>> brown: from seattle, hari sreenivasan has the story of a year-round program that asks students as young as ten to commit to graduating from college. garance franke-ruta. jon ward. ted schadler. sylla. diana nyad. mickey edwards. >> brown: i'm jeffrey brown. an epidemic of whooping cough and briz winning whnchs i grow up. i want to be a paleontologist because i want to study reptiles and amphibians. >> i want to be an engineer and technology engineer and i'm going to have to go to mit. >> ifill: margaret warner talks to diana nyad after she was plucked from the florida straits today, ending her fourth attempt to swim 103 miles from cuba to florida. >> three single things we were up against was an obstacle, a huge tropical depression storms. the jellyfish each night i was stung badly. no matter what. >> brown: and judy woodruff sits down with former congressman mickey edwards. his new book blasts both parties for a dysfunctional government and offers solutions for breaking the stranglehold. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, e engine that connects us. >> 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. >> ifill: a once-sleepy u.s. senate race turned the republican party on its ear today, as social issues claimed center stage in missouri, and at the site of next week's g.o.p. nominating convention. >> rape is an evil act. i used the wrong words in the wrong way and for in a i apologize. >> ifill: under increasing pressure from his own party, missouri republican senate minee, todakin,owed again today to stay in the race. the congressman, who questioned whether women could be impregnated by rape apologized, but said he would not be forced from the campaign. the resulting uproar has pleased democrats, and enraged republicans, including other lawmakers, and fund raisers. incumbent missouri senator, claire haskel, a democrat, has said republicans should accept akins's apology. >> i think what is startling to me is that these party big wigs are coming down on him and saying that he needs to kick sand in the face of the republican primary voters. >> ifill: but party leader, including missouri senator, roy blunt and former senator, kit bond, john ashcroft, john danforth and jim talent, all called for akin to step aside. and late today, presidential nominee, mitt romney, joined the chorus, saying in a statement, "today his fellow missourians urged him to step aside and i think he should accept their counsel and exit the senate race. money is drying up, too. karl rove's super pack has cut off funds and the national republican senatorial committee, represented by senator john kor nine says it will withhold the $5 million it set aside for the missouri coffin test, senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell and party chairman have declared akin a politically dangerous distraction. in the face of all of that criticism, akin still told radio talk show host, michelle bachmann, he's in >> and in my case, i believe as i took a look at this race, that what we're doing here is standing on a principle, about what america is. i believe that this is the right thing for me to do, and that i will be able to add to the message that's being neglected in some circles by the republican party. >> ifill: the party was trying to sideline akin at the same time as delegates in florida were voting today to include strong anti-abortion language in the party platform to be presented in tampa next week. the language reads, "we uphold the sanctity ofhuman life and the unborne child has the fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. there are no exceptions included for rape or incest. the party nominee, mitt romney, like john mccain did in 2008 support such exceptions. party chairman, pribus told msnbc today it's fine for romney to disagree with a party document. >> as far as our platform is concerned, i mean, this is the platform of the republican party. it's not the platform of mitt romney. that all being said, though, these guys are proud pro-life candides and we're proud pro-life party. >>filltoda was the last day akin could have been replaced as the party nominee without a court order. so, what do the events of the last 48 hours say about the suddenly divisive fight within the g.o.p. over abortion? we turn to garance franke-ruta of the "atlantic" and jon ward of the "huffington post," who's covering the platform meetings in tampa. garance, it seems as if this issue, of all issue, really struck a nerve that went deeper than just missouri politics? >> absolutely. i think this is the point at which the an if i abortion movement st of tripsver another controveial sue ich rap and there is for a while now within the anti-abortion movement a move to sort of minimize the pregnancy consequences of rape as a way of minimizing the question about abortion exceptions for abortion bans in particular. >> ifill: so, what he was saying in the answer to the question about whether rape should be an exception or not was an accepted principle in some circles? >> absolutely. there's been talk of this going back as early as 1980, as far as i cafind, on people ying that you know, pregnancy after rape is as rare as snowfall in miami, that there are certain secretionses secreted after a sexual assault to prevent pregnancy and other people who say that the tubes become spastic, and consequently, women don't become pregnant and this is the way of arguing against the need for rape exceptions in abortion laws. >> ifill: john ward, in tampa, imagine this has been a big part of the conversation. you have been covering mitt romney, why were the denunciations so swift and so harsh coming from him especially? >> as you know, we're leading up to the convention next week. that's one of the biggest weeks of the campaign for mitt romney and paul ryan. they want to make a positive impression and introduce themselves to the nation. having this conversation about social issues instead of the economy and jobs, and also their platform on medicare is not what they want to be talking about, and so, to have this kind of blow up a couple of days before this big week is less than ideal for th. ifill: here's wt pules me. i have covered a lot of platform committee meets over the years unfortunately, because they're always so exciting. why is it that abortion, which most republicans agree about -- most of these republican leader, these folks running for office are pro-life and anti-abortion. why would there be a disagreement about this at