PBS NewsHour full episode Oct. 5, 2017

On the "NewsHour" tonight: a growing call to ban bump stocks. The NRA joins the White
House and top Republicans asking to review if gun accessories, like those used in Las
Vegas, are legal.
Then: Congress' long to-do list puts children's health insurance at risk, while the GOP tackles
the budget and the so-called dreamers program.
And our America Addicted series continues with a look at what the opioid crisis has
done to the nation's work force.
CLYDE MCCLELLAN, Owner, American Mug and Stein Company: I have been an employer in this area
since 1983. Drugs were not at the forefront when you were talking to somebody about possible
employment. Now the first thing we think of is, are they on drugs?
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: There's word that the gunman who mowed down concert-goers in Las Vegas
may have considered other targets in other cities.
Stephen Paddock killed 58 people Sunday night, before taking his own life. Now it's widely
reported that he had booked a hotel room in Chicago overlooking the Lollapalooza music
festival two months ago. Other reports say he also researched hotels near Fenway Park
in Boston.
The National Rifle Association announced today it supports regulating so-called bump stocks.
Investigators say the Las Vegas gunman apparently used the devices to convert semiautomatic
rifles to even more lethal automatic fire. In a statement, the NRA called for a federal
review.
At the White House, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said President Trump would welcome that effort.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, White House Press Secretary: We would like to see a clear understanding
of the facts. And we'd like to see input from the victims' families, from law enforcement,
from policy-makers. And we're expecting hearings and other important fact-finding efforts on
that, and we want to be part of that discussion, and we're certainly open to that moving forward.
JUDY WOODRUFF: House Speaker Paul Ryan joined a growing number of Republican leaders today,
saying Congress needs to look into the issue.
A new tropical storm has formed off Nicaragua, and it could strike the U.S. Gulf Coast this
weekend as a hurricane. Officials say the storm, dubbed Nate, is already blamed for
22 deaths in Central America. Forecasts show that it's on track to cross Mexico's Yucatan
Peninsula tomorrow night and reach the U.S. mainland by Sunday morning. Officials in Louisiana
today began to order coastal evacuations.
In Puerto Rico, officials now say that power has been restored to about 9 percent of the
island's customers. This is two weeks after Hurricane Maria wrecked the island. Governor
Ricardo Rossello said that he hopes to see service restored to 25 percent of customers
within a month.
The U.S. House of Representatives today approved a Republican budget plan worth $4.1 trillion.
It revives a plan to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program and to cut Medicaid by
about $1 trillion over 10 years. The vote split largely down party lines, with Republicans
and Democrats arguing over whether the plan does more harm than good.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), Speaker of the House: This is a budget that reflects our first principles,
freedom, free enterprise, a government accountable to the people it serves. It's a budget that
will help grow our economy and it's a budget that will help rein in our debt. It strengthens
our national defense. It supports our men and women in uniform.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), House Minority Leader: This is a budget, their budget, that steals
from the middle class, steals hundreds of billions of dollars from critical job-creating,
wage-increasing investments in infrastructure, job training, and clean energy. It harms veterans.
It cuts education. It abandons rural America.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The budget is intended to set the stage for the consideration of tax reform
legislation. The Senate is expected to vote on a similar plan later this month.
This was deadline day for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally
as children. They scrambled to renew their work permits and protection from being deported
for another two years. Those benefits were granted under President Obama's DACA program,
which President Trump is ending.
California is now a so-called sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants. Governor Jerry
Brown signed this into law today. It bars police from helping federal immigration officials
or from asking about a person's immigration status. The new law takes effect January 1.
In Iraq, government troops today recaptured one of the last towns held by Islamic State
militants. ISIS fighters seized Hawija three years ago, as they rampaged across Northern
Iraq. Today, Iraqi soldiers could be seen riding through the streets celebrating their
victory. They'd been battling to liberate Hawija since late last month.
This year's Nobel Prize in literature goes to British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. The Japanese-born
writer is known for works depicting British and Japanese life, including "The Remains
of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go."
In London today, he said he tries to speak to how nations remember their past and how
they sometimes try to bury it.
KAZUO ISHIGURO, Nobel Prize Winner: I hope that these kinds of themes will actually be
in some small way helpful to the climate we have at the moment, because I think we have
entered a very uncertain time in the world at the moment.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Ishiguro said he was caught off-guard when he heard he had won the Nobel
before he was officially notified. He said he thought at first that it was fake news.
Republican Congressman Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania announced today that he's resigning. The anti-abortion
lawmaker admitted last month that he'd had an affair. This week came reports of text
messages from Murphy's phone urging his mistress to have an abortion, when he thought that
she was pregnant.
All that infotainment tech in new cars and trucks, it turns out, is distracting drivers
for dangerous periods of time. The AAA's Foundation for Traffic Safety warned today that the systems
are getting more complex, and taking more time to use. In the worst cases, they say,
drivers were distracted an average of 40 seconds when programming GPS navigation systems or
text messaging.
On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 113 points to close
at 22775. The Nasdaq rose 50, and the S&P 500 added 14.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": the Las Vegas attack raises a host of security concerns;
an ambush in Niger leaves three American Special Forces soldiers dead; on the ground in Syria,
where coalition troops face an intense battle for the city of Raqqa; plus, much more.
Even before the Las Vegas shooting, terror attacks had raised serious questions about
how to secure open spaces and so-called soft targets. That includes hotels with their open
access.
Now those security concerns are front and center around the country.
Special correspondent Cat Wise reports from Las Vegas.
