jack markell. >> brown: then, the state department issued a global travel alert today, warning of possible terror attacks. margaret warner explains what's behind the concern that al qaeda might strike again. >> woodruff: asia is clamoring for more american coal, but the infrastructure is not there to meet the growing demand. we look at the debate over bringing more trains and ships to the pacific northwest to boost exports while protecting the environment. >> we don't think it's an either/or proposition. we think that you can develop family wage jobs and be good stewards and protect the environment. >> we have our fish, we have our salmon, we have our clean air. we'll lose that. that's losing to me. >> brown: a new survey finds that americans of different races have very different levels of optimism about their economic future. ray suarez digs into the surprising results. >> woodruff: david brooks and ruth marcus analyze the week's news. >> brown: and how do you send a ship miles off course, without touching its steering wheel? fool its g.p.s. system. we examine new research that shows the vulnerability of satellite navigation systems. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> support also comes from carnegie corporation of new york, a foundation created to do what andrew carnegie called "real and permanent good." celebrating 100 years of philanthropy at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and friends of the newshour. >> 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: unemployment is down, but job growth still leaves a lot to be desired. that's the upshot of july's jobs data from the labor department. the "newshour's" economics correspondent paul solman has our report. >> reporter: today's report suggested that the economic recovery may be slowing down. employers added only 162,000 new jobs last month, 23,000 less than economic forecasters consensus predication. the new jobs total was the lowest since march. moreover, the government revised job growth for may and june, down by 26,000. as for the new jobs, most were in lower-paying industries like retail, hotels, and restaurants. even though inflation continues to rise, the average hourly wage actually dropped by two cents, the first decline in wages since last october and the most since late 2011. overall, the economy has created nearly 200,000 jobs a month since the start of the year. and while those aren't exactly terrible numbers, they don't represent robust growth after a deep recession, especially with the working age population growing by 200,000 a month, as it did in july. as heidi shierholz of the economic policy institute points out, even at 200,000 a month, it will take much longer than many realize to reduce unemployment significantly. >> if we continue with that pace of job growth, going forward, we get a little less than 200,000 jobs a month, every single month, indefinitely, we won't fill the jobs gap for another five years. >> reporter: today's announcement came on the heels of another lackluster report that showed the u.s. gross domestic product grew only slightly last quarter by 1.7%. today's supposedly good news was that the unemployment rate slid to 7.4% from 7.6%, marking a four-and-a-half year low. that's partly due to workers finding new opportunities in an improving labor market. but some of that decline can be attributed to the shrinking size of the nation's workforce as more baby boomers, 10,000 of them a day reaching the full social security age of 66, and, says shierholz, there's another reason the unemployment rate has been dropping. >> the unemployment rate right now is vastly overstating the improvement in the labor market, in the recovery, because we have so many workers who have dropped out of the labor force, or never entered it because job opportunities are so weak. >> reporter: job opportunities as especially weak in manufacturing, which showed no job growth in july. factory jobs have remained at a standstill for a year now. the numbers for both long-term unemployment and part-time workers looking for full-time jobs were unchanged in july. >> woodruff: we continue our look at the employment picture with governor markell's call to increase jobs for those with a disability. also ahead on the "newshour": the state department warns of a possible terrorist attack; the debate over increasing coal exports; surprising racial divides over economic optimism; brooks and marcus analyze the week's news and fooling g.p.s. systems. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: the jobs report sent wall street lower at first, but in the end, stocks managed small gains. the dow jones industrial average added 30 points to close at 15,658. the nasdaq rose nearly 14 points to close at 3,689. for the week, the dow gained just over half a percent. the nasdaq rose 2%. the defense rested today in boston, in the murder and racketeering trial of james "whitey" bulger. the reputed former underworld boss opted not to testify. instead, he told the federal court judge: "as far as i'm concerned, this is a sham." bulger is accused in the murders of 19 people, among other crimes. closing arguments are set for monday, and the jury is expected to get the case on tuesday. the italian coalition government initially struggled today to deal with fallout from silvio berlusconi's tax fraud conviction. the country's supreme court upheld the former prime minister's four-year prison sentence on thursday. the 76-year-old media billionaire ialso is likely to lose his seat in parliament. today, prime minister enrico letta played down prospects that berlusconi's supporters might bolt from the governing coalition. >> i am fully aware that this is a delicate moment, politically. i said yesterday and i repeat it now, i am a person who puts italy before anything else. if there is someone who wants to put other priorities first, then i think it is important at this time to have clarity on what those priorities are. first of all comes the country, first of all is italy. >> holman: berlusconi condemned the court ruling, but it is unlikely he will serve actual jail time. instead, he's likely to do a year of community service or a year of house arrest. in egypt, the muslim brotherhood organized new mass marches despite government warnings such gatherings would be broken up. supporters of deposed former president mohammed morsi marched to the military intelligence headquarters in cairo. they also started a new sit-in at the airport. but amid the protests, state t.v. announced police will blockade existing sit-ins. the interim cabinet has warned the camp sites will be disbanded-- one way or the other. the u.s. supreme court refused today to stay an order that california release 10,000 state prison inmates. a lower federal court required the release by year's end, to ease crowding. governor jerry brown argued the state needed more time to find natialters and ou more prisoners ely will jeopardize public safety. the state's 33 prisons are reported to be at 150% of capacity. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: and we return to the jobs story with a look at how difficult the labor market is for people with disabilities and what can be done about it. estimates show that of the 54 million americans with a disability, just 20% are employed or seeking a job. a new report out today has recommendations to improve those prospects. it comes from delaware governor jack markell, the current chairman of the national governor's association. i spoke with him a short time ago. governor jack markell, thank you for talking with us. >> pelley: good to be with you, thanks so much. >> so we know from today's unemployment report the jobs picture is improving but it's slow. there's something like 11 or 12 million americans out of work who would like to have a job. why focus on people with disabilities? >> there are so many companies around the country that are looking for people with particular skills and the fact is we've got to focus on the ability and not on the disability and have seen so many companies around the country benefit when they give people with disabilities a shot at employment and that's what this is all about. >> yoabout. >> woodruff: you are saying in this report that you've issued today that it's not about a social service on the part of employers but about the bottom line. explain what you mean by that. >> one of the most exciting things of the last year is people have told us they employ people with disabilities not because it's charity but it's in the best interest of their re time, they're delighted to have the job, there's less turnover. and so when you hear the c.e.o. of a company like walgreens tell his fellow c.e.o.s that that's why he hires people with disabilities. ice very exciting and we're trying to make sure that governors have all the tools tos that they need to be supportive of businesses around the country who want to provide employment opportunity to people with disabilities. >> woodruff: if that's the story, why aren't more people businesses hiring people with disabilities? >> we need to get the word out. that's number one. not enough businesses are hearing this message. they don't know there's so many successful examples of company prose ride ising these employment opportunities to people with disabilities and how well it's working out. that's number one. number two, states have to do a much better job. for too long states have approached businesses asking businesses as a favor to provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities really as a charity. that's not what this is about. we have to change our mind seth. we have to recognize that we're business partners. a lot of these businesses are looking for people with skills. we bring those people -- we bring people. it could be people with disabilities, it might be people who are traditionally abled. we have so many opportunities to bring people with the necessary skills and i think the better we do as states and the more businesses hear from other business it is more successful we'll be. >> woodruff: governor, give us examples of the kind of job, the kind of work people with disabilities, either physical disabilities or intellectual disabilities are doing or can do that might surprise our audience? >> there is such a wide range. let me give you an example: we have a company actually in delaware but it's a regional i.t. company, thousands of employees. they've committed over the next few years that 3% of their i.t. consultants will be people with autism because they found that many people with autism are great at data testing and software quality analysis. we've met executives at microsoft and highmark insurance company who are deaf. walgreens is an incredible employer. half of their employees at distribution centers in south carolina and connecticut have a range of disabilities. that's why the focus has to be on the ability and not the disability. people have so many different things to offer, but so often these folks have not been given a shot, we're trying to change that. >> woodruff: but you're not talking about a state government requiring employers to do something, is that right? >> no. and the beauty of this is if you talk to these businesses, once they give some of these folks a shot of employment they find out it's in the best interest of their own shareholders. so this is not a requirement. we believe we as states have to do a better job of walking the walk and being a model employer of people with disabilities, but businesses will choose to do it. when they have the facts, businesses will choose to do it for their own appropriate reasons, mainly what's in the interest of their shareholders. the other thing we have is we have to do a much better job of preparing our youth with disabilities for a lifetime of expectation of employment and not for a lifetime of expectation of being on public benefit. >> woodruff: that leads to a question i was thinking about that. is what do you think it is going to take for individuals with disabilities in this country-- and, as you said, there are millions of them who are not working-- to have something close to the opportunity that individuals who are able-bodied have to work. >> well, part of it is we states, governors, have to do a better job of really making disability employment part of our overall work force development strategy. it's a change in a cultural mind-set away from charity and more toward what's in the best interest of the businesses. that's number one. number two, we have toe do a better job of talking to businesses, recruiting businesses and having businesses hear from each other. i'm telling you that when a c.e.o. of a company hears the c.e.o. of walgreens or the c.e.o. of lowe's or office max or u.p.s. talk about why employing people with disabilities is right for their business, they hear that. and it's not just big businesses, it's medium-sized businesses as well. so we think there's several different strategies. we've issued this blueprint today that's very practical in nature, very concrete suggestions, but it does start as well with setting expectations for our young kids with disabilities that they, in fact, can work. they will work. we believe in them, they'll believe in themselves and we have to work hard to make sure those opportunities are there for them. >> woodruff: governor jack markell of delaware, thank you very much. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: next week i'll talk about a report that shows many people are still live in institutions when the law call for them to be moving into a home or community care. >> brown: the u.s. state department issued a global travel alert today, citing a threat from al qaeda. the statement particularly warned american citizens in the middle east and north africa. it said al qaeda "may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of august." embassies and consulates will close 21 embassies and consulates will be closed this weekend in mostly muslim nations, stretching from west africa to bangladesh, as a result of the increased threat. margaret warner has been reporting on this all day and joins me now. welcome, margaret. what have do we know about how specific the threat is? >> first we have to start to say that those who really know aren't talking in detail and a lot of those talking and speculating don't know. but we do know that there was a lot of credible -- an increase in credible what's called "chatter" over the last week to two weeks. perhaps bolstered by something very specific this week. we do know it was fairly specific as to timing, that something big is in the works at this time period from now until early next week where the embassies are closed and through the rest of the month potentially. what is not known, apparently, is location or targets. not location geographic necessarily or targets, but the threat does come from or connected to the radical organization, the jihadi organization headquartered in yemen, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula which as you will recall was behind the christmas day bomber of 2009, also the plot to send explosives through the air in 2010. >> brown: so what does it mean for the embassies and travelers right now? >> jeff, for embassies, they're not sending personnel home but it means that sunday-- which would be the start of the work week in the muslim world, they will be closed. low cal staff will come in. no members of the public will come in. nobody needing a visa or wanting to see the cannes already a section. in many areas many of the staff inside the compounds won't come out. but these compounds are heavily fortified and many people live on -- they're like a base. and those people may go to work. what it means for travelers-- again, this is not a worldwide travel ban-- but what's curious or interesting to me in this travel alert is the focus on public transportation systems. to avoid public transportation, to remember that terrorists are good at attacking subways and trains and airplanes. that focus is worth travelers taking note. >> brown: i want to pull that map back up because it's notable what a large area this is. how unusual is that and why such a large stretch? >> well, the state department cannot think of a precedent for this. i can't say it's unprecedented, but they can't think of one. this reflects not only an abundance of caution, which is what the state department says, but also the fact that in the last two years during this turmoil of the arab spring a lot of these different al qaeda wannabes or linked affiliates-- that's al qaeda in the arabian peninsula but also al qaeda in northern africa or. aq.i.m.-- and also a newly resurgent al qaeda organization from iraq which is now fighting in syria that they are all resurgent. they have all taken more territory, the region's awash in weapons and that there's a lot of interconnection, more than their there used to be, among them. further more, you had prison breaks in both iraq and libya which have released all these other hardened fighters and you've got foreign tpaoeugers pouring into places like syria and iraq and also the arabian peninsula. so bottom line is u.s. intelligence doesn't think they're all being directed by some master plotter al qaeda core but there is a belief that they're no longer the neat little separate franchises they were once thought to be. >> brown: and watching a very wide area. margaret warner, thanks so much. >> woodruff: next, a look at the debate over exporting coal through the pacific northwest. the latest figures from the international energy agency show a record-breaking global increase in c.o.-2 emissions last year. coal accounted for 44% of the rise. but in the united states, demand for coal is dropping. as a result, american companies are looking to send more abroad. katie campbell from our seattle affiliate kcts 9 has the story. she's an earthfix reporter >> reporter: it's the heart of the crab fishing season in the salish sea. this network of coastal waterways extends beyond the border of washington state into british columbia. it's one of the largest and most biologically rich inland seas in the world. jeremiah julius is a fisherman from the lummi tribal community. the whole landscape is sacred to us. there's not much contaminant free lands left in the united states. this is one of them. >> reporter: for hundreds of generations, his tribe has relied on the halibut, salmon and crab that thrive in these waters. >> fishing is who we are. fishing is our culture. and to us, culture is fish. it's just in our blood. >> reporter: but there's a storm brewing at cherry point, just north of bellingham, washington. this is where s.s.a. marine wants to build the largest coal export terminal in north america. nearly 500 ships would travel these waters every year, carrying coal to the other side of the pacific. asia consumes more coal than rest of the world combined. in the next three years, countries there are expected to double the amount of coal they import today. that soaring demand spells opportunity for u.s. companies, according to bob waters, director of business development our particular project, gateway pacific terminals, when built and fully operational at full capacity, would