this late stage? >> well, i don't know that there is a ton of disagreement. i mean, the republican platform, as you probably are aware, has had this kind of plank where it says, you know, we support the anti-artion stance, and that's it. for 20-plus years going back to 1984, they haven't changed anything. what has kind of injected this issue with all of this energy is representative akin's comments, and you know, as you mentioned, mitt romney has a position where he supports exceptions in the case of rape and inincest, and this disagreement is being brought to the fore, almost exclusively by akin. >> ifill: i have to ask a question, garance about todd akin, who i would say most viewers outside of his home district in missouri have never heard of before yesterday. what is it about what he said or what he did that got under people's kin so particularly within his party. it wasn't just mitt romney. it wasn't just mitch mcconnell. you saw the names, i reeled off all of the leading. >> yes. he said women who were legitimately rape their body shuts down conception. there are two parts that are controversial. one of which is an attempt within the republican party going on for a while to divide violent rapes from statutory rapes, or from less violent encounters and only grant rape exceptions to violent rapes. so there is a an attempt to divide rape into legitimate and illegitimate rape and people felt from his language and there was also the question of the biology, and there's no biology to support what he a was saying that the body shuts down. you know, estimates are that 25 to 32,000 women become pregnant from sex crimes every year in the united states. >> ifill: what is the significance of -- i notice th yesterday and today, the strongest statements of todd akin made about staying in this race were on michelle bachmann's radio show, ran for president a couple of years ago, has now got a radio show which he obviously has been a great supporter of todd akin. is there some connection there? >> in some ways, todd akin is the michelle bachmann of missouri right now in that he has a very strong base in the home schooling community, and with grassroots christian conservatives just like those who brought huckabee upn iowa when he was running for the presidency. you know, the same kind of thing, someone who didn't have a lot of money and had a lot of party machinery against him in a multi-person race with the strength of the home schooling community and the strength of christian conservatives was able to rin a nomination and given that that's hess base, he doesn't see any reason that he needs to drop out right now. >> ifill: jon, if todd akin is the drag on the party that so many party leaders seem to think, does that translate to missouri suddenly being helping out senator claire mccass kin suddlyaving an advantage or mitt romney even perhaps losing missouri. are there any polls to support that? >> i don't think there's any polls to support the idea that ro manyny would be in danger of losing missouri at this point, i think that's a little premature. but certainly, eastern top republicans,ql+รท ranked by gove mcconnell, says at this point akin seems impossible or very unlikely that he would win this race which is why they want to get him ot. i mean, who controls the senate is in an incredibly important issue, especially in mitt romney wins next year, it could hinge or it could depend on whether or not he's able to get his agenda through, whether they have that majority or not. >> ifill: you have mentioned governor bob mcdonald who is the governor of the platform committee. he has been in the crosswinds before in virginia? >> yes, he has. he got into controversy earlier this year for talking about transvaginal probes and he had to walk that back, so he's no stranger to women's issue, women's health issues and how they have become a very sensive ise thelection year. a big part of that sensitivity is thatx re-election campaign knows this is an advantage for them. women voters in key swing states like virginia and ohio favor obama by large mar margins and the obama campaign wants to make sure that they keep those margins up. >> ifill: but all women voters are not necessarily pro abortion rights. >> absolutely. there's a lot of anti-abortion women voters as well. but for the purpose of the obama campaign right now, you know, pumping up the gender gap as big as it can get is ablutely in his favor. mitt romney will have a very difficult time winning if the gender gap gets substantial and it has been quite substantial and it's narrowed a little and it's going to get bigger. >> ifill: all right, garance franke-ruta and jon ward, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> brown: still to come on the newshour, the ups and downs of technology stocks; a program to close the "achievement gap"; an end to a swim across the florida straits; and political parties versus the people. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: syria's deputy prime minister today warned the u.s. against any intervention in its ongoing civil war. it was in response to president obama's statement yesterday that the u.s. would reconsider military involvement if syria moved to use its chemical and biological weapons. meanwhile, the war raged on with syrian warplanes and helicopters attacking all around aleppo today and troops capturing a rebel-controlled town near damascus. the fighting also claimed the life of a journalist. japanese tv reporter mika yamamoto was killed in aleppo yesterday. insurgents in afghanistan fired rockets at the parked plane of the visiting chairman of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff. army general martin dempsey was safe in his quarte at thtime but e plandid stain damage. the c-17 military transport plane was parked at bagram airfield, just outside kabul, while dempsey visited with troops. the taliban claimed responsibility and dempsey later flew out of the country on a different aircraft. the deadline for striking miners in south africa to return to work or be fired has been extended until at least next week. a government committee convinced the managers of the platinum mine to postpone their ultimatum during a weeklong national mourning period. today mourners and church leaders held a ceremony to bless the ground where 34 miners were killed by police during the strike. they sang hymns and walked barefoot in the area as part of their blessing. the long-time ruler of ethiopia, meles zenawi, died