CAT WISE: In many ways, Las Vegas appears to be returning to normal. Tourists crowd
the streets. Wedding bells are ringing. But it's also very evident this is not the same
city it was four days ago.
As the Vegas community is still coming to terms with the worst shooting in modern U.S.
history, many here, and around the country, are wondering what could be done to prevent
future mass shootings in so-called soft targets like hotels and open spaces.
DAVE SHEPHERD, Former FBI Agent: I can make the safest place there is in the entire world,
and nobody will come, because you can't let them back in.
CAT WISE: Dave Shepherd is a former FBI agent and the former head of security at the Venetian
Resort.
DAVE SHEPHERD: There's not one thing that is going to answer every question. Even if
you had a metal detector, even if you had wand people down, you still could run into
problems with a person.
CAT WISE: Could there have been metal detectors that picked up on these weapons in his suitcases?
DAVE SHEPHERD: If you use metal detectors, sure, you can end up having that, if you do
every bag, if you check every bag coming into a place.
But was that set up standard in all the places anywhere? If you are looking at this hotel
as a hotel, it is not being done at 72,000 other hotels in the United States. It's not.
CAT WISE: These days, whenever we fly or go to big events like concerts and games, we
expect to go through metal detectors and have our belongings searched, and yet very few
hotels around the country, and here in Las Vegas, have those same tight security measures
in place.
As FBI investigators comb the scene at Sunday's shooting, an outdoor concert venue, we ask
visitors on the Vegas Strip if more security was needed.
Would you be willing to go through metal detectors in hotels?
RACHEL MELTON, Las Vegas: I sure would. I definitely would. I mean, when they started
the extra security on airlines after 9/11, I didn't mind at all waiting those few extra
minutes while they checked me and everybody else.
TYLER MARINO, Las Vegas: It seems like there's a lot of security around here. I mean, we
see a lot of police officers.
DAN FERGUSON, Las Vegas: You know we feel comfortable. You know, it's just is this an
isolated incident in this magnitude? Of course it is. But as far as the safety measures,
what extent do they have to go to really control something that they can't?
CAT WISE: Vegas casinos are notoriously secretive about their security operations. Cameras are
often used with high-tech systems like facial recognition. But bags are rarely searched,
a gap in security shooter Stephen Paddock took advantage of when he brought in an arsenal
of weapons.
MGM Resorts, which owns the Mandalay Bay Hotel, where Paddock stayed, provided a statement
to the "NewsHour" which read in part: "MGM Resorts has increased its level of security
and works consistently with local and national law enforcement agencies to keep procedures
at our resorts up to date, and are always improving and evolving."
Golden Nugget owner Tilman Fertitta said increasing security comes down to a question of what
people will accept.
TILMAN FERTITTA, Owner, Golden Nugget: We're not a police state, and nobody wants to live
in a police state. And now, besides going into a ball game or going or catching an airline,
we're going to start checking everything everybody brings into a hotel? Well, then what's going
to happen?
He could have just walked down the street and started shooting and would have killed
30 or 40 or 50 people. So now we're going to have somebody check you when you walk out
of your house?
CAT WISE: At the Wynn Vegas casinos, security guards were screening visitors with metal-detecting
wands and checking bags at random this week. And owner Steve Wynn has employed security
guards with military training for years.
STEVE WYNN, CEO, Wynn Resorts: There are almost 40 of them at every opening of my building,
armed, on the lookout. Las Vegas is a target city. We have hardened the target at the Wynn.
CAT WISE: Dave Shepherd believes the question of how to increase security goes well beyond
Las Vegas. And news reports today say that Paddock may have scouted locations in Chicago
and Boston before going to Las Vegas.
DAVE SHEPHERD: Every property in the United States now because of this, a high-rise building,
has to look to see what the procedures are. I'm sitting there in New York looking at Central
Park. There's some buildings. I'm here at a concert. I'm sitting in Chicago's event.
I'm in San Francisco in a park.
They're all going to have to look at that now.
CAT WISE: And, in fact, earlier today, the Las Vegas Security Chiefs Association met
to discuss new security measures in the wake of the shooting -- Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Thank you, Cat -- Cat Wise reporting for us from Las Vegas.
And let's continue now our remembrances of the 58 people who were murdered when the shooter
began firing into the crowd at a country music concert.
As stories of heroism emerge, so do clearer pictures of the victims' lives. Here now,
12 more.
Brian Fraser was moving closer to the stage, getting set for Jason Aldean to play his favorite
song. He was shot trying to shield his wife. The 39-year-old father of four was "the definition
of American," his son said. "He taught me what it meant to be an honest, motivated,
driven, loving man."
Twenty-one--year-old Erick Silva was working as a private security guard at the concert.
He was killed as he helped people get out of the venue. "He would give the shirt off
his back to comfort anyone," a close friend recalled. "He was such a courageous man."
Nicol Kimura was at the concert with a group of friends who called themselves family. The
38-year-old worked at a tax office in Southern California. "She was just such an amazing
woman, and she was just such a light," one of the group members said.
Cameron Robinson worked for the city of Las Vegas. The 28-year-old moved to Southern Utah
about a year ago to be with his boyfriend, and commuted two hours every day. A colleague
remarked: "He was just so happy, you could see it in his face."
One couple died together. Denise Cohen and Derrick Taylor had been dating for several
years. Each had two sons.
Keri Lynn Galvan of Thousand Oaks, California, was at the concert with her husband, who survived
the attack. The 31-year-old had three children, ages 10, 4 and 2. According to her sister,
Galvan's days started and ended with doing everything in her power to be a wonderful
mother.
