PBS NewsHour; December 12, 2018 6:00pm-7:01pm PST

good evening i'm judy wardroff on the news hour tonight the president's former personal attorney is sentenced to three years in federal prison saying in court he felt it was his duty to cover up mr trump's dirty deeds then britain's prime minister teresa may survives a no confidence vote but the future of a brexit deal remains uncertain plus a potential bipartisan breakthrough on criminal justice reform we talk with senators from both sides of the aisle and how one historic maryland town is weighing taking drastic measures to protect itself from climate change if we don't take this bold step then what will be left of the town if another storm happens all that and more on tonight's pbs news hour major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by

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verdant and peaceful world more information at macfound dot org and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you president trump's ex-lawyer michael cohen now faces three years in prison he was sentenced today for arranging hush money payments over mr trump's alleged sexual affairs and for lying about his boss's business dealings in russia cohen said nothing after leaving federal court in new york he was ordered to surrender on march 6 to begin serving his time we get more now from andrea bernstein of wnyc she was in the courtroom today so andrea i think we've gotten used to it being almost a spectacle of these court scenes when various defendants

people accused have shown up tell us about what the scene was today well inside the courtroom there was real drama because there was we didn't know what was going to happen and there were many members of cohen's family there his parents his children his brother uh and just a packed courthouse uh in a it's the first time in a new york courtroom that i've heard everything from taxi medallions to russia and and tell us a little bit about the exchanges between the the judge uh and and what cohen himself had to say right so this was a very different sentencing here i've been to a lot of sentencing hearings and usually what happens is the defense lawyers will say that their client is really a good person that has just gone astray this once and deserves leniency and the prosecutors will say no no it was a serious crime today both sides said democracy depends on the sentence here cohen's lawyers were arguing he deserves leniency he cooperated with the special counsel he testified against

the most powerful man in the united states president trump and the judge should be sending a signal to other cooperators that they should come forward and the prosecutors in the us attorney's office were arguing no no no he committed serious campaign finance violations he defrauded the american people he defrauded the irs and if those are not given a serious sentence then that will send a signal to other people who want to undermine the electoral system that that's fine so it was a very different tenor from other sentencing hearings that i've been to you were telling us at one point they were speaking about democracy itself depends on how this sentencing turns out that's right and it was interesting because the judge said there was a point at which cohen obviously asked for no jail time and the judge said to him you cannot just wipe the slate clean you have lied to congress you have lied to banks you have lied to the irs you have lied to the american people you have committed

all these crimes of deception for personal greed and ambition and he then gave cohen the sentence however it was reduced from what it could have been under the guidelines cohen would have gotten four or five years for the crimes that he pleaded guilty to today so getting three years the judge was saying okay you're getting a little bit of credit for helping out but if we wipe these away we are undermining the american democracy and the american electoral system and what about cohen himself andrea what did he have to say so last summer in the courtroom he came in he was sort of relaxed today he just looked straightforward and then he gave this impassioned appeal where he said i the president was correct in calling me weak i was weak because i did not stand up to him and instead i covered up his dirty deeds and that was an extraordinary admission admission for a man who really came to public light when the dossier was released at the beginning of the trump presidency which at

that time said cohen had tried to cover up the russia collusion and we sort of came full circle today with the special counsel saying that actually cohen had helped them in material and credible ways in their investigation of what they called cooperation russian cooperation with the 2016 campaign coordination and just very quickly we also learned some something today from the southern district of new york the prosecutors there about these hush payments right so the owners of the national inquirer called ami signed a non-cooperation a non-prosecution agreement which was released today and they also described the scene that cohen had previously admitted to which was agreeing that they would pay stormy daniels a sum of money and hold on to her story and not release it and they also agreed that this was the arrangement that they had made at the outset of the campaign that they would make payments to make sure

that these women's stories never reached the light of day and the judge was very clear today when he said when that happens at the late stages of the election it undermines democracy it is not okay andrea bernstein describing a dramatic day as we just heard wnyc thank you very much thank you in the day's other news british prime minister theresa may turn back a bid to unseat her as leader of the conservative party but supporters said she promised to step down before the next national elections in 2022 it all stemmed from resistance to her brexit deal with the european union we'll have a full report after the news summary hundreds of police searched across eastern france today for the gunman who attacked a famed christmas market in strassburg he's accused of killing at least two people and wounding a dozen jonathan miller of independent television news reports from strassburg france is back on max alert the strassburg lockdown failed to snare the gunman a full-scale international

