UKRAINE - The Shooting Down of Passenger Plane MH17 (4 parts)

"MH17 crash in war zone poses security challenges, but may be aided by more ‘eyes’" (Part-1) PBS NewsHour 7/18/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Leaders from around the world called for an investigation into who shot down the Malaysian passenger plane.  But how can that be done in the middle of a war zone?

Hari Sreenivasan has that.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  For that, we turn to New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti, and P.J. Crowley, who served as assistant secretary of state during the first Obama administration and is now a fellow at George Washington University.

Mark, I want to start with you.

From your sources in the intelligence community, is there any certainty on whether the surface-to-air missile was from Russia or from the rebels?

MARK MAZZETTI, The New York Times:  Not total certainty on that point.

You heard President Obama say — put the blame pretty squarely on Moscow today, saying either they did it themselves or they gave it to the rebels and they were doing this by proxy.  Either way, the president said, and as intelligence officials are sort of pointing out, it’s — Russia is escalating the conflict by introducing these surface-to-air missiles.

But you raise a good point.  Exactly how this happened, exactly how the missiles got there and when they got there is still an important point to — question to answer.

"Understanding the risks of flying in unfriendly skies" (Part-2) PBS NewsHour 7/18/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  For a closer look at the challenges on the ground at the site of the downed Malaysia Airlines plane in Eastern Ukraine, Judy Woodruff talks to Matt Frei of Independent Television News from Donetsk.  Science correspondent Miles O’Brien (NewsHour) joins in to discuss why the jetliner was on a flight path over a conflict zone.

"Did Russia destroy key evidence from the MH17 crash site in Ukraine?" (Part-3) PBS NewsHour 7/19/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Ukraine accused Russia and pro-Russian separatists today of destroying evidence that could offer clues about the downing of the Malaysian Airlines plane that went down in Ukraine earlier this week.

"Kerry:  Evidence mounts pointing blame at pro-Russian separatists for MH17" (Part-4) PBS NewsHour 7/20/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Borodai said today that critical evidence has been recovered from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that is believed to have been shot down Thursday near the Ukrainian-Russian border.  Secretary of State John Kerry said there was overwhelming evidence that pro-Russian separatists shot down the plane.

WOMEN - 30th Anniversary of First Woman Nominated for Vice President

"How Geraldine Ferraro changed the political outlook for women" PBS NewsHour 7/17/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  This Saturday marks the 30-year anniversary of the nomination of the first woman ever to run for vice president on a major party ticket.  She was New York Democratic Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro.

A documentary by her daughter titled “Geraldine Ferraro:  Paving the Way” tells the story of her mother’s trailblazing career and the effect she had on American politics and culture.

We begin with an excerpt from that film, inside the Democratic National Convention hall in San Francisco where Ferraro was formally nominated by her running mate, Walter Mondale, on July 19, 1984.

WALTER MONDALE, Former Presidential Candidate:  I have had many people tell me it’s the best national convention we have ever had.  People were thrilled.  The crowds were building up outside the hall to be close to what was going on.

WOMAN:  I nominate Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be the next vice president of the United States of America.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

GERALDINE FERRARO, Former Vice Presidential Candidate:  It was as emotional as I had ever seen at a convention, thunderous, the response and emotion.  To talk about it, it was so spectacular.

WOMAN:  The floor of the convention was virtually all women, and women who had fought so hard for women’s rights.  And, oh, my God, it was such a wonderful moment.

COKIE ROBERTS, Journalist:  Standing up there all in white, looking like this tiny little figure, but looking beautiful and looking female.

CALIFORNIA - State Shuts Down Oil/Gas Injection Sites

"California Halts Injection of Fracking Waste, Warning it May Be Contaminating Aquifers" by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica 7/18/2014

State’s drought has forced farmers to rely on groundwater, even as California aquifers have been intentionally polluted due to exemptions for oil industry.

California officials have ordered an emergency shut-down of 11 oil and gas waste injection sites and a review more than 100 others in the state's drought-wracked Central Valley out of fear that companies may have been pumping fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking water aquifers there.

