SUMMARY: Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger has died, one day after being transferred to a West Virginia federal prison. A notorious lifelong criminal who ran gambling and drug rackets for decades, he fled Boston in 1994 but was eventually caught. In 2013, Bulger was convicted of involvement in 11 murders in the 1970s and 1980s. WGBH’s Emily Rooney joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his violent legacy.
SUMMARY: As Republicans on Capitol Hill try to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, we visit patients and health care providers at a free clinic in rural southwest Virginia -- a region that strongly supported President Trump, in a state that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act -- to listen to the extreme health care challenges they face and what they think should be done.
SUMMARY: As Republicans on Capitol Hill try to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, we visit patients and health care providers at a health center in Mingo County, West Virginia -- a region that strongly supported President Trump, in a state that has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic -- to listen to the health care challenges they face and how the expansion of Medicaid has benefited them.
SUMMARY: In the coal towns of West Virginia, President Trump made economic promises that helped him win the election. Around 12,000 mining jobs have been eliminated in the last few years in that state alone while production remains at its lowest since the 1980s. In collaboration with the NewsHour and Marketplace, Frontline offers a look at the hopes and realities for some of the Americans who voted Trump.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): 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.
WATCH THE FULL (VIDEO) DOCUMENTARY
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.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: 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.
ROGER BALL, Owner, B&B Mine Safety: 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): The Federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for the building and fixing of many of the roads and bridges in this country, is running out of money. Congress has only a few weeks to figure out how to keep it going. And if it doesn’t, it could cost thousands of jobs.
The NewsHour’s Quinn Bowman traveled to West Virginia, where he looked in on one project dependent on the funds, and he talked to West Virginians who could be affected.
GARY TAYLOR, President, Bizzack Construction: We’re in Logan, West Virginia. This construction project is part of the Route 10 relocation. It allows the traveling public to go from Man to Logan. Ten millions cubic yards of excavation and, contract-wise, it’s about $75 million.
QUINN BOWMAN (NewsHour): Gary Taylor’s company, Bizzack Construction, is part of the team turning this winding two-lane road into a new one double in size. Much of the money for this and projects like it nationwide comes from the Federal Highway Trust Fund.
It was created in 1956 to finance and maintain the federal highway system, and relies on a gasoline tax, now pegged at 18.4 cents a gallon. The revenue goes to reimburse states, which, in turn, pay companies like Bizzack for construction and maintenance. But the fund has been spending more than it takes in for years, as inflation eats away at the value of the tax and increased fuel-efficiency reduces gasoline usage.
The money will start to dry up in August, but Congress is deadlocked over what to do. Democrat Nick Rahall has represented West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District for 38 years.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Hundreds of thousands of citizens in West Virginia are heading into the weekend dealing with a major water emergency caused by a chemical spill.
Even as it's disrupting lives, officials are still trying to get a handle on just what happened.
Earlier this evening, Hari Sreenivasan in our New York studio spoke with Charleston's mayor.
But he begins with some background.
HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): Ground zero is this Freedom Industries plant that makes chemicals for the mining, steel and cement industries. State inspectors say a foaming agent used in coal preparation leaked from a 40,000-gallon tank yesterday. Some of it overran a containment area, and ended up in the Elk River.
An estimated 300,000 people are affected in nine counties, many of them reporting a smell like black licorice. Emergency hot line centers like this one are fielding calls.
C.W. SIGMAN, Kanawha County, W.Va., Deputy Emergency Management Director: We have had some complaints about eyes burning, things of that nature. Best advice is to stay inside right now until they get this taken -- taken care of.
HARI SREENIVASAN: For now, people are being told to avoid using tap water to bathe, drink, cook, or wash clothes and dishes.
Jeff McIntyre heads the Charleston Water Treatment Plant. He says the chemical is not especially toxic, but it's not worth taking a chance.
JEFF MCINTYRE, West Virginia American Water Company: We don't know that the water is not safe. But I can't say that it is safe.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Testing shows contamination levels in the river are already falling, but McIntyre says it's too early to say how long it will take to clean the water system.
JEFF MCINTYRE: Our activities will be to go away from the treatment plant in concentric rings, if you like, flush the system and sample the system to make sure it's safe for our customers. We may be able to put customers back in service by zones. I don't think we are going to be able to do it, the entire area, all at once. So it's going to be chasing the line as the water flows and testing and flushing as we go.
HARI SREENIVASAN: For its part, Freedom Industries says its working nonstop to contain the leak and determine how much of the chemical got into the river.
In the meantime, bottled water and bags of ice have been flying off store shelves.
WOMAN: This is actually the third place I have been to trying to get water, so I have resorted to ice.
WOMAN: You're going to melt this down. That's what you are going to do, like you did back in them old days. Put it in a little tub, put it in there, and just take, you know, like a bird bath.
HARI SREENIVASAN: President Obama has declared a federal disaster in the affected region, expediting aid. And federal prosecutors have launched an investigation.
SUMMARY: The mayor of Charleston, W.Va., says the water emergency has been "nothing but bad news" for residents who are still awaiting a timeline for when they'll be able to resume normal life. Hari Sreenivasan talks to Mayor Danny Jones about how the chemical spill is affecting his community.
While many young people across the country have been watching the 2012 presidential election unfold via political ads, Daily Show parodies and social media, aspiring journalists with the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs program have been producing election stories from within their own communities.
Students at Richwood High School in West Virginia produced a video (at bottom) about how economic pressures, campaign rhetoric and recent changes in the coal industry influenced attitudes towards the presidential election. The students explored unique angles of the story, including how energy policies affect families and expectations about the future in the Appalachian region.
Students from Fort Mill High School in South Carolina, Free Spirit Media in Chicago, Ill., and the Media Enterprise Alliance in Oakland, Calif., interviewed their peers about the future of democracy. Watch their answers to the question: "Do you think the political system is broken? If so, how would you fix it?"