manhunt in full swing echoes of the berlin christmas market attack two years ago the festive spirit of this city sapped the blood of innocence splashed again on european streets the security level would never be high enough to avoid an attack from a mad person it's absolutely unavoidable what can you do the fugitive suspect named tonight as sherif shakat french citizen strassburg born and bred he'd been on the terror watch list he'd opened fire in three locations the screams are truly chilling as he rampaged through the christmas tourist heartland of this beautiful old city killing randomly as he reportedly yelled allahu akbar he evaded capture by commandeering a taxi and making his escape during his journey he opened fire several times with a handgun and used a knife with which he seriously injured

and killed people faced with four soldiers from the sentinel operation he fired in their direction they shot back and he was injured in the arm the european parliament was in session at the time today they held him in its silence we have to go forward we should not change our habits this is why yesterday we continue to work in the plenary session the truth is habits have changed though it's just that seeing combat-ready troops patrolling streets is normal now that report from jonathan miller of independent television news the united states senate moved today to consider ending military support for a saudi coalition fighting in yemen the resolution comes amid bipartisan anger over the murder of saudi journalist jamal hashokji u.s intelligence agencies have concluded that the saudi crown prince ordered the killing meanwhile the u.s house will not consider u.s involvement in the yemen war for the rest of this year republican leaders narrowly pushed through that proviso

today during debate on the farm bill the bill itself passed easily and it now goes to president trump for his signature it is worth 867 billion dollars over 10 years and we'll get the details later in the program in turkey president recep tayyip erdogan warned today that he is ready to assault u.s-backed kurdish forces in eastern syria the ypg militia has fought the islamic state group but erdogan says the militia is linked to kurdish rebels inside turkey in okara today he said an offensive is imminent but is not aimed at american forces helping the kurds we have said and we are saying again that we will start the operation to clear the east of the euphrates from separatist terrorists in a couple of days our target is never u.s soldiers our target is separatist terrorists who are active in the region in washington the pentagon said any unilateral military strike into northeastern syria would

be unacceptable there is word that u.s investigators believe china engineered the cyber attack on marriott's starwood hotels the breach exposed the personal data of some 500 million guests reports in the new york times and washington post say the marriott hack was part of a broader effort by china's ministry of state security the news comes as the trump administration is preparing to take action against china over its trade and cyber actions congressional negotiators agreed today on overhauling sexual misconduct rules for lawmakers and aides the compromise bill updates decades-old rules on reporting such claims members of the house and senate would be personally responsible for financial settlements instead of charging them to taxpayers on wall street today stocks managed to regain a little ground the dow jones industrial average was up 157 points to close at 24,527 the nasdaq rose 66 and

the s&p 500 added 14 and the u.s national film registry is adding jurassic park my fair lady and broke back mountain and more than 20 other movies the library of congress announced its annual selections today their addition makes a total of 750 films that have been tapped for special preservation since the registry began 30 years ago still to come on the news hour the british prime minister survives a no confidence vote following trouble brexit negotiations two senators discuss a potential bipartisan breakthrough on criminal justice reform what's inside the latest farm bill moving through congress and much more we return now to the crucial no confidence vote that britain's prime minister teresa

may has survived as nick schifrin reports this unexpected challenge to mrs may comes amid the larger chaos of the drive toward brexit the result of the ballot held this evening is that the parliamentary party does have confidence and with that the head of the conservatives parliamentary committee announced the british prime minister teresa may survived the number of votes cast in favor of having confidence in teresa may was 200 and against was 117 that hush spoke to a political fight that was close and difficult but tonight may projected confidence this has been a long and challenging day but at the end of it i'm pleased to have received the backing of my colleagues in tonight's ballot it had been a tumultuous 48 hours order after her brexit deal faced intense resistance she pulled the vote and then this morning members of her own party triggered a vote to oust her as

their party's and britain's leader so instead of attending a plan meeting in dublin to fight for her version of brexit may headed back to the house of commons to fight for her job the public voted to leave the eu they want us to secure a deal that delivers on that result and we shouldn't risk handing control of the brexit negotiations to opposition mps in parliament because that would mean risking delaying brexit or even stopping brexit may's defenders called the vote of no confidence a waste of time can my right honorable friend think of anything more unhelpful irrelevant and irresponsible than for the conservative party to embark on weeks of a conservative leadership may might have survived but her brexit plan remains controversial especially the so-called irish backstop right now northern ireland part of the united kingdom and the republic of ireland part of the european union have no land border and cars and goods can cross easily may's plan would keep that border open but could leave britain subject to european union customs rules indefinitely conservative

politicians argued her version of brexit didn't break the relationship with europe enough but she also faces opposition from the left and labor party leader germy corbyn the time for dithering and delay by this government is over may has tried to convince europe to tweak the deal and held emergency meetings with european officials yesterday but they held firm vowing no new negotiations or concessions as german chancellor angela merkel said today we do not have any intention of changing the withdrawal agreement this is the general position of the 27 member states and therefore no changes can be expected at the end of our debates after surviving tomorrow may heads to a european union meeting where she'll once again ask for concessions the eu vows not to grant and with me now to discuss today's vote and where brexit goes from here is robin niblett the director of chatham house the british think tank and research institute thank you very much for being on the news hour can you just tell us how we got here why did conservatives push for a no confidence vote i think we got