The state's Division of Oil and Gas and Geothermal Resources on July 7 issued cease and desist orders to seven energy companies warning that they may be injecting their waste into aquifers that could be a source of drinking water, and stating that their waste disposal "poses danger to life, health, property, and natural resources."  The orders were first reported by the Bakersfield Californian, and the state has confirmed with ProPublica that its investigation is expanding to look at additional wells.

The action comes as California's agriculture industry copes with a drought crisis that has emptied reservoirs and cost the state $2.2 billion this year alone.  The lack of water has forced farmers across the state to supplement their water supply from underground aquifers, according to a study released this week by the University of California Davis.

The problem is that at least 100 of the state's aquifers were presumed to be useless for drinking and farming because the water was either of poor quality, or too deep underground to easily access.  Years ago, the state exempted them from environmental protection and allowed the oil and gas industry to intentionally pollute them.  But not all aquifers are exempted, and the system amounts to a patchwork of protected and unprotected water resources deep underground.  Now, according to the cease and desist orders issued by the state, it appears that at least seven injection wells are likely pumping waste into fresh water aquifers protected by the law, and not other aquifers sacrificed by the state long ago.

"The aquifers in question with respect to the orders that have been issued are not exempt," said Ed Wilson, a spokesperson for the California Department of Conservation in an email.

A 2012 ProPublica investigation of more than 700,000 injection wells across the country found that wells were often poorly regulated and experienced high rates of failure, outcomes that were likely polluting underground water supplies that are supposed to be protected by federal law.  That investigation also disclosed a little-known program overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that exempted more than 1,000 other drinking water aquifers from any sort of pollution protection at all, many of them in California.

Those are the aquifers at issue today.  The exempted aquifers, according to documents the state filed with the U.S. EPA in 1981 and obtained by ProPublica, were poorly defined and ambiguously outlined.  They were often identified by hand-drawn lines on a map, making it difficult to know today exactly which bodies of water were supposed to be protected, and by which aspects of the governing laws.  Those exemptions and documents were signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown, who also was governor in 1981.

State officials emphasized to ProPublica that they will now order water testing and monitoring at the injection well sites in question.  To date, they said, they have not yet found any of the more regulated aquifers to have been contaminated.

"We do not have any direct evidence any drinking water has been affected," wrote Steve Bohlen, the state oil and gas supervisor, in a statement to ProPublica.

Bohlen said his office was acting "out of an abundance of caution," and a spokesperson said that the state became aware of the problems through a review of facilities it was conducting according to California's fracking law passed late last year, which required the state to study fracking impacts and adopt regulations to address its risks, presumably including underground disposal.

California officials have long been under fire for their injection well practices, a waste disposal program that the state runs according to federal law and under a sort of license — called "primacy" — given to it by the EPA.

For one, experts say that aquifers the states and the EPA once thought would never be needed may soon become important sources of water as the climate changes and technology reduces the cost of pumping it from deep underground and treating it for consumption.  Indeed, towns in Wyoming and Texas — two states also suffering long-term droughts — are pumping, treating, then delivering drinking water to taps from aquifers which would be considered unusable under California state regulations governing the oil and gas industry.

In June 2011, the EPA conducted a review of other aspects of California's injection well program and found enforcement, testing and oversight problems so significant that the agency demanded California improve its regulations and warned that the state's authority could be revoked.

Among the issues, California and the federal government disagree about what type of water is worth protecting in the first place, with California law only protecting a fraction of the waters that the federal Safe Drinking Water Act requires.

The EPA's report, commissioned from outside consultants, also said that California regulators routinely failed to adequately examine the geology around an injection well to ensure that fluids pumped into it would not leak underground and contaminate drinking water aquifers.  The report found that state inspectors often allowed injection at pressures that exceeded the capabilities of the wells and thus risked cracking the surrounding rock and spreading contaminants.  Several accidents in recent years in California involved injected waste or injected steam leaking back out of abandoned wells, or blowing out of the ground and creating sinkholes, including one 2011 incident that killed an oil worker.

The exemptions and other failings, said Damon Nagami, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in an email, are "especially disturbing" in a state that has been keenly aware of severe water constraints for more than a century and is now suffering from a crippling drought.  "Our drinking water sources must be protected and preserved for the precious resources they are, not sacrificed as a garbage dump for the oil and gas industry."

