towns finding different ways to deal with record heat and ought. >> i never take a bath, take shower, wash a load of clothes that i don't think "save water." all those things that maybe people in wetter areas do, we don't. >> brown: and we preview next week's health care arguments facing the supreme court with marcia coyle and susan dentzer. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. 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. >> brown: the shooting death of a black youth in florida sent out new shock waves today. they reverberated from protesters to police as public outrage grew, along with demands for action. people at atlanta-area churches boarded buses in the early morning hours, for the long drive to sanford, in central florida. they were among thousands expected at a rally tonight, demanding justice for the killing of trayvon martin, an unarmed black teenager. >> we are trying to find jutice i am trayvon martin. we are all trayvon martin. >> brown: civil rights leader al sharpton originally planned the rally for a 400-seat church, but organizers moved to a local park to accommodate the expected crowd. it was all evidence of how anger over the martin killing has spread. the 17-year-old was visiting family in this gated community last month, when he walked to a nearby store. he was followed by george zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who reported someone suspicious in a hooded sweatshirt. zimmerman admits shoong martin, but says he acted in self-defense. he told police he had given up the chase when the teen attacked him. to date, he has not been charged. >> no justice, no peace! >> brown: that decision has fueled protests, but sanford police insisted they could not arrest zimmerman under florida's "stand your ground" law, allowing deadly force by civilians, in some circumstances. in a statement last night, police chief bill lee defended the investigation, and said: at the same time, the city commission voted no confidence in the police chief. >> i would ask the chief to step down at this point. >> brown: and today, the chief did just that. >> it is apparent that my involvement in this matter is overshadowing the process. therefore, i have come to the decision that i must temporarily remove myself from the position as police chief of the city of sanford. >> brown: meanwhile, an online campaign for action has gained momentum. a facebook page "justice for trayvon martin" and a website "i am trayvon martin" encourage readers to submit photos of themselves in hooded sweatshirts, with the question "do i look suspicious?" another facebook page organized the million hoodies march for trayvon martin in new york city last night. >> we are trayvon martin! we are trayvon martin! >> brown: the event brought out the website change.org is offering an online petition demanding zimmerman's arrest. so far, it has well over one million signatures. and, now, two investigations are under way. a state grand jury convenes next month. and trayvon martin's family met today with u.s. justice department officials, who've begun a probe of possible civil rights violations. >> this is a temporary stepdown. it doesn't mean anything. we want an arrest, we want a conviction for the murder of our son. >> suarez: it was unclear how long the state and federal investigations would take to reach their conclusions. for more on the issues that have sparked a national conversation, we turn to ta-nehisi coates, a senior editor for "the atlantic." reihan salam, a columnist for "the daily," a newspaper for the ipad and lead writer of the agenda blog at "national review" online. donna britt is the author of the book "brothers and me," which is in part about the shooting death of her brother by police in gary, indiana. she's a former syndicated columnist for the "washington post." and, florida state representative dennis baxley is a republican legislator who co- authored that state's so-called "stand your ground law." he joins us from orlando. ta-nehisioat, i'lltart with you. there's been a lot of calls for the police chief to step down, he's done that at least temporarily now. what's your reaction? >> i think it's a good first step. i think over the long term we'll have to see how much it actually means for the investigation. i think what's important is that people were not simply calling for him to step down just because there has not been an arrest. people were calling for him to step down because they were vastly and, in my opinion, legitimately displeased with how this investigation took place. it was just a very shoddy job and i think this is about the absolute least that could be done so far. >> suarez: dennis backsly, what's your reaction to the latest development? >> well, i think something had to happen in response to the outrage that's occurred. i think at first of all we simply want to express empathy and condolences to this family who is hurting. from this point forward i think we can have a lot of confidence in what we'll learn from the grand jury. >> suarez: donna britt, the killing happened a month ago and one of the reasons it seems to have become a national issue is something you wrote about a long time ago called request president talk" that a black mother has with her young son. explain that. >> my oldest son had just turned 12 and i knew that he was shifting from being adorable and sweet and cute into something that could be perceived as threatening and frightening to people who have no idea who he really was and so at that point no one called it "the talk," i just knew we had to sit down and discuss what was proper for him to stay safe and what was not. what kind of behavior might get him hurt and what kind miht keep him safe. >> brown: you see that clearly playing into the issues of what's happening. >> very much, although i don't know what this child could have done to be safe except not be black. >> brown: reihan salaam, why do you think it's become a national issue in >> i think it's absolutely fascinating. when you think about how there has been an outpouring of grief not just in sanford, florida, but throughout the country and the fact that there was a near spontaneous eruption, you had a huge people so passionate about this incident that they came out including ta-nehisi, i believe, in new york city last night. and this partly reflect that you have new organizing energy in this country on a wide range of issues and it's partly because, as donna suggests, this is part of a larger american