here i mean there's been a bubbling um sense of dissatisfaction with prime minister may for quite a while now but we've got here specifically because she withdrew very unexpectedly the opportunity for members of parliament to vote on her deal on monday and she had members of a cabinet out saying that she absolutely was going to stick with this vote being called and let the cookie crumble as it might see how many votes came through and she pulled it at the last minute and there's i think a sense deeply in the conservative party this is slightly the prime minister who botched the snap election she called a bit over a year ago that some of the lack of political skill uh gave an opening for those who've been long opposed to her to call a no confidence vote within the conservative party there's obviously criticism of her deal uh from multiple angles uh and one of the things she has said uh is that she will try and answer some of that criticism by talking to the european union again by going back to the eu and trying to get some kind of better deal but but nothing's

changed from the european union we heard from chancellor merkel of germany today so is may uh in a better position or worse position uh to try and get some kind of tweak to this brexit deal that's been negotiated for two years well i think um you 27 leaders know that therese may is not going to move she's not going to go um she cannot be challenged again at least by the conservative party for her leadership for 12 months there's always a possibility of a no confidence vote by the whole of parliament in her government um but again there i think the conservatives would really hang together you wouldn't get this two-thirds one-third split so you 27 know that therese may is the person they're going to have to do the deal with they know at the same time that there is extensive opposition to the type of deal that's been struck but given that there is no majority in the british parliament for a very hard brexit one in which in essence the uk would drop out with no deal and nor there is there any appetite i think for a second referendum unless it can

be possibly avoided it all comes down to tweaks that can be done um on the deal sidebar commitments that what you described in your story the backstop the the insurance policy of what would come into effect if no agreement is struck by the end of 2020 that both sides could say this is the last resort maybe we wouldn't let extend more than one year uh the agreement for a future relationship would be negotiated in this period but to be frank the best they're going to be able to do is tweak around the edges and i think then therese may has to come back to parliament and challenge those those leaders to say look what do you want if you don't want this deal what's the alternative is no deal or a second referendum and i think those are the most unpalatable outcomes so she's going to have about a month to take those tweaks as you call them back from europe and try and sell to parliament at this point to uh use a crystal ball uh is a second referendum likely uh is for example the tories as you mentioned trying to bring down the whole government or or perhaps even

a crash uh out of the european union look there is definitely no majority in parliament for a crash out of the european union european union for a no deal i think the prospects of a second referendum are much much higher than they were even two or three weeks ago i'd put them certainly in the 40 range maybe drifting towards 50 for the simple reason that parliament cannot agree on what type of brexit to drive through and we know the conservative party which would have to carry the deal is is riven and is deeply split so the possibility of a second referendum which could be carried out pretty quickly um is definitely i think on the rise however just because there's a second referendum doesn't mean you end up with an approval for it what's in the question is the question therese may's deal versus remain therese may's deal which remember is not very popular or just simply leave it's a very difficult uh set of questions i think personally if there were a second

referendum there's a strong possibility the country would vote still to leave but they'd rather leave probably around therese may's deal robin niblett director of chatham house we'll have to leave it there thank you very much us senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says the senate will take up criminal justice reform before it leaves for the year the first step act would address prison and sentencing reform including lowering mandatory minimum sentences for drug convictions expanding recidivism reduction programs in prisons and placing prisoners no more than 500 miles from their families it has broad bipartisan support on capitol hill and it has the backing of the white house joining me now two senators who've been pushing this overhaul republican chuck grassley of iowa who chairs the judiciary committee and democrat dick durbin of illinois who is

the minority whip in the senate gentleman good to have you both with us senator grassley it was just a few weeks ago that the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell was expressing not a lot of enthusiasm uh for this uh bill what changed well we just proceeded as you have to do through the legislative process uh you know you have to have 60 votes to get something done so show me 60 votes so we showed him 60 votes uh what are you how are you going to get by the president so we negotiated uh with the president get him on board and he's on board and then how are you going to get it through the house of representatives we pre a conference sit with the house of representatives and jeremy goodlatte so it's kind of like how the legislative process worked we just did everything that needed to be done and once it got done it seemed to me that there was no excuse for not bringing it up and we probably got maybe 75 votes for it at least i would say well senator durbin there clearly were some modifications made in the bill what what was done to this bill and who worked on this