Still, three years after the EPA's report, California has not yet completed its review of its underground injection program, according to state officials.  The scrutiny of the wells surrounding Bakersfield may be the start.

HUMOR - Lampooning 'Glorious Leader'

CALIFORNIA - Mandatory Restrictions on Water Use

"California’s ‘water cop’ urges residents to take drought seriously with mandatory restrictions" PBS NewsHour 7/16/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  California officials are putting mandatory restrictions on water use in place as a result of that state’s ongoing drought.  Several Western states, including Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico, have large regions suffering a severe to extreme drought.

But California’s problem has lasted longer than most, and now the state says it’s time to ramp up conservation.

Dried-up lakebeds and water shortages have become depressingly familiar sights across California, and state water regulators moved Tuesday to impose new conservation rules.

State Water Board chair Felicia Marcus:

FELICIA MARCUS, Chairwoman, State Water Resources Control Board:  We're focusing on outdoor irrigation because that’s a place where people tend to, even without realizing it, they over water.  It really behooves all of us to figure out how to use the water that we do have as wisely as we can.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Starting August 1, the new rules could mean daily fines of up to $500 for people who waste water on lawns and car washing.  California is now in the third year of its worst drought since the 1970s.

AMERICA - Peace Corps, Reaching a New Generation

"Facing declining applications, Peace Corps rethinks how to reach a new generation" PBS NewsHour 7/16/2014

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GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Finally tonight, enticing a new generation to join the Peace Corps.

Fifty-three years ago, President Kennedy created the all-volunteer corps, which has since sent more than 200,000 U.S. citizens to 139 countries.  Today, there are about 7,000 volunteers serving in 65 countries, teaching, working in agriculture and economic development, and promoting nutrition and public health.

But the Peace Corps has been on the decline, as fewer people apply, and wait times for acceptance increase.

Yesterday, the Corps announced plans to reverse that trend.

Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet joins me now.

CDC - Centers for Disease Control Complancency and Lax Safety

COMMENT:  This is what can happen to any large bureaucracy over time, complacency.  It is a human condition.

"CDC under scrutiny for safety lapses" PBS NewsHour 7/16/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now to a series of alarming safety lapses at the federal Centers for Disease Control.  No one’s been hurt, but they have raised serious questions.  And, today, the head of the CDC traveled to Capitol Hill to address them.

Hari Sreenivasan has the story.

REP. TIM MURPHY, R, Penn.:  What we have here is a pattern of reoccurring issues of complacency and a lax culture of safety.  This is not sound science, and this will not be tolerated.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Revelations of safety and security problems put Dr. Thomas Frieden under the microscope at a House hearing.  The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was called to account after more than 80 CDC lab workers were exposed to live strains of anthrax last month in Atlanta.

The agency has also acknowledged that it mistakenly shipped the avian flu virus to outside labs.  Separately, several 60-year-old vials of smallpox, some with still viable strains, were found at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

No one was sickened in the incidents, but Frieden conceded:

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:  The fact that it appears that no one was harmed and that there were no releases does not excuse what happened.  What happened was completely unacceptable.  It should never have happened.

MIDDLE EAST - Cease-Fire Fails, Latest in the Un-Ending War

"Hopes for Mideast cease-fire dashed as Israel resumes airstrikes on Gaza" (Part-1) PBS NewsHour 7/15/2014

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Hopes of a potential stop to the violence gripping the Middle East were dashed today as aerial bombardment from both sides continued; 197 Palestinians have died during the eight days of violence.  The first Israeli casualty came today.

Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports on why Hamas rejected an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire.

MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour):  Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza this afternoon after a lull of six hours.  It’s cabinet had originally accepted, and honored, an Egyptian cease-fire proposal.  But Hamas kept firing rockets, some again intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system.

With that, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the counteroffensive would resume with greater force.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Prime Minister, Israel:  If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal and the rocket fire from Gaza doesn’t cease — and that appears to be the case now — we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation to protect our people.  And for this, we expect full support from the responsible members of the international community.

MARGARET WARNER:  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction controls the West Bank, urged Hamas to accept the truce.  In April, the two factions formed a unity government, but Hamas runs Gaza.

