we're just buying time.->> ifilo player bela fleck and his wife abigail washburn on making music together. >> i think we knew it was going to work up front. >> we did. >> because aby's grandmother had invited us to play at her church, and that was the first time we ever played, did a concert together, and it fell together so easily, and people liked it as much as anything we had ever done separately. >> ifill: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ç moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ç >> thanks for my first car. thanks for giving me your smile, your motivation, and your belief that loved ones always come first. we wouldn't be where we are if it were not for the people that helped get us here. don't forget to thank those who helped you to take charge of your future and got you where you are today. the boss of your life. the chief life officer. lincoln financial. you're in charge. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org ç >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbç station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: president obama served notice today he's ready to force congress' hand on immigration reform. the white house said he'll give a primetime address tomorrow night to announce his plan to shield up to five million people from deportation. the president himself spoke in a video posted on the white house facebook page. >> everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. unfortunately, washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long, and so what i'm going to be laying out is what i can do in my lawful authority aç president to make the system work better even as i continue to work with congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem. >> ifill: republicans have warned the president's unilateral action will "poison the well" with the next congress when they'll control both the house and senate.ç today, texas senator john cornyn called it an abuse of power unfair to those going through the legal immigration process. >> we are the most generous country in the world when it comes to naturalization-- almost a million people a year. but the president is going to tell the people waiting patiently to "get in the back of the line; i'm going to put millions of people ahead of you in front of the line who have not played by the rules." >> ifill: we'll look more closely at the political implications of what the president means to do after the news summary. a snowstorm for the ages left parts of western new york state struggling to recover today, with p least six people dead. the slow-moving system was fueled by the great lakes and turned into kind of a monstrous snow-making machine. all day yesterday and for much of today, the snow kept coming-- hour after hour, inch by inch,ç foot upon foot. >> it's pretty incredible, the amount of snow when i came out this morning. >> ifill: the buffalo region is long since used to brutal winters, but this much snow this early caught everyone off-guard. by this morning, as much as six feet of powder blanketed areas south of the city, buried houses up to the roof line and triggered a state of emergency. photos of the massive lake- effect storm showed a hulking wall of snow rolling off lake erie yesterday. it piled up so fast that a 132- mile stretch of the new york thruway shut down, trapping morç than a hundred vehicles. >> where are you trying to go? >> buffalo. >> and how's that going? >> not well. >> ifill: the niagara university women's basketball team was stranded in a bus for more than 24 hours before being rescued early today.ç and all across the region, people tried to shovel and plow out of nearly head-high drifts, only to have fresh snow cover their tracks at the rate of several inches an hour. >> it's horrible. just back-breaking. the snowblower doesn't even do anything. >> it's just too much shoveling. i'd rather be inside all cuddled up in a blanket, watching tv. >> ifill: the storm's first wave finally moved slightly north today to places that received just a dusting earlier, but a second round was expected to bring another two to three feet of snow by tomorrow.ç >> that will get them to 90, 100 inches of snow. that's a year's worth of snow in four days. >> ifill: and that spelled trouble for the buffalo bills football team, scheduled to host the new york jets on sunday.ç officials were scrambling to see if they can clear the snow from ralph wilson stadium in time. elsewhere, the wintry blast brought the kind of cold usually seen in january or february, if at all. there were readings at or below freezing yesterday in all 50 states, making it the coldest november morning nationwide since 1976. late today, transportation officials announced the hardest hit sections of the new york state throughway will stay closed at least through tomorrow.ç israel re-imposed tough security measures today in a bid to stop attacks in jerusalem. crews demolished the home of a palestinian man who drove his car into a crowd last month, killing two people. relatives walked through the rubble in east jerusalem after the home was blown up before dawn. and prime minister benjaminç netanyahu promised there's more to come. >> ( translated ): i am impressed by the genuine effort to intervene in real-time against disturbers of the peace and terrorists. this is a significant and important step, and there will be more home demolitions, there will be many more steps. we have nothing against the residents of eastern jerusalem, but we will not tolerate attacks on our citizens, and we will act against those who do these things and against those engaged in incitement. >> ifill: the policy of demolishing homes was largely suspended in 2005 after security chiefs concluded it was not an effective deterrent. in pakistan, four relatives of a pregnant woman who beat her to death were sentenced to death themselves today in lahore.