PBS NewsHour full episode Feb. 21, 2017

JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: The Trump administration outlines an aggressive plan to crack down
on undocumented immigrants and to strengthen border security.
Then, betting on Trump -- our new series kicks off in coal country, where families are banking
on the president's promise to bring back jobs.
DAKOTA HALL, Coal Miner: The only thing that I have really given thought about is Trump
getting in office and going back to work.
My American dream would just be to watch my kids grow up happy and healthy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And taking deep breaths to get through the school day -- how students
in Baltimore are using meditation to relieve stress.
CARLILLIAN THOMPSON, Principal, Coleman Elementary School: The children are now able to embrace
it and realize that: I don't have to be angry.
I don't have to fight.
I don't have to show off.
All I need to do is breathe.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: The
federal government has formally begun moving to get tougher on illegal immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security set that in motion today with top-level memos.
The new memos on immigration were set in motion just after President Trump's inauguration.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I just signed two executive orders that will
save thousands of lives, millions of jobs, and billions and billions of dollars.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now the secretary of homeland security, John Kelly, is putting the presidential
orders into practice.
His directives greatly expand the pool of immigrants subject to quick deportation.
Now anyone in the U.S. illegally who's charged or convicted of any crime is an enforcement
priority.
The Obama administration focused on immigrants convicted of serious crimes, threats to national
security and recent border crossers.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer:
SEAN SPICER, White House Press Secretary: The message from this White House and from
the DHS is that those people who are in this country and pose a threat to our public safety
or have committed a crime will be the first to go, and we will be aggressively making
sure that that occurs.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The new directives do not change the Obama program known as DACA that protected
from deportation more than 750,000 young immigrants, the so-called dreamers.
Mr. Trump addressed their plight during last week's White House news conference.
DONALD TRUMP: We're going to show great heart.
DACA is a very, very difficult subject for me, I will tell you.
To me, it's one of the most difficult subjects I have, because you have these incredible
kids.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Today, he told NBC News, "We are going to try to take care of the dreamers
very, very much."
Authorities do plan to enforce a longstanding provision on people caught in the act of illegally
crossing the Mexican border.
They will be sent back to Mexico, even if they're from a different country.
On plans for a border wall, the Kelly memos identify locations near El Paso, Texas; Tucson,
Arizona; and El Centro, California, for initial construction.
In addition, Secretary Kelly has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hire
10,000 additional officers and agents.
All of this comes amid rising fears among immigrants and nationwide protests.
Last week, activists staged a day without immigrants, shutting down restaurants and
stores to highlight the contributions of workers born outside the U.S.
WOMAN: I think it's important to show support and to try to open their eyes that we're not
here to be criminals.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And immigration advocates point to two cases, in Phoenix and Seattle, in which
people were detained despite apparent protection under President Obama's policies.
In the day's other news: The death of a Mexican teenager at the hands of a U.S. Border Patrol
agent reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
It happened in 2010, between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
The agent was on the American side when he fired at the boy on the Mexican side.
Details of what preceded the shooting are in dispute.
The teen's family is seeking the right to sue the agent in U.S. federal court.
In Israel, a military court sentenced Army Sergeant Elor Azaria to a year-and-a-half
in prison for killing a wounded Palestinian attacker.
Diana Magnay of Independent Television News reports on the outcome in the hotly debated
case.
DIANA MAGNAY: Grinning with nerves perhaps as he enters the courtroom and still in the
comfort of his mother's arms as he awaits sentencing, Sergeant Elor Azaria, 11 months
ago an unknown teenage army medic, now a household name and something of a hero to many in Israel
after a military trial which has divided the nation.
And the national anthem from his supporters once the sentence is handed down, 18 months'
jail time, one year on probation, and a demotion in rank, which his defense team says they
will appeal.
Rewind to March last year in the town of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
On the ground is a Palestinian man called Abdel Fattah al-Sharif.
Moments before, he and another Palestinian had stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier.
The other man is dead.
Al-Sharif lies wounded and seemingly harmless.
None of the soldiers pay him much attention, except for one, 19-year-old Elor Azaria.
He cocks his gun, steps forward and fires.
In Hebron today, Al-Sharif's family watched as Azaria celebrated.
The prosecutor had asked for three to five years, but the sentence was less than half
that, the judge citing mitigating circumstances, that Hebron was hostile territory and the
suffering the Azaria family had experienced throughout the trial.
YOUSRI AL-SHARIF, Father of Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif (through translator): Getting a year-and-a-half
is a joke.
This is not a sentenced.
If one of us killed an animal, they would put us in jail for God knows how long.
They're just making fun of us.
DIANA MAGNAY: For Azaria's supporters, he's a victim, doing his duty by the country in
the face of a terrorist threat, no matter the rules of engagement.
MAN: He's already spent a year in jail dealing with this.
His family has been broken.
His father had a stroke.
His mother has collapsed.
And he's got no backing from our government.
I don't blame the army.
I blame Bibi.
DIANA MAGNAY: Bibi, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has gone from backing
the military on Azaria's case for last month asking for him to be pardoned.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The prime minister was out of the country today, and had no immediate
comment on the sentence.