A spokesman for the militant group said it rejected the cease-fire because Hamas had not been consulted.

SAMI ABU ZUHRI, Hamas Spokesman (through interpreter):  The idea of declaring cease-fire before meeting the terms of the resistance is unacceptable.  We will not stop fighting before reaching an agreement that includes all the terms of the Palestinian resistance.

MARGARET WARNER:  Those terms include releasing Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and reopening border crossings with Egypt.

In Vienna, Secretary of State John Kerry urged Arab states to bring their influence to bear.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State:  We ask all the members of the Arab community, as they did yesterday at the Arab League meeting in Cairo, to continue to press to try to get Hamas to do the right thing here, which is cease the violence, engage in a legitimate negotiation, and protect the lives of people that they seem all too willing to put to risk.

MARGARET WARNER:  Meanwhile, thousands of Israeli troops remain positioned near the Gaza border.  A food delivery man was killed by a mortar blast today, Israel’s first fatality since the fighting began.

At a Jerusalem news conference, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for an outright takeover of Gaza.

AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN, Foreign Minister, Israel (through interpreter):  The answer must be clear.  There is a need to lead.  There is a need to end this operation when the Israeli army is in control over the whole Gaza Strip.

"Why Hamas rejected an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire" (Part-2) PBS NewsHour 7/15/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel Tuesday, refusing Egypt’s proposal for a ceasefire.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner talks to writer Mark Perry about what it will take for Hamas to accept a ceasefire, the group’s growing popularity among Palestinians and if Egypt’s proposal still has potential.

GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE - Before eMail or Edward Snowden

"How an unlikely group changed the face of the FBI, retold in ‘The Burglary’" PBS NewsHour 7/15/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Next, a look back at a different era of government surveillance, well before e-mail or Edward Snowden.

Jeffrey Brown has our book conversation.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  On March 8, 1971, a group of burglars entered a small FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania.  In the files they took away, they found evidence of wide-scale surveillance of U.S. citizens, particularly of anti-war and black civil rights activists.

It opened a window on the FBI that eventually led to the downfall of its leader, J. Edgar Hoover, and to major reforms of the bureau.  The perpetrators were never caught, but their identities and story are now told in the new book “The Burglary.”

Author Betty Medsger was one of the original journalists to receive and publish the information that came from the stolen files and she joins us now.

And welcome to you.

WALL STREET - Citigroup's $7 Billion Fine, Enough?

"Citigroup to pay $7 billion for ‘egregious misconduct’ leading up to financial crisis" PBS NewsHour 7/14/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  “We should start praying.  I wouldn’t be surprised if half of these loans went down” — that’s what a trader at Citigroup wrote in an e-mail in 2007, after reviewing thousands of mortgages bought and sold by the bank.

Today, the Justice Department cited those very words as it announced a $7 billion settlement with the bank.  The government said Citi committed egregious misconduct in the lead-up to the financial crisis.  Of the $7 billion, Citigroup will pay $4 billion to the Justice Department.  More than $2.5 billion is set aside for what’s described as consumer relief.

Tony West is associate attorney general.  And he was the government’s lead negotiator in this case.

And we welcome you to the program.

TONY WEST, Associate Attorney General, Dept. of Justice:  Thank you so much.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  So lay out for us, what was this egregious conduct and how many people at Citigroup were engaged in it?

MEDIA - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

"Comedian John Oliver makes fun of serious news" PBS NewsHour 7/14/2014

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JOHN OLIVER, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”:  If we let cable companies offer two speeds of service, there won’t be Usain Bolt and Usain Bolt on a motorbike.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHN OLIVER:  They will be Usain Bolt and Usain bolted to an anchor.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN:  The highly divisive debate over who controls Internet speed and access, so-called net neutrality, is hardly standard comic fare.

JOHN OLIVER:  The point is, the Internet in its current state is not broken, and the FCC is currently taking steps to fix that.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  But it’s just the kind of policy and political subject that John Oliver tackles, often in surprising depth, on his new HBO comedy program “Last Week Tonight.”

JOHN OLIVER:  We need you to channel that anger.