well i started six years ago i believe with senator mike lee uh and we realized we couldn't get the first base without the chairman of the committee chuck grassley we sat down and started working on changes so that the bill could be supported by senator grassley along the way cori booker joined us uh we've had an amazing group of democrats and republicans and yes the bill has changed it is not my original bill i learned a long time ago if you were determined to get your original bill without changes you're never going to see it happen we had to find compromises that didn't compromise the basic values we were fighting for well senator grassley uh as as senator durbin is saying there clearly were some some changes made some shift in language and in and in the substance of the bill but there is still some opposition among your republican colleagues senator tom cotton of arkansas is saying yes he likes some of these changes but he also says it still would allow for the early release of criminals who've committed violent offenses bank robberies

uh where they were uh using dangerous weapons uh sexual assaults how do you answer the criticisms like the these well he's wrong first of all there isn't anybody going to get out of prison as a result of our sentencing reform part of it uh everybody realizes with mandatory minimums there's some unfairness in it and this is to address the unfairness issue so you know you might have a 25 year sentence and somebody in prison feels it's not fair so you go back to the prosecutor before you even go to the judge but between the prosecutor and the judge you can make a case that maybe you ought to have a 15 year sentence or a 10 year sentence uh in in place and if if you convince the judge that could happen but you're not going to get out on the street as a result of a judge's decision so that's why i say that uh he uh senator cotton is wrong on that point well i ask about that

because he's saying he he has yet to be satisfied on it well he he isn't going to be satisfied and he knows it and today i had this conversation with him i said you know i just looked up the record you and i vote together 92 percent of the time or 93 percent of the time and he says well i must have been wrong seven percent of the time well he was wrong seven percent of the time and he's wrong on this senator durbin uh on the other hand there's been opposition from liberal groups who who believe the the sentencing rules regulations laws have been far too strict that they've been too harsh they've required people to serve time uh much more time than they should have served how does this legislation address their concerns well it doesn't give them all they wanted or all that i want but that's the nature of a bipartisan compromise but what it boils down to is this we went and said when it came to the sentencing provisions that if you have committed a non-violent drug offense without the use of a weapon and you are willing to cooperate with the government

with the prosecution you will be eligible to be considered for a lower minimum sentence eligible no mandate on the judge it's still up to their discretion uh when it comes to the criminal records for example of those before them so there are some who would like to have gone further and i did too but in order to get this bill moving forward with the support of groups like the american civil liberties union and the fraternal order of police we've really struck an amazing balance here we've got to take advantage of this when we can it's seldom that you find these groups together on anything well and and who was responsible for i mean who's been the main impetus behind this senator durbin well i introduced it with senator lee uh we brought it to senator grassley and it's been the grassley durbin bill for some time now but we're happy to have senator lee and senator booker with us uh we work together on this and i might add with support from the white house it has been absolutely essential and add to what he said about the white house by saying that jerry kushner's son-in-law of the president advisor to the president uh is a big force

in moving this bill along to where it is now and particularly a big uh force in getting uh the president to back it and the president has quite a reputation for being tough on law enforcement and we all know he is tough on law enforcement and to have his backing and he had a news conference and he says my pen's ready to sign this bill senator grassley how do you explain the shift though in in attitudes over the last few decades i mean we all remember the time or many of us remember the time when there was this very tough on crime uh war on drugs attitude there seems to have been a shift in thinking over the last 20 or so years yeah part of it's because of the high cost of incarceration part of it is a result of texas mississippi georgia maybe some other states proving that uh that if you train people and make them productive citizens when they get out you don't have them returning to the high cost of uh prison uh and you also uh don't have as much crime

because you got to commit another crime to get put back in prison and then uh the just looking at some of the unjustified sentences that were given and feeling that that we got to be more fair if you're going to have respect for the judicial system so senator durbin what would you add to that how do you think attitudes have changed why have they changed well we've gotten a little bit smarter we want to make our neighborhoods safer that's for sure we want to reduce the prospect that somebody who's dangerous is going to be on the streets but we realized that having someone serve 20 years or a life in prison for the simple sale of narcotics without a violent crime without a gun really went too far we want to be a lot smarter and as chuck said we've learned from a lot of states that there are things you can do and make available to prisoners so we're certain when they leave that they're not going to commit another crime that avoids another victim another incarceration another bill for the taxpayers and it ends up with a more productive life that's the

goal criminal sentencing on one side president reform on the other part of the bill those two together i think have been proven by many states to be very effective so senator grassley uh clearly some bipartisanship at work here is this a sign of things to come or is this a one-time only uh situation uh no i think it's a good sign uh and uh the the senate uh promotes some bipartisanship because you got to have 60 votes but uh people of good uh faith towards each other can get together and uh the senate isn't as divided as people to grassroots think it is we do speak to each other we work together uh and uh and and so i think it's a good news for the future senator durbin what about you do you think we're going to see any more of the two parties working together on significant legislation you will and even as we were waiting for this program to start chuck and i were talking about other legislature uh legislative activity that we share the same views on we're going to continue