There has been another migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean.
The Libyan Red Crescent says that at least 74 bodies of African migrants have washed
ashore near a city in Western Libya.
They had been on a rubber dinghy that was trying to sail to Italy.
Officials say more bodies are still floating offshore.
Back in this country, hundreds of people in Northern California were forced to evacuate
their homes after heavy storms sent creeks and rivers flowing over their banks.
In San Jose, fire crews carried out a series of rescues as water levels surged.
One rescue came near a homeless encampment amid reports that up to 40 people might be
trapped.
MITCH MATLOW, San Jose Fire Department: Normally, that's only three or four feet deep out there,
but that water is not where it normally sits.
So I can't tell you how deep it is.
All of the water in the Coyote Creek watershed right now is dangerous.
It's swift moving.
It's carrying debris with it from areas that haven't seen water in years.
And on top of that, it may be contaminated.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Authorities say it may take four days or longer for the rivers to begin
to fall.
The new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, struck a conciliatory
tone today.
As Oklahoma's attorney general, he sued the EPA more than a dozen times to rein in regulations.
He also expressed doubt about climate science.
Today, he told agency staffers that he wants to -- quote -- "listen, learn and lead."
The rally resumed on Wall Street today, after the President's Day break.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained nearly 119 points to close at 20743.
The Nasdaq rose 27, and the S&P 500 added 14.
All three closings were new record highs.
And the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., said goodbye to Bao Bao, its 3-year-old giant
panda cub.
After a late last breakfast, zookeepers packed the panda up, put her in a FedEx travel crate,
including bamboo and other snacks, and drove her to Washington's Dulles Airport to catch
her flight, the panda express.
After a 16-hour flight, Bao Bao will join a panda breeding program in China.
We will miss you, Bao Bao.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": more details on the impact of the Trump administration's
plan to deport undocumented immigrants; fears of a spike in anti-Semitic violence; using
meditation to improve student learning; and much more.
We take a deeper look now at today's directives on immigration laid out by the federal Department
of Homeland Security.
Joining us from Miami, Alan Gomez.
He's an immigration reporter for USA Today.
And from Tucson, Nancy Montoya, she is senior reporter on immigration on border issues for
Arizona Public Media.
We welcome both of you to the program.
Alan Gomez, to you first.
You wrote today that this is going to mean a significant shift in the government's deportation
strategy.
Just how big a shift are we talking about?
ALAN GOMEZ, USA Today: It's really difficult to put into context just how big this is.
There's many components of what President Trump is trying to do that he's going to need
help from Congress.
When we talk about building a border wall, hiring 10,000 more Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officers and agents, hiring more Border Patrol, hiring more immigration judge,
he's going to need a lot of help from Congress on that.
But even if you put all of that aside, changes that were announced today in the Department
of Homeland Security memos represent one of the biggest shifts in immigration enforcement
that we have seen in a generation.
The pool of undocumented immigrants that are now available to be deported has vastly increased.
The powers of immigration agents have vastly increased.
The ability of local police to be deputized to carry out not just ICE functions, but Border
Patrol functions, is now a reality and is something that's going to increase.
So, when you look across the board at all the different changes that they make, again,
it's just really difficult to explain just how big of a change this is.
Basically, most undocumented immigrants living in the country now are at a high risk of deportation.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Nancy Montoya, is that what you see?
You're someone who has covered border and immigration stories for the last, what, several
decades.
What stands out here for you?
NANCY MONTOYA, Arizona Public Media: Absolutely.
Well, I agree with Alan that we are seeing a major shift in how immigration is functioning
in the United States.
It's not just that the president is going to require help from Congress in order to
implement all these changes.
It's also the attitude of people around the world.
How will they view America?
I have been talking to folks along the U.S.-Mexican border all day long today.
And I can tell you, in my nearly four decades of covering the U.S.-Mexico border, I have
never seen such energy and such emotion coming from the border, and it's not positive energy
either.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Alan Gomez, there is a bit of a contradiction going on here, because,
on the one hand, we hear the secretary of homeland security, John Kelly, saying, no,
we're not talking about mass deportations.
But, on the other hand, there is an enormous amount of fear that's being described in the
reporting of those who have been talking to people who could be affected by this.
ALAN GOMEZ: And that's because there's a difference between saying that you're going to target
undocumented immigrants who have a criminal record and what else you're allowed to do.
President Obama and President Trump have said the same thing, that their target for their
limited deportation dollars are undocumented immigrants who have a criminal conviction
on their background, who are gang members, who pose some sort of threat to national security.
But what is different under President Trump is that now there are more people who are
deemed enforcement priorities.
That means you don't just have to be convicted of a crime.
You can simply be charged with a crime, just be arrested and charged with that crime.
You can commit an act that an immigration agent deems is a deportable offense on his
own and initiates deportation proceedings against you.
And along the way, while ICE is conducting its operations, it is now ICE policy for the
first time that anyone that they pick up along the way who just has purely immigration violations
on their record can also be rounded up.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.