JEFFREY BROWN:  His admonition to viewers to write to the FCC even briefly shut down the agency’s comments section of the Web site.  Born in a suburb of Birmingham, England, Oliver studied English and joined a comedy troupe at Cambridge University.  He performed stand-up in festivals, pubs and clubs around England, before coming to this country and joining “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” in 2006, eventually sitting in as host while Stewart took time off.

The new program has probed, poked fun, and raised serious questions around a variety of news topics, from India’s elections to Supreme Court decisions.

HUMOR - The Wealth Gap

Truth in humor.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Wealth Gap

ALABAMA - Huntsville Failed Legal Mandate to Integrate

"In Desegregation Case, Judge Blasts School Officials and Justice Department" by Nikole Hannah-Jones, ProPublica 7/15/2014

A federal judge in Alabama says local school board has failed to meet legal mandate to integrate.

A federal judge in Alabama has taken the rare step of ruling against a local school board in a desegregation case, rejecting the board's claims that it had done all it could to end segregation in its schools.

In a lengthy, at times scathing ruling issued last month, U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala said she could not "conclusively" determine that the Huntsville City Schools District wasn't still operating an unconstitutionally segregated system or that it had made a "good faith effort" to significantly integrate its schools.  As a result, Haikala refused to approve a student assignment plan that had been proposed by the Huntsville school board.

The Huntsville ruling is important, both because the district is racially diverse and because it is the largest in the state still under federal mandate to desegregate.

In May, ProPublica published a story showing the state of inaction and confusion surrounding scores of federal school desegregation orders, the once-powerful tool for compelling school districts across the country to provide equal educational opportunities to students of color.  Many of the orders had been allowed to sit dormant for decades, often with no one monitoring school officials to make sure they were complying with federal mandates to integrate.  And in many other instances, judges had routinely lifted existing orders even when those districts remained highly segregated.

For some parents and civil rights lawyers, the inaction and allegedly one-sided decisions amounted to an abdication of responsibility by the country's federal bench.

In Alabama, however, two federal judges, Judges Myron Thompson and William Harold Albritton III, had bucked the trend, refusing to see the decades-old orders as relics that should simply be brought to a close.  And now, it looks like those two judges may have company.

"Until the board achieves the goal" of eliminating "segregation to the extent practicable," Haikala wrote.  "The Court must continue to supervise the Board's efforts."

In April, ProPublica chronicled the fortunes of the school district in Tuscaloosa, Ala.  There, the city's schools, after years of successful integration, had effectively been re-segregated after the district had won its freedom from a longstanding court order.  ProPublica's reporting showed that the re-segregation that had happened in Tuscaloosa was happening in school districts throughout the nation.

Huntsville's schools had been under court order since 1965.  Though the district itself is racially balanced, most of the district's schools are either heavily white or heavily black.  A new zoning plan proposed by the board in 2013 would have increased segregation for many black students.

The U.S. Department of Justice, a party to the case, objected to the assignment plan and in February the dispute landed before Haikala, who'd been appointed to the bench by President Obama in 2012.

In the judge's 107-page ruling, she blasted school officials for failing to provide required reports on the district's integration progress for two decades.  She also criticized the Justice Department for failing to be "proactive" and to "keep an eye on" the marked disparities in schools serving mostly white children and those serving mostly black ones.

Huntsville officials, in response to an interview request, released a statement to ProPublica, stating, that as a result of the order, the district intended to work with the U.S. Department of Justice "to create a roadmap" to satisfy the judge's demands and ultimately gain "the return of control of Huntsville City Schools to local officials."

Justice Department officials did not respond to an interview request before publication.

Huntsville officials, as is common in these cases, argued that their schools had been fully desegregated for years.  Any enduring segregation or other inequities, they argued, had to do with housing patterns and other forces outside of their control.

These arguments, ProPublica's reporting shows, have often proved successful before federal judges.

But Haikala wasn't persuaded.

"The record in this case is not as clear as the Board suggests, and the fact that the district integrated the student bodies of many of its schools in the early 1970s does not automatically lead to the conclusion that the district does not currently operate a dual system," she wrote.  She pointed out that not only were many schools still segregated, but the opportunity to take advanced classes also appeared linked to race.

