mining conditions are causing a deadly lung disease. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fathom travel. carnival corporation's small ship line. offering seven day cruises to three cities in cuba. exploring the culture, cuisine and historic sites through itsne people. more at fathom.org. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial futurel >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century..ce >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.org frlnc >> carnegie corporation of new york.co supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.raaner >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. 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.s bib >> woodruff: the tone and tensions grew sharper today on the democratic side of theda presidential contest. it happened as critical newri primaries loom in new york, pennsylvania and other northeastern states. bernie sanders walked to the mike this morning in philadelphia, and picked up where'd left off last night, on hillary clinton.ia >> are you qualified to be president of the united statesni when you're raising millions of dollars from wall street, an entity who's greed and recklessness helped destroy our economy? >> woodruff: during tv interviews yesterday, clinton never actually called sanders unqualified, but she did say this:al >> well, i think he hasn't done his homework, and he'd been talking for more than a year about doing things he hadn'tt really studied or understood. >> woodruff: that was a shot at sanders' stumble in an interview on how he'd break up big banks. today, the vermont senator argued he had no choice but to respond in kind. >> if we are going to be attacked on my qualifications in this country-- if they're going to question my qualifications, i think i have a right to question theirs. >> woodruff: but this morning, in new york city, clinton, dismissed sanders' criticism, and shifted back to the republicans.s g icstmo >> look, i don't know why he's saying that, but i will take bernie sanders over donald trump or ted cruz anytime. so let's keep our eye on what's really at stake in this election. republicans, too, descended on the empire state today. dngrn re texas senator ted cruz was upstate, and focused on the g.o.p. frontrunner during a stop outside schenectady.y. >> donald trump has been supporting liberal democratic politicians for 40 years. >> when it comes to religious liberty, when it comes to the supreme court, he said ted, you gotta learn to compromise. you gotta learn to cut deals with the democrats and go along to get along.esbeem cle >> woodruff: trump was off the trail today, as his campaign announced it's beefing up its delegate hunt. but last night, the new york billionaire reached back to a cruz jibe in january that trump symbolizes the state's liberal politics. >> do you remember during the debate when he started lecturing me on new york values like we're no good. and i started talking to him about the world trade center, the bravery the incredible bravery of everybody. >> woodruff: ohio governor john kasich, polling second to trump in new york, joined in today, y with a new ad that rips cruz. >> they're not iowa values and they're not new hampshire values.lu everyone knows what new york values are. >> ted cruz divides to get a vote. john kasich unites to get things done. >> woodruff: former new york city mayor rudy giuliani also criticized cruz today, as he endorsed trump. >> ifill: in the day's other news, russian president vladimir putin is denying he's tied to offshore accounts, as detailed in the "panama papers" leak. in st. petersburg today, putin dismissed reports that a close friend channeled $2 billion to his supporters. he said it's part of a u.s.-leds plot to discredit russia. >> ( translated ): more than anything our opponents are concerned with the unity and u consolidation of the russian nation, of the multinational t russian people. because of that, attempts are made to destabilize thest situation from within, to make us more agreeable and to shape us the way they want. >> ifill: putin himself is not n directly named in any of the leaked documents. >> woodruff: in syria, islamic state militants abducted more than 300 workers and contractors today. state tv reported it happened at a cement plant, about 28 miles from damascus. >> ifill: and in iraq, elite government forces entered the center of a key town held by isis. they've been fighting since last month to retake hit. it sits on a major isis supply route from syria. >> woodruff: iran's president hassan rouhani delivered a jab to his country's hard-liners today. in a televised speech, he said his government favors, "a policy of moderation." and, he said iran must engage with the world now, to take advantage of last year's nuclear agreement. >> ( translated ): the opportunity the nuclear deal has created for us is not permanent and eternal. opportunities pass like passing clouds. if, god forbid, a small group succeed at not letting us take advantage of this opportunity, the opportunity will not return. >> woodruff: rouhani's remarks are a challenge to iran's supreme leader, ayatollah khamenei, and his hard-line allies. >> ifill: prosecutors in belgium have issued a new appeal for help finding a fugitive from the brussels attacks. they released new security camera video today, showing the so-called "man in the hat" as he left the airport, walked away and finally, disappeared.y, in all, 32 people died in the brussels attacks. the islamic state claimed responsibility. >> woodruff: president obama went back today to where he once taught, to press his case for supreme court nominee merrick garland. h at the university of chicago's law school, he argued the u.s. senate has to vote on garland's nomination, or risk sabotaging the system. >> we are going to see the kinds of sharp partisan polarization that have come to characterize our electoral college seep into our judicial