ALAN GOMEZ: So that's why everybody is scared that it's not just going to be criminal undocumented
immigrants; it's going to be the whole pool.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Nancy Montoya, how clear is all this to the people who are affected by
it?
NANCY MONTOYA: It's not clear at all.
In fact, I talked today with groups from DACA and DAPA, which are the deferred action folks,
who are supposedly safe under these new orders.
They don't feel safe at all.
In fact, they have told me that the -- that President Trump has used up all his potential
credibility when it comes to immigration issues.
They do not trust him.
They do not believe that they are safe.
Many of the DACA students, who are the dreamers, those who were brought here as children, told
me today that there is still this fear.
However, going alongside of that fear is this renewed energy, because groups from all over
the country, all over Arizona, are meeting, are working together, and so you are going
to see a surge of protests like never before.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, meantime, assuming they get the funding for it, Alan Gomez, the administration
is talking about another 10,000 ICE immigration agents.
There are already about that many, what, 12,000 immigration and Border Patrol officials, if
you add it together.
So we're looking at a doubling of the number of people who are going to be carrying out
enforcement.
What is that expected to mean?
ALAN GOMEZ: What that means is that, right now, if you're an undocumented immigrant who
is living in the United States under President Obama, the odds of you running into an immigration
officer, the odds of a raid at your...
JUDY WOODRUFF: You mean under President Trump.
You said under President Obama.
I think you meant under President...
(CROSSTALK)
ALAN GOMEZ: Yes, I was just...
JUDY WOODRUFF: Oh, you were making a contrast.
(CROSSTALK)
ALAN GOMEZ: Comparison.
Yes, sorry.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Go ahead.
ALAN GOMEZ: Basically, before, it was -- the odds of you running into an immigration agent
who was going to arrest you, detain you, and start initiation -- deportation hearings was
very low.
What this does is ramp that up dramatically.
And it allows -- and when you add the numbers -- the numbers of more ICE agents with their
new directives, and knowing that they can target anybody that they encounter on the
street, you're going to have what we have seen in the last couple weeks, which is panic.
There was a school in Corpus Christi that almost had to close down because there was
a fear that there was immigration agents in the neighborhood.
And so you are going to see more of them.
And every time undocumented immigrants or those immigrant communities at large see ICE
agents in the area, it's going to create a panic in that community.
And we're going to see that repeating itself over and over.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Nancy Montoya, is that what you think may be happening?
And if that's the case, what are the recourses for people who are out there who have questions?
Do they feel they can even come forward and try to get those questions answered?
NANCY MONTOYA: One of the things that has amazed me is how the faith community has come
together.
Back in the 1980s, there was something called the sanctuary movement that started right
here in Tucson, in fact, at South Side Presbyterian Church.
That's when Central American refugees fleeing the violence of the civil war in Central America
wound up in the U.S.
Now, just two or three weeks ago, South Side Presbyterian Church again has ignited the
sanctuary movement.
Right now, there are more than 2,000 churches, synagogues and mosques around the country
that are calling themselves sanctuary sites, where people can go in and ask for help.
And I was asked, how do people find this?
If you just Google sanctuary churches, you will be able to hook up with a church, a mosque
in your area.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Alan Gomez, finally, for those who have questions about this, where do they
turn?
Where can they go to get answers?
ALAN GOMEZ: That's a very good question.
It's -- right now, the best thing you can -- the only option you have right now is to
look at the two memos the Department of Homeland Security put out there.
The White House and Homeland Security have tried to provide some guidance.
It took some prodding from us today for them to say on the record that DACA will remain
and that those people who have those DACA protections, those will be honored.
So, yes, I think, a little bit like we saw with the travel ban a few weeks ago, we're
operating in a bit of a gray space, where we're not quite sure how exactly all these
orders are going to be implemented.
We have a lot of questions about how specific aspects that we haven't even had time to get
into tonight are going to be implemented.
And I think it's going to be like we saw with the travel ban, little by little, as things
get tested, and as people fight back and sue the Department of Homeland Security in certain
cases, that we're going to really realize what this all means.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, the "NewsHour" is going to continue to cover this very closely.
Alan Gomez, Nancy Montoya, we thank you.
ALAN GOMEZ: Thank you.
NANCY MONTOYA: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The past couple of months have seen a wave of anti-Semitic incidents in the
United States, including a dozen bomb threats at Jewish community centers in the past two
days, and the destruction of gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Missouri.
The president today made a statement of condemnation, but it comes amid growing concerns in this
country about anti-Semitism and other incidents involving hate, and some criticism that President
Trump hasn't responded forcefully and quickly enough.
Our John Yang has the story.
JOHN YANG: Over the past two days, authorities have evacuated Jewish community centers in
a dozen cities across the country, the latest this morning in La Jolla, California.
MAN: It's just bigotry raising its head again in this country.
JOHN YANG: No explosive devices were found, but it's part of an unsettling series of events.
On Monday, more than 200 headstones were toppled and damaged at a Jewish cemetery in Saint
Louis.