generate approximately $5.5 billion in foreign monies infused back into the u.s. economy. >> reporter: this possibility has placed the northwest in the middle of a controversial debate: should the region build export terminals that would open lucrative markets for the world's dirtiest fossil fuel? as the nation's economy continues to struggle, can the country afford not to? gillette, wyoming lies in the heart of the nations largest coal mining region. one out of every six people here works for the coal industry. people like phil dillinger. mining has provided a steady salary to support his family and send his four children to college. >> it's that stability of knowing that every two weeks i'm going to get a paycheck. and that's... that's a huge, huge thing. >> reporter: dillinger's job is loading coal into trains. >> so our job is by the time it's dumped into that coal hopper all the way to the time when we load it onto the trains. that's coal processing. that's what i do. on an average, it takes a minute to a less than a minute to fill up one car. one train car of coal. >> reporter: the united states relies on coal to provide about 40% of the nation's energy. but in recent years, u.s. utilities have been switching from burning coal to burning natural gas. that trend has pushed u.s. coal companies to search customers in asia. the most direct path would be to send coal trains through the river valleys of the northwest to its deep-water ports, where ships can complete delivery to across the pacific. the only obstacle is the lack of adequate coal export facilities. cherry point is one of a handful of places in washington and oregon considering building coal export terminals. these facilities would allow u.s. coal companies to ship up to 100 million tons of coal every year. if these terminals are built, communities along the railroad could see between 18 and 37 additional coal trains a day. and each coal train can stretch a mile and a half long. some scientists and physicians worry that these trains will have an adverse effect on the air quality around them. professor dan jaffe is a leading expert in atmospheric pollution. he's begun to take a closer look. >> we stood on the bridge over the tracks at richmond beach and watched a couple dozen trains going by and we measured particulate matter concentrations that were well above the health thresholds. the data we have collected on diesel and coal exhaust on trains is very preliminary. i'd be disappointed to see a policy decision go forward without more information on the air pollution impacts. >> reporter: in 2009, a b.n.s.f. railway representative testified in a department of transportation committee meeting that as much as 645 pounds of coal dust is lost from each car during a 400-mile journey. and if a coal train usually has about 125 cars, the amount of dust could add up quickly. b.n.s.f. now requires companies that ship coal to apply what's called surfactant or a topper agent to coal trains before they leave the mines. they say this helps suppress dust by about 85%. physicians like martin donohoe, a portland-based public health advocate, also worry about the diesel exhaust coming from train locomotives. >> we know from numerous peer reviewed population wide studies that there is an increase in asthma exacerbation when people are exposed to diesel particulate matter. it's important to realize that the particles from the coal trains, the particles of coal dust, the particles in the diesel matter are microscopic, ultra fine particles that you can't see. they're the ones that do the real damage because they make it to the deepest parts of the airways. so you may not be seeing it, but you're breathing it, and it's affecting you. >> reporter: there are currently three coal trains a day that travel through the northwest up to ports in british columbia. canadian ports are already operating at near capacity. they too would need to expand in order to ship more coal abroad. here at the westshore terminal in british columbia about 1.5 million tons of coal is waiting to be shipped to asia. >> westshore was built in the 1970s. so the environmental laws and requirements and regulations are much different than they are today. comparing what westshore terminal is and what our terminals are going to be. on an environmental basis, it's looking at a 1970 g.t.o. versus a prius. >> reporter: unlike the westshore facility, the gateway pacific terminal is designed so the coal would be covered during the loading process. >> we've built in a great deal of design elements to protect the environment. we have all of our conveying systems on the terminal covered. any conveying systems that go out over the water are actually completely enclosed. we don't think it's an either/or proposition. we think you can do both-- that you can develop family wage jobs and be good stewards and protect the environment. >> reporter: for jeremiah julius, the environmental risks outweigh the economic benefits. >> they say we are going to lose all these jobs and taxes if we don't allow this to go in, which to me is false because you can't lose something you don't have. we have our fish, we have our salmon, we have clean air, we we'll lose that. that's losing to me. to me, these tankers are the trains that killed off the buffalo. these tankers are going to kill my way of life, my fishing, my so to me this is, it is a battle. >> reporter: before any of the coal export terminals can be built, the potential environmental impacts of these facilities must be studied. it's a process that can take months, possibly years. >> woodruff: federal and state regulators announced this week that they are extending the scope of the review process at cherry point to consider climate change, human health and the impacts of transporting coal by rail. for the record, b.n.s.f. railway company is a "newshour" underwriter. >> brown: we turn now to a new portrait of how americans view themselves and their economic futures. ray suarez has our look. >> suarez: for decades, white, hispanic and black americans have felt similarly optimistic about their chances of improving their lives and economic prospects. but a study out this week shows that since about 2006, whites have become more pessimistic. at the same time, blacks and hispanics have grown more optimistic. now we ask why. joining me are matt barreto, a political science professor at the university of washington and co-founder