ç the victim's father, brother, cousin and another relative had attacked her last may after she married against her family's wishes. hundreds of pakistani women are murdered every year in so-called "honor killings." the ebola death toll has risen to more fhan 5,400 in eight countries. the world health organization reported the new figure today. it also said there've been more than 15,000 confirmed cases. meanwhile, the world bank said economic losses in west africa are far less than once feared due to efforts to contain the disease. it estimated the damage at $3 to $4 billion. the worst case had been $32 billion. a warning today from the acting director of the secret service. joseph clancy told a house hearing that a series of scandals at the agency has badly damaged morale and operational security. one of the incidents came in september, when a man jumped the ence and got inside the executive mansion. an internal review found multiple failings. >> i found the findings devastating. what hits the hardest is the range of shortcomings that ultimately allowed omar gonzalez to enter the white house practically unencumbered. although i firmly believe the secret service is better than this incident, i openlyç acknowledge that a failure of this magnitude, especially in light of other recent incidents, requires immediate action and longer-term reform. >> ifill: clancy was appointed to his post just last month after julia pierson resigned as director, under pressure. the cystic fibrosis foundation announced a windfall today. it sold the royalty rights to drugs used to combat the fatal lung disease. royalty pharma paid $3.3 billion. the foundation had invested about $100 million to help create the first medicine that treats the genetic roots of cystic fibrosis. in the face of california's prolonged drought, the city of san diego is taking a step that was once unthinkable. the city council voted last night toç recycle sewer water r drinking. the project will cost $2.5 billion. san diego currently draws 85% of its water from the colorado river and northern california. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lostç two points to close at 17,685; the nasdaq fell 26 points to close at 4,675; and the s&p slipped three points to close at 2,048. still to come on the newshour: president obama's expected action on immigration; the future of the n.s.a.'s collection of phone records; does arming school officials make kids safer in the event of a shooting?; the fallout for comedian bill cosby amid allegations of sexual assault; the human stories of the 2010 "deep water horizon" crisis; anç bela fleck and abigail washburn on making beautiful music together. >> ifill: hundreds of thousandsç of undocumented immigrants have been deported since president obama took office as efforts at comprehensive immigration reform have fallen by the wayside in congress. today, the white house announced the president has come up with a workaround, an executive action that would alter immigration policy without congressional action. for more on the reach of presidential power when it comes to immigration policy, we turn to: frank sharry, founder of america's voice, an immigration reform group; and josh blackman, a constitutional law professor at south texas college of law. frank sharry, senator john mccain and others have said this is anç unconstitutional me that the president is taking. what's your response to that. >> not at all. it's well established through historical precedent, and supreme court case law and legislation that, look, every law enforcement agency has the right to decide how are they going to use limited resources? are they going to!wo after everyone? well, they don't have the resources so they have to set priorities, target resources. the discretion is absolute. so it makes sense that president obama's contemplating saying these people here are low priority, deep roots, been in the country, have citizen children. let's protect them. and then we'll use the resources to go after the bad actors it's drug dealers, the national security threats, the serious criminals. so, you know, look, over the past 60 years, every president since eisenhower, including reagan and george w. bush, has used executive action in the immigrationç arena. george h.w. bush took a step in 1990 to legalize roughly half the undocumented population with work permits. there was no controversy about executive action then, and there shouldn't be now. >> ifill: josh blackman, what is the constitutional argument here? >> so the president has a dutyç to take care of the laws as faithfully executed. while he does have discretion, i don't believe it's absolute. i think the important point to make this goes far beyond what has been done before. it's unprecedented. george mentioned george h.w. bush guaranteed deferrals, and those are related to those naturalized bid aggression law. that is simply not the case. president obama proposed doca for the dreamers. none of the people have pathway to citizenship. this is different than was done before. >> ifill: do you agree with the critics who say this is granting amnest tow these people who are not being deported? >> well, no. it's not granting amnesty. you're notç giving them citizenship. what you are doing is giving them legal status and working papers. what this does is make them effectively untouchable by future presidents and makes it very difficult for future presidents toç take them out of that status so the president is giving the next person in office this situation to keel diehl with. >> ifill, of course, frank sharry, we haven't seen what the president is proposing specifically but one of the phrases used is he's going to grant temporary protective status to these people, to four million of the five million. what does that mean? >> it's more likely he's going to use deferred action. it's something he used for about half a million young people called dreamers. he extended relief to them in 2012, and it's basically the right to work and a stay of deportation until congress acts. look, executive action is no substitute for legislation. we need a congress that will pass comprehensive immigration reform. the democrats in the senate led an effort in 2013, passedç a bipartisan immigration reform bill but john boehner