Since January 1, 54 Jewish centers in 27 states have been the target of 70 threats.
In all of 2016, there was just one such incident.
This morning, at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, President Trump
condemned the threats.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish
community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of
the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil.
JOHN YANG: Mr. Trump's comments followed Monday's tweet from his daughter Ivanka, who converted
to Orthodox Judaism before her 2009 marriage to Jared Kushner: "We must protect our houses
of worship and religious centers."
The president was far stronger today than he was last week, when, in two news conferences
over two days, he was asked about the apparent uptick in anti-Semitic incidents.
DONALD TRUMP: Watch how friendly he is.
Go ahead.
JOHN YANG: On Thursday, he dismissed a question from a reporter for an Orthodox Jewish weekly
as very insulting and unfair.
DONALD TRUMP: Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you have ever seen in your entire
life.
I hate the charge.
I find it repulsive.
JOHN YANG: Today, the Anti-Defamation League urged Mr. Trump to present a plan to combat
anti-Semitism.
And we are joined by the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, who is in Palm
Beach, Florida.
Jonathan, thanks for joining us.
You tweeted this afternoon that polling shows that anti-Semitic views have been fairly constant
for the past 20 years, despite a little uptick, you say, in 2013 and 2016.
JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO and National Director, Anti-Defamation League: Right.
JOHN YANG: Why, then, are we seeing this wave of threats against Jewish community centers?
What's going on here, in your view?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: Well, look, the ADL has been tracking anti-Semitic attitudes since
the 1960s.
And, as you said, our latest poll, which looks at anti-Semitic attitudes in 2016, turned
up about 14 percent of all Americans harbor these ideas.
That's more than 30 million Americans.
So, it's not a small number.
But I think what's changed is the fact that, over the course of the last 12 to 18 months,
we saw -- we had a political campaign that saw extremism move from the margins into the
mainstream of the political conversation.
We saw images and ideas from white supremacists literally shared from political campaigns
showing up in the Twitter feeds of major news organizations.
We saw it in our political rallies as well.
And then, after the election, there was a surge of hate crimes.
We saw acts of vandalism, certainly a lot of slander on social media and, in fact, in
the last few months, as you mentioned, a number of bomb threats, almost 70, to dozens of Jewish
community centers across the country.
So, I think what's happened is, the extremists feel emboldened.
The lack of comments from the highest levels of our political office have created a vacuum
that they have rushed to fill, bringing their hateful ideas literally into the center of
our public life.
That's got to stop.
JOHN YANG: Well, the president did speak out today.
What's your response to that?
What do you think of what he said?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: He did.
The president took an important first step today.
Literally, we hadn't heard him speak in the way that he did, talking about that these
threats are painful and that anti-Semitism is horrible.
Of course we agree.
And so his statement today was an important first step.
But, as we have said for a long time, now we need the next step, which is a plan of
action to calm these communities where anxiety has reached an incredibly high level.
JOHN YANG: What do you want to see him do?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: Well, there are a series of things.
We think it's time for the president to announce steps for the White House to undertake.
Number one, the FBI has been fantastic in responding to these threats and these scares.
But we'd like to see a full-fledged, comprehensive investigation from the Department of Justice,
using all of their energies to launch a civil rights investigation.
They have got the power to do that and to work with U.S. attorneys around the country.
Attorney General Sessions should get that started immediately.
Number two, we'd like to see a White House task force on hate crimes.
This could be something again convened by the attorney general, but you would bring
to bear DHS, the Department of Education, the FBI and other federal agencies to use
all of their resources to deal with this problem.
Number three, law enforcement needs to be trained on dealing with extremism.
The ADL does this already around the country.
And we need to make sure that every law enforcement agency and officer understands how to deal
with hate.
And, number four, we think every state should have hate crimes laws.
It's worth sharing, John, that five states today don't have hate crimes laws, including
South Carolina, where just last week, a man was arraigned.
He had been arrested by the FBI for plotting a Columbine-style attack on a synagogue in
Myrtle Beach.
But you know what?
That man couldn't be charged with a hate crime in South Carolina because it doesn't have
a law on the books.
So, the attorney general could push and the president could push governors and state attorney
generals to move forward with hate crimes laws all over America to protect the Jewish
community and other marginalized groups.
JOHN YANG: We have got about a minute left.
The president was asked about this very topic three times over two press conferences last
week.
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: Yes.
JOHN YANG: What did you think of the responses last week, and why do you think it took him
until today to get to where he is today and what he said today?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: Well, look, the response last week in both press conferences was clearly
inadequate.
But what we should focus on now is, he's taken the first step.
So, how do we seize this opportunity?
How can he manifest moral leadership and say, I'm not only outraged, I am energized to take
action?
And when he does that, the ADL will be prepared to work with him to find the perpetrators
and to ensure that America truly is no place for hate.
JOHN YANG: Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League, thanks very much for joining us.
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: You're welcome.
Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": coal miners who have placed their bets on President Trump's
promise to bring back jobs; and using the game of chess to help troubled youth.
But first; Baltimore, Maryland, has high unemployment and a violent crime rate of nearly twice the
national average.