of the opinion research group latino decisions. and ellis cose, the author of "the end of anger: a new generation's take on race and rage." professor barreto, by so many measures, white families are doing better. you know, taken in the aggregate, the socioeconomic measurements are just better. why so much pessimism? >> well, i think it reflects what we call a ceiling effect, and that that whites havhe post-world war ii era when whites really started moving into the suburbs and the upper middle class so they've occupied that top rung of doing better for a very long time and now as they start to evaluate their position i think a lot of white americans are saying "we don't see ours growing anymore. we've been at this top rung and we're not growing. instead we see other groups are also growing." and that leads to a little bit more pessimism in their own reflection of their group. that perhaps they've already achieved the highest rung that they're going to achieve. >> suarez: ellis coast, conversely, black and brown americans are less likely to have a college credential, more lakely to be unemployed. by a lot of socioeconomic metrix, just doing worse. how do you explain the optimism? >> easy. i was speaking when i was doing research to a guy named dave thomas who is a professor at harvard and he used the phrase "irrational exuberance" to explain what we were then picking up in the polls because this poll finding is not new. it goes back several years. and in essence part of it that what african americans are looking at and latinos as well is aspirational. they're looking at the future. we've gone, as matt basically said, from being a country that was basically and totally dominated by whites to something very different now. and so for the first time you have african americans who are saying it's possible to break through some of these ceilings that it was impossible to break through a generation ago. and when you're talking about the future, the fact that unemployment for african americans has been roughly twice what it is for white americans, pretty much forever, that does not affect how you see the prospects for your child because you say my child may be able to become a c.e.o. of a corporation. my child may be able to become a big talk show host. my child may be able to become president of the united states. that's something you couldn't say a generation ago and that's revolutionary. >> suarez: professor, it's not a four 4%, 5%, 6% difference, it's a huge bulge, 25%, 28%. does that number, that big number demand to be looked at more closely. you're a guy who works with statistics and samples and polls all the time. >> yes, ray, i think absolutely this is something that people should be paying attention to. and as we just heard, this is something that those of us in the research community have been documenting for a number of years: that decline in white optimism and openness-- which i think ultimately is also tied to the rise of the tea party in 2009 and 2010-- and at the same time what you've had is you've had an increase in that aspirational opportunities for blacks and hispanics. you've seen a black president elected, you've seen a latina appointed to the united states supreme court, you've seen all sorts of discussion of the black and a latino vote after the 2012 election and that makes minority communities feel a bit more empowered and optimistic. at the same time, we've seen a steady decline over the last few years of white americans in terms of how they view their future in relationship, not just to themselves bus in relationship to this growing minority community in the united states which is flexing its muscle. now i think that does need to be discussed. >> suarez: families of all races experienced terrible losses during the worst of the recession but ellis cose, the losses among black and brown families were brutal. doesn't the view of today color how you see the future? >> well, if you look at people and you ask the question about how their own economic situation is, blacks are no more likely than whites to say that it's good. in fact, they'reless likely. but if you ask the question is the country on the right path, if you ask the question are my children going to do better? if you ask the question are people like me and my family going to do well? then you have a different story. a lot of that is about the future. part of what you're picking up is something general raeugal. my book looked closely at the difference in different generations and the younger generation, the under 40, under 30 generation sees a different america than the over 40, over 50 generation sees. they see an america that's more open where success is more possible. so even if people are struggling now-- and they are, and african americans if you look objectively have a bigger chance of falling out of the middle-class than white american-- so it's brutal but in terms of what's possible for their children and in the future you get these responses where people say, you know, things aren't possibly that weren't possible before and that trumps the particular situation many find themselves in at this moment. >> suarez: professor, quickly, before we go, what numbers will you be looking at in the near future to see how these questions will be tracked over time? what will be significant? >> we not only want to look at how each individual group evaluates hair opportunity bus we should be looking at the cross pressures here. we should be looking at how groups are more willing to work together and to address what you called the facts on the ground, the fact that blacks and latinos still do lag behind whites despite the fact that they're more optimistic today, they're lagging behind. we want to see all groups working together to make sure we can improve the economy and the situation for all americans. >> suarez: matt barreto, ellis cose, thank you beth. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and to the analysis of brooks and marcus. "new york times" columnist david brooks and washington post columnist ruth marcus. mark shields is off today. welcome to you both. let's go back to the lead story tonight: jobs report. david, 162,000 jobs created in july. they -- that was added, but it'sless than what was expected. what does it tell you about the economy? >> i think there's a consensus growing both on left and right that the structural problems are becoming super obvious. so when this recession start add number of years ago you had 63 out of 100 americans in the labor force, now we're down, fewer than in -- than when the recession started. so that suggests we've got deep structural problems. it probably has a lot to do with technological change, companies are not hiring human beings, they're hire magazines. it probably has to do with a skills shortage, that as technology increases skills have to keep up and skills are not keeping up. it has to do with sociological changes, men dropping out of the labor forces. women, especially young women never entering the labor force and so these are deep structural changes. and i think there's a consensus growing that something fundamental has shifted in the economy and i wouldn't say anybody in the political arena has much of a set of solutions the way they did in the progressive era, the new deal era, even the reagan era that are commensurate with the size of this problem. >> woodruff: so how much reason for discouragement, ruth? >> i'm not going to be ms. rosy to david's pessimistic scenario. this was another limping month and a limping recovery and here are some numbers to just kind of underscore that. the hamilton project at the brookings institution looked at job growth and said if we added 208,000 jobs-- which, of course, is way better than we did this month-- if we added 208,000 jobs a month it would take us until april, 2020 to just get us back to the place that we were in december, 2007, when thes me began. and so that just gives you a measure of the dauntingness and you look not just at the -- everybody looks at 7.2%, the new unemployment figure is down a little bit. but let's take a look at the total unemployment picture. the discouraged workers, the less -- the people who have just stopped looking for work. the people who aren't working as hard as they would like to, as many hours as they'd like to. that's 14% of the labor force. i think david's totally right when he talks about how we need to sort of get to some really structural solutions. and the thing that's so disappointing is that we're looking at a political system that doesn't seem capable of achieving that. >> woodruff: how do you get to structural solutions? the president had a recommendation this week for changing the corporate tax rate. he said this was one way to create jobs for the middle class. is that the kind of thing? >> well, that's a good thing. i mean, changing the corporate tax rate, our corporate taxes are too high, unrealistic, they're internationally competitive, we should change them. and he wants to take that money produced and shift it to infrastructure and that's also needed and so there are small steps in the right direction, i suppose. but you wouldn't say they're commensurate with the size of the problem. now, we've got decades-long problems of wage stagnations, widening inequality, just gigantic problems and when i look at what the president is proposing and what the republicans are proposing, they're small. and i don't think they're as big. and i dent blame them, by the way. they're in office, they're busy. it's not their job to come up with a gigantic agenda. >> but isn't this a priority? whose job is it? >> well, it is their job. and just -- there's no huge mega silver bullet step. there are a whole set of small things can that can help and so job retraining, money for community colleges, let's start some infrastructure projects, the president proposed all of this and i think you're being too even handed in your "well, there aren't large ideas on the -- among democrat force republicans." the president put out this proposal which, you know, look, it wasn't a grand bargain, it was a mini bargain. a lot of it was recycled from proposals he had previously done, but it offered something that republicans in a rational world ought to have accepted: a lower corporate tax rate, which would be terrific for business and the economy and for job creation and some short-term spending. landed with a thud. no possibility. >> so i think i'm being not even handed enough, as usual. (laughter) as usual. >> woodruff: do we get credit for being even handed around here? >> david does! >> the republicans, to their credit, have done -- have suggested a bunch of big fundamental structural reforms, whether it's a big comprehensive tax thing that dave camp in the house is working on, whether it's a big entitlement reform that paul ryan is talking about. if you want to talk about one of the fundamental problems it's that we've had entrenched institutions strangling policy making increasingly for 30 or 40 year. and to clear that away you need big structural reforms and i think a big tax reform, a big entitlement reform would be at least gigantic things that would put us a little way in the right direction. i think republicans deserve some credit for some of that. >> gigantic but wrong but we can continue this argument later. >> woodruff: is that dancing around the edges or do you agree those could make a difference if they could get the democrats? >> nobody would be more excited than me to have a serious national conversation about fundamental tax reform. if there's something to fault the president on in this corporate proposal it's that we need to address individual taxes as well. and i would love to have a serious conversation about entitlement reform. i'm not sure i think paul ryan's approach -- it's big but it may not be the best way or the most economically sound way to do it. morally sound. >> woodruff: but all this is happening while congress, today, has left town. they're gone for more than a month. >> five weeks. >> woodruff: they won't be back until september, david. what does this say about -- or where does this leave the big unanswered questions out there about government spending, about the debt limit? we could go on and on. immigration. >> well, just to continue the theme, the single-biggest growth item in washington right now is the immigration bill. the immigration bill which according to the congressional budget office, according to doug holz-eakin would produce gigantic significant increases both in revenue, in growth, in job creation. and so that is the biggest thing we have out in front of us. and you have to say as they leave town the movement about immigration reform is not promising. and so that's both a problem-- because we can't solve the problem-- but it's also a result. and somebody