Lisa Patterson called her husband just hours before the shooting to tell him how much fun
she was having with her girlfriends. "She loved life, loved helping, and there is nothing
she wouldn't do to help someone," he noted.
Forty-four-year-old Chris Hazencomb was a big sports fan from Camarillo, California.
He jumped on top of his friends as the bullets rained down. One friend commented: "He was
a very kind man that everyone loved dearly."
Jordyn Rivera was 21 and in her fourth year at California State University, studying health
care management. The school's president wrote: "We will remember and treasure her for her
warmth, optimism, energy and kindness."
Brennan Stewart rarely missed a chance to hear country music live, his family said.
The 30-year-old from Las Vegas played guitar and wrote songs. When the shooting began,
he used his body to protect his girlfriend.
And Rocio Guillen was a mother of four, including a two-month-old, and a general manager at
a pizza restaurant in California. "She was a super mom," her cousin said, "always working
hard and juggling everything to be the best mom."
There is new information today about Russia obtaining highly classified information about
how the U.S. military protects its computer networks and how it conducts electronic spying.
Hari Sreenivasan has that story.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The Wall Street Journal reports on a web of breaches.
First, classified material was stolen from the National Security Agency by a contractor.
His computer was then hacked, and Russia took the sensitive data. The article doesn't say
who the contractor was, but that he used Kaspersky Lab antivirus software, which is believed
to be compromised by Russian intelligence.
For more on all of this, we turn to Shane Harris, who broke the story, covering national
security and intelligence issues for The Wall Street Journal.
Shane, what do we know that was compromised? What do the Russians have?
SHANE HARRIS, The Wall Street Journal: Well, what we are told this is that was information
that describes or deals with offensive and defensive computer network operations at NSA,
so, basically the tools and techniques, the codes that the NSA would use to hack into
foreign computer systems and the tools and techniques they use to protect computer networks
inside the United States.
This is very critical information that goes to what intelligence agencies call sources
and methods, and it's the kind of thing that is most jealously guarded inside the NSA and
is extremely classified.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And the Kaspersky Lab software, that wasn't at his desktop at the NSA. This
was at his home.
SHANE HARRIS: No.
What happened was the contractor removed this classified information unauthorized from his
workplace and took it home, we are told, to work on it there, is what authorities believe,
and loaded it on to a personal computer.
And that computer was running the Kaspersky antivirus product. This is a commercially
available antivirus product. Probably many watching this tonight may have it on their
own home computers.
And what authorities believe is that that system was then used to alert hackers in Russia
to the files that were on his machine, which were then removed from it by Russia.
HARI SREENIVASAN: So the software that is scanning his computer, looking for sensitive
files, sends a message to Russia saying, hey, here is a sensitive file, and since they have
some sort of a backdoor, they can access it?
SHANE HARRIS: Well, there is a sequence here that we're still not entirely sure, but, essentially,
yes, this is the idea, that it alerts people back in Russia, who are then able to take
advantage, knowing what they know, from the software, then home in on this individual's
computer and obtain this information.
Now, it is important to say that Kaspersky says they do not provide any kind of access
that is unauthorized or illegal, and they do not participate in computer operations
of this nature, cyber-spying on behalf of governments.
So there still is some question about the sequence of events. But what officials have
concluded is that, if not for this Kaspersky product, they do not believe that this information
would have been obtained.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Now, just a couple of weeks ago, we had members of the Intelligence Committees
-- members of intelligence community sitting in front of the Senate panel. And when they
were asked whether or not they would put this kind of software on their own computers, they
unanimously said no.
And it looks like the government's already taking steps to try to make sure that this
software is not available to government agencies, right?
SHANE HARRIS: That's right.
In fact, last month, the Homeland Security Department issued a directive prohibiting
all federal departments and agencies in the U.S. government from either buying these products
and services from Kaspersky or using them. And they were told to get rid of them if they
were using them.
That is an extraordinary measure for the government to take. This is a product that is sold in
America. It has been sold, been sold in big box stores. So that really underscored the
extent to which officials, we're told, believed that this tool was being used to conduct espionage
inside the United States.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And let's talk a little bit about the timeline. When did this hack
happen, I mean, given the context of all that we're investigating about Russia and their
influence on the elections?
SHANE HARRIS: What we know so far is that the incident itself occurred in 2015, but
it wasn't discovered until the spring of 2016.
So this would be before the election campaign really kicked off in earnest. But what is
interesting about that spring 2016 period is that is when intelligence agencies now
say that they were starting to detect the first signs of Russia beginning to interfere
in the U.S. elections.
Now, we don't know that there is a direct line between what was going on with this contractor
and that activity, but it does appear that there may have to some degree been coincident,
and that the activity against the contractor may have even preceded the Russian interference
in the elections, and certainly preceded the period before which the U.S. government really
became more alert to that.
HARI SREENIVASAN: All right, Shane Harris of The Wall Street Journal, thanks so much.
SHANE HARRIS: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Three U.S. special forces soldiers were killed and two more injured yesterday
while on a training mission with the military of Niger. The soldiers were Green Berets reportedly
caught in an ambush near the village of Tongo Tongo, not far from the Malian border.
Al-Qaida and Islamic State militants are active in that area. U.S. and French commandos have
been training and in some cases fighting alongside local forces around the region.
Joining me for more on the fight against Islamic militants in this part of Africa is Peter
Pham. He's the director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Program.
Peter, welcome back to the program.
We were just talking about this is the first set of U.S. casualties in this region. Tell
us about the mission there. What are the U.S. troops and their allies doing?