Educators say that factors like these add significant stress to children and cause emotional
and behavioral problems.
Several area public schools are working to reduce that stress with programs that teach
mindfulness and meditation.
Our Hari Sreenivasan has the story.
It for our weekly series Making the Grade.
MAN: And exhale, pushing out all the things that make you stressed out.
HARI SREENIVASAN: This isn't your local yoga studio.
It's the Mindful Moments Room at Patterson High School in East Baltimore.
It's a place students go when they act up, get stressed out, or just need a break.
MAN: Stay in your happiness.
LATONYA LEE, Student: My day is so stressful.
As soon as I walk in the door -- I don't even have to do exercises.
There's just a big smile on my face because I'm in here.
If they didn't have mindful moments in Patterson, I wouldn't be here at all.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Why?
LATONYA LEE: Because it's too stressful.
And for -- to not have a place to relieve stress is like putting you in a oven.
HARI SREENIVASAN: These students are participant ambassadors for mindfulness meditation programs
run by the nonprofit Holistic Life Foundation at Patterson High.
It's a school that has struggled with higher rates of dropouts, absenteeism, and has more
students on free or reduced lunches than the national average.
Nineteen-year-old Chris Bowman not only practices mindfulness meditation at school, but he starts
his day with it, and yoga, which he's used to deal with his demons.
At a previous school, he says he used to fight with kids who picked on him for being black.
Then his father died when he was 13.
CHRIS BOWMAN, Student: Growing up without a father and stuff like that, I struggled
with a lot of depression, a lot of grief, and a lot of just really bad -- really bad
zones of like suicidal thoughts.
But I had to find a way to get out of that.
A mindful moment is when you -- you just take a deep breath in a moment of conflict and
just -- maybe you just look at that and just like, I can do this in a different way.
I don't have to fight this person.
I don't have to look violence as the answer.
HARI SREENIVASAN: When you get really angry at somebody else, and they want to fight you,
and you're close to losing it, what do you do?
TADREAL KING, Student: I just stress rest.
And I will go to the back of the room and sit by myself and due stress rest to relieve,
so I won't...
HARI SREENIVASAN: But isn't that person going to say, oh, well, look at that, she lost,
she doesn't want to fight me, she's too scared?
TADREAL KING: See, at that point, I don't care.
I'm just thinking of the positives, instead of fighting, because...
HARI SREENIVASAN: Good.
Kirk Philips manages mindful moment programs for the Holistic Life Foundation.
Given all the stresses that they're living with, how does taking a few breaths help?
KIRK PHILIPS, Program Manager, Holistic Life Foundation: There's the drama, there's violence,
there's all kinds of issues.
And they need it more than most kids who don't have that sort of trauma in their everyday
lives.
Those are the kids that really do need to step outside of that cycle of violence.
Patterson principal Vance Benton agrees.
VANCE BENTON, Principal, Patterson High School: When they're under situations outside the
school building, sometimes difficult situations, hopefully, they will be able to take a breath,
reconsider, and possibly walk away from death.
And when I say walk away from death, that means either death themselves or them killing
someone based on a situation that exploded.
HARI SREENIVASAN: A survey at Patterson High four years ago showed most students experienced
the death of a relative or neighbor.
The founders of Holistic Life approached the principal soon thereafter with an idea.
Principal Benton is so convinced, he now meditates every day.
VANCE BENTON: Lift your head up with your outward breath.
The feel in here since we have had the mindful moment is calmer.
Children are a lot calmer.
I don't believe in jinx, so I will say this, that although there are altercations that
happen during the course of a school day, during the course of a school year, our male
students, particularly our black male students, they don't fight each other in this building.
HARI SREENIVASAN: There's research that shows the effectiveness of mindfulness and meditation,
but whether or not it is effective in the classroom will take some more research.
Studies in peer-reviewed journals have shown mindfulness meditation that focuses on breathing
has positive impacts on important parts of the brain.
The amygdala, stimulated from strong emotions such as fear, shows less activity through
meditation.
The hippocampus, which regulates the amygdala and is key to learning and memory, becomes
more active following mindfulness.
And the prefrontal cortex, associated with maturity and making wise decisions, also becomes
more active.
Erica Sibinga of Johns Hopkins University has published studies on mindfulness practice
and children.
ERICA SIBINGA, Johns Hopkins University: Our qualitative data, our interview data from
youth do suggest that they use these techniques to help them settle themselves before they
take tests, to help them have better sleep patterns and sleep hygiene.
And we believe that those outcomes will also have downstream effects on academic performance.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Education administrators often look at measurable results, like test
scores and graduation rates.
But how can you measure the effectiveness of mindfulness?
MARIAH WOODS, Student: Inhale in deep and bring the goodness in.
And slowly get up.
I want you to lay down, close your eyes, and you relax and you -- that's the time, that's
the time for you just to relax and make sure you think of the good things in your mind.
When you have all the love in your heart, and you just want to send it to somebody,
not even calling on the phone, all you got to do is inhale and send all of it out, and
they're going to get it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Third and fourth graders at Coleman Elementary practice yoga and meditation
during after-school programs often without anyone to lead them.