system.ys and courts will just be an extension of our legislator. >> woodruff: republicans insist they'll wait for the next president to name a nominee.am and the chair of the senate judiciary committee, chuck grassley, said today they're committed to that stance.te >> our side believes and our side know that what we're doing is right. and when that's the case it's not hard to withstand the outrage and the pressure they've manufactured. >> woodruff: garland met withh more democratic senators today. he's also met with a handful of republicans.em >> ifill: wall street had a tough day, as sluggish growth hurt bank stocks. the dow jones industrial average lost 174 points to close belowto 17,542. the nasdaq fell 72 points, and the s&p 500 slid 24. >> woodruff: and, a rare first edition of william shakespeare's collected plays has turned up in scotland. the first folio was found at mount stuart, a vast estate on the scottish isle of bute. it was printed in 1623, and is one of only 234 known copies in the world. britain is this year marking thm 400th anniversary of shakespeare's death, in april 1616. still to come on the newshour: a crackdown on companies seeking tax havens overseas. refugees' economic impact on a city in upstate new york. the u.s. role in yemen's civilu. war, and much more. >> ifill: the obama administration took steps this week to rein in big businessek when it comes to taxes and mergers. first, the treasury department issued tough new rules that make it harder for one company merging with another, to lower its taxes by taking a foreign address.no the president spoke out against the so-called "inversions", saying they lead to one of the "most insidious tax loopholes." a day later the drug companies pfizer and allergan called off a $160 billion deal. plus, the obama justice department is trying to block oil services giant, halliburtona from merging with its rival baker hughes. other proposed mergers may alsor be in trouble. jim tankersley writes about this for the "washington post." >> thanks for having me. >> ifill: so give me a sense of whether this is a conscious, strategic use by the administration on tax policy to crack down on business. >> well, in this particular case, it's absolutely the administration saying this is a practice in the corporate worldo that we don't like, and we're going to use tax policy to stop it. itop looks very tailored in particular to mergers like the pfizer one which, i mean, it's very rare that you see a rule get announced on one day and the merger get called off the next but that's what they've pulled off here. >> ifill: so one of h the things when we talk about this, though, for instance, the administration decided they wanted to make financial advisers more accountable to clients. c >> yes. thatill: is that part of same strategy, or is that different? >> i think what we're seeing are two things.tw over time, we've seen the president sort of shed his inhibitions about taking positions that might be opposed by the bus community. he doesn't seem to really careca too much anymore if he's being called antibusiness. so we saw awe sort of string of decisions this week that we've mentioned that are all in that vain. and the business community hasmu howled and he hasn't really let that bother him. shorter term, what we're seeing, though, is the president i think is thinking about his legacy, and he knows right now we're in a time of, a very populist time, a very anticorporate time in the america in the campaign, and by personally getting out and announcing details of o the inversions rule, make a case for it, for example, this week, he's trying to cement that rule in thee public's mind so the next president doesn't change it or walk it back.ac >> ifill: it does seem like we're in a different time when it comes to taking shots at big business, and that on both the republican and the democratic side of this 2016 campaign that seems to be more acceptable.cc >> absolutely. we're used to it, i think, to a degree in democratic primaries for president, the business community tends to take a lot of flak, and then off times candidates tack towards a more probusiness approach.o that's not been true this time. both hillary clinton, and bernie sanders, especially, hav have bn very populist.o they both talked about corporate behavior, the bad behavior theyr want to see changed. but the big change is the republican side. donald trump, companies being unpatriotic and moving jobs overseas. >> ifill: he has talkedin about tax evasion for hedge fund managers. >> yes.ma it's this moment of anger. it's a sense for a lot of voters on both sides of the aisle is, hey, corporate america is lining its pockets but i'm not getting ahead. whether the policies the candidates are talking about a would actually, you know, speak to that problem or not, they are definitely channeling this moment of the politics, and il think the president is kind of piggybacking on that a little bit. >> ifill: bernie sanders, whobe has probably gone farther than any of the candidates right nowi in the race to hammering away at this was scolded today by the president of g.e. for sayingfo they were examples of-- i'm paraphrasing here-- corporate greed. what is the push back coming from the corporate world.wo >> the push back is, wait a second. we create a lot of jobs.ob we do a lot of economic activity. the g.e. op-ed which ran in my newspaper, basically said, look, we have a big plant in vermont. we'd love it if you visit, by the way. you've never done that. and we create a lot of good-paying jobs for people of the type you say you want to happen. don't denigrate us because we play by the rules like everybody else to taxes. the response to that, that t bernie sanders and others say is these are companies that coa lot of things to try to avoid paying federal corporate income taxes, in particular,po or they move production overseas to find lower cost labor. l and that upset people who say, "you should