story. and part of what i find so encouraging is that folks like dennis backsly and the governor of florida have themselves said that wait a second, we need to rethink this law, we need to revisit this. so in a way there are some... look, the shooting is a pro found tragedy and there's more we need to learn but this conversation hasn't been totally polarized. at least not yet. >> brown: ta-nehisi coates, pick up on that. there's a larger american story, you started to talk about that earlier. is there something potentially beneficial so far or not at this point? >> >> i would agree with reihan. i think a significant part of this is, like donna, a lot of us in the african american community have had friends, relatives who've experienced some sort of negative encounter, some of them lethal with a friend. i have a friend from howard iveity er i went to school who's like that. i think the difference is you have an actual child. you have a 17-year-old kid. i think at a base level everybody can relate to sending their child out to the store for a bag of skittles, an arizona iced tea hoping to enjoy the afternoon, watching the all-star game with his parents, with his father who was present in his life. donna alluded earl dwrir "the talk" and as she said, there's very little he could have done differently from what we know thus far. i think a lot of us can empathize with being afraid, with seeing somebody followg you in a truck, coming out to pursue you in a truck against the dispatcher's instructions and when you put yourself in trayvon's shoes, being 17 years old, i know there's very little that i could imagine myself doing different. brown bup and this case, of course, did not involve a police shooting but you're putting it into a larger context. >> right. and i think just to pick up on that, it was a neighborhood watch person who i believe the national neighborhood watch organization is saying it wasn't even registered with them. so you're just talking about something claiming authority over a place. >> brown: dennis backsly, much of the attention has focused on this "strand your ground" law which you helped to write. does it call into question the law? in many people's mind it has. what do you think? >> well, most of the critics have probably not read the statute, unfortunately, and some have. i know my intent with the legislation was to empower law-abiding citizens to stop violent things from happening and since '05 to 2012 we have seen a significant reduction in violent crime in florida. and if you empower people to stop bad things from happen they do and they will and they have. >> brown: of course the criticism... >> this kind of very unfortunate situation i think is a misapplication of this statute because i $'s nothing in that statute that authorizes anybody to pursue and confront people on the street, and we all know that would accelerate in circumstances. i also have questions about why a crime watch individual would be carrying a firearm in that role because that, again, is an accelerator for that environment but the main thing is i don't want people to attack the statute which i think has saved thousands of people's lives. i want us to look at the underlying issue and i think we're starting to see there are bigger issues here about the stereotyping and the tension, the emotional tension and, of course, we're all very emotional about a child losing their life in such a needless way. >> brown: donna britt, your thoughts on the law? >> i haven't read the law and so i can't comment. i just know that this person felt empowered to behave this way and as long as human beings are as flawed as they are they will behave in flawed ways. this person, this self-appointed sort of vigilante went after a kid... and thank god he looks like a kid. he looks like someone young and vulnerable and who matters and it's part of the reason people have responded so much and there are countless people whose names you don't know. my brother was killed by police in a very disturbing and incomprehensible circumstances 30 years ago and there was no outporing of emotion or of attention so looking at this law looking at anything that would help empower someone to behave the way this man did it's important to do that and not pretend things like this aren't going to happen. >> suarez:. >> brown: reihan salam, do you want to weigh in on the florida law? >> i'm sympathetic to what both donna and dennis baxley has said i think the law itself was designed to protect people who are the victims of crime and sadly the victims of crime are disproportionately people who come from minority backgrounds who are often times ignored by the law who often times find themselves on the wrong side of law when they were defending themselves. now the problem on the other hand, as baxley had said, is that, look, we do have this pervasive stereotype about young black men which is something that really doess schralt some of these situations and really does poison the atmosphere. is the problem is that the law itself, it's not clear that the law is the reason for thatt. law is something that perhaps we can revisit, perhaps there's some things we might change to clarify the law but the real problem is i would argue this much more pervasive cultural problem in which there is this deep distrust toward a huge number of americans who, through no fault of their own, are often times the object of suspicion. >> if i could make a quick comment on the law-- because i think this is important-- there was a case this week thrown out by a judge where a gentleman found somebody stealing a radio out of his truck. he came down, stopped the person chased the guy down and stabbed him to death. i think we can all empathize with the notion of wanting to defend ourselves from crime. my great concern is that a number of cases besides trayvon martin where prosecutors, cops very concerned about this law and the broadway it's being implemented. if you have a number of cases like that it seems to me it calls into question how the law was written. >> suarez:. >> brown: dennis baxley, do you want to come back with what you've just heard that >> yes, i think challenge for me is to protect the statute that i think preserves life and empowers people to take charge of their own lives, all kinds of people who are in situations to be attacked and i don't want to lose that or dilute that in the process. i think we may need other kind of legislation like defining what crime watch can do. but in this statute