J. PETER PHAM, Atlantic Council: Well, we have for several years now had varying numbers,
low several hundreds, U.S. personnel in Niger doing two things primarily, one, operating
a drone base in Niamey, the capital of Niger, and building another drone base in Agadez,
in the center of the country, which will be able to reach surveillance into Mali and Southern
Libya.
And the other mission has been training the Nigerian forces to stand up and fight these
militants, as you mentioned, from both al-Qaida-linked groups and Islamic State-linked groups that
have been crossing in this region and increasingly carrying out violent attacks.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So they are there because -- who are they? Who is the enemy there?
J. PETER PHAM: Well, there are a -- a nation of various Islamic extremists, roughly in
two broad coalitions, one that was announced just this past March that is calling itself
the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, GSIM, in the region, which is made up of al-Qaida-linked
groups, including those linked with the ethnic Tuareg, with ethnic Fula or Fulani, as well
as former members of the Al-Mourabitoun, which is Mokhtar Belmokhtar's group, as well as
members of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb's Sahara battalion.
And on the other side, we have this group that is calling itself Islamic State Greater
Sahara, which was approved last year by the so-called caliph of the Islamic State.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you were just telling me the more active these groups have become,
these various Islamic groups and others have become, there has been more competition.
J. PETER PHAM: There has been, each seeking to be the more lethal, the more dangerous,
the one to join, to attract both recruits and resources.
And, in fact, the leadership of both groups, al-Qaida and the Islamic State, have withheld
approval of the local affiliates until they have shown themselves -- for example, the
Islamic State affiliates were not approved until after the attacks in Burkina Faso last
year, for example.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, specifically, what are the U.S. troops -- and we were talking French
troops there as well -- what are they doing? They are training, but they are doing more
than that.
J. PETER PHAM: The primary mission is training.
The Nigerian troops in Niger -- and, of course, the French have a large training and antiterrorism
mission across the region, but very active in Mali as well. And so it's a training mission,
but it's also providing ISR, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, to the allied
governments in the region as well.
But, primarily, it's training. There -- certainly, when you are out training with these allies,
there will be occasions where you enter into kinetic operations with them, but that is
not the primary focus.
JUDY WOODRUFF: When they're -- and we see now what happens when they do get out there.
But we know there is a drone base in that area, which is I think what you are referring
to.
J. PETER PHAM: Yes, there is a drone base in Niamey, the capital of Niger, and one that
is almost complete in Agadez in the center of the country.
But in the training, they have built up, for example, a Nigerian unit, the BSR, the security
and intelligence battalion, which has become very, very effective. And this was the unit
that we understand was out there with the special operations forces that were attacked.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Is this viewed as a successful mission, and is it believed that there are
going to be more U.S. troops going there?
J. PETER PHAM: Well, it's been successful, as far as we have stood up local partners
who are now beginning to take the fight out. That's the success.
But this is something that the international community has to invest in building up the
capacity of the countries in the region. Recently, during the United Nations General Assembly,
Secretary-General Guterres convened a meeting of the presidents of the region, plus other
international partners, to look for ways to better integrate.
The area where this attack took place, Tongo Tongo, actually was perhaps the site of the
attack because it's the tri-border region of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. And these
militants use these borders, fluid borders, moving easily to stay one step ahead of forces
pursuing them.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And this is one time when it certainly ended in tragedy for the U.S. forces
and others.
Peter Pham, we thank you very much.
J. PETER PHAM: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": Congress' full plate, DACA, the budget and children's health
insurance; and our America Addicted series continues -- we look at how the opioid crisis
has cut into the nation's work force.
But first: The battle to retake Syria's northern city of Raqqa from the Islamic State is inching
closer to an end.
ISIS seized control back in 2014, declaring it the capital of their caliphate.
John Irvine of Independent Television News has spent several days on the front line with
the liberating forces, and he filed this report.
JOHN IRVINE: It is the most intense American bombing campaign since Vietnam.
Nowhere in Afghanistan or Iraq has ever been subjected to the sustained bombardment being
inflicted on Raqqa, the Syrian city I.S. call their capital.
The world's most advanced air force is doing this to help one of the worlds most poorly
equipped armies, the YPG. With no tanks or heavy weapons of their own, this pro-Western
militia must rely on warplanes, on AK-47s, and on a thirst for revenge.
Getting to the city center necessitated a hectic drive through streets of rubble. Our
driver, Okab, said speed was the best defense against rocket-propelled grenades. He handled
his Humvee with the skill of a rally driver. Okab lost two brothers to the Islamic State,
one shot, one beheaded.
The commander we meet is nicknamed Earthquake. For three weeks, his unit has laid siege to
this place, Raqqa Hospital, where I.S. have made their last stand. Capturing it is difficult,
because I.S. have trapped civilians inside, so direct airstrikes are not possible.
At this, their most forward position, the YPG are near neighbors with the enemy. We
have come for a better view, but visibility is a two-way street, and we are spotted.
(GUNFIRE)
JOHN IRVINE: Earlier, the men, all Arabs, talked about two things they share, belonging
to same tribe and losing a love one to Islamic State.
Earthquake was at university studying to be a human rights lawyer when he enlisted to
restore human rights to victims of I.S. His demonstration with a meat cleaver was to explain
how a friend's fingers were cut off by I.S. when they caught him smoking.
Downstairs, Earthquake told us about the entrance to a tunnel dug by Islamic State, but now
covered over with furniture and debris, because two days after he took this building, I.S.
emerged from the tunnel to mount a counterattack.