put america first."i >> ifill: is the president or the justin department or thest obama administration puttingt their thumb on the political scale inon this?le there are some who say, of course, they're on their way out, so they're destroying everything at it. >> i think with the justin department in particular, it's hard tonkrt call this political plil. this would be-- when you talk to neutral observers of antitrust law, this is an example of this is a couple of very big players in an already consolidated market that would, you know, the justin department believes pushv up prices for consumers if theyt were allowed to get a bunch of market share together. t so that's something that democrats and republicans have done. that's a power they've exercised as president. i'm not sure we can call this a political move by obama. o >> ifill: is it balanced out by early administration moves to bail out the auto companies in detroit, to bail out wall street-- air quotes. >> the president certainly had his moments of working withs business, and he still does. he's pushing the trans-pacific partnership trade deal right now hand in hand with the chamber and other groups of business lobbyists. so this is a president who in the beginning spent a lot of time trying to, you know, help the business community dig outmu from the rea recession. then said a lot of things about them being fat cats or talking down wall street bonuses as pad. and then took a lot of flacka from them and reached the moment where he meets them on a few things, fights others. >> ifill: the wind is definitely blowing against themt at the moment but we'll see whaw happens next. jim tankersley of thele "washington post." thup. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: let's turn to a different story at the intersection of jobs, business and politics, this on theti question of settling and integrating refugees into american communities. polls have shown concerns about doing so among a large percentage of voters. economics correspondent paul solman has the story of one city in new york state that continues to offer a welcome mat, and seeo it as good business. it's part of his weekly series, "making sense," which airs thursdays.of >> reporter: post-industrial utica, new york. upstate. downtrodden. and in the heart of downtown, where the united methodist church used to be, a thriving mosque. in the world beyond utica, the tide of refugees rises; the fear of foreigners swells. muslim terrorists, real and imagined, haunt us. ted cruz calls for increased policing of muslimor neighborhoods. >> focus on communities where radicalization is a risk. >> reporter: donald trump's first campaign ad went further. >> the politicians can pretendte it's something else but donald trump calls it radical islamic terrorism. that's why he's calling for ag temporary shutdown of muslims entering the united states untig we can figure out what's going on. >> reporter: but when we asked utica mayor robert palmieri if the city would be willing to resettle syrian refugees? >> i would say absolutely we would be. because utica starts with u! it's as simple as that. >> reporter: there's the humanitarian aspect of course: america's historic promise to extend a hand to huddled masses yearning to breathe free. but utica likes the economics. >> they're willing to work and they work extremely hard. it's the rebound for a great's city. >> reporter: refugee resettlement as an economic development tool, a rust beltel revival strategy utica has pioneered. after decades of decline, the city lost a third of itsth population when its factories closed, utica is growing again, back up to 62,000 people, thanks in part to its reputation as, "the town that loves refugees," who now make up one out of every four residents. thousands are muslims from bosnia, refugees of the war there in the 1990s. >> we left everything what we have at that time and start from zero again. >> reporter: sakib duracak, who trained in bosnia as a construction engineer, started a small business in utica rehabbing cheap, often crumbling, houses for refugees looking to build a new life. >> a huge opportunity, because at the time when we came in utica is relatively very dead and poor city. >> reporter: bosnians have visibly spruced up utica's eastu side, and beyond. but there's an even more basic reason to welcome refugees to ae town like utica. >> to have an economy, you have to have workers, and you have to have consumers.ec >> reporter: professor ellen kraly teaches demography at nearby colgate university. >> the influx of refugees to utica allowed us to retain some smaller industries that were looking for highly motivated labor.ri >> reporter: and if past suffering helps fuel motivation, tha da paw has plenty to spare. >> i work very hard because i want to live american life. >> reporter: an ethnic kuren, a persecuted minority in burma, she spent 23 years starting at age four in refugee camps in thailand. when she was 14... >> burmese army, they just shoot our refugee camp and make it burn. my sister's best friend, she burn alive. >> reporter: a week later, herr: 17-year-old sister committed suicide. >> i think she tire of life. whole our life to run, run, run, run for safety. >> reporter: paw came to utica eight years ago, worked as a nursing home aide and housekeeper while studying english, then as a medical interpreter. three years ago, she joined the direct sales firm mary kay cosmetics. within months, she'd worked her way up to the coveted pink'd cadillac. >> i travel albany, buffalo. it's really hard but now i lovea to live here. >> reporter: ok, so we get "why refugees?" for utica. but "why utica?" for refugees? >> utica was close to syracuse and tom cruise is from syracuse so i thought i was gonna see tom cruise.cr >> reporter: sadly for bosnian refugee ibrahim rosik, no cruise. happily, the mohawk valley resource center. >> we receive $1,125 federal dollars to be spent on behalf of each