Their principal, Carlillian Thompson, has noticed a major change in behavior in the
last three years.
CARLILLIAN THOMPSON, Principal, Coleman Elementary School: Since it's been in effect, office
referrals, the number has gone to almost zero.
We have zero suspensions.
The children are now able to embrace it and realize that: I don't have to be angry.
I don't have to fight.
I don't have to show off.
All I need to do is breathe.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Mindfulness breathing programs are now in more than a dozen Baltimore schools.
Similar programs are in schools in at least 15 states across the country.
I'm Hari Sreenivasan for the "PBS NewsHour" in Baltimore.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now a special series this week on the hopes and economic realities of many
of those Americans who voted for President Trump.
Three reports will take us to Erie County, Pennsylvania, Central Valley, California,
and the coal towns of West Virginia.
The president made economic promises in each of these places that helped him win.
Filmmakers with PBS' "Frontline" went to those areas looking for personal stories.
Our first report is set in coal country in West Virginia, and profiles two miners we
spoke with after the election.
It is part of How the Deck Is Stacked, "NewsHour"'s collaboration with "Frontline" and Marketplace,
in conjunction with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
DAVE BOUNDS, Retired Coal Miner: I have been registered Democrat all my life, but I crossed
over this year.
I voted for Donald Trump, because he promised to help the coal miner.
And, for this region, we need help.
There's good men out here just walking the streets.
Their families are getting desperate.
Welfare can't keep people forever.
These men need to go back to work.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: So I just left parts of Virginia, and West
Virginia.
And the coal industry is decimated.
The miners are out of work.
They are totally out of work.
I mean, there's -- there will be no such thing as coal in this country pretty soon.
What we're going to do, folks, is going to be so special.
We're going to bring back our jobs.
We are going to be America first.
We are going to make America great again.
DAKOTA HALL, Coal Miner: I really want to be a coal miner, always have been, ever since
I was in high school.
Everybody had their dreams about being a basketball player, football player.
I always just wanted to be a coal miner.
The only thing that I really have given thought about is Trump getting in office and going
back to work.
My American dream would just be to watch my kids grow up happy and healthy.
That's the only thing I could ever ask for.
I didn't have anything very long, you know, not a whole lot anyway.
Didn't make enough.
Didn't work long enough.
They said that things went dry.
It made it really, really hard to take care of a baby and a wife.
MAN: Since the election, a lot of lights have came on in mining.
Most of them have a job waiting on them, or they wouldn't be here to spend that money.
Getting outside with nobody hurt, now that's what pays the bills, and pays it the right
way.
We don't want no blood on that coal.
Nobody does.
MAN: What year is this truck?
DAKOTA HALL: Fourteen.
MAN: Fourteen?
DAKOTA HALL: I just got it two months before I got laid off.
MAN: So, you need to hurry and get back to work, don't you?
DAKOTA HALL: I guess I basically seek it because it's hard work.
And I have always been a fan of hard work.
It's the way I was brought up, a family man, I guess.
What are you doing, buddy?
Callie (ph), she's 4 days old.
She was just born on Friday.
Colton (ph), he's -- he will be 2 in February.
My father never was really there through the picture, you know?
I only got to meet him twice.
I never would let my kids down.
I always told myself that.
Coal mining, I don't think it's that risky.
My family's done it for generations.
But I think it's well worth it.
You know, there is risk in everything you take.
MAN: Respirable dust is on the test.
You can't see that with your naked eye.
The dust you see, you will cough up.
It gets caught in your throat and in your nose and in your mouth.
If we will do our job, we can eliminate black lung.
It's something you don't want as part of your check.
MAN: I hate to take such big breaths, but I really need to sometimes.
DAVE BOUNDS: Coal mining is a rough job.
I was very seldom off.
I worked six days a week, and sometimes seven.
I worked 16 hours a day, instead of eight.
When I first went in the mines in 1969, the risk factor of black lung disease wasn't mentioned
a whole lot.
I was one of them young coal miners.
I would never get it.
No, not me.
I mean, it happens to a lot of these older miners, but not me.
That's what I thought.
The doctor told me, he said, you have contracted.
Now you need to do something about it.
But buying a home, buying two automobiles, I had my daughter in school.
You couldn't go out and just quit work and go hunt a job somewhere in another field that
you wasn't even trained for.
So, you just had to keep working.
You had to keep going, until, one day, you realize, hey, I done went too far.
Our new administration is talking about repealing Obamacare and doing away with Obamacare and
starting a new one.
And one of our greatest fears now is, if you take the provisions out for the coal miners
-- I spent four-and-a-half years in litigation to get my black lung benefits started.
I wouldn't want my wife to spend four-and-a-half years trying to get her started, if something
were to happen to me.
I realize a lot of coal mines have shut down.
They have filed bankruptcy.
But taking a man's benefits shouldn't be part of it.
And everything that was promised unto him to go to work should be there waiting on him
when he gets ready to retire, without any controversy.
He earned that.