to work together we trust one another and i couldn't be here with this bill without him and i'm not sure he would have the democratic support without the myself with senator booker and others so it proves it can be done how about the how about the border wall immigration that's a little bit of deviation but you're never going to get 100 senators or even two friends in the united states senate of different parties to agree on everything but you work together when you can and this is an example of where we're working together and we might have views on different things but we're still going to speak to gate speak to each other and get along and see what we can do together and there's no end to that if you if you if you want to be a good senator it's a midwestern thing judy yeah that's right too i had to ask senate senator senator dick durbin senator check grassley thank you both okay thank you very much and stay with us coming up on the news hour how one historic town is considering drastic action to counter the effects of climate change and a new book details the life and

death of a war correspondent but first let's look at another piece of legislation that was just approved by congress today it is the wide-ranging farm bill with a cost of 867 billion dollars over 10 years it reauthorizes a variety of farm and food programs among other things this bill would provide new help for dairy farmers and legalize industrial hemp it also avoids cuts that had been proposed to the food stamp program our own lisa desjardins joins me now from capitol hill to dig into the details so lisa remind us overall what's in the bill and why does this bill matter this bill is critical to a large part of america that doesn't necessarily live in cities and towns but keeps this country fed there are 2 million farms in this country judy and that number has been decreasing what's more farmers in america since 2013 have seen their net income listen to this drop by half what the farm bill does is it keeps programs in place that helps stabilize farms some of them are

subsidy programs some insurance programs but if it doesn't get reauthorized farmers have less stability and these are people who basically are wall street traders on tractors every day prices matter and this bill helps them get loans and pay for and plan their next season without it there's a lot of instability so one of the things we mentioned was dairy farmers what kind of help are they getting and and how does that make a difference well it's significant because dairy farmers in particular have been hit by retaliation from the trump tariffs so let's go through exactly what's happening in this bill this will expand the program that is a safety net for dairy farmers in fact it will give them seven times the protection that they had in the last farm bill it would allow more farmers to take advantage of that dairy price support and also judy it's important to note some conservatives wanted this bill to tackle the idea of subsidy reform that is not in this bill that's a bigger conversation that's one reason people like iowa's senator chuck grassley voted no but

overall dairy farmers are some of the bigger winners in this bill lisa another part of the bill that's gotten a lot of attention is food stamps the so-called snap program tell us how the bill changes that so food stamps make up the the spending for food stamps 80 percent of the farm bills funding and there was a huge fight over whether there should be more work requirements now the food stamp program or snap reaches 42 million people but there will be no changes that could mean cuts in that program some conservatives wanted to add work requirements that would have led to fewer people getting those benefits but that won't happen in this bill instead judy i've learned from multiple sources on both sides of the capital that the secretary of agriculture secretary purdue is expected within the next couple of days to try and flex administrative power to launch a new rule that could mean more people especially in cities and towns might have to abide by work requirements basically it means cities couldn't opt out of those work requirements we will have to watch for

that so of course it's a farm bill but there is also language in here that addresses wildfires so tell us about that this is pivotal there are some new provisions and they're happening over the last year that allow for better use better guaranteed funding to fight wildfires but judy what's most significant here was that some conservatives wanted to change rules allowing for more logging more clear cutting they say something that would prevent wildfires they say environmentalists were getting in the way however democrats put up a very large fight they said that that was actually a problem that too much logging would come from those changes and in the end those changes were not made so a victory if you will for environmentalists on that part of the bill and finally lease a language in here about the legalization of hemp right this is a big deal a potential 20 billion dollar industry this is happening because senator mitch mcconnell of kentucky a state which has a very large hemp industry wants to wanted to move hemp from being a controlled substance which it is now to not

a controlled substance judy quickly there is an oil that is created by from hemp that does not have thc in it and this is a victory for mitch mcconnell personally and for the hemp industry at large some of which goes to medical purposes and other things so it's something to watch very closely well a lot going on inside this farm bill and we are so glad to have you to help us understand what's there lisa deja dante the capital thank you climate change is forcing many communities across the country to think about new ways of adapting one town in maryland has been hit especially hard john yang and a team of students from the university of maryland capital news service visited ellicott city to explore the town's future and produced this report for our weekly segment the leading edge it's a town people love its streams and hills its historic architecture and quaint shops it's

no surprise that money magazine recently named ellicott city maryland one of america's best places to live so attractive that in recent years its population has exploded it was originally built as a mill town channeling multiple waterways down to the flour mill one of the first in the country it has a history of flooding the thing about ellicott city is about 250 years ago it was designed to do exactly what's happened during these floods but the 21st century effects are very different outgoing howard county councilman john weinstein represented the town for four years every drop of water that falls in this watershed converges at this point and is constricted it goes where it wants to go combination of climate change upstream development and and just simply the the way the town is built i have to say you know i'd have my doubts if it were raining really hard if i'd want to come and shop in ellicott city at that time for 20 years jone eve shea cohen has had an antique business that she