arriving refugee. >> reporter: with those dollars, says executive director shelly callahan, the refugee center rents an apartment, furnishes it, gets the utilities turned on, and starts teaching the basics. >> so it's how to lock your door, how to work the stove, the thermostat, the plumbing. >> reporter: there are also english lessons... >> is somebody sitting to the left of you? >> left? right? >> you've got to shop around. >> reporter: introductions to strange new foods...good >> and celery, we're going to make celery and kale!nd >> reporter: and for those who can drive, the all-important class in parking tickets, a veritable auditorium of babel. but, within a few months,mo they're on their own. >> they actually come here owing their airfare back to the federal government. so, they are expected to get a job, as soon as possible. >> reporter: although there are no hard statistics on how many refugees do or don't find jobs after their aid ends, some qualify for public assistance. ibrahim rositch was literally torn apart in the bosnian conflict.s >> in 1994 i stepped on a land mine, i lost my left leg, and my right leg was severely damaged. i have no knee, i can't bend it. >> reporter: he is officially 100% disabled. but, says the former engineer... >> i work two jobs.k i work full time as a directorti at mohawk valley community college and i also work as an adjunct instructor at suny poly. i am not a burden on the p community. i am not a burden on social services. yes, community helped me to get this but now it's my time to pay back. and, i would say, most refugee do the same. >> reporter: so, are refugees r the economic boon that motivated immigrants famously have been?sl yes, says economist jeffrey sachs, but there are negatives, >> some workers face increased job competition and their wages can be driven down. if lower skilled immigrants come, then lower skilled american workers may see a decline in their wages, whereas business owners may see more workers at lower cost for them. >> reporter: and, what if, as many americans fear, even just a few are terrorists? shelly callahan's response: this isn't europe. >> refugees are the most intensively screened immigrants to come to this country. about two years of intenset scrutiny by the department of homeland security, the f.b.i., ice, department of state, there's d.n.a. testing involved. >> for those people who is proven as bad people we don't want them here. >> reporter: the al saad family, palestinians who for decades lived in baghdad, fled duringur the troop surge of 2007, the deadliest year of the iraq war. >> i got kidnapped there by some militia. >> my other brother too. they beat him up. >> i lost many friends of mine. >> reporter: they spent three years in a camp on the syrian border, before being cleared for transit to the united states. yousif al-saad went to work at the chobani yogurt plant outside utica, whose c.e.o., hamdi ulukaya, has championed the rights of refugees and hired hundreds of them. we were supposed to tape there,e but at the last minute chobani pulled out, citing security concerns: fear for the safety of employees in the current s political environment. >> well i think that is probably reflective of the very sad climate of this country with regard to politics at the moment and rhetoric. >> with liberty and justice for all. >> let's have a round of applause for our new citizens. (applause)ro >> reporter: a few weeks ago in utica, yousif al saad joined 29 others, from 15 different countries, in becoming a u.s. citizen. >> congratulations, your new flag. >> reporter: almost all were refugees. we leave the last word to judge david peebles: >> america is now your country. i cannot overemphasize the need now more than ever for you and your fellow citizens to unite, answer the call and assist in bettering our society and our world.l congratulations on becoming a citizen of the greatest nationna on earth, god bless all of you and god bless america.go >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman. >> woodruff: stay with us, u coming up on the newshour: a new movie about anita hill'sa sexual harassment charges against justice clarence thomasr the harsh conditions facing india's rural workforce. and model padma lakshmi on using her fame to do good. but first, the grinding war in yemen has further broken an already-failing state. now, there are new questions about the depth of u.s. involvement there, aiding whate, has become a proxy war. saudi arabia and its sunni allies launched the air campaign 13 months ago, aimed at shiite houthi rebels in league withed iran. but the united nations estimates the air strikes account for 60 percent of the 3,200 civilians killed in the conflict so far. just last month, an air raid on a crowded market left 119 people dead. >> despite public promises topr investigate such incidents, we have yet to see progress in any such investigations. >> woodruff: now, human rights watch says its investigators visited the site, and,te determined the strikes used u.s.-supplied bombs. the group said it illustrates, "tragically why countries should stop selling arms to saudi arabia." in response, the u.s. central command said: "selection and final vetting of targets in the campaign are made by... the saudi-led coalition, not the united states." secretary of state john kerry said he didn't have any, "solid information" about what weapons were used. he spoke during a visit to bahrain, a member of the saudi coalition. the u.s. aids that coalition, and in november approved a nearly $1.3 billion rearming program for the saudis. "foreign policy" magazine reports there've been roughly 750 u.s. aerial refuelingg missions. meanwhile, a cease-fire is-f scheduled to begin sunday, with new peace talks scheduled for april 18. for more on the conflict and the u.s. role in yemen, i'm joined now by retired army colonel derek harvey. he was an intelligence officer and special adviser to the commander of