PBS NewsHour | Season 2023 | October 26, 2023 - PBS NewsHour full episode
AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Mass shootings kill at least 18 people and a massive manhunt rattles Lewiston, Maine.
AMNA NAWAZ: Israeli forces conduct a raid into Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion, as the U.N. strains to shelter more than 600,000 displaced Palestinians.
GEOFF BENNETT: And childcare remains a significant barrier to millions of people needing to appear in court over low-level offenses.
WILLIAM SNOWDEN, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law: People assume folks are missing court because they're trying to evade justice or evade prosecution.
But, oftentimes, there's things that are happening in people's lives that are preventing them from showing up to court.
(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."
Lewiston, Maine, is the latest community to suffer devastating losses from mass shootings after a gunman killed at least 18 people and injured 13 others last night.
AMNA NAWAZ: The suspect remains at large, and hundreds of officers are looking for him in a major manhunt.
The shootings are the worst mass killing in the country this year, and authorities have warned that the death toll could climb.
Laura Barron-Lopez reports from Lewiston.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Nearly 24 hours after a man opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, the sprawling manhunt is growing for the shooter.
Police say 40-year-old Robert Card is a person of interest and remains armed and dangerous.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened, and many questions remain.
COL. WILLIAM ROSS, Maine State Police: Several of the deceased have been identified and their family's next of kin has been notified.
Approximately eight people at this point have been identified; 10 people, 10 of these victims, still need to be identified at this time.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Maine's Governor Janet Mills said it was a dark day for her state.
GOV.
JANET MILLS (D-ME): This city did not deserve this terrible assault on its citizens, on its peace of mind, on its sense of security.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Just before 7:00 p.m. last night, that assault began inside the Just-In-Time bowling center, sending people scrambling for safety, including this man named Brandon, who says he first thought he heard balloons popping.
BRANDON, Witness: I had my back turned to the door.
And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon, he was holding a weapon, I just booked it down the lane, and I slid basically into where the pins are and climbed up to the machine and was on top of the machines for about 10 minutes, until the cops got there.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Ten-year-old Zoey Levesque was also there with her mother and was grazed by a bullet.
ZOEY LEVESQUE, Injured in Shooting: Just, like shocking.
Like, it is something that you think never would happen.
I never thought I'd grow up and get a bullet in my leg.
Why?
Like, why do people do this?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Police say, not long after that, the gunman went to Schemengees Bar and Grille and opened fire.
As news broke last night, the restaurant posted on Facebook: "My heart is crushed.
I am at a loss for words.
In a split-second, your world gets turn upside down for no good reason."
Police released a photo of an SUV parked in a nearby town that they called a vehicle of interest.
Early this morning, authorities issued more shelter-in-place advisories, not just for Lewiston, but also in the nearby towns of Lisbon and Bowdoin,.
Several schools in the area were also closed due to the manhunt.
And many residents, like 21-year-old Campbell McKendry, a senior at Bates College in Lewiston, are still trying to make sense of what happened.
How are you feeling right now as you're still sheltering in place with your roommates?
CAMPBELL MCKENDRY, College Student: I think people really haven't processed what's going on.
I mean, at the moment, 18 people are dead, which is just unfathomable in such a small and tight-knit community like Lewiston.
And I know that the loss that happened last night will be felt here for years, if not decades to come.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: McKendry lives only fives minutes from the bowling alley and says she'd often go with friends to hang out and relax there.
CAMPBELL MCKENDRY: And its just so devastating and so upsetting that that's been taken away from the Bates community and the Lewiston community by the actions of one person.
MIKE SAUSCHUCK, Commissioner, Maine Department Of Public Safety: Our reality for today is that this suspect is still at large.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Police said more than 350 state and federal law enforcement personnel are looking for Robert Card, who is said to be a firearms instructor and a member of the U.S. Army Reserve.
According to multiple reports, Card was believed to have made threats to shoot up a nearby military base and had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this summer.
Authorities would not confirm that this morning, focusing instead on the survivors and victims.
MIKE SAUSCHUCK: We want to provide community support for the victims, for the families in the communities across the state.
But we also have an incredibly strong and laser-like focus on bringing this suspect into custody and ultimately to justice.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But many here are frustrated that they're not getting resources and answers fast enough.
SARAH, Lewiston, Maine, Resident; There's no words to describe how you feel.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: We met a woman named Sarah who has lived in Lewiston for 32 years.
Last night, she'd been at the bowling alley with her daughter and says the third-grader saw two people get shot.
SARAH: I want counseling, but there's no services here right now.
We're looking for services to get her counseling.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Wednesday's death toll is especially staggering for a state that only had 29 homicides in all of 2022.
People here are upset and angry about what they say is a lack of communication from local authorities about their loved ones and how to get help -- Amna.
AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, we heard officials there saying that they're still working to identify some of the victims in this latest mass shooting in America.
You did speak with someone who lost family members, though.
Tell us what they said.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That's right, Amna.
I spoke to Rob Young, who's originally from Maine.
He was heading here from Baltimore this morning on a flight to be next to his sister-in-law's side.
And he found out that his brother Bill Young and his nephew Aaron Young, respectively 43 years old and 14 years old, were killed at the bowling alley, Just-In-Time bowling alley, that's just down the road behind me last night.
And he said that this stuff just doesn't happen in Maine, that his sister-in-law is destroyed, that she was given false hope by state authorities because, for hours on end, she had been told that no kids had died, and then found out later this afternoon that her son, 14-year-old Aaron, had died.