This man is wielding a sword taken from a dead I.S. fighter. The balaclava is to protect
his identity, which not even his comrades know, because often he crosses the front line
to pose as an Islamic State fighter and collect intelligence.
This is a YPG spying operation inside Raqqa last year. The bulb inside a motor bike headlight
has been replaced by a camera. This an I.S. checkpoint. Here, I.S. fighters leave a mosque.
The streets are largely deserted, however, because people want to avoid the man questioning
the motorist. They are the religious police. They spread terror inside Raqqa, while others
plan to inflict terror abroad.
For four years, Raqqa has cast a long shadow, stretching out over places like London, Manchester,
Brussels and Nice. It's hard not to think of all the innocent victims of I.S., the victims
of the hatred and the murderous instructions that emanated from right here.
An hour's drive outside the city, these are the latest residents of Raqqa to escape and
join many others already at the refugee camp. But at least they are safe. As winter approaches,
the biggest battle they will face is with the elements.
As for civilians deaths inside Raqqa, the coalition says it does all it can to avoid
them and that, when they do happen, it's the fault of Islamic State for using human shields.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Next, we turn our focus back to Congress and the whirlwind of issues facing
lawmakers.
Here now is John Yang.
JOHN YANG: Thanks, Judy.
Looming deadlines, lapsed programs, and potential movement on pressing agenda items.
Here to explain what's happening on the Hill is our own Hill watcher, Lisa Desjardins.
Lisa, let's begin our alphabet soup with DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Today
was the deadline for beneficiaries whose status was going to expire before the March 5 sunset
to reapply, to renew. LISA DESJARDINS: Right.
JOHN YANG: What is going on with the Hill effort to try to put this into law?
LISA DESJARDINS: Right. This is a lot to keep track of.
First, an update on how many applications have come in. Now, anyone under DACA has until
midnight tonight local time to get their paperwork in to one of three centers. And I'm told by
Citizenship and Immigration Services that some 36,000 people who are eligible have yet
to reapply.
So, they have got a few hours to do that as of now.
Now, as for Congress, there actually is some movement, believe it or not, on this issue.
There was a hearing yesterday in the Senate, in which, notably, two leaders from both parties,
Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senator John Cornyn of Texas, seemed to indicate that
there is room for agreement.
Let's listen.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), Texas: Creating a legislative fix is the right thing to do. But there is
a big caveat. Before we provide legal status to these young people, we must reassure and
actually regain the public confidence that we're serious when it comes to enforcing the
law and securing our borders.
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL), Minority Whip: Senator Cornyn, I couldn't agree with you
more. If we can sit down and come up with a reasonable list of border security provisions
that will give us the peace of mind of assurance that we are doing our level best to stop those
who shouldn't be coming to the United States from coming here, I will join you in that
effort.
LISA DESJARDINS: How about that, couldn't agree with you more?
So, they are talking about a limited bill that would give status to so-called dreamers,
or DACA recipients, and have some security elements.
And, John, today in the House, we heard similar from also the number two Republican and Democrat
in that chamber as well.
JOHN YANG: Security elements, but not the wall?
LISA DESJARDINS: But not the wall. That is what came from -- we heard that from Senator
Grassley. There may be more discussion on that. We will see.
JOHN YANG: Now, continuing on, CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program, funding ran out.
This is a program administered by the states with federal funding. The federal funding
ran out at the last of the last budget year, at the end of September.
What is going on to try to get that going again?
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right. You hit it exactly.
So, CHIP is a major program. It did run out of federal funding September 30. This is something
that Congress was well aware of. This is a big deal, because it provides health care
for nine million American children.
Each state is affected differently, because the states have a different set of rules.
But, John, 10 states say they will completely run out of funds for this by the end of the
year.
Where are we in Congress? Well, there was some hope last week, as the Senate was able
to pass a deal through committee -- or -- I'm sorry -- they passed a deal this week through
committee, almost unanimously. That was a big sign of positivity on this issue.
But then, yesterday in the House, a different approach. House Republicans instead went with
a partisan deal that Democrats don't like and would have trouble in the Senate.
So, to be honest, John, it's not clear what is going to happen to this program. Everyone
would like to renew the funding, but there are real issues still on the table.
JOHN YANG: Do you think it would not be renewed, or would it have to wait until the big budget
spending bill at the end of the year?
LISA DESJARDINS: I think that is right.
Everyone wants to renew it. There could just be a short-term renewal of some sort, if they
just can't agree on a long-term fix. But right now, with the way Congress is, it is very
hard to say.
JOHN YANG: So, the budget resolution started moving today. The House passed its version.
The Senate Budget Committee sent its version to the floor. This is something that is supposed
to happen every year, but why is it particularly important this year?
LISA DESJARDINS: I want to stress to people, the word budget sounds boring. You don't want
to pay attention to it.
But it is incredibly important this year. As you said, the House passed its version
today. And the reason it's critical, John, is, both chambers must pass a budget this
year in order to allow Republicans to pass tax reform.
They want to change our entire tax code to do it. They first have to pass budgets which
allow them to get to that special 50-vote rule in the Senate. Another thing that is
really important to watch here, John, is the way they want to do it. Republicans want spending
cuts. And, in fact, they also have included in one version of the budget a Medicare overhaul.
So it is really important to watch what they do here with the money. There could also be
some deficit spending in tax reform. All of that comes to a head inside the budget. So,
every little dollar that they put in this outline that is the budget could matter.
JOHN YANG: The House wants -- the House calls for deficit-neutral. The Senate is calling
for about, what, $1.5 trillion deficit spending in order for the tax cut, right?