u.s. forces in t iraq, general david petraeus. colonel harvey, thank you for being with us again. this report by human rights watch is disturbing, but hasn't it been known for some time that there have been large numbers of civilian casualties in this warr >> yes, it's been true that large numbers of civilian casualties. and i think it's inevitable, given the skill and lack of training and use of the weapons and technology that the saudiau air force is employing in yemen today. >> woodruff: and what do you mean by that? what do you mean by "lack of training and skill, or lack of skill?" >> well, judy, i think we are very accustomed in america andd elsewhere in the world for of of the high professionalism and great skill of the u.s. air force and western europeane countries who have rules of ingaugement, training, and capabilities what allow them to reduce collateral damage and civilian casualties. other countries around the world, to include the saudi arabian air force, does not have that same level of skill. they fly higher.th they're not as good at employing those weapons. they, you know, are probably trying to avoid civilian casualties. everything we see seems to suggest that, but it's inevitable, given the type of conflict and the skill level of those that are involved in this conflict. >> woodruff: why did the d u.s.-- why did this administration decide to provido this kind of military support to the saudis and to this coalition, intelligence refueling, and all the rest? >> well, part of it is we've been attempting to bolster the relationship with saudi arabia after some of the fractious disagreement about the iran nuclear deal and concerns inrn saudi arabia and in the gulf about iranian continued efforts to encroach on sunni arab areasr and with the successes of iran in iraq and in syria and lebanon, they saw this as another threat from iran supporting the shia-aligned houthis in yemen that was going to threaten saudi arabia. the united states simply decidep it was best to pollster and repair that relationship withi riyadh and support them in the way thate've been could go it. >> woodruff: and what-- can you spell out a little bit more about what the support entails? >> clearly, we are providing some advice and assistance with limited-- what i'd call coaching. but we're not selecting or directing the operations or directing any targeting.a there is intelligence that'sli being provided from a range of u.s. intelligence capabilities to include drones that are flying over yemen on a regular basis. the air refueling that wasg commented on in the intro piece has p been an important elementt but mostly, the saudi arabians and the other gulf countries that are involved in this conflict primarily use u.s. weapons and munitions. and inevitably, it's going to be american-sourced equipment, weapons and munitions, that wils be used in yemen. >> woodruff: so how much responsibility does the united states bear for these civilian casualties? >> well, i don't think we're involved in selecting any of those targets. it's indirect. we've been supporting an ally, and in that sense, you know,se there is some responsibility. the united states administration, the obama administration, secretary keri and others, have distanced themselves very clearly from that conflict and are recognizing that it's really about supporting saudi arabiar and repairing the relationship. so they understand that they'rer in a hard place because of the blowback and the concerns that the united states is being tainted by the support of theh saudi arabians in this conflict. >> woodruff: but do you-- is it your sense that the administration has explained the conflicton here, the crikdz herr >> no, not at all.l this is another war that is forgotten. it's on the back burner. it's in part part of our larger c.t. strategy that imploded almost a year ago in yemen.e >> woodruff: counter-terrorism. >> yes, our counter-terrorism strategy. and, unfortunately, since the civil war expanded and the saudis became involved ourr ability to go after al qaeda and the expanding islamic state elements in yemen has been hurt. >> woodruff: but it sounds as if the prospects for working this out remain very difficult. there's a cease-fire and peace talks, but no assurances.s >> i think we're just at the beginning of that journey. the talk thereas are coming up in kuwait city midmonth are a good step.od there has been some exchanges of prisoners. there's talk on both sides.e but we're a long ways away from exhaustion on both sides or one side being able to impose its will on the other. so i think this conflict is going to rage on. and there's really, you know, bleak prospects. >> woodruff: colonel derekol harvey, we thank you very much.v >> thank you, judy. >> ifill: 25 years ago this october, university of oklahoma law professor anita hill changed supreme court confirmation hearings forever. 20 million households tuned in to see her testify that her former boss, nominee clarence thomas, sexually harassed her. the hearings continued throu the weekend, touching hot buttons of sex, power and race. thomas called it a "high tech lynching." hbo films retells the story in "confirmation," starring kerryry washington and wendell pierce as thomas. >> if what you say this man said to you occurred, why in god's name when he left his position of power or status or authority over you, why in god's name would you ever speak to a man like that the rest of your life >> that's a very good question. and i am sure that i cannot answer it to your satisfaction. i have suggested that i was afraid of retaliation.e i was afraid of damage to my professional life.pr i believed that you have to understand that this ki of response is not atypical, and i can't explain it. it takes an expert in psychology to explain how that can happen.e but it can happen. because it happened to me. >> ifill: anita hill, now a professor of law at brandeis university, joins me now.un you said you watched