and the house republicans blocked it. they've blocked is for over 500 days. quite frankly, the real question is do you want someone to fix the system under legal authority or maintain the status quo? >> ifill: but, you know, some advocates say this didn't go far enough, that theç parents of te dreamers, the children allowed to stay who were born here, aren't covered by this, immigrant workers aren't covered by this. >> look, we need to cover all 11 million people. look, we're talking about a population the size of ohio living in the country outside the stampatory frameworks and protections of this country. it's unhealthy for our democracy. it is not good for the families and congress has to act eventually. in the meantime, president can't rewrite the law but he can set priorities and say let's go after the bad guys. let's protect the good guys. do it within my lawful authority. you know, honestly, we won'tç solve the problem until congress steps up. >> ifill: josh blackman is this the camel's nose under the tent? >> so i think the way we have to néñ until recently the president said he did not have authority to do this. now he says his position is unassailable. what is the legal basis for this? what does it mean? what are the implications? if we can do this, what else can he do? we need to have this debate before the action happens, not afterwards. >> ifill: is part of your concern the people who will now be given this temporary protection will also be on a path to citizenship? >> well, i think the bigger issue is what this means for future presidents. if i can indulge for a second, imagine a president ted cruz decides not to enforce environmental laws or president rand paul decideses not toç enforce an income tax. i want to see what the legal implications are. where are the limits of the ability of the president to not enforce the laws? i want to see the memorandum making that point. >> i understand a lot of republicans are against the way the president is doing this, but let's discuss the substance of it. he's going to take people who are deeplyç rooted in america, who have been living here for more than a decade, in many cases, who have u.s. citizen children and say are we going to rip those families apart and spend taxpayer dollars doing that? >> ifill: but josh blackman makes the point, what if it's something you don't agree with that the president decides to do? >> what i'm familiar with, in the context of immigration law, it's rooted in supreme court decisions, in legislation, in regulation. there is nothing extraordinary about thp it's quite similar to what george herbert walker bush done in 1990. there was no controversy there. ronald reagan protected hundreds of thousands ofç nicaraguans. there was no troefers there. i think this is a smokescreen to hide the fact people don't want immigrants to be integrated into america. >> ifill: blark what is the alternative if this isn't the right approach? >> simply because the president doesn't get what he wants doesn't mean he gets to do it anyway. we hadç an election. his party didn't do very well. sometimes when you're a politician you have to take your losses and go home, despite the humanitarian concerns which i think are significant and frank gets to make valid points, you don't get to to do what you want when don't have the votes in congress. every time the president has been in office, elections have lost seats. so i really think the fact that the president cited this gridlock in washington as a justification for his executive actions is really a misnomer. he doesn't have the power and he is choosing to do it anyway. >> ifill: so there is no alternative. is that what you're saying? >> right. until the congress is willing to approach and make aç compromis, there's nothing that can be done. frankly, that's how our system works. our constitution is not designed to be efficient. gridlock is part of our constitutional order. for better or worse, we have checks and balances for a reason. >> ifill: josh blackman, and frank sharry, thank you both very!]uch. >> ifill: in a vote on the senate floor last night, lawmakers blocked a bill that would have drastically changed the way the national security agency currently monitors american citizens. >> on this vote, the yeas are 58, the nays are 42. >> ifill: with that, the u.s.a. freedom act effectively died on the senate floor last night, failing to garner the 60 votes needed to move to full debate. the legislation would have ended the national security agency's bulk collection of domestic phone call records, so-called metadata. >> our bill protects americans.ç >> ifill: the lead sponsor, vermont senator patrick leahy, spoke for most of his fellow democrats. >> the u.s.a. freedom act provides for commonsense reforms to government surveillance, and promotes greater accountability and transparency of the government's surveillance programs.ç >> ifill: former n.s.a. employee edward snowden revealed the secret bulk collection program last year. it was authorized under section 215 of the patriot act. this new bill would have forced the agency to get court orders for specific data from telecom companies. most republicans opposed the measure. georgia's saxby chambliss, ranking member on the senate intelligence committee, called it "totally flawed." >> the fact is, there cannot be one single case pointed to by anybody who can show that as a result of the collection of metadata under 215, any americaç had their privacy rights breached. it simply has not happened. it will not happen if we keep this program in place. >> ifill: president obama had proposed curbing the n.s.a.'s data gathering, and the houseç approved its own, weaker version of the bill in may. the white house supported the senate version in part because the law authorizing the entire program expires next june. joining me now to discuss what comes next for n.s.a. reform in congress is democratic senator from vermont patrick leahy. leahy, who is chairman of the senate intelligence committee, co-sponsored the legislation that failed last night. we reached out to several republicans