runs with some help from her friend gary weltoner i i worry that suddenly one day there will be no ellicott city maryland howard county number one oh my god in 2016 a devastating flood destroyed the downtown business district ma'am what's going on the water is above the door is coming in the building we need somebody to come in we have no place to go oh my god what's going on cars there are cars flying down the street down the street it was called a freak storm a once in a lifetime event three people dead most buildings in the lower town gutted jone eve and other people of main street dipped into their life savings to rebuild they would come back stronger than ever no doubts that i was going to come back she took what had been destroyed and made it sparkle then this past memorial day weekend main street learned that it had not been a once in a lifetime storm after all i remember

early in the day um it was beautiful and uh sometime in the mid afternoon another shop owner came up and visited and said you know the rain is starting and it's not looking good so we of course kept an eye on the water and decided that this could become a very serious situation but hopefully not a repeat of 2016 suddenly about um i would say it was around 415 we noticed that the water that was coming over onto the sidewalk was now starting to come in the front door and gary if he hadn't been there i don't know what i would have done i don't think i would have made it so as the water started coming in we moved a few things thinking that oh this is going to pass and it didn't the water continued to come in i tried the back door of the building and it was deadbolted then he went to the front door and he could not open that door the pressure of the water from the street was already rising and he couldn't open the door and when he did try to push it a

little bit then all this water started coming in and then it was coming in at one point when i'm at the front of the shop i noticed that there were two cars very close together actually floating down the street and gary i mean he was amazing he just focused he focused on what we should do and suddenly the back left corner of the building just exploded when that moment arrives the showcases that were at the back suddenly started falling over almost domino like it was like oh my god you know how are we going to get out of here i mean we couldn't get out the back door and now all of a sudden showcases are following me around in the border and toppling over and i did not want to drown in my store as we are moving quickly to the front of the building you know ready to get out i looked back and i saw a very large all glass showcase tumbling into joneve's direction so much was happening so quickly and i knew that if i lost my focus

that we may lose our lives but gary had the smarts he took an antique candlestick telephone which was made out of metal and he broke the glass in the top of the door and he just said joni i want you to hold on to me as tight as you can do not let go inside of the store it was probably just above our knees but outside when we did step out into it it was almost immediately immediately up to the waist to get from joneve's shop to a second story porch right over there gary dragged himself along this railing with joneve on his back tower county 911 someone spotted them and called 911 yes there are two people stuck on tiber river there's a water almost above their head the water was up to our chins and i thought if we had waited three or four minutes more we probably would not be sitting here today talking to you the town leaders had to do something what they proposed was radical tearing down

10 buildings here in the historic heart of this town including joneve's shop that would widen the river channel and create an open space they hoped that would reduce the severity of future floods by allowing the water to spread out the cost 50 million dollars the fate of ellicott city is now in the hands of the incoming county council many have doubts about spending 50 million dollars when there are demands for more schools more roads more housing some are horrified by the idea of destroying buildings in the heart of town former councilman weinstein understands the dilemma i think it's a valid concern uh but then you have to weigh that with the the practical aspects of if we don't take this bold step then what will be left of the town if another storm happens i just think that it is unfortunate that these buildings have become essentially the victim of overdevelopment you have to have buildings removed for the safety

of the people what why is there any other thought i think about the most recent event in in florida and what happened in north carolina and what's happened when puerto rico and what has happened in texas and the wildfires in california and i can truly empathize with these people so i think we need to take a very good look at how we build and the decisions that are made so we can guarantee a healthier earth for future generations these people are hardly alone in facing climate changes but here the question is immediate do they have to destroy the heart of town in order to save its future and can they come up with an answer before the next big rain for the pbs news hour i'm john yang in ellicott city maryland time magazine named its person of the year yesterday choosing a group of journalists they

dubbed the guardians of truth nick schifrin is back now with the author of a new book who tells the story of another reporter killed for her own guardianship of the truth six and a half years ago the world lost a memorable and vital voice marie colvin was a foreign correspondent for the sunday times in london and one of the most remarkable war reporters of her generation she covered every conflict from beirut in the mid-80s to the war in syria where she was killed by the asad regime back in 2001 she lost her left eye in sri lanka and a few weeks later she wrote why do i cover wars i did not set out to be a war correspondent it has always seemed to me that what i write about is humanity in extremis and that it is important to tell people what really happens in wars in extremis the life and death of the war correspondent marie colvin is a new biography from marie's friend lindsey hilsum international editor for channel 4 news and it is my pleasure to have you here on the news right to be here one of the uh remarkable things that comes out in this book with diary entries and real access to everything that marie