this film about a week ago. did you hesitate at all to relive that again? >> well, i've relived it on other occasions, and so this wasn't the first time.i there was a documentary a couple of years ago. >> ifill: it was called "anita." >> it was called "anita." it's still hard, but i-- i know it's important, and it's something that i was willing to do because i really wanted to know how hbo of going to tell the story. >> ifill: you know,th you have lived in this the past quarter of a century. many people are just coming new to the story or remember it vaguely. do you look back on it and think, "i would do this again?" >> i would do it again. many people do remember it vaguely, but i run into people all the time who remember it vividly. as a matter of fact, when i was, on the flight here this morning from boston, i said, "boy, you really have a good memory."me she said, "i remember it so well. it was like it just happened."ap >> ifill: you accumulated labels during this process. p you were either a liar in some people's eyesm or a truth tellee do you worry that you will never be able to shed those labels?e >> i don't worry about it. i just keep living my life. it's been 25 years.e there are people who don't know the story. >> ifill: or people who weren't born. who weren't born or don't know the story and i think they're going to find it really interesting. in some ways it will seem like ancient history to them, and in many ways it will seem like today because some of the issues raised, as you pointed out in the introduction, are so contemporary. they haven't gone away. >> ifill: i'm oldwa enough to have remembered the hearings at the time. i was shocked them. i am shocked now reliving it and watching the things that were said, the different characters that different senators andan others took on.he i wonder if it is surreal for you, too. >> it was surreal to experience that. and, unfortunately, i hear from women in particular, but women and men, who come up against this kind of power and this kind of resistance all the time. and, unfortunately, they're, getting some of the same kinds of inaccurate statements, some of thera fallacies, some of the fifths that were behind what the senators were doing are being repeated over and over again.ga >> ifill: have you talked to kerry washington about her playing you? >> she and i spoke when she was preparing to play me. and she works very hard to understand the person, and i have a the lot of respect for that. i was actually comforted by it and thought, okay, well, if hard work is what it takes and skill, she-- she's going to pull it off very nicely. >> ifill: and this movie captures, you were personally, your character was dragged through the mud.ro i'm sure clarence thomas would say his was as well.l but i wonder if you have spoken with any of the senators who were on that committee since? >> i have not spoken with them. >> ifill: have they reached out r to you? >> arlen specter did at one point. he suggested that we-- what he said was, "i was thinking wein might be able to work on something together."so but i just couldn't see that as a possibility. >> ifill: how do young women react to you now?re you're on a college campus. college campuses are hot beds of debate for, among other things, sexual assault cases. >> sexual harassment and sexual assault is something that is really on the minds of youngng women today.n i do visit-- i'm on a college campus. we're grappling with those issues. i visit colleges all over the country. high-profile colleges like berkeley, u.c. berkeley, are grappling with them, making decisions, in some cases, that are just wrong headed decisions about how to proceed with sexuah harassment claims. there are two that are out there one, one involving an administrator, the othere involving a high-profile faculty member. and so these issues are very present. and i have to credit the very,r very brave young women and men for taking this on, on college campuses. >> ifill: one of the things that also crossed myus mind whie i was watching this is whether you could have survived, whethe any of this set of events could have unfolded in our current age in a time of instantaneousan social media and twitter and instant judgment? >> i don't upon how any of-- how this would have polled today in this environment. but i can tell you a funny story, one of the things that i say to people is i have a collection of faxes that i got. , we wouldn't have faxes.e we didn't even have e-mail so much. western union, i think, fellnk under the crunch of the telegrams that were coming. it would be quite differentre today. but i don't-- i think that the issues are such that it wouldn't go away, it wouldn't be instantn i think it would be different, the forums for discussing itsi would be different, but the issue wouldn't disappear just because we live in an instant society. >> ifill: when-- at one pointpo in the film, the character-- and presumably you-- said, "this was a mistake." do you still think it was a mistake? and if not what, changed your mind? >> i think the character-- my words weren't always exactly what the characters were saying. that's the thing about fictional adaptations. >> ifill: right. >> i don't think it was awa mistake. i think it was something that was meant to happen, actually. i had something to say. i had an experience to share that went to the fitness of an individual who was going to beas sitting on a supreme court with a lifetime appointment.me it was important not only to the integrity of this individual but, also, to the integrity of the court itself. and as a member of the bar, as a citizen, i had a right to come forward and to testify.e i don't think we-- that is ever a mistake. and i really would not do it differently today. >> ifill: anita hill, professor of law at brandeis university, thank you very much. >> thank you.si >> hbo's "confirmation" premieres saturday april 16 att 8:00 p.m. >> woodruff: yesterday, specialf