LISA DESJARDINS: That's exactly right.
Think of it. The House budget goes after things, like it would change Medicare overall. It
would reform Medicare in a way that many in the Senate don't necessarily think would pass
there. But the Senate, on the other hand, would add over a trillion dollars potentially
to the deficit. And that's something that the House doesn't like.
So this leads to conflict ahead, but, right now, each chamber is taking its own route
on the budget.
JOHN YANG: Less than 30 seconds.
LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.
JOHN YANG: What are the chances of all this happening by the end of the year?
(LAUGHTER)
LISA DESJARDINS: Not good that all of it happens by the end of the year. But I think the date
to watch is December 8. That's when the next spending bill for all of government runs out.
Many of my sources say they think a lot of this could let lumped into one giant bill
or debate around that time.
JOHN YANG: Lisa Desjardins, thanks a lot.
LISA DESJARDINS: Sure thing.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Throughout this week, we have been focusing on the national opioids problem
in a special series called America Addicted, and we have been trying to show the many ways
this addiction is damaging society.
Tonight, we have a report on how it's affecting the work force and changing employers' plans.
Economics correspondent Paul Solman has the story. It's part of his weekly reporting,
Making Sense.
MICHAEL OATES, Welder: I would wake up in the morning and take four pills and snort
two. That's just to get out of bed.
PAUL SOLMAN: Michael Oates, a lifelong welder, is recovering from a 10-year opioid addiction
which began when he took Vicodin for pain while working at a steel mill.
Did you lose the job?
MICHAEL OATES: Actually, my job went to China. And that was my excuse to do even more pills.
PAUL SOLMAN: Have you worked since?
MICHAEL OATES: I have had four or five different jobs since then.
PAUL SOLMAN: And what happened to those jobs?
MICHAEL OATES: I lost them all due to being addicted to opiates. They would random drug-test
me, and I would be like, well, see you later. I would walk out.
I even got caught one time with synthetic urine in my underwear, because I got pretty
slick at using that, you know?
PAUL SOLMAN: Do you stash it in your underpants?
MICHAEL OATES: I would stash it in my underwear, and I would go in, and it's synthetic urine.
It's got everything in it that you need to make them think it's your urine.
PAUL SOLMAN: Out of work for three years now, Oates is just one example of how the opioid
crisis has decimated the American work force.
Business owner Clyde McClellan has seen plenty of other examples.
CLYDE MCCLELLAN, Owner, American Mug and Stein Company: We have people that come in on a
regular basis looking for employment that are obviously under the influence when they
come in.
PAUL SOLMAN: Really? You can tell?
CLYDE MCCLELLAN: Oh, yes. They look like they're the walking dead. I say, we're going to send
you for a drug test, and what is the drug test going to show us? Most of the time, if
it's pot or booze or anything like that, they tell me. If it's something other than that,
they don't come back.
PAUL SOLMAN: McClellan owns American Mug and Stein in East Liverpool, Ohio, once known
as the pottery capital of the world with dozens of firms. Foreign competition has since wiped
out all but two of them.
McClellan owes his survival to his top customer, Starbucks. You would think would-be workers
in town might be flocking here. But they're flocking to drug dealers instead.
CLYDE MCCLELLAN: One day, I was looking out of my office in 2015, and there was two policemen
standing in my driveway with rifles. And I went out. I knew one of them. And I said,
what's going on? He said, well, we're raiding this house that's next to your building, and
-- for heroin distribution.
PAUL SOLMAN: And these indelible photos of a couple overdosed in their car with their
son in the backseat were snapped just three blocks from here.
You don't need experience to get a job at American Mug and Stein, but you do need to
be clean. Half of applicants are not.
CLYDE MCCLELLAN: I have been an employer in this area since 1983. Drugs were not at the
forefront when you were talking to somebody about possible employment. Now the first thing
we think of is, are they on drugs? How do we find out? What kind of references?
PAUL SOLMAN: Somebody came in here looking for a job with a reference from one of your
other employees?
CLYDE MCCLELLAN: He was using this person as a reference. And when we asked the employee,
he said, he's a dope head. He steals money. He has stolen money from me.
Obviously, we didn't bring him in.
PAUL SOLMAN: Donna Dibo has been there. A full-time waitress, she was prescribed opioids
after a car accident. In time, scoring heroin became her main line of work.
DONNA DIBO, Former Waitress: It is like a job itself, actually. It is.
PAUL SOLMAN: Just trying to find that day's drugs?
DONNA DIBO: Yes.
And then, once that day is over, your mind's already going 1,000 times a minute, thinking,
what am I going to do for the next day?
PAUL SOLMAN: How long have you been out of the work force?
DONNA DIBO: I have been out of work for about seven years.
PAUL SOLMAN: The prime skill she honed? Shoplifting.
DONNA DIBO: I would go into all the stores. My trunk and my backseat would be full with
everything. Sears, I'm no longer allowed on their property. I stole so much from them,
I probably own their store.
PAUL SOLMAN: And then there was her daughter's new cell phone.
DONNA DIBO: We had some people over, and, all of a sudden, it just came up missing.
I made it look like it came up missing. I am the one, actually, in fact, that did it.
PAUL SOLMAN: You stole it from your daughter and sold it?
DONNA DIBO: Absolutely.
PAUL SOLMAN: Scott Schwind was a well-paid machinist when his addiction took charge.
SCOTT SCHWIND, Machinist: I was just working to supply myself. I would have people come
to my work, deliver stuff to me at work.
PAUL SOLMAN: At the machinist shop?