mentioned in another piece, the stagnation has created a political fracturing of the country and a polarization of the country as people are upset about their stagnant prospects and that's produced a political polarization which then makes it even harder to fix the problem people are angry about. >> i'm very worried about the fall. we had some green shoots of hope, especially on the senate side passing comprehensive immigration bill, pulling back from the nuclear cliff and getting some -- >> woodruff: over confirmation. >> but then we got to the house and the house won't do comprehensive immigration reform. the house this week, we saw the amazing spectacle that it won't -- it can't pass spending bills at the low level that it agreed to because it's not enough spending and it can't get a majority of republicans to agree to cut spending that much. so it's the difference between the ryan budget in theory and the ryan budget in practice. so the -- so what we're facing when we come back in september is two things: really pretty quickly. first of all we're going to need to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government functioning past september 30. if you can't get agreement on these spending bill which is oughtn't to be terribly controversial how will you get agreement on what level? nobody wants a shut down -- well, a few people want it. then, to speaking of sanity, we veing coming up question of whas going to be held hostage to get an increase me the debt ceiling. >> woodruff: and the middle of all this, funding the president's health care. but what are the american people to think, david, as they look at washington right now? is it just despair? is there any ray of -- >> we've been pretty upbeat the last eight minutes or so. you know, it -- my basic view is washington reflects the country. i think members are responding reasonably rationally to the incentive structure they're given given their constituents and so the country both fractured and excessively distrustful, not willing to compromise and so i always blame the country as much as i blame washington. >> now you're being unfair to the entire country! my goodness! i actually think -- well, i think washington, the parts of washington are better than its product. so there's a lot of people who are working really hard to try to solve these problems but, yes, the country fractured and it disagrees. washington is reflecting its individual districts in the house. but the country wants washington to fix these problems. it understands it's not an easy solution, it's tired of the bickering and it wants it to stop. whether it's willing to punish the people are preventing it from stopping and unwilling to compromise is another story. but, boy -- >> i'm being excessively kind to the country. >> now you're being too america. >> woodruff: we have to figure out how who's nicer to the american people. complete change of subject. pope francis this week, david, made news on the plane back to rome from his trip to south america talking about sexuality, talking about gays and saying "who am i to judge if someone chooses -- or happens to be gay." the church doctrine isn't changing. does that change anything? >> i once saw a mass on t.v., pope john paul ii and the t.v. reporter got up afterward and said "nothing new here." the pope's job is not to be new. that's not his job. so i think what you're seeing is a little emphasis in how interested they are in some of these issues. but church doctrine is not going to change and the pope's not this charge of that. >> i am tempted to say "who are we to judge?" but since that's our job, there was a significant and i think very welcome change in tone, a humility, an acceptance, an openness. homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of the church, in the eyes of this pope and his predecessor but i think a little bit of kindness and humility goes a long way in columnist ins as well as in popes. >> woodruff: it even works here at the newshour, right here on friday nights. david brooks, ruth marcus, great to have you both. >> thanks. >> woodruff: thank you both. >> brown: finally tonight, new research that could lead us all in a different direction. in june, a 213-foot luxury yacht sailed in international waters off the southern coast of italy, when suddenly, unbeknownst to the crew, it veered off-course. but this was no sinister act worthy of a spy flick. instead, a team of researchers from university of texas at austin had deliberately coerced the $80 million vessel from its track, without physically taking the helm. with the blessing of those aboard, professor todd humphrey's and his graduate students employed a technique called g.p.s. spoofing to effectively disorient the ship's positioning system. changes went undetected by alarms, and the autopilot system shifted the yacht to what it thought was the original course, not one selected by humphrey's team. the demonstration was the first to show g.p.s. spoofing could pose a real threat to the world's civilian maritime industry. and a year earlier, the texas research group showed the same danger also exists in the civilian aerospace sector. they successfully used their g.p.s. spoofing system to commandeer an unmanned aerial vehicle on u.t.'s campus. and repeatedly brought the small, helicopter-like drone to the ground by altering information sent to its altitude navigation system. and todd humphreys, the university of texas researcher behind these projects joins us now. also with us is milton clary. he works with federal government agencies to identify such threats. he's a senior analyst at overlook systems technologies. so todd humphries, this has a kind of innocuous funny even name of spoofing but it sounds rather serious. you're, in essence -- you're tricking the g.p.s. system? >> that's right. we convincingly faked the g.p.s. signals and make a receiver think it's at some other place or some other time. >> brown: why do it? what's behind this experimenting? >> well, you know, we had done experiments in our laboratory and we'd convinced ourselves that we could hack a g.p.s. receiver, make it believe it's some other place, but what does this mean? what does it entail? could you, for example, remotely and clandestinely lead an expensive and enormous ship at sea off course without the crew even knowing? that was the question we sought to answer and it turns out the answer is yes. >> brown: how do you