who opposed the bill who were not available tonight. senator, part of the debate last night was whether your solution to this issue went too far or didn't go far enough. where did it land? >> well, weç got 58 votes out f 100 senators. normally that would be enough to pass a bill, but the republican leaders wanted it filibustered and wanted it blocked, did not want to have amendments, did not want to goed for. and he was able to keepç most f the members of his caucus do it. i think that's a mistake. we all know there's got to be changes in the n.s.a. program. we all know there's going to have to be changes in these intelligence programs. we had a good compromise, one the house of representatives would have accepted. let's goe go forward with it, ls do it, because next year, everything expires anyway. >> ifill: i definitely want to ask you about that but teets looets talk about what your bill would have done first. how would ending bulk collection have protected americanç citizens? >> because right now, we collect everything and we actually get nothing except that we go into everybody's life-- yours, mine, everybody else's. that's not what we believe in as americans. we should have something that is very specific, that actuallyç relates to threats, and then has some very clear understandings of who can be looked at. for one thing, we had somebody who could raise an issue in the secret courts and say, "wait a minute. you're going too far. let's take this up on appeal." we had a lot more checks and balances. that doesn't make us less safe, but it does make the average american a lot more secure in their privacy. >> ifill: how would-- how would have streamlining or other ways changing the federal surveillance court, the secret court you referenced, how would that have changed things? >> right now, there's no appeal. if the court says,ç "another te government's right," even though they may be basically by their actions ruining someone's business or reputation or closing down their business, nobody can say anything. nobody can even talk about it. what we wouldç do is have somebody in there as a public advocate who could say, "you're going too far. you've got the wrong person. we're going to take this up on appeal." a lot of people, a lot of people say we ought to at least have that. there's no other court in this country where you don't have at least an ability to have some kind of an adversary or have another voice heard. there's no other court in this country that does that. and i think a lot of people who have spent a lot of time in courtrooms, as i have, are concerned about that. >> ifill: well, as you alluded to a moment ago, the legal authority for this program is going to expire in june unless something else happens.ç what happens if that occurs? >> well, at fthat occurs, then just about everything n.s.a. does and everything that they do in these secret courts are going to end because everything in the patriot act will end. i think that there are some things that we should be allowed to do, that we need to do for our security. but not at the cost ofç individual liberties. if this was a-- you know, we have a case where you have mikely and ted cruz, me, chuck schumer, we're going across the political spectrum. we came together on this. and i think that many people, certainly our high-tech companies who were being battered about around the world because of our laws, they would have loved to have seen this pass. and i think there's a lot of disappointment today that the republican leader stopped a good bipartisan bill from going forward. >> ifill: and, yet, the privacy advocates say even if your-- what you describe as cç good bipartisan bill had goneedd for forward, it still would have left the most damaging, the most troubling parts of the law untouched. >> no, actually, we had a lot of privacy experts who were very strongly in favor of it. we had the a.c.l.u., for example, inç favor of it. we also had the n.r.a. in favor of it. we had quite a coalition. we had almost every one of the high-tech companies that deals in sharing information. they were in favor of it. it was much-- it was far more protective of privacy than what we have now. and i think that unless we pass a bill similarly to what i have or even more protective of privacy than what i had proposed, we could very well end up in this country not having a law one way or the other. >> ifill: how can that happen if the republicans take over with their 60-vote majority iç january? >> they're not going to have a 60-vote majority. and they have to pass something by june 1. there are a lot of people, both on the republican side and on the democratic side, who are very upset that the republican leader refused to allow votesçp or down, refused to allow amendments to come forward. and they're not going to be very eager to cooperate in getting that 60 votes that they'll need in june. >> ifill: you're right. best-case casescenario, they'll have 54 votes. senator patrick lahey, thank you very much. >> good to be with you. >> ifill: a school shooting north of seattle last month left five students dead, reviving questions of safety and violence for students and teachers. another school district in washington state is answering that question in an unconventional manner: arming school administrators. producer terry murphy from k-c-ç t-s television in seattle has the story. the incident that happened at sandy hook for me and my community was the tipping point because it opened everybody's eyes. our staff safe? >> reporter: in the toppenish school district, the answer to that question was to let school officials carry guns. >> we've taken the stance where we're arming our administrators. right now, we have 11 in the school district that are currently armed. >> reporter: john cerna, toppenish superintendent, is one of them. >> if this should happen, i would be one of the first responders. if i had to, i would give up my life. >> reporter: cerna has spent his life in toppenish, located in the yakima valley, a landscape painted with rolling fields and a city painted with miles of murals.