SCOTT SCHWIND: Yes. I was on third shift, so they would come at night and bring me stuff.
But that's how I messed the job up, is, I wouldn't show up, or I was doing shady stuff,
like having people come there. I would be in the bathroom for half-an-hour.
So, I lost that job. And then I have had other jobs, but I have never been able to keep a
job for long because of the addiction.
PAUL SOLMAN: So, how long have you been out of work now?
SCOTT SCHWIND: Since 2011.
PAUL SOLMAN: Schwind, Oates and Dibo are now sober and enrolled at Flying High, a nonprofit
program in Youngstown, Ohio, to get those out of the work force back in.
It teaches hard skills, like welding and machining. An urban garden is for soft skills, showing
up on time, teamwork.
Jeff Magada says job training is critical to places like Youngstown, its population
down more than 60 percent since its steel furnaces last ran full blast.
JEFFREY MAGADA, Executive Director, Flying High: You don't have a lot of industry coming
here because they know there's not a lot of skilled workers here, and then workers who
can also pass a drug screen.
PAUL SOLMAN: That's a problem for Michael Sherwin's company.
MICHAEL SHERWIN, CEO, Columbiana Boiler Company: We have had positions open for a year-and-a-half
to two years.
PAUL SOLMAN: Sherwin's Columbiana Boiler Company has lots of demand for galvanized containers,
but figures it's foregone some $200,000 in business because he can't find skilled, drug-free
welders.
MICHAEL SHERWIN: We probably lose 20 to 25 percent.
PAUL SOLMAN: Because they can't pass a drug test?
MICHAEL SHERWIN: Mm-hmm.
PAUL SOLMAN: Flying High places ex-addicts in shops like this and pays their salary for
six months. But the threat of relapse is always there. That's why Scott Schwind is taking
it slow.
SCOTT SCHWIND: I just want to get a foundation of being sober and dealing with things before
I jump into a job and all that stress, and you know what I mean, having a bunch of money
in my pocket, to where I'm not tempted to do something that I'm going to regret, because,
like, the drugs out there today will kill you.
PAUL SOLMAN: Why would you be tempted if you had money in your pocket?
SCOTT SCHWIND: You forget how to deal with problems. It was a coping mechanism. Something
went wrong, and you're like, I'm just going to get high, and then you don't have to worry
about it. I had a house, I had a car, I had all my stuff taken care of. I was a good father,
you know what I mean?
And everything's gone. And it takes a lot of work to get back to where you were. So,
it's easy to just throw your hands up and be like, you know what? Screw it.
PAUL SOLMAN: So, you could imagine having money in your pocket and going back to drugs?
DONNA DIBO: Absolutely. Absolutely. It takes two seconds for us to get a thought in our
head, and we act on it.
PAUL SOLMAN: So, technical instructors like Ivan Lipscomb wear two hats.
IVAN LIPSCOMB, Flying High: Not only are we welding instructors, but we're life coaches
also. So we can try to talk to them about that also, maybe throw in a little joking
in there every once in awhile just to keep their spirits up.
PAUL SOLMAN: Magada says those who complete this program pose much less risk than those
who don't.
JEFFREY MAGADA: We're not just going to let them go. We're going to monitor them over
the next six months, while they have money in their pocket, and be working with them
on those life skills.
PAUL SOLMAN: Life skills absent in those whom opioids have overtaken, says Michael Sherwin.
MICHAEL SHERWIN: Ten years ago, the drug screen wouldn't have been an issue.
PAUL SOLMAN: At all?
MICHAEL SHERWIN: No.
PAUL SOLMAN: And now you're losing 25 percent of...
MICHAEL SHERWIN: Of eligible candidates to it. So, for us, it's a big deal.
PAUL SOLMAN: A big deal for the broader economy as well, says Princeton economist Alan Krueger.
He's found a direct link between opioid use and out-of-the-work-force Americans.
ALAN KRUEGER, Former Chairman, White House Council of Economic Advisers: For both prime-age
men and prime-age women, the increase in prescriptions over the last 15 years can account for perhaps
20 percent of the drop in labor force participation that we have seen.
PAUL SOLMAN: The rate has been falling for years, as the population ages, says Krueger.
But opioids are increasingly the story, as the participation rate has hit historic lows.
ALAN KRUEGER: We have had a change in medical practices, which has caused the medical profession
to prescribe 3.5 times more opioid medication today than was the case 15 years ago. I think
that's made it harder for some people to keep their jobs and has led them to leave the labor
force.
PAUL SOLMAN: Clyde McClellan has seen it happening in East Liverpool.
CLYDE MCCLELLAN: When you drive around town, you see too many young and middle-aged people
just out during the middle of the day, when, normally, they'd be at work.
If they're out on the streets, many times, they're not looking for work. They're just
out there looking for their next fix.
PAUL SOLMAN: Donna Dibo is on the lookout no longer. Instead, she's reinventing herself
as a welder, Scott Schwind updating his machining skills. Michael Oates hopes to get back to
work welding, and to rebuild the links shattered by his addiction.
MICHAEL OATES: It tore my family completely apart. It was stronger than eating. It was
stronger than paying bills. It was stronger than going to my kids' football games. I went
from spoiling my kids to barely doing anything for my kids.
PAUL SOLMAN: Will they talk to you?
MICHAEL OATES: My youngest doesn't talk to me. And that breaks my heart. And my youngest
son, he barely ever talks to me. They went without a lot of things over my selfishness,
over me wanting to be high every day and not wanting to be sick.
PAUL SOLMAN: And they're still resentful?