I thought I was 10-foot-tall and bulletproof.
It didn't take long for me to realize I wasn't.
Now I find myself as a 69-year-old, broken-down coal miner.
I think it's going to be the one to take me out in the end.
They can say, well, this man died of black lung.
DAKOTA HALL: If it picks up and it starts booming, that's probably all I will do for
the rest of my life, until I retire anyway.
I would love to do that, be a coal miner, support my family, make good money, you know,
have something in life.
DAVE BOUNDS: I cherish the days I got to spend with my dad and worked with him.
I miss him.
I really do.
Those memories, I wouldn't -- I wouldn't want taken away.
And if I could give any advice to any young miner right now, I would say run.
Find you another occupation.
When you see a coal mine, turn around and go the other way.
You just got to leave.
JUDY WOODRUFF: For a look at the full-length film, you can go to the "NewsHour" Web site.
That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.
As we reported earlier, President Trump visited the African American Museum of History and
Culture today, spending time considering the struggle to overcome racism in the United
States.
Tonight, another installment in our series Race Matters, focused on finding solutions
to racism.
Special Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports from Athens, Georgia, on building bridges through
the game of chess.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: This is one of Lemuel LaRoche's day jobs, teaching graduate students
in the University of Georgia's School of Social Work.
But LaRoche is a man of many parts, one who doesn't separate town from gown, especially
the parts of town populated by troubled youth.
LEMUEL LAROCHE, University of Georgia School of Social Work: These kids are looking for
opportunities, looking for a way out, bouncing from foster home to foster homes.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: And, to that end, LaRoche puts all of his teaching skills to
work with troubled and not-so-troubled youth, and others from other places, with chess,
the game he loves and sees as more than a game.
LEMUEL LAROCHE: While in Israel, I got an opportunity to play chess with this old Russian
man.
And although we didn't have -- we didn't speak the same language, while we had the chessboard,
as were playing chess, I kind of stepped outside of myself and realized, like, wow, and how
I was able to connect with this person, that even we didn't play chess -- even though we
didn't speak the same language, we were able to connect through the chessboard.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But you learned something from it?
LEMUEL LAROCHE: Yes.
Yes.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: What was it that you learned?
LEMUEL LAROCHE: What I took from that lesson was more of a -- this is a game that can really
unify races.
This is a game that can really unify people.
Chess is such a metaphor for life.
When I teach chess, I try to teach it from the perspective of, how do you take this game
and correlate it with the real world?
And when teaching children how to play chess, I try to teach them how to look at the world
different.
The same goes, when you give a man fish, he eats for a day.
When you teach a man how to fish, he eats for a lifetime.
I try to apply the same concept with chess.
DIONNE MCALLA, Chess Player: I think more critically.
I have to focus more, because, in chess, if you mess up moves, then you can basically
throw your whole game off.
So, you really need to think about what you do before you do it.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But you also begin to close doors -- well, close spaces between
black children and white children and Latin children.
Tell me how you did that.
LEMUEL LAROCHE: Adults are programmed in their own viewpoints, their political views, their
religious views.
But kids are still innocent.
So, if we can succeed at putting children together, getting children to shake hands,
look into each other's eyes, have that socialization in where they can engage and touch each other
in a positive way, then, when that child becomes a mayor or a commissioner or is put in a position,
he or she has an experience or have had an experience with African-American youth.
So, using chess as a tool to bring kids together, we do it through chess and pizza, chess and
ice cream, where we bring these kids together.
That, in essence, force the parents to come together, and before we know it, we have a
community that is really beginning to build collectively.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: And they begin to understand each other beyond chess?
LEMUEL LAROCHE: Indeed, because that's important.
And, oftentimes, chess is just used as the hook to bring them to the table.
But, beyond chess, now that I have a relationship with you -- if I have been programmed to see
you as a criminal, as a thug, as a racist, chess is a way for you to have that one-on-one
interaction, and now I realize that man what -- who I thought was a thug just beat me in
chess.
MICHAEL MORRIS, Chess Player: What this is doing is helping me learn in life that you
think ahead and plan ahead before you move.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: What happens when the police play chess with these kids?
LEMUEL LAROCHE: To watch the police officers engage with youth in a game of chess is -- to
me, it's a brilliant thing.
One is because, a lot of times, the way we have been programmed and conditioned to see
each other, kids have been programmed to hate the police, based on historical mistrust,
as well as relationships that they have had with parents, or if they have seen a police
officer incarcerate their parents.
So there is a negative stereotype about police officers in our community.
And, oftentimes, police officers have been programmed to see a lot of young African-American
youth as criminals because of the things that they have dealt with.
Engaging the kids with the police officers in a game of chess, it helps both the youth,
as well as police officers, to break the stereotypes that we have developed about each other.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: And you get reactions from...
LEMUEL LAROCHE: Very positive reactions, because, one, the kid now recognizes he has seen a
police officer smile.
There's positive socialization.
People are beginning to engage with each other.
The police officer is telling a kid, man, you beat me in chess.
It develops a relationship that you don't see.
So, once a year, we have what's called Justice Served.