correspondent fred de sam lazaro brought us a report on how big city street vendors are being left behind in india's boomingd economy. today we travel to stoneve quarries in the rural, northern part of the country, where a deadly disease has trapped workers in poverty foras generations. this report is part of our agents for change series. >> reporter: across the urban landscape rise majestic sandstone palaces, monuments and temples, built in india's timeless architectural traditions. but what's also timeless is how the stone continues to be mined, far from the cities, here in the rajasthan desert. early each morning, you hear the sound of sandstone being pounden into a gravel used in construction. no one is spared the drudgery, it seems. how old are you? >> ten. >> reporter: he should be in school.ep it's the law. but history suggests he'll soon graduate to a quarry; part of a vicious cycle of generational poverty and disease. the work is physically brutal under a blazing desert sun. power drills are a recent addition that have made these quarries more productive. but behind their thick clouds of dust, miners wear nothing but flip flops on their feet-and nothing at all on their faces. they earn two to four dollars a day, depending on their tasks, >> the law of the mines is that no work no wage. so the days when they can't tur' to work, because of an illness or because of some other problem, they can't make any money. o >> reporter: and, prakash tyagi says for an alarming number- perhaps a third of the 250,000 sandstone miners, the work is lethal, linked to silicosis, a slow, irreversible loss of lung function. >> silicosis is a shame. silicosis is something that should not exist in the contemporary times. >> reporter: silicosis is easily preventable with face masks and wet drilling using water to tamp down the dust and the disease is now rarely seen in developed countries. and yet tyagi says no one around here had ever addressed it seemed to know about it even three decades ago, when his late father started a charity called gravis, dedicated to improving life in this impoverished region. in the early days, many patientn they saw were assumed to have tuberculosis, which is treatable with antibiotics.ab >> the treatment was given. still people were dying with lung issues.re still people were coming up with lung symptoms which were very similar to t.b. but it was not t.b.ym >> reporter: only after sending 250 x-rays to a research center in delhi did gravis learn it was dealing with silicosis.il and design ways to help patient cope with the slowly degenerative and fatal condition. today gravis runs field clinics near quarries, offering diagnostic services and a limited amount of drugs, like cough suppressants and inhalers that can control though not cure symptoms, >> you have t.b.?? >> reporter: many, like this 25h year-old mother of two, hope that they just have t.b., which is a common co-infection and treatable. h however, the paper she carried,p but was unable to read-indicated that she, for sure, had silicosis. she may live to be 40 years oldi >> at the most. she's one of those accelerated cases. she has been working in mines for 8-10 years, she's 25. she would have started when she was 15 or 16.sh >> reporter: many start evenan younger, though it typicallyr, takes about 20 years of dust exposure for silicosis to develop, destroying lung tissue, rendering sufferers unable to do much physical activity. >> ( translated ): i've been ill for about seven years. for two years i've just haven't been able to work at all. ( >> reporter: their condition will worsen inevitably until, like joga ram, they are literally unable to breathe. >> this is typically how silicosis patients die. t >> reporter: is he reasonably comfortable or is he in pain? >> he's in a lot of pain, he's in a lot of discomfort. >> reporter: in optimal ideally, he would receive oxygen and steroids and die in a hospitalnd or hospice setting. none of that is available or affordable.ce the prolonged illness forces many families to incur debt, prolonging their medieval poverty into the next generation. gita devi echoed the sentiments of many in this group of silicosis widows. >> ( translated ): how can we send them to study, we have to send our children to work. there is no other way to put food in our stomachs. (tu >> reporter: it's not very much food. it was around 10:00 a.m. when we visited this village. what have you eaten today, i asked? they hadn't.d av "the truck will come by around midday and only when we load it up will we get the money to buy food," she said. o how much will you get paid? >> 150 rupees. >> reporter: that's about twoou dollars and fifty cents. the magnificent sandstone buildings in delhi, from which government officials govern mayf seem a world away and aloof from the suffering and labor of miners in rajasthan. in fact, india actually passedac laws decades ago to protect them.ec there's a wide gap between what's on paper and the ground reality.wi here the combination of officiaf neglect, social indifference and poor education insure laws arend rarely enforced. this mine owner insisted that he makes masks and helmets available. >> ( translated ): they just don't wear them. they don't like to wear them.