ç >> i've carried guns forever. i've been shooting since i was a kid, so, for me, it's veryç routine. i respect guns. i'm not afraid of guns. >> reporter: under the watchful eye of an expert, cerna and his administrators practice their skills. all are volunteers, and most have firearm experience. we're allowed to shoot video as long as we hide their identity. i don't want anyone to know who is armed. i don't want them to have a target on their back-- with the >> reporter: in addition to training, cerna shows us their bulletproof vests. over that, another vest identifies who they are when the police arrive.çç >> students in the schools and out in the streets. >> adam diaz is the chief of police. he showed us armed guards privately employed by the school district. >> would like to see a police officer in every school. do i know that that's a reasonable option? it's not. >> sir, let me see your hands! >> reporter: confronting an active shooter is a big part of police training, as this simulator demonstrates, police need to know when to shoot-- >> let me see your hands! >> reporter: and when not to shoot.ç it's these spilt-second decisions that administrators may face, and that troubles critics. jon lane is one of them. >> i know they're well intentioned, and i don't doubt that at all. hopefully, they're well-trained. i'm a little skeptical that you could have enough training. even police officezs!who have extensive training don't always make the best choices. >> reporter: lane is in a unique position to talk about school shootings. in 1996, this former wrestling coach and teacher faced the barrel of a gun held by barry loukaitis, the moses lake shooter. after almost two decades, lane still finds it difficult to talk about that horrific day. it began with gunshots coming from a classroom down the hall. >> as soon as i opened the door, i smelled the gunpowder. >> reporter: lane dove behind this desk. then, barry loukaitis gave him ç choice. >> barry said if i didn't stand up, he'd start shooting more kids, so i knew it was something i had to do. i told him i was too afraid andç i couldn't do it, and, of course, i was. but, by that time, i was close enough to him, and i knew it was an opportunity to end the situation and i charged him and pinned him against the wall. by that time, the police were there and came in. >> reporter: hailed as a hero and now retired, jon lane works in his community to promote positive change among youth. >> i don't have the answer. there's lots of answers. it's not just a gun problem. there's other dynamics to it. it's a family problem. it's a social problem. it's a faith community problem, violence in the media. >> reporter: among the students we spoke with in toppenish, there seems to be a consensus about the policy.ç >> i probably would feel safer with it. i don't know what could happen here. someone could come, but we have a staff member who's trained who could probably stop the situation. >> reporter: the hope in toppenish, and every other tpzchool in this country, is tht school shootings will stop. but if it does happen here, john cerna says he'll be ready. >> i'll give up my life for my children because i'm old. i've lived a great life. i've lived the dream. give me a fighting chance. and i'm a good shot. >> ifill: washington state was also home to a different kind of tragedy this past spring that captured the attention of the country-- a devastating landslide. in less than two minutes last march, a square-mile #eld of debris slammed into the community of oso, killing 43 and destroying dozens of homes. scientists are trying to better understand how landslides happen and whether new technology can better predict the risk of one. that's the subject of tonight's "nova."ç >> the pacific northwest is landslide country. more rain fall here's than any other part of north america. as much as 118 inches annually on the western slope of the cascades. research suggests climate change could result in an increase in the number and intensity of showers. this could cause more frequent landslides on unstable slopes. but oso experienced a slide beyond expectation, and scientists want to know what caused the mountain to turn to liquid so quickly and flow so far. richard i'veed son has studied debris flow for 30 years. >> when we firstç arrived on te site and looked out on the area of devastation, it really didn't make sense. you don't expect a london oridgeinating from that height to travel that kind of distance, so immediately, that poses a big questionç in your mind scientifically as to why this thing traveled as far as it did. >> the unique physics of the landslide was the result of a phenomenon iverson knows well-- when the ground turns to liquid in what's called lic liquid fac, usually when people heard liquidfaction, they think of earthquakes. when the ground shakes and you have loose, wet soil, it can liquify and become stabilized. landslides can also cause liquifaction. >> his models illustrate how fast a landslide now liquified, can move. he believesç oso's 7 million cubic meters of mud was moving at 60 miles per hour. >> it took less than one minute for the debris to move from the source here all the wayç across the flood plain. that's a distance of roughly one kilometer. here's the scale. and for some extended period afters, it gradualliely oozes ot along the margins. >> virtual oso provides some answers bbut what if we could recreate a real landslide to discover how far and how fast it will go. in oregon richard iverson oversees excerpts at the largest flume, a 310-foot-long chute. they put together truck loads of soil material to track how it will behave when water is addedç this is how geologists here study the forces of nature. >> ifill: you can watch "nova's" "killer landslides" tonight on most poobs stations.