wrote was her fearlessness and something that really drove her uh and let me read one excerpt from uh the commencement of yale when she graduated in 1978 from the yale daily news it doesn't matter if you mess up choose the wrong road flop in vegas what's important is to throw yourself in headfirst to go for the gusto and if you blow it you blow it how important was fearlessness to marie colvin but she didn't blow it did she and i think that what i learned about marie from her childhood on long island i was lucky enough to to go to where she was brought up in oyster bay and spend time with her family you know she was the eldest of five children and they used to play this game called dead man's branch where each child had a tree and they would climb out along the branch and the one who won was the one who could stay longest as they got to the flimsy end without it breaking well you can guess which was the child who always won that game she always pushed it that little bit further and i think that in that rebellious little girl i saw the seeds of the brave woman the war reporter who i met many years later the second aspect that

really comes across in the book is that she was frankly attracted to war she was attracted to men who were connected to war whether for relationships or the leaders uh and also a desire to see the world and and to frankly experience danger i think as you write to match her appetite for life well i think that she wanted to be where history was happening i don't think that she was attracted to war in terms of the violence and she certainly wasn't interested in weaponry she said i don't care if it's a t-55 or a t-72 tank she said what it is about is people and then you come back to the title of the book in extremis that was what fascinated how how people managed to survive the unendurable how they got through it the horror of war was something she felt she must expose and write about but it certainly wasn't something that she reveled in in any way and she uh expressed and had and also wanted her readers to have so much empathy i think for people and so much understanding uh for what the people the victims of war were going through and let me just read a

couple of of extraordinary passages that she wrote the first one from 1987 a palestinian woman who'd been killed by a shia militia in beirut though her hair was clotted with blood haji ahmed ali seemed younger now that she'd been cleaned her body was soft and shapely she wore two tiny gold earrings someone opened her fist and cleaned out the handful of blood soaked dirt she had clenched in her pain and in baba amr in homes where she died in february 2012 helping tend the wounded was um amr a 45 year old mother of seven who had offered to be a nurse after a neighbor's house was shelled she wore filthy plastic gloves and was crying i'm obliged to endure this because all children brought here are my children she said but it is so hard how important was her empathy i think i think that that was critical and that first extract where you read she read about the the young woman who'd been killed with the little gold earrings in her diary i read that this reminded marie of a pair of gold earrings that she had bought for her younger sister cat

and i think that one of the important things about that experience where she saw this young woman basically she saw her lifeblood seep away after she had been shot by snipers who were besieging the camp was that she she identified with this woman in a sense you know and she saw that this was the war on women that was what the title of the article that she wrote the sunday times was an influential newspaper and marie felt that her story had made a difference because three days later the siege of the camps was lifted and that i think had a tremendous impact on her the idea that because she did feel this huge empathy and she was so she was so committed to telling the story of these people but that it might make a difference and that empathy and understanding of course drove her to stay in homes to go back to homes to go back to baba amr and and that ultimately killed her right yes so now we're in 2012 and she and i were together in beirut it was the moment when the uprising the peaceful uprising in syria was morphing into into civil war it was too dangerous i said it was beyond my danger threshold to be smuggled over the border

and go to babarama which was under siege by the syrian forces but she insisted not only in going in where this was the importance of her story that the syrian government said that it was just terrorists there not civilians and she wrote a story called the widow's basement about the women and the children who were sheltering from the relentless bombardment underground and another story about the field clinic where there was no doctor just a veterinarian who was tending to these injured civilians so she gave the lie to what the syrian government was saying she came out to file and then she felt that she had abandoned the people and so she insisted on going back in she said lindsay this is the worst we've ever seen i said i know but what's your exit strategy she said that's just it i don't have one we're working on it now and a few hours later she was killed by a mortar fired by government forces which brings us back to fearlessness when you write this book when you think about marie's life where does the bravery end and the recklessness

begin i think that that's a very blurred line i mean you see her there with her eyepatch mind you she did have one studied with rhinestones for parties it's important to remember that marie was the best company on the road she was the funniest person you could ever meet i don't in some ways fearlessness is wrong it's to do with overcoming fear because she was so committed to the story that was why she overcame the fear she she had and i think obviously you can look back now you know she had a cat billy smith he lived his nine lives maybe she lived hers but i suppose what i feel is that there's been so much emphasis on the violent and tragic nature of her death that i hope that in some way by writing the book that i have i guess brought her back to life and i think you absolutely have done that lindsey hilsum the book is called in extremists the life and death of the war correspondent marie colvin thank you very much thank you

