billion dollar valuations the potential market is huge. The companies have been Venture Capital sponges 363 million for fanduel and 426 million for draftkings, including investments from the National Basketball association, nbc comcast, Major League Baseball and fox sports. Now when congress proclaimed that Fantasy Sports were not gambling back in 2006, the field was dominated by office pools and friendly contests like in the long time sitcom the league. Hes a fantasy football genius, ok . He has no wife, no job, just pure football knowledge. Reporter but a host of states are now challenging daily Fantasy Sports. Some have outright banned it, including nevada, which has a gambling industry of its own to protect. Draftkingss did not respond to our requests for an interview, and fanduel would not speak to us on camera. But this isnt exwambling matt but this isnt gambling, fanduels matt king told pbs frontline. So you dont view what you do here at fanduel as gambling . No. Thats a word that isnt used very much around here i take it. Nope. Reporter jason robins, c. E. O. Of draftkings, says its skill. I just think under the current law right now its very obvious this fits within skill gaming. Reporter hey, says Jay Caspian Kang. Of course its gambling, but the industrys defense the role of skill is legit. Only problem is that, besides addictiveness, Fantasy Sports skill is why its a losers game. It takes a lot of research, it takes a lot of study, it takes a lot of understanding breaking news things. Julian edelman is injured, you have to know instinctively what that means for the other Wide Receivers in terms of how many times tom brady, the quarterback, is going to throw to them. Reporter and who does this kind of work . Math jocks, several dozen of whom kang met with for his story. Some of them are guys who worked on wall street and were investment analysts, and a lot of them, they were sort of good at sports statistics; they found a way to turn this into a living. Reporter such researchers are essentially gambling pros, much like professional stock investors, using highfrequency Trading Software called scripting that analyzes vast amounts of data instantly, creates teams automatically, and can thus play multiple entries. Those 2 competitions and 5 competitions and 10 and 20 competitions are blanketed with thousands of entries from one person, or two people who have put in a lot of time and effort to building these lineups who use software that you dont even know exists to optimize those lineups and their goal is to take your 2. And if theres a thousand of you then theyve got 2,000. When it came time to enter my 5 basketball lineup, i sifted through hundreds of players and their stats, defaulted mostly to my home team boston celtics. Reporter draftkings says its banned scripting and limited entries, but pros already seemed to be there, six hours before tipoff. This guy is one of the most famous users, youdacao reporter hes got 100 entries. Schmeckl is another relatively famous player, he has 100 entries. Reporter 100 entries. 100 entries at 5. And again, this is for 5, right . Reporter and who knows how many other names youdacao or schmeckl may be using . Small wonder a report from the Consulting Firm mckinsey found that for Major League Baseball, 91 of profits were won by just 1. 3 of players. But hey, i just needed to finish in the top 7,000 to double my 5 bucks the clock was ticking. I placed my bet. As a journalist. So as things stand now if i wanted to play you would discourage me from doing it . Not morally. laughs reporter no, not morally. But in terms of prudence. Yes, well i would, if you just want to spend 200 or 50 and have fun you know then i think its fine, but if you feel like you want to enter a fair betting economy and you want to have as good a shot as they are telling you that you have, i would say this is a very bad bet. Reporter or as new York Attorney general Eric Schneiderman put it daily Fantasy Sports rely on a steady stream of minnows to feed the sharks. So, with states stacking up against them and the minnows increasingly aware of the bigger fish, kang says online pokers fate should give fair warning to Fantasy Sports. All that was left were great players with a lot of money playing against one another and taking each others bank rolls and passing them back and forth. Daily Fantasy Sports is at a risk i think of having that happen within a season or so. Reporter and thus a recent pledge from fanduel may be a bid for selfpreservation we do believe that new, commonsense regulations to protect consumers. Are needed. So, what else . Well im sure youre dying to know whether my nba lineup made the top 7,000. Turns out i finished. 15,550th. For the pbs newshour in brooklyn, this is socalled economics correspondent paul solman, with oncehigh hopes and 25, now down to 20. Ifill there are few places left that havent been explored. But a team in oregon has documented a natural wonder for the first time thats just about 60 miles from portland. Its a spectacular halfmile gorge and Narrow Canyon in the the cascade range. It was first spotted in 2010 by a u. S. Forest Service Helicopter manager. This past summer, an Expedition Team spent three days navigating through it including nine major waterfalls and a grotto that ended at the slot canyon. Oregon public broadcasting helped chart its chronicle in a new documentary. Heres an excerpt about trying to reach the valhalla canyon. Oh, man being in vahalla, it feels like youve gone into the throat of something through the stomach and youre in it. You know, as for myself as i would say much more a normal person and not a hardcore adventurure, theres a kind of lowlevel panic at the back of the mind. Its like, this is not normal. Whats going to happen here . Whats going to happen there . Whoa yeah its awesome and so theres always a little fight to keep that quell down. laughter and then theres just this thrilling excitement at the rugged beauty of it. All the fears just disappeared, and it was like, this is awesome. That is so cool man theres a whole cave back there you know, the worry was gone, and it was just pure