MICHAEL OATES: And they're still resentful, yes. If it takes me the rest of my life, I
will make amends.
PAUL SOLMAN: Here's hoping he can return to his family, and to the work force.
For the "PBS NewsHour," this is economics correspondent Paul Solman, reporting from
Northeastern Ohio.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So painful to hear.
And now to another in our Brief But Spectacular episodes, where we ask people to describe
their passions.
Tonight, as part of our America Addicted series, we hear from several individuals working on
the front lines of the opioid crisis.
These takes on addiction and recovery come from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in
Center City, Minnesota.
WOMAN: Opiates. My drug of choice was opiates.
MAN: Barbiturates, quaaludes, downers, and then heroin finally.
MAN: I actually lost my mother to an opioid overdose. This was two years ago. She was
59 years old, the most important person in my life.
MAN: I don't have a personal story, per se. And I think the humanistic spirit of addiction
is what really drew me to it.
WOMAN: Began self-medicating with prescriptions that were left over in my own medicine cabinet.
When those were gone, I began to do and divert medications from my place of employment as
a nurse.
WOMAN: I was coming off of an amphetamine binge. And what would happen is that I would
become very tired. So, I lay down on the couch with my little boy. While I was asleep, I
started coughing.
And when I coughed, it woke me up a bit. The house was filled with smoke, and the house
was on fire. And in my mind, I said, thank God it's finally over. Then, my son coughed.
And I heard in my mind or in my -- wherever it came from, the voice said, you can do what
you want with your life. You have no right to take his.
MAN: The first time I used chemicals, it felt like the universe slipped into place.
MAN: At its best, addiction was a comfort. It was a friend, actually. Addiction at its
worst was a monkey on my back.
MAN: Such a bad feeling physically and psychologically. And the only way really to effectively stop
it at the time was to use again and again.
MAN: It's totally illogical. I didn't want to get high. I didn't want to use. I didn't
want to drink. It was ruining my life.
MAN: My parents, when they'd see me high or if I had used, they'd think I was OK. They
get worried about me when they see me in withdrawal, because that's when I look bad.
MAN: We make a lot of mistakes about the opioid crisis, partly because of the stigma. Whenever
it comes to addiction, especially to opioids, we talk about drugs, and we don't talk about
people.
MAN: People are afraid to ask for help. Families don't want to talk about it.
MAN: Like, standing here now talking about it, I'm -- I'm a bit uncomfortable, because
I am not sure how people react to it.
MAN: I was in my undergraduate program in college, and I needed to go to treatment,
and I told someone about it who was in a position of power.
They looked it as a -- I think a character issue. I would love for my kids to know that,
if they're struggling with mental health or addiction, it's not that there's something
wrong with their character. It's that they may have this illness.
MAN: It's been around forever. And there have been communities devastated by addiction,
even opioid or heroin addiction, long before it became national news. When why kids in
the suburbs started to die off is when the country started to pay attention. And there's
a shame in that.
MAN: Part of my mission in life and my mission at work is to expose the public to the other
side of the story, the recovery side of the story.
MAN: I owe people out there who don't know about recovery and don't know that recovery
is possible, that I owe to them to -- to let them know that it is.
MAN: If I could talk to my mother today -- and I guess I do in my quiet moments -- I would
really want her to know that my recovery is because of her.
MAN: I have two beautiful children. I have a 4- and a 2-year-old. I have a wife. I have
a job that I love. And I'm happy.
MAN: I have two kids. I'm in Center City, Minnesota. And I have to stop and remind myself
of that sometimes. I'm from Cairo. And if you had told me, you know, 15 years ago, you
will be standing in a basement, Richmond Walker (ph), in Center City, Minnesota, talking to
people from PBS, you know, I would -- OK.
(LAUGHTER)
MAN: My name is Jeremiah Gardner (ph).
WOMAN: My name is Cecilia Jayme (ph).
MAN: My name is Ahmed Eid (ph).
WOMAN: My name is Carrie Kappel (ph).
MAN: My name is Dan Frigo (ph).
MAN: My name is Jordan Hansen (ph).
MAN: My name is Dr. Joseph Lee.
And this is my Brief But Spectacular take.
WOMAN: Brief But Spectacular take.
MAN: This is my Brief But Spectacular take on addiction and recovery.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can watch additional Brief But Spectacular episodes on our Web
site.
That's PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.
And there's more from our series America Addicted online. The medication Suboxone plays a major
role for many users recovering from opioid addiction, easing the effects of withdrawal.
But its use has divided the recovery community.
You can read how on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.
And a news update before we go.
This evening, President Trump said that Iran has not lived up to the spirit of the nuclear
deal with the U.S., and that the public will be hearing more about that very shortly.
Mr. Trump briefly took questions from reporters while meeting with military leaders at the
White House. He also told the group in front of cameras that he wants military options
when needed at a much faster pace.
Tune in later tonight on "Charlie Rose": former CBS anchor Bob Schieffer on the challenges
combating fake news in the 24-hour news cycle.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
On Friday, how one state is trying new ways to treat opioid abuse.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
Join us online and again right here tomorrow evening with Mark Shields and David Brooks.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and good night.
PBS NewsHour full episode, October 5, 2017 U.S. soldiers were ambushed in Niger. Here's what American forces are doing there PBS NewsHour full episode Oct. 4, 2017 PBS NewsHour full episode Oct. 2, 2017 PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 26, 2017 PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode Sept. 24, 2017 PBS NewsHour full episode, October 4, 2017 Lives lost in Las Vegas, remembered by loved ones PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 11, 2017 PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 19, 2017

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