ç >> ifill: now, the growing fallout surrounding one of america's most famous comedians. bill cosby, caught up in a swirl of decades-old rape allegations, has been dropped from two high- profile projects. nbc, home of his popular '80s sitcom, announced it will not proceed with the pilot for a proposed new family series. and netflix announced it's postponing the premiere of a new comedy special tied to his 77th birthday. at least five women have come forward recently, describing episodes of alleged sexual assault they said have been ignored before. cosby has denied some and refused to comment on others. sharon waxman, the editor-in- chief of the wrap, an entertainment news web site, joins us now.ç sharon, just since we started talking about this, it's clear the cable program-- the cable network testifyland announced they are pull reruns of the "cosby show" which are ujipuitous on television right now. how significant is it that so many are jumping off the cosby ship. >> it's significant. bill cosily has been one of our most beloved and i would say rather untouchable icons for decades and in the space of a week and a half, all of a sudden that seems to be crumbling before our very eyes. just in the last 24 hours, the decisions that you cited by nbc dropping a show that it was developing, a series with cosby, and netflix dropping a stand-up special, and now tvland pulling reruns-- this is an-- it's another case of the incredible power ofç social media because that is where this started. these allegations have been around for many years. a lot of us probably didn't want to hear them, didn't really want to pay attention to them. and in the span of days, this became unignorable. >> ifill: it seems like there are two pieces to this, one is harges and the other is the business impact. how significant is it that nbc, which was his home for so many years, and you tell me how this works when you get a development deal with a network-- how much of a business impact is it for them to pull out? how much money do they lose and what does he lose? >> well, i don't think there's any significant business impact on nbc. they're constantly developing shows, and so-- and they constantly make pilots and they don't-- or they'll even air six-- two epi episodes of somet. the percent annuals of shows that actually make it to air are very low, but you're talking about bill cosby so that would be a high-profile project. there would be a lot of eyes trained on that and the expectation would be that it would be good because his showç is on the air in different versions, "cosby" "the bill cosby show" have been on the air for years. what is the impact to bill cosby, probably something, yes disple these women-- it seems a different one has comeed for every day to make very similar charges to one another-- how damaging is hisç response-- ori should say nonresponse, how damaging? >> his lack of response. i think that that's sort of what-- i think that's what everybody is wondering. if there's no truth to it, then why doesn't bill cosby come out and say this? but i really am of two mind about this. on the one hand, it is absolutely damaging that when npr asked bill cosby a question, who's been out and about quite a lot on the media circuit lately because he's been promoting a book, which is why this sort of "deer in the headlights" moment came when heç thought he was ot promoting a book and he was asked about the allegations, bablgd up by an op-ed in the "washington post" by one of his accusers and he said nothing and he asked him again and he came back with nothing. that right there seemed to speak volumes about something, but on the other hand, i want to say that iç have covered so many of this media firestorms that now, you know, spin up a matter of hours sometimes because of the power of twitter and because of the power of facebook. and sometimes there is nothing to them, or sometimes these are nuanced cases, and sometimes there are people who are fabricating things and sometimes there are people who are telling the truth and it's very, very hard to know. and if you're accused of, that it's really hard to giveave reasonable, coveragent explanation in the face of a firestorm, which is what bill cosby is facing right now. >> ifill: full disclosure. the newshour interviewed him for the washington, d.c. art exhibit, he and his wife, just last week. so, yes, he has been out therep lot. but i wonder how much of this still has a legal impact and how much of this is a p.r. impact at this stage? >> the p.r. impact is devastating. he's wall-to-wall news cnn right now, and we as a news site have been covering him heavilyç and the stories are all over yahoo, and web sites are picking up our stories and stories of sites like ours that cover entertainment journalistically. so that's very, very bad for him from a p.r. standpoint. what happened really with the story it started-- bill cosdee himself ended up inadvertently putting fuel on the fire for this, because as part of his promotional tour, he invited people on twitter-- he or the team that works for him-- to come up with a bill cosby meme and the idea was to do fun and have jokes around the billç cosby-- as wiewf always known him. and it totally backfired and people starting meming things about rape, and that is what i think set it-- got it to a critical mass, got attention to this issue to a critical mass. >>ç ifill: sharon waxman of the wrap, thanks for helping us out. >> thanks, gwen. >> ifill: now, the continuing effects of the gulf coast oil spill. it may not be in the headlines as much as it once was, but some communities are still coping with its aftermath. a new documentary showing in select theaters around the country returns the spotlight to those issues. hari sreenivasan talks to the filmmaker. >> sreenivasan: it's been more than four years sense the worst environmental disaster in u.s. history fouled the waters off the gulf coast after the "deepwater horizon" rig exploded. oil gushed intoç gulf for almot three months before it was capped. 