last night at a hospital in brussels of an undisclosed illness. the east african leader had not been seen in public for two months. meles had been a key ally to the west and to the u.s. in the war on terror. but he was also frequently criticized for human rights violations within his own country. meles zenawi was 57 years old. ray suarez has more on his legacy for ethiopia on our web site. a s. court oappeals overturn one of the key air pollution rules of the obama administration today. the judges ruled the environmental protection agency overstepped its authority with regulations that would have established new limits for midwest power plants. for more, i'm joined by juliet eilperin of the "washington post." >> julia, just to bring people up to speed, what was the rule and why did the court by the epa was overreaching? >> the rule that epa had proposed last year which has just been overturned would have controlled pluti from power plan in 28 states in the eastern half of the u.s. so, this is very significant, what it was recognizing is that pollution can travel. it can go from texas to pennsylvania, or from illinois to virginia, and so, it was an effort to kind of curb the pollution in what you call upwind states so that downwind states are not grappling with the pollution issues. and the court made two conclusions in that's 2-1 ruling. first, that essentially, the epa had overstepped its authority by saying that some the wind states had to cut their pollution significantly, even further than to the extent that they were contributing to othe s others, and that also, they should have given the states an opportunity to come up with their own plans for curbing pollution rather than having the federal government step in and directly regulate those power plants on this issue. >> okay. so, what are the impacts or consequences now that this ruling has come out. >> well, there are a couple of different things. for now, what is interesting is that the court has left in place a rule that dates back to 2005 under the bush administration called t cleanir interstate rules. so to some extent it doesn't mean that nothing is in place. essentially an older rule is in place that is curbing some of these pollutants that are linked to things like the creation of smog, but it certainly is not going to -- it's not going to achieve the same rye dukz s red quickly, and so you have environmentalists who are calling upon an appeal of this ruling which may happen, or there are others who are saying that congress needs to step in and come up with a compromise that could achieve some of these reductions in something that would please both industry and the envinmental community. >> brown: all right, juliet alparin from the "washington post," thank you so much. >> sreenivasan: in northern california today, firefighters started to gain the upper hand against the four-day-old ponderosa fire. nearly 1,900 firefighters were on the job and today had brought the blaze to more than 30% contained, aided in part by shifting winds. still, the fire has grown to more than 30 square miles since saturday, and is threatening thousands of homes. all told, nearly 40 fires are burning across the western u.s. on wall street today, stocks finished lower, dragged down by tech companies. the dow jones industrial average lost 68 points to close at 13,203. the sdaqell arly pois to close at 3,067. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown: and we turn to a business story about rising to the top and staying there, as apple reaches new heights, and facebook explores new lows. wall street's closing bell yesterday rang in a new all-time high stock price for apple. it closed trading at $665.15 per share. that eye-pping figure, thanks to all of those ipods ipads and iphones, made apple the highest valued public company ever, at least in non-inflation adjusted terms. we're at $623-and-a-half billion dollars. that's 50% more than exsob mobil, the second largest company, nearly two-and-a-half times rival, microsoft, almost three times google's value and six times that of amazon. stock dropped back into near-earth orbit today closing under $660 per share, as investors took profits. meanwhile, it's been a much different story for facebook, and other companies that are part of the social media boom. just three months after the company's initial public offering had wall street salivating -- >> this is expected to be huge. this ipo has hit the mainstream -- >> 28-year-old founder and ceo, mark zuckerberg has seen the company's share price merely cut in half from its ipo of $38 to around 20. >> if you thought you were buying jack welch, you bought into the hype -- >> even with nearly a billion users worldwide -- >> this company has to be absolutely crystal clear about where it's going and how it's going to get there, and they're not. >> and yesterday came word that a board member and early investor cashed out to the tune of nearly $1 billion. >> it's like sitting on an airplane and watching the pilot walk down the aisle wearing a parachute. >> facebook is not the only tech company that has fallen on harder times. game maker, zinga and online coupon broker, groupon have seen their stocks fall, too as investors look for long ter models for makg money off the new "n thi." some perspective now on these two different business models. ted schadler is a technology company analyst at forrester research. richard sylla is an economics historian at the new york university stern school of business. ted schadler, first, i guess a simple question, why apple? we know all of the gadgets of course, but why apple. you certainly wouldn't have thought this ten years ago. >> well, apple has obviously not just the ipods and ipads and iphones and all of those gadgets we carry around, we also have 375 retail store 300 milln peop walk into the mall and go to the apple store every year in 2012, so they have a lot of technology to sell and services and media they're selling as well and they have really taken the world by storm here at home and at work. >> brown: richard sylla, i want you to put this in some perspective when you think about what the particular company that's number one in a particular time, what does that -- what do you read into that? what does that tell us? >> well, i think it tells us that certain products at certain times are dominant products. you know, if you go way back, the united states steel in 1901 put together by j.p. morgan, wa the dominant company of that e a era,