She noted testimony from a white mother who withdrew her child from a predominantly black high school because it offered fewer advanced academic courses than other schools.

"While private choices seem to have precipitated the existing racial polarization of the district's schools, it is not clear...that the district has not contributed to the situation," she wrote.  "There is a significant disparity between the educational programs in the district's predominately African-American secondary schools and the educational programs in the district's predominately white schools."

That disparity, she said, could even be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Huntsville schools had taken several steps to improve educational outcomes for black students, including adopting universal school breakfast programs and increasing pre-kindergarten classrooms.  But the judge's ruling seemed skeptical of whether the district would continue these efforts once court oversight ended.

"The Board submits that the district's conduct over the past 50 years demonstrates good faith.  Recent events, though, have hurt the board's record," she wrote.  She cataloged Huntsville's 20-year failure to file required reports, its track record of missing data and incomplete information, and its public criticism of a requirement in the order that the district allow students to transfer into schools where they are a racial minority.

Haikala set two magistrate judges to the task of gathering information and to work with the district and the Justice Department to come up with a plan to address any other issues needed to get the district in compliance with the order, and ultimately, to end it.

Huntsville's children, she wrote, "have no control over where they live now, but giving them a strong education is the surest way to ensure that they will have choices about where they will live in the future and what they will do when they become adults."

You can read Judge Haikala's entire order here (PDF).  You can search ProPublica's database to see whether your district is, or has ever been, under a school desegregation order and check school segregation in your hometown.

AMERICA - Copper Thefts Putting Public in Danger

"Costly copper:  scrap metal thieves put public in danger" PBS NewsHour 7/13/2014

Excerpt

RICK KARR (NewsHour):  Angela Day’s landline kept going dead in 2012.  She didn’t have a cell phone she could use instead because cell coverage is spotty in the Appalachian region of Ohio where she lives.  And at the house where she was living with her daughter and her parents, there’s no cell signal at all.  So whenever she had to be away from home, she worried.  Especially about her father.

ANGELA DAY:  He had a heart condition and he had had several open-heart surgeries.  He had triple-bypass surgery.

RICK KARR:  A few days after Christmas, he said he wasn’t feeling well.

ANGELA DAY:  He called over to talk to a nurse.  And he was having problems with the phone.

RICK KARR:  His condition deteriorated, and finally he said he needed an ambulance.  The family called 911, but the line was so bad that they finally gave up and Day’s brother rushed their father to doctors.  But it was too late.  He died that evening.

ANGELA DAY:  It was really frustrating close to the whole week afterwards we couldn’t even call out to plan the funeral.  We couldn’t even call and tell family that he had passed.  I had to go to my workplace to use the phone to even call the funeral home.

RICK KARR:  Angela Day’s phone didn’t work because thieves were stealing telephone wires all over the county.  It’s one of the poorest in Ohio, and the copper in the lines was valuable.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 7/11/2014

"Shields and Brooks on suing the president, LeBron’s hometown bounce" PBS NewsHour 7/11/2014

Excerpts

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including legal action by the U.S. House against President Obama, dwindling funds for the federal highway system, how to cope with the influx of unaccompanied children crossing the border and the announcement that LeBron James is returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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JUDY WOODRUFF:  And I guess the biggest one, though, David, is the speaker, John Boehner, saying he’s going to sue the president of the United States because the president’s overstepped his line as president.

Is there merit in this suit?  Is it a good idea?  What do you think?

DAVID BROOKS, New York Times:  There’s some merit, but I, of course, have sympathy for both sides.

So, basically, you normally pass a big piece of legislation like the ACA, the health care bill, and then you go back and fix it and the Congress and everybody cooperates to fix it.  But because we’re so dysfunctional, we can’t do that.

And so the president is left saying, well, we have got to really change the law to drop some things in the employer mandate to make it work, or at least delay it.  And so he goes ahead and does that, for probably some defensible reasons, some political reasons, but it is a pretty bold step for the president to do it just off the top of his head.

It does really delay and probably wipe out a pretty significant part of the law.  So when Boehner says I’m suing because the president just can’t change the law without congressional approval, technically, he’s right.  The president should not be allowed to do some of that stuff.