11 people died. since then, billions of dollars have been paid in slementz, shored lines have been cleaned, and areas have been restored, but some reads, businesses, and environmentalists say some places along the gulf coast havç never fully recovered. a new documentary called "the great invisible" highlights some of those issues. >> i'm used to seeing dirt, san, something like that, but i ain't never seen black-- like a black, oily look. i jut caught these shrimp. look how they look. see the black in them and stuff? see? that's subversives came out of the water. that came out of that shrimp. when that shrimp was in the freezer freezing, that came out. >> sreenivasan: filmmaker margaret brown joins me now. what was it you were trying to achieve when you set out to make the film?ohú3 >> well, when i started to make the film it was very personal because i'm from alabama. i grew up on the gulf coast, and my father started sending me pictures of his house, which is on the water, and it was surrounded by the oil boon-- or the owner boomç that the volunteer fire department had put out to prevent the oil from reaching the shoreline. and there were all these workers working around the house. it just was really sort of didn't look like his house anymore. and it felt very personal. and then i started talking to people that i'd grown up with, and people just didn't really know what to do. in a hurricane, which happens a lot in the south, people know what to do. there's, like, a checklist. but with this, no one knew what to do. >> sreenivasan: you also have access to foot annual frommed in the "deepwater horizon," and you talked to some of the people who were actually on the rig when it exploded, but here they are years later, and they're struggling even with basic health care need. >> right. well, yes, doug brown, who swon of the people who was on the rig, he was the head engineer, heç gave me a tape that he'd me to show his family what it was like to work on a rig, because he was really proud of his job. and i went home and looked at it, and i just couldn't believe that it was like the "titanic," you know, seeing this footage. it was incredible to be able to use it in the film. >> sreenivasan: what are some of the struggles they're living with today? >> well, he has a lot of injuries from the accident, and at every step, transocean e b.p. has fought him and said it's-- you know, you have to keep proving that your injuryare related to the spill. so he keeps having to-- he lives in portland, oregon, or near portland. he has to fly to houston, check in with their doctors and undergo the treatment there instead of doing it where he lives. he's had multiple operations. >> sreenivasan: one of the things that this region conjures up is people who are resilient after hurricanes, and one of your characters, an interesting thing he said, this isn't like a hurricane where we can just rebuild our house. this is our livelihoods that are gone. there are deep economic consequence said that still have ripple effects there. >> yeah. it hit really hard, and we profiled this community called bayou la batre, the fishing community in alabama,ç and, lie i said before, people know what to do when there's a hurricane. they know how to rebuild. with all this uncertainty, you know, a lot of scientists have said this might take 30 years to figure out what the environmental damage is. so there's so much uncertainty, it's really hard to know what to do. and also, you know, a lot of businesses, especially smallç businesses, are closing because the oysters just haven't recovered. a lot of fishing areas haven't recovered, and it's tough. >> sreenivasan: you also have scenes that are kind of interesting from oil executives in a very informal and casual setting. tell us a little bit about that. what was that like? >> well, i felt like there's things that people in the industry understand-- you know, think about every day that we as americans don't really think about. you know, there's this-- there's this factory under the gulf of mexico that we're all connected to, and i felt like if i can show it from the industry perspective, in addition to how this affects people all along the coast, it's more of aç broader portrait. we're all connected to it, and i definitely wanted to include their viewpoint as well. i just felt like it wouldn't be a complete portrait without that. >> sreenivasan: did it remake you think about your relationship with oil and how we are using it every day? >> i 19, definitely the-- i mean, definitely the filmç switched halfway through between eye thought it was something just about what happens when the cameras go away on the gulf coast, you know? i'm from there. is it going to change, you know, if i shoot a film over a long period? and then, you know, about a year and a half in, i got really interested in how i'm connected to it. we're driving up and down, we're flying places for interviews. i started thinking about my own connection to all this and how we're all connected to it and what we don't think about when we fill up our car. so kind of wanted to make a broader film at a certain point, i realized, just a reactive film about what happened to a small place. it was a bigger issue. >> sreenivasan: filmmakerç margaret brown. the film is called "the great invisible." thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> ifill: finally tonight, on a lighter note, we end withç jeffrey brown's story of bluegrass players wedded to making music together and to each other. ♪ >> dinah won't you blow, dinah won't you blow your horn ♪ >> brown: it's not exactly 'dueling banjos' when these two get together. they are husband and wife bela fleck and abigail washburn, who've long enjoyed completely separate musical careers, but are now recording and touring together.