adventure. As were moving down through, all of a sudden, it just opens up into this remarkable, beautiful, amphitheater, just like huge, towering walls on either side of you. Theres just big, mossy, porovers, water trickling all these places, and there are ferns and moss and green and its just a strikingly beautiful place. We named that cathedral garden. Walking into that space was jawdropping. Ive not been in a place like that in oregon before. And it just had that openair mystical, like, giant feeling. And it kind of took on a spiritual moment in there. Like, no one wanted to talk loud in the beginning. You know, like, we were just so impressed by it. Vahalla woooohooohoo all they had to do now was get through one more night. The walls are so steep over the top of us, and there is rock fall in this area. And, again, theres no other place to camp. And its, like, were in this. This precarious situation is the safest alternative. And whatever happens, its going to happen. It makes me feel wonderfully small in this place. Its like this comforting reprioritizzation of where we fit in nature and the foot chain of things. Woodruff what makes a life worth living . What gives it meaning . And how does that change when the time one has left, collapses . These are some of the profound questions taken up in a new memoir by a doctor who suddenly faced his own mortality. Jeffrey brown has our newest addition to the newshour bookshelf. Brown as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was used to dealing with life and death issues. He was, by his own account, a driven man, who studied literature and philosophy before turning to medicine earning five degrees along the way. He was near completion of a rigorous residency at stanford when, aged 36, he got a diagnosis of lung cancer. He would live just 22 months more, have a child with his wife lucy, and write an indelible memoir, when breath becomes air. He had thought that he would have a long career as a neurosurgeon, neuroscientist and then maybe a writer. Brown he had planned on all this, right . Thats right. And he said, you know, i think i may be years into my retirement, now, you know at age 36. So what do i want to do . And the answer was write. Brown Lucy Kalanithi is also a doctor. The two met at Yale Medical School and were married nine years before pauls death in 2015. He was sort of a perpetual learner and seeker and somebody who was very interested in understanding kind of what it is to be human and what sort of makes life meaningful. Brown from the beginning, right . Thats right. Yeah, yeah. He went to grad school in english literature, and sort of made his way into neuroscience because he wanted a real understanding of consciousness and what makes us human. So he kind of came at that from different angles. Brown well one of the themes that comes through clearly in his life and his book is identity. Right . Sort of like, what makes us us or who we are . You know, when you have a brain disorder or youre having surgery on your brain, you are thinking about questions like, will this affect my language . Will this affect my personality . Not just how does this illness affect my body in other ways. So its kind of a very intense place for decisionmaking about identity. And he was very interested in that. Brown and then of course it happens to him. As hes dying, hes thinking about, if youre dying rather than living in a sense, then are you still you . Yeah, i think in the moment of diagnoses, he sort of saw his life trajectory and his self come tumbling down. He wasnt going to be a neurosurgeon for years and grapple with, initially the fact of his mortality, and we thought initially that he had less time to live. Or less than a year, and then he started a therapy that allowed him a lot more functionality than he expected and a longer prognosis potentially, so then it was this big question, i dont know how much time i have left and how do i spend that time . Who am i . If you dont think about the bad case, that ending is going to be very rough on you and your family. But if youre going to think about the good case, youre going to miss an opportunity to really make the most out of your life and time. Brown you know, one of the things that struck me, also, here is he learns a lot about doctoring, right, that he had never seen as a doctor. Yeah, yeah. Brown he writes for example at one point, realizing how little doctors understand the hell through when we put patients. He was getting to see things from a different side. He had been in medicine as a decade as a student and then a resident, but all these tiny experiences, for example, when you get an i. V. , and they start infusing the normal saline in your vein you can taste the salt and he said i have been a doctor for a decade and never knew you could taste the salt and its those tiny details that come to the fore, and thats not to mention the mis fizical and emotional suffering that comes with being sick and the way it rocks you and rocks your family. So, yeah, we really felt that. Brown he could look at it intellectually, but he also had to then look at it very realistically. When we got the news of this terrible chest xray that looked really kind of dense with tumors, and kind of helped explain why he had been having weight loss and back pain and real kind of Health Troubles for a few months, both of us knew that the next day we were going to the hospital he would have a ct scan and it would likely show metastatic cancer. Being doctors, we could see that path. And when we packed for the hospital, i was packing socks and pillows and and when we packed for the hospital, i was packing like socks and pillows and phone chargers, and he just packed like three books. He packed mere christianity by c. S. Lewis, heideggers being in time, and solzhenitsyns cancer ward. And i think it was that transition right away where he said this is becoming so personal that i need my books. Like i need to understand this through literature. Him when he became ill. He translated the experience back through writing and words to make sense of it and this book is part of that. Brown what about