barbershops are often hubs of conversation i'm told but one on the west side of cleveland is also a hub for health gabriel crank kate kramer of pbs station ideastream reports barbershop customers come in for a haircut and maybe some friendly sports banter i think we go win but i don't know if we go sweet but at waverly willis's urban cuts barbershop in cleveland some customers come in for an additional reason so your blood pressure is perfect so you it's perfect it's perfect no it's perfect willis wanted to add a health component to his hair cutting services my clients were starting to disappear and when i would run into their wives or their children or their girlfriend i would ask them what happened to joe and they would tell me

that he passed away from a stroke or a heart attack something to that willis wanted to help partially because he has his own history of blood pressure problems i lost 200 pounds in the last couple years i was able to get off of the high blood pressure medication which was one of my goals unfortunately men we don't go to the doctor for the most part unless something has fallen off this is going to be a gathering place they're going to come and get their haircuts anyway so again i might not have a conversation about it when i went to see the urologist last week uh girls there was 117 over 77 willis started this program a few years ago by asking medical professionals he knew personally to lend a hand but recently he partnered with cleveland's american heart association to make the process more formal brenda parks is the multicultural initiatives director it's an ideal location for people to come mainly because people trust their barber and because they trust their barber they're more likely to you know explain or share information

that they would normally share with anyone else have you noticed a change like in your energy anything like that willis also founded the urban barber association a network of cleveland area barber shops and salons that he encouraged to provide their customers with blood pressure screenings i don't want it to be strange to know that you can get your blood pressure taken out of barbershop it's more barbershops than hospitals it's more barbershops than urgent cares so why not use these small satellites as beacons of hope and a resource center in our community with willis's help four other barber shops and salons in cleveland now provide blood pressure screenings he hopes to double that number next year for pbs news hour i'm gabriel kramer in cleveland finally we have a news update democratic congresswoman nancy pelosi has reached a deal to limit her time if she's elected speaker of the house to no more than four years that move pacifies democrats who did not support her bid over concerns the party needed new younger

leadership and that's the news hour for tonight i'm judy woodruff for all of us the pbs news hour thank you and we'll see you soon major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by text night and day catching that replay burning some fat sharing the latest viral cat you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you with talk text and data consumer sailor learn more at consumer sailor dot tv kevin kevin kevin advice for life life well planned learn more at raymondjames.com vnsf railway vnsf railway and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you thank you you're watching pbs pbs kqed thanks our members and community partners for their support inspired by 5 000 years of civilization classical chinese dance explores ancient dynasties and colorful regions live on stage shin yun coming to berkeley san jose and san francisco next time on nature newbies battle with pneumonia continues if we can't cure her then she'll never make it back to the lab newbie is not alone all the orphans have obstacles to overcome there are physical challenges all right floater we're going in and social ones a bit hairy and

gauze shit but they all must be mastered before these orphans can return to the wild nature's miracle orphans tonight at eight on we'll meet again the shaking is happening it's just going and going it wouldn't stop after the alaskan earthquake of 1964 a search to reunite people who changed each other's lives do you think that talking to bucky might help you find closure i think so i never had a chance to say goodbye to anybody mrs young was trying to shield you little children i want to thank her for protecting me during that horrific life changing event we'll meet again tuesday night at eight followed by bonnie and clive having your car towed is never a good feeling unless it means supporting kqed feel good about letting us tow your old car truck or boat and you may even qualify for a tax deduction donate today amazing i want that one kids have a seat at the table on check please bay area kids hi i'm leslie sabraco

join me in a panel of junior food critics as they talk about their favorite restaurants and dishes it's crazy it's out of this world young foodies take over the show with their recommendations i got this oh i think i just found a new favorite restaurant on check please bay area kids thursday night at 7 30 here's tonight's lineup on kqed made possible by your support fancy any sleep world wants to help make our communities a great place to live work and sleep for more than 40 years mancini sleep world has been helping families like gears experience quality sleep and comfort mancini's offers hundreds of mattresses that will fit anyone's needs mancini's also has a complete selection of kids bedroom furniture

including bunk beds daybeds chairs and more mancini's offers delivery setup and will even take your old mattress away mancini sleep world visit sleepworld.com friends and families can experience magical memories at san francisco ballet's nutcracker for tickets visit sfballet.org ready set go you've heard of people having a photographic memory where they can recall a moment and remember every detail about it sometimes i think i have that with food i don't know why but i can remember exactly where i was the smells the tastes every little delicious detail of certain meals that have left a lasting impression on me how wild is that today i thought it would be fun to recreate a few of the recipes from my favorite food memories cheesy chicken

enchiladas in a creamy salsa verde one of my childhood favorites so ridiculous light crispy a little sweet frosted cereal cookies a recipe handed down from my husband's grandmother and a fabulous pinto bean and