But it does grow out of the general dysfunction, where you don’t have two parties working together to make an already passed law function.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Is that what the president is doing?  Is he changing the law?

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated columnist:  Yes, he is, did change the Affordable Care Act.
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JUDY WOODRUFF:  The lawsuit.

MARK SHIELDS:  The lawsuit.  It’s a base sweetener for the election of 2014.

It’s John Boehner being able to say — and I’m not arguing on the merits — but being able to say, look, we’re going after him.  We’re bringing it to court.  And, all of a sudden, John Boehner looks semi-moderate because John McCain’s vice presidential running mate, former Governor Palin, is leading an impeachment charge, supported by such esteemed groups as Sean Hannity and The Drudge Report.

So, the lawsuit, if anything, looks quite civil and grown-up.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  So, is that what this is?  It’s the speaker throwing a bone or a — whether it’s a bone that’s going to develop or not?

DAVID BROOKS:  Well, the impeachment is obviously cloud cuckoo land.

But there’s a natural tussle between the legislature and the White House, and presidents, especially when everything is dysfunctional, want to expand their power.  The president has been quite unshy about that.  And the legislature’s job is to push back.

And so you’re going to — it’s a gray area.  The president is charged with executing the laws.  Congress passed it.  The president’s got it make it work, whatever party.  And so how much do you allow him to change the law to make it function?

And so that’s sort of a gray area.  I think the president and on some occasions has gone quite aggressively to changing laws to make them work.  But how do you draw that line?  We will see.

I agree with Mark, though.  The lawsuit is not going anywhere.  But I do think it’s a substantive matter that’s built into our Constitution.
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MARK SHIELDS:  But it’s one more problem (immigration) for, quite frankly — and I say this as a liberal.  It’s one more problem for Democrats, I mean, because it erodes further the confidence of government to act effectively and to execute the law and to control the borders of the country.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Why do you say that’s a problem for Democrats?  Why isn’t that a problem…

MARK SHIELDS:  Well, because Democrats are the party of government.

I mean, the president can rail against Washington and all the rest of it, and I’m happy to be out of Washington.  The Democrats believe that government is an instrument of social justice, an engine of economic progress.  Republicans don’t.  Republicans are the anti-government party.  And for that reason, it doesn’t erode confidence in them the same way.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  But, David, you think there’s a way to find out — that enough of these children can be sent back and have a secure place to go?

DAVID BROOKS:  That’s why governing is hard.  This is why it’s boring through hard boards, because how do you investigate where these kids — they can’t tell you.

It’s just this problem from hell.  How do you find out who can go back safely, who you can’t?  How do you set up a process for that?  And yet somehow we just can’t continue the way we’re going, because the horror that the kids are going through to try to get here is horrible enough.

MARK SHIELDS:  Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Right.

DAVID BROOKS:  And so it’s typical governance.  And that’s why it’s so easy to be a pundit.  You’re faced with cruelty on either side of this issue.

HEALTH - Setback, 'Cured Child' HIV Returns

"HIV rebound in young child is ‘another step’ in long process of AIDS research" PBS NewsHour 7/11/2014

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  It was in March of last year that doctors thought they might have made a breakthrough in the goal of finding a cure for AIDS, treating a baby girl in Mississippi with early and unusually aggressive drug therapy.

The mother had HIV and had not been treated during pregnancy.  But the girl was treated within 30 hours of her birth and was free of the virus for two years.  Doctors allowed her to stay off therapy and, still, there were no signs of HIV returning.

But, yesterday, officials announced that the girl, now almost 4, had tested positive for HIV during a follow-up visit last week.

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases joins me now.

And welcome back to you.

This is something that you and I talked about when the news came out last year.  So, remind us first why this seemed so hopeful, how this early and aggressive treatment promised such a difference.

POLITICS - Congressional Roadblock Threatens U.S. Transportation Infrastructure

Hay, the U.S. economy is still weak, now this Congressional (read Republican) roadblock will make it worst.

Hint to Congress (Democrats AND Republicans), this is worth whatever the cost.  Not paying for it will shortchange the economy.

"Construction companies relying on federal Highway Trust Fund face Congressional roadblock" PBS NewsHour 7/11/2014

Excerpt

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.