view this spoofing? how do you think about it? >> well, spoofing is certainly a real phenomenon and essentially spoofing is just being a very believable lie that the receiver gets down and think it's getting data from the satellite but in effect think of it as just this is the neighborhood and someone has switched all the street signs around. you think you're on the right street but you're really not. >> brown: why is it -- why are these kinds of experiments -- i'll ask you the same question. why is it interesting? why is it important? >> it's important to understand what can be done so we can in turn learn how to prevent it from being done. and there are capabilities for the last several years there's been national policy to develop capabilities to preclude these types of -- basically threats to spoofing. but unfortunately certain elements within the federal government have sort of been a chihuahua in a china shop when it comes to actually getting the work done. >> brown: well, what kind of -- when you think about what's vulnerable and what's not, what kinds of things are bound by a g.p.s. system? >> well, when you consider what g.p.s. does, people think of it as, you know, how far am i to the green? or how do i get to the local shopping center? but g.p.s. is embedded in so much of our critical infrastructure. all our communications system depending on the timing from g.p.s., all the emergency responders rely on g.p.s. emergency 911. if you dialed that on your telephone it will show the operator right where you are based on the g.p.s. in your phone. if that gets -- if g.p.s. goes away or gets spoofed that could be very disruptive. all our ground transportation, water transportation, rail transportation, positive train control which is a very important thing to the federal railway administration to know where these trains are and where they are in time. >> brown: todd humphries, how hard is it to do or easy to do? you used the word "hacking." is that what it's about? is it the proverbial hacker, the teenager, who can do this or what? >> it is a kind of hacking attack but i wouldn't expect a teenageer to do what we've done. it took a team of about four ph.d. students several years to come up with the box we developed that can convincingly fake these general yes, sir signals. the real worry i have is that someone who is perhaps not a ph.d. could operate a box like we have. so if the software ever got out on to the internet or if someone else replicated the box then it wouldn't take a p.h.d. to run the thing. >> brown: so pick up on this request where of where the vulnerabilities are and using the research you've been doing, how would one protect those? >> well, we've been looking into protections at the university of texas, cornell university, stanford, many other agencies across the globe. what we've found over the last couple years is that the most practical protections are also the least effective and the least expensive and so forth. but tim practical, somewhat cumbersome protections are the most effective. so we here in a bit of a conundrum right now but i'm hoping that within a couple years we'll find a sweet spot, we'll implement something that effectively defends and doesn't break the bank. >> brown: but your feeling is that at this moment it's important to talk about, to do the research, to make it public precisely to get to that next step? >> i think so. i think we've waited long enough for solutions to come about on their own. now it's time to go to the public, to expose the problem, and get more people thinking about it. >> brown: milton clary, i know you do a lot of work with the department. when yo you were talking about e various vulnerabilities, how much is it in the military? >> well, the military g.p.s. is a completely different system than what the civilians use. it has a much more sophisticated signal structure and a in itself is embedded in a very sophisticated encryption. so to be able to get into the signal and fool it, you can't even get there. it's -- to reallies me with in the the way that dr. humphries has done. now, as far as trying to give ourselves some resilience, one of the biggest uses of g.p.s. is not the position data but the timing information. and there's countries -- united kingdom, japan and korea all have a system calledded loran, an american investigation system that goes back to the '40s and they're building an enhanced loran that will provide timing systems as a backup and that would be very, very difficult to jam. >> brown: so countries, companies, everybody's watching this right now. >> there's a lot of people that care about it or work in it pay close attention. >> brown: fascinating stuff. milton clary, todd humphrey, thank you very much. >> thank you. i enjoyed being here. carry. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: the u.s. economy added 162,000 jobs in july, not as many as expected. and the state department issued a global travel alert for americans, citing a threat from al qaeda. a note before we go. last night, we interviewed michael chertoff about outgoing fbi director robert mueller. we should have said for the record that chertoff is chairman of the board of directors for b.a.e. systems, a "newshour" underwriter. >> brown: online, leon panetta kwame holman tells us more. >> holman: ray talked to former c.i.a. director and defense secretary. panetta today about how robert mueller helped transform the fbi, and the increasing and paul solman has more on today's jobs numbers including that's on making sense. all that and more is on our website newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on monday, we'll look at major league baseball's negotiations to penalize players that doped. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. "washington week" can be seen later this evening on most pbs stations. we'll see you online and again here monday evening. have a nice weekend. thanks for joining us. goodnight. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> 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. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> welcome to the journal. live from dw. >> coming up in this half-hour. german politicians call for civilian oversight after reports of corporations are helping intelligence agencies spy and civilians. >> egyptian supporters have announced new rallies. >> a new train connection that could lead to major trade. >>