for you . What did you feel when you read it . So i read it in real time, as he was writing it. I would read it daily or weekly, and it was kind of a great communication tool for us actually. Brown oh, really . Oh, yeah. More debilitated, it was seeing him write the book was really amazing because even though his body was in this state of physical collapse, his mind was so engaged, still, in this process. Theres an author named Gavin Francis who wrote a blurb for the book and he wrote Something Like, this is a tremendous book, crackling with life. And that idea brings tears to my eyes because think about crackling with life. Because if you had seen paul, you know hes wrapped up in a blanket, hes sitting in this arm chair. He looks frail and wan, you know . He looks ill. Brown as hes writing . But hes crackling with life. And that was just really true and the book was just a really big part of that. Brown you write in the brown the two of you made a very important major decision in the midst of this, which was to have a child. Yeah. We had always wanted to have children together; we hadnt done it by the end of his residency. That was around the time we pictured we always would. And right around that time was when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Terminal lung cancer. And it was a series of really intense conversations to figure out if we wanted to do that and we could we handle that, and both of us had the instinct to do it. But we needed to think very hard about what it would mean. Said you know we talked very frankly about his prognosis and what was happening and i said that, dont you think that saying goodbye to a child would make your death even more painful . And he said, well, wouldnt it be great if it did . Since her birth my time with her has had a very peculiar and free nature. In all probable, i wont live long enough for her to remember me, and so time is just is what it is. That was kind of this amazing thing where its like life isnt just about avoiding suffering. Its about fiewnding meaning and having a child was part of that for us. Brown the very powerful book is when breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi. Lucy kalanithi. Thank you so much. Its my pleasure. I wish it were paul here. Thank you. Ifill finally, the latest installment of brief but spectacular our series where we ask interesting people to describe their passions, tonight, we hear from writer Rachel Kaadzi ghansah, a New York Times magazine contributor and author of the forthcoming book, the explainers and the explorers. Her essays on uncompromising artists of color have earned critical acclaim. Here, she speaks about fearlessness and black art. I like writing about people who look like me and the people i know who dont have good pieces written about them, because we deserve it. Ive written about jimi hendrix, elect lady studios, Tony Morrison, trayvon martin, Dave Chappelle. We dont always hear about the people who we know as legends the ways that they were very true to themselves. Im more interested in the moments when they were uncompromising and they were fearless because what i hope is that, that fearlessness tells us a little bit about how we can be fearless. What was interesting to me about Dave Chappelle is here is a moment where typically walking away from comedy central, walking away from your career would be a bad decision, and anyone would tell you, dont do that. The common understanding of it is he felt that the show had started to cross a line, and that it was actually becoming a source of embarrassment. And so walking away from 50 million was pretty heroic and pretty decent and full of integrity. Well, you know, i couldnt read until i was 12. Maybe i wasnt 12, but i was older. I think people start reading when theyre five or something. And so this books were there space that i couldnt enter because my mom could read. My dad was an academic. Everyone was so intelligent and i couldnt go there and the moment i could i started to read ravenously. One of the books i remember changing everyones lives was beloved. That was the first time people who had been silenced, enslaved people, became human. And at that moment, i said this is what a writer can do. And so for me, Tony Morrison doesnt exist on a human plain. She almost exists in this odd, spiritual, other world, in terms of her work. And when she won that nobel prize, what was interesting is that a lot of prominent newspapers asked, does this woman deserve it . So when i had the moment to take the New York Times magazine cover, i decided im going to take that cover to lay flowers at the feet of this woman and say, not only did you deserve it, but thank you. My name is Rachel Kaadzi ghansah, and this is my brief but success take on fearlessness and black art. Ifill you can see more videos in our brief but spectacular series on our facebook page, facebook. Com newshour. And thats the newshour for tonight. On friday, miles obrien reports from brazil, at the center of the zika outbreak. Im gwen ifill. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Join us online, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. For all of us 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 helping you take charge of your financial future. The lemelson foundation. Committed to improving lives through invention. In the u. S. And developing countries. On the web at lemelson. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org this is nightly Business Report with Tyler Mathisen and sue herera. Suddenly silent. The man known for hiking the price of a lifesaving medicine refused to answer questions under oat. Can congress realistically do anything to curb drug price hikes . Dividends slashed. Conoco phillips becomes the first fler gy company to slice its payouts. Will others follow . Open for business. Economic sanctions may be lifted but western Companies Still face big obstacles trying to do business in iran. All that and more tonight on nightly Business Report for thursday, february 4th. Good evening and welcome. High drama on capitol hill. It involved grinning, mugging for the cameras, insulting tweets