there's nothing that authorizes people to pursue and confront and that's why i've been very concerned about it. i think it gives a lot of responsibility on the part of the individual and a lot of empowerment to say you make that decision, you have a few seconds to respond when you believe your life is in peril and at that point you are authorized to make a decision to use force-- including deadly force, if necessary-- to protect you and your family. we live in a violent age and a lot of it these do with something we don't acknowledge anymore and that's the substance abuse problem and we know addicted people will sacrifice themselves, their families, and anyone else to that addiction and that's an environment part of this culture even if you decriminalized it the use of these things and the addiction is part of this dangerous environment and then through all the media we have seen and elevated level of violence. it used to be a wrestling or a pushing or fistfight. now the types of things that they've seen in the media over the time of their childhood, people are more destructive and complete in terms of the kinds of conflicts that you see. it does make it more dangerous for everyone. >> pelley: brief last word, donna britt, what do you want to see happen next? >> when people... he's talking about violence and about fear and that's exactly the kind of talk that makes people more fearful and makes them more hair-trigger and to me encourages the kind of thoughtless, cruel, overreaction that happened in florida. the larger question is what motivates us to behave in the ways we want to behave. >> pelley: all right, donna britt, ta-nehisi coates, reihan salan and florida representative dennis maxly, thank you all very much. >> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": perspective on afghanistan and pakistan; scorching heat and record drought in texas and the health care law takes center stage. t first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: a standoff in france ended in a barrage of bullets today after 32 hours, police shot dead a gunman who claimed al-qaeda ties, and who boasted of killing seven people including three paratroopers, three jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi. we have a report from jonathan rugman of "independent television news." >> reporter: at 11:30 this morning a firefight broke out in the rue sergent vigne. so ferocious that it lasted almost five minutes, as security forces stormed the apartment where mohammed merah had been holed up for more than 32 hours. a room to room search with video cameras had revealed nothing. but suddenly merah burst out of the bathroom wearing a bullet proof vest and fired thirty bullets from his colt 45 pistol injuring two policemen a stretcher was readied. merah had been shot in the head by a marksman as he tried to >> ( translated ): the killer left the bathroom with extreme violence with many bursts of gunfire, then at the end merah jumped from a window with a weapon in his hand and continued to shoot. he was found dead on the ground. >> reporter: the police had hoped to end it peacefully, instead he went down in a hail of gunfire. this was merah filmed by a friend just 18 months ago. "watch this, awesome," he says. a smiling young man performing car stunts, the same man who confessed to police yesterday that he was only sorry he hadn't had the chance to kill more than the seven people he had shot so far. this afternoon merah's body was taken away for forensic examination that has stunned nation asked its how one of its own citizens could turn from petty crime to jihad and commit france's worst act of terrorism in well over a decade. >> sreenivasan: one of the few established democracies in africa has fallen in a military coup. drunken soldiers looted the presidential palace in mali today, just a month before president amadou toumani toure was due to leave office. his whereabouts were unknown. the coup began yesterday at a military camp near bamako, the capital. rioting then spread to t northern town of gao. by dawn today, a group of soldiers appeared on state television saying they were in control. they insisted they would hand over power to an elected government once national unity is established. in yemen, an al qaeda offshoot claimed it killed an american teacher on sunday. joel shrum was gunned down in the central city of taiz, where he lived with his wife and two sons, and taught english. an al-qaeda posting on a militant website accused shrum of trying to spread christianity. but hundreds of young yemenis marched in taiz on tuesday, demanding the killers be caught and punished. the u.s. house of representatives voted today to abolish a medicare cost-control board that's part of the president's health care law. the board's members have not yet been appointed. but its mission is to rein in medicare spending by forcing cuts on service providers. the republican majority in the house argued that's akin to rationing care. the vote was along party lines. pipeline politics dominated president obama's day. in cushing, oklahoma, he announced plans to expedite approval of a line transporting oil from oklahoma to the texas gulf coast. >> there's a bottleneck right here because we can't get enough of the oil to our refineries fast enough. and if we could, then we would be able to increase our oil supplies at a time when they're needed as much as possible. >> sreenivasan: the project is the southern portion of the larger keystone x.l. pipeline that the president delayed in january. republican leaders said today's announcement won't make up for that decision. rising demand for another critical resource-- water-- could lead to wars in some regions of the world. u.s. intelligence agencies reached that conclusion in a report issued today. they found the use of water as a weapon or a tool of terror will become more likely after 2022. the intelligence estimate said nations in south asia, the middle east and north africa would be at greatest risk. wall street wobbled today over concerns that growth in china and europe is slowing down. the dow jones industrial average lost 78 points to close at 13,46. the nasdaq fell 12 points to close at 3,063. the los angeles county coroner's office released a report saying whitney houston's death was accidental drowning. they said cocaine use also contributed to her death. she was found dead on february 12. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: the troubled war in afghanistan and terrorist spi