ç their recently released debut album has already topped billboard's bluegrass charts. we talked to them earlier this year at the rockygrass festival in lyons, colorado. >> i think we knew it was going to work up front. >> we did. >> because abby's grandmother had invited us to play at her church and that was the first e ever did a concert together and it fell together so easily and people liked it as much as anything we had ever done separately. >> brown: the 56 year old fleck, a 15-times grammy winner, is recognized as one of the virtuoso banjo players of the era. he's led the genre-bending ensemble bela fleck and the flecktones. but is also known for his experiments with jazz, rock and roll and classical music. three years ago he wrote his first stand-alone concerto for banjo. ♪ç thirty-seven year old washburn is known for more traditional, old-time banjo music, playing solo. ♪ç and also a part of the all- female bluegrass band called uncle earl. as a couple, they finish each other's sentences, but their different styles of playing-- well, that can bring problems. >> we have different limitations and different challenges playing together. and i think abby has technical challenges that get posed because i ask her to do things she hasn't done before. >> brown: like what? >> oh, all kinds of things. just to play a chromatic scale is hard for me. the world i come from is these tunes that are trancelike and they repeat over and over again, almost like irish or scottishç traditional music, appalachian music. >> we play very different styles. abby is going to play for you a little bit of what's called the claw hammer style. notice she's not wearing any picks on her right hand. our right hands are really different. >> i've got three finger picks. stuff. >> and i strike down, he pulls up. ♪ >> brown: and bela, you do something different. three fingers. so by rotating these three fingers, all the sound comes out with very little effort. so even if i'm just doing the right hand, it sounds like this. if i add the other hand, or play it almost like a guitar either with a pick or going up and down. ♪ç >> brown: so that turns the banjo into more of a solo instrument? >> it turns it more into an actual musical instrument. >> what? >> brown: uh-oh. >> i try to play the banjo as though it were a musical instrument. >> brown: so what is she playing?ç >> i'm just joking because people always act like the banjo isn't a real instrument. when i started playing people weren't really playing scales on the banjo in a way that understood the whole neck, like a good jazz guitar player would. or a violinist would. so it was a great opportunity for me. i could play a little bit of bach or some charlie parker stuff. >> brown: and you like all those. >> i'm curious and i love allç these different kinds of music and the more i play different kinds of music, the more i see the connection between them all. >> brown: the two of them, in fact, have explored connections with banjo music all around the globe. washburn, who studied chinese in college @íd is fluent in mandarin, has toured china and adapted its folk music into banjo tunes. ♪ >> we can only communicate with music. >> yeah, music. >> he has explored the roots of banjo music which can be traced back to the slave trade in africa. >> j.b.: fleck meanwhile has explored the roots of banjo music which can be traced back to the slave trade in africa. ♪ ♪ 0pthat may . ♪ >> brown: wherever they go, they say, there's enthusiasm for their instrument. ♪ what do you think accounts for the enduring love of this music? >> it feels like something true and honest to people.ç you know, it's not smoothed over, over-produced kind of situation like most of the music we hear on the radio in almost every idiom. >> there's a sense of connection to our country and who we are as a nation when you hear this music. a sense of connection to history and what came before. it's called roots music because i think it makes us feel rooted like a tree. if we're the leaves, this music is the roots, and it makes us feel satisfied and nourished and strong. >> brown: the two plan to continue touring together for the foreseeable future, partly because they now are a trio.ç their 21-month-old son, juno, accompanies them on the road. >> i have a lot of friends who had kids and traveled as musicians and were gone for their whole childhood. often times the marriage didn't work out too. and i don't want to make that mistake with this opportunity. >> it's just an obvious fit toç be able to sit up there on stage in front of an incredible audience and look over to the side and see our little boy sitting there playing. it feels like a dream come true that i never even imagine. >> brown: no sign yet if juno will take up the family banjo business. i'm jeff brown for the newshour from lyons, colorado. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. president obama announced he'll address the nation tomorrow night, to lay out an executive order on immigration. he's expected to shield up to five million people from being deported. and the buffalo, new york, area braced for another two to threeç feet of snow on top of the six feet that's fallen since monday night. 69 years ago today, president harry s. truman addressed congress to outline his idea for a national health insurance program. on the newshour online, columnist dr. howard markel writes about president truman'sç proposed five-point plan for universal health security. that's on our h homge. also, we interviewed filmmaker brent huffman about his new documentary on an afghan archaeologist's race to save a 5,000-year-old site from destruction at the hands of a chinese mining company. that's on "art beat." all that and more is on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we'll have special coverage of president obama's address to the nation on immigration. that's at 8:00 p.m. eastern. i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at2the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. ç >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions 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.orgç this is "nightly business hen alerts h tyler mathisen and plus. with jim cramer and fellow portfolio manager stephanie link k p and insights. you can learn more at the st >> land of confusion. over the outlook for interest rates and the federal reserve may have further muddied the path ahead when it released the mi in the bull's-eye. shares of target rally on upbeat earnings just ahead of the y season. can the new ceo bring back the target of year's past? the next bat what the president will tell the nation tomorrow and what it could all mean f

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