And this is a way for the kids to whoop up on the police officers through chess, but
all in positive interaction.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: So, for communities where they don't have a chess master, or even
a griot, are there lessons beyond chess, do you think?
When you they have these divisions, how do you bridge the gaps?
LEMUEL LAROCHE: By bringing people together.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: How?
You can't just stand on the street and you say, you all come.
We're going to get together tonight.
LEMUEL LAROCHE: By building what we have built locally in Athens.
It was a process.
You first have to allow those who are in positions of power to engage with people who are affected
by policies that are being joined.
So, to get both in a room, we have helped to strengthen that process through our annual
chess conference.
This is a conference that brings policy-makers in the room with kids that are affected by
policies.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But now you're talking about chess.
I want to talk about how you do it if you don't have chess as the centerpiece?
LEMUEL LAROCHE: I truly believe that it is important to try to reach them at the youth,
at the ground level.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Who has to take the lead?
What kind of people do you think need to get engaged in this, and how do they go about
bringing this in?
LEMUEL LAROCHE: If we begin to look at things as we are all small pieces of the big puzzle,
then that helps to make the picture a lot more clearer.
The great WEB Du Bois said that the problem with the 20th century is going to be the problem
with the color line.
And it's sad that, in the 21st century, we still find ways to erase that color line or
find a way to turn that line into a circle, where we can include everyone.
I'm optimistic because I see how we engage the youth on the ground.
I see what happens when we engage little white boys, little white girls, and, you know, Asian
and Hispanic.
We bring the kids together.
I see that type of engagement that they have.
I see the genuineness in it.
And I'm in a position that, when I see parents, the parents, the parroting of the parents,
when the kids are repeating what they hear from the parents.
Then it's an opportunity for me to redirect that concept, redirect that thought.
So, by engaging the youth on the ground, having them engage, talk to each other, having them
play with each -- socialize with each other, I believe that that is the one way that we
can erase it.
And it's about allowing those who have been programmed to see you a certain way, or how
we have been programmed to see other people certain ways, that we really begin to have
that genuine dialogue, that genuine interaction.
And I try to do that through my work.
But I am very optimistic that it can happen.
It's tough, but it can happen.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Thank you very much, Lemuel LaRoche, for joining us.
LEMUEL LAROCHE: Thank you so much.
It's an honor.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight: perspective on America's elderly from a once-worried daughter.
America's aging population continues to explode and will double, from 46 million today to
98 million by the year 2060.
This week's IMHO, In My Humble Opinion, features Annabelle Gurwitch.
the author of the book "Wherever You Go, There They Are."
ANNABELLE GURWITCH, Author, "Wherever You Go, There They Are": When my sister and I
stepped in to help our declining parents, there were finances and insurances to detangle.
We wanted them to move nearer to us, but they needed to stay close to their doctors.
Now, the aging-at-home option has been touted as a cost saver, but it doesn't address the
isolation and loneliness that marks life for many seniors.
So we started looking for the next place.
It turns out there are few resources for the middle class.
We found palatial residences like the one I think of as villa grande with wine tastings
and white table dining, or villa even more grande with personal butlers and architectural
layouts named for Picasso and Renoir.
The Michelangelo was the size of New Hampshire.
I started waking up in the middle of the night just to search the Web.
Just how much are kidneys going for these days?
My parents had champagne taste, but were on a box wine budget, and the place that we found
was something of a letdown.
It wasn't the most up-to-date.
It was hard for them to get used to the traffic sounds and the bright lights outside the facility.
My parents were Jewish, but not observant.
And my father was caught on more than one occasion smuggling bacon into the kosher cafeteria,
while my mother found it upsetting that, at the exercise class, which included people
in wheelchairs, they played the song "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."
There were small victories.
My mother lobbied for K.C. and the Sunshine Band, so the still ambulatory residents could
shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake their booty every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
But my mother still had trouble making friends, because depression can keep you trapped inside
your shell.
Now I was waking up in the middle of the night wondering if I should move closer to them,
but my son was in high school, and I'm a writer and performer who is often on the road.
And then something remarkable happened.
My father's health deteriorated, and this community rallied around them, visiting, helping
out, making sure that my mother had someone to have meals with.
One night, my mother's new BFF, Helen, and I went for a stroll, and she took my arm.
And I had no idea what had happened in Helen's life that had brought her to the same place
as my mother, who she loved or who loved her, but I took my first deep breath in months.
Villa grande wouldn't have been right.
My house wouldn't have been right.
They found a family, which was more than what any of us could have hoped for.
JUDY WOODRUFF: On the "NewsHour" online right now: When is a laugh not a real laugh?
Before her death, writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou reflected on the inspiration
for one of her most enduring poems, a story that's featured in a new PBS "American Masters"
documentary.
We take a look at it on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.
And tune in later tonight on PBS.
A new "Frontline," "Out of Gitmo," tracks down what life is like for those released
from America's most controversial prison.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
Join us online and again right here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and we will see you soon.

PBS NewsHour full episode Feb. 21, 2017

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