THE SPY GAME - Germany vs United States

"Is Germany overreacting to allegations of U.S. espionage?" PBS NewsHour 7/10/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Germany announced today that it is kicking America’s top spy out of the country after new allegations of U.S. espionage.  Local media there have reported that a German Defense Ministry worker who dealt with international security issues was also being investigated because of his close contacts to U.S. spies.

And last week, a 31-year-old intelligence employee was arrested on suspicion of spying for foreign powers, reportedly the CIA, since 2012.  The allegations come on the heels of last fall’s revelation that the U.S. was intercepting the Internet traffic of millions of German citizens, and tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone.

Before the expulsion request was made public today, the chancellor told reporters that Germany and the U.S. have — quote — “very different approaches to intelligence.”

CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL, Germany (through interpreter):  Spying on allies is a waste of energy in the end.  We have so many problems, and I think we should focus on the important things.  Just look at the challenges posed in Syria regarding ISIS.  If you look at the fight against terrorism, there are huge problems.  That is of the highest priority, from my point of view, and not spying among allies.

EDUCATION - Testing Students Using Real-Life Situations to Evaluate Schools

"Exam asks students to apply critical thinking skills to real-life situations" PBS NewsHour 7/10/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  A new report finds that U.S. students’ financial literacy is only average compared to students worldwide.  American students also don’t do any better on other international tests which assess math, reading and science skills.

What can be done to improve the performance of our schools?

Education correspondent John Merrow has our report.

JOHN MERROW (NewsHour):  It’s testing day for at Baltimore City College High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Students won’t arrive for another hour, but the adults in charge are already here, including Jill Morgan of CTB/McGraw Hill, the company that administers and scores the tests.

JILL MORGAN, CTB/McGraw Hill:  The test is math, science and reading.  It’s a continuous test and it’s approximately two hours’ times, and then it’s followed by a 35-minute questionnaire.

JOHN MERROW:  At first glance, it looks like a typical multiple choice exam, the kind that federal law requires every third through eight grader and 10th grader to take in math and reading.

It’s a test Jack Dale, former superintendent of Fairfax County, Virginia, Public Schools is very familiar with.

JACK DALE, Former Superintendent, Fairfax County Public Schools:  Typically, in our Virginia Standards of Learning test or the Maryland, it tends to focus more on what we call giving back information, regurgitation of facts and figures.

JOHN MERROW:  American students are already the most tested in the world.  Do schools really need another one?

PETER KANNAM, America Achieves:  The value of this is 15-year-olds across the globe can take this, and so you can take it and see how your school is doing against Singapore, Finland, and Spain.

IMMIGRATION - Current Border Crisis and Republican Stonewalling

Gee, there is an Immigration Reform bill in Congress being held up by Republicans and it's President Obama's fault?  NOT!

President Obama IS trying to follow CURRENT law.

"Amid border crisis, immigration judges push for more resources" PBS NewsHour 7/10/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  President Obama has asked Congress for almost $4 billion to deal with the recent influx of unaccompanied children from Central America.  But Republicans in Congress have showed no signs of quickly giving the administration what it wants.

Jeffrey Brown has our report.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, Minority Leader:  What he appears to be asking for is a blank check, one that would allow him to sustain his current failed policy.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, Speaker of the House:  We’re not giving the president a blank check.  Beyond that, we will await further discussions with our members before we make any final decisions.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  As the day began, Republican leaders were in lockstep against President Obama’s emergency request for $3.7 billion.  It’s aimed at stemming the flow of unaccompanied migrant children across the Mexican border, some 57,000 since October, mostly from Central America.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans insisted the president’s underlying immigration policy is the real problem and his budget request, by itself, is not the answer.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL:  But we want to make sure we actually get the right tools to fix the problem.  And that’s not what we have seen so far from the president.

JEFFREY BROWN:  The White House shot back that there’s a clear and urgent need for funding to add more immigration judges, detention facilities and other programs.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson made the case at a Senate hearing this afternoon.

JEH JOHNSON, Secretary of Homeland Security:  The request that we have made for a $3.7 billion supplemental is indeed a lot of money for the taxpayer.  From my perspective, this request has the right focus on deterrence, added detention and removal.