>> >> reporter: why not require them, i asked? "they'll just leave and go to the next mine," he saidteas for their part, workers said they sometimes used masks while drilling, but in the blazing hot weather, they are suffocating >> it's impossible to breathe in them.e we cannot breathe when we wear them. c >> reporter: a few mines now do require workers to wear masks on certain jobs.e this one mine is run by jeevraj meghwal, who won a landon concession under affirmative action policies to help people from lower castes. >> ( translated ): i was once aa miner myself so i know the difficulties when you get sick, when you lose your income. y in the beginning we didn't know much about silicosis. gravis did help us understand it. >> reporter: gravis, which is funded by charitable donations from abroad and some indian government grants, also helpsnt affected miners navigate the daunting government bureaucracy >> there is a lot of paperwork, a lot of bureaucracy, there is a lot of delay.s but we try to make sure that these people who are illiterate, and less capable, go through those hurdles.ryle >> reporter: the compensation, about 1,700 u.s. dollars for living victims, 3,000 for to, their survivors-provides some debt relief-even money to start a micro enterprise. but tyagi says his and a few other groups meet only a small fraction of the need. while he says thousands of silicosis victims suffer and die each year without even a diagnosis. for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro, inho rajasthan, india. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under- told stories project at the university of saint thomas in minnesota.ro you can watch his previous story about india's urban workers on our website, pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: padma lakshmi is perhaps best recognized as the host of bravo's "top chef." tonight, she speaks about using her public platform to shine light on causes that matter. lakshmi's memoir, "love, loss, and what we ate," was released on international women's day. >> somebody approached me at a bar one night who was a friend of a friend and thought i could model and at the time, you knowt with sort of youthful arroganceu i said, "oh, i am not going to youin my g.p.a. in the last semester. i have a very complicated and layered relationship with modeling. it allowed me to travel, allowed me to see the world.l i did feel guilty about it.t. you know, i made in one day what it took my mother, for example,e as a nurse to make in a month. i know that my looks are really the alchemy of my parents' genetics and have little to do with me or any accomplishment of my own. food and fashion are both much closer than people realize. you can tell a lot about a culture by the way they eat and by the way they dress. people would say, "well what does a model know about food?" but the truth is, models eept a lot. they're just these freaks of nature who are very young and have great metabolisms and that is the truth. one of the biggest fringe benefits of having a measure of success and being in the public eye is being able to do something good for other peoplee i think the proudest moment for my family, who are all indian, was not when "top chef" won the emmy or when i was on the cover of "vogue." it was the day they spoke at m.i.t. and gave the keynote address. my foundation, the endomeet riosis foundation of america,am was launching the first researc center for gynecology. it affects women not only physically but emotionally and mentally because she's in chronic pain. it's something i suffered from all my life, and it was a silent and deadly shadow. there's no cure for it, but there isu certainly very good treatment out there, and if you find it early in a young girl's life, you can change her life forever. if i had had surgery at 21 or 25 or even 30, rather than 36 or 37, when i first had it, my life would have been dinch.iha i would have gotten 25% of my life back. 25% of my life to go to football games, help my mom in the kitchen, study for midterms, be a normal human being. and i don't want anyone else to go through that ever if they don't have to. i'm padma lakshmi, and this is my brief but spectacular take on food, travel, and celebrating all things female. >> ifill: you can find more videos in our brief but spectacular series on >> ifill: you can find more videos in our brief butef spectacular series on our facebook page, facebook.com/newshour. >> a clarification to a story we reported at the top of tonight's broadcast. we said that former new york city mayor rudolph guiliani is endorsing donald trump in thehe new york primary.ne that is incorrect. mr. guiliani says he's voting for mr. trump but he's not endorsing him. >> ifill: on the newshour online right now, meet lupe and jacqueline, both born in mexico and brought to the u.s. as small children without documents.n they have a lot in common, but today, these students face very different paths because of wher they live. learn how educational opportunities differ for undocumented immigrants in different states. all that and more is on our webt site, pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: tune in later tonight, on charlie rose, for an interview with democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders.nter >> ifill: a note before we go. i'm going to be off the air for a few weeks. but my friend and partner judy will be holding down the fort until i return. see you then. >> woodruff: and we alreadyu can't wait for you to be back. that's the newshour for tonight. on friday we'll look atou alabama's efforts to reduce its prison population.lopr i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening.: an 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 charge of your financial futuren >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention. in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org.teros . >> 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.orgio this is "nightly business report." with tyler mathisen and sue herera. hitting back. three well-known ceos of some of the world's most recognizable companies are making their frustrations with the government known. the power of parity. there are 2 trillion reasons why shrinking the jen ger gap could give the economy a massive boost. short-changed? have you ever traded in spare coins for cash at a counting machine? it may have cost you a lot more than you thought. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for sd good evening and welcome, i'm sue herera, tyler mathisen is off this evening. we begin with three very powerful ceos who are leading some of the world's biggest and