And we haven't heard back from state authorities about that, Amna AMNA NAWAZ: Just another heartbreaking story on the ground there.
Laura, you spoke to so many people, including the student we heard from their, Campbell McKendry, who said it was unfathomable something like this would happen in her community.
What else did she tell you about what the experience has been like?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Campbell had heard police sirens and helicopters for hours last night as she sheltered in place, Amna.
And this is something that has become all too familiar for her family.
Her parents have been texting her nonstop, asking her if she was safe.
And this is something that they also experienced earlier this year when their other daughter, who goes to Colby College that's just a few miles north of Lewiston, was at a party where a shooting occurred.
So this is something that her family has experienced twice in just one year, Amna.
AMNA NAWAZ: That is Laura Barron-Lopez reporting from Lewiston, Maine, the latest American community affected by a mass shooting.
Laura, thank you.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: The U.S. economy had a robust third quarter, showing resilience despite inflation and recession fears.
The Commerce Department reports growth ran at a 4.9 percent annual rate from July through September.
The rise was largely driven by increased consumer spending on everything from cars to restaurant meals.
It was the quickest pace of growth in nearly two years, but economists expect a slowdown in the current quarter.
A strike by Canadian workers has paralyzed the vital St. Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.
Some 360 union members in Ontario and Quebec walked off the job Sunday, demanding higher pay.
The strike has closed 13 locks between Lake Erie and Montreal.
Port officials estimate they're losing millions of dollars each day.
JOHN JAMIAN, Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority: It's a big deal.
I mean, the St. Lawrence Seaway system as a whole so far this year has brought in over $16 billion of commerce.
And that commerce affects the steel industry, the transportation and construction industry.
GEOFF BENNETT: It's the first time a strike has brought the St. Lawrence Seaway to a standstill since 1968.
Members of the United Auto Workers have started returning to work at Ford after nearly six weeks on strike.
The two sides announced a tentative agreement last night, including a 25 percent general wage increase.
The other big Detroit automakers, General Motors and Stellantis, are still negotiating.
In Mexico, the scope of the Hurricane Otis disaster came into scope, as officials confirmed 27 deaths and widespread destruction.
The Category 5 storm hit the Pacific resort of Acapulco on Tuesday night with winds of 165 miles an hour.
Cell phone footage showed hotels left with gaping holes where windows had been and flooding that spread across miles.
People waded through mud and debris, trying to find supplies, desperate for help.
ISABEL DE LA CRUZ, Storm Victim (through translator): The house is roofless.
Our house was a total loss, my mattresses, my papers, my children's, my grandchildren's.
Everything is gone.
GEOFF BENNETT: Mexico's president made it into Acapulco late last night.
He said every power line in the storm zone is down and the local water system isn't running.
Some 10,000 troops have been sent to aid in the recovery.
China's foreign minister opened a visit to Washington today, with the U.S. pushing Beijing to play a positive role in the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East.
Wang Yi was meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others.
It could set up a meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month in San Francisco.
The government of Pakistan has started setting up deportation centers in a crackdown on illegal immigration.
Officials served notice today they will start arresting people on November 1.
Those at risk include an estimated 1.7 million Afghans.
SARFRAZ BUGTI, Pakistani Caretaker Interior Minister (through translator): I am warning those people who are living here illegally that they should leave voluntarily before we start deporting them forcefully.
We have identified the areas, and we know in which parts of Pakistan's cities, towns and villages they are living.
We have complete details of each and every thing.
GEOFF BENNETT: In response, tens of thousands of people in the Southwestern town of Chaman protested today.
Some complained the crackdown will disrupt daily cross-border travel that's gone on for decades.
In a New York federal courthouse, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried testified today that lawyers played a vital role in key decisions at the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.
he's Accused of criminal fraud.
Bankman-Fried testified without the jury present today, so the judge can decide which parts the panel will ultimately hear.
Congressman Jamaal Bowman has pleaded guilty to pulling a fire alarm in a house office building last month.
The New York Democrat will pay a $1,000 fine for the misdemeanor and formally apologize to Capitol Police.
He told reporters today -- quote -- "I really regret that this caused so much confusion and that people had to evacuate."
Bowman has said he pulled the alarm by mistake.
Republicans say he did it to delay a vote on a government funding bill.
And, on Wall Street, worries about interest rates and corporate profits kept stocks on the run.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 251 points to close at 32784.
The Nasdaq lost 225 points.
The S&P 500 was down more than 1 percent.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": the House of Representatives finally gets back to work with a new speaker; Georgia is ordered to redraw discriminatory voting maps, while North Carolina approves maps that tilt Republican; and an artist turns her work into love letters to her husband fading into the fog of Alzheimer's.
AMNA NAWAZ: The Gaza Health Ministry run by Hamas today released 200-plus pages listing those killed since Israel began its retaliatory air campaign after the October 7 terror attacks.
On the list, more than 7,000 people, nearly 3,000 of whom were children, this an apparent response to President Biden's remarks yesterday doubting the official toll numbers in Gaza.
Inside Gaza today, the United Nations warned it is on a humanitarian precipice.
Nick Schifrin speaks to a United Nations official and reports on Israel's plans for its expected ground offensive.
NICK SCHIFRIN: It is not an invasion, but the largest Israeli incursion into Gaza yet.
Tanks crossed into Gaza early this morning, as seen in this Israeli Defense Forces video, to -- quote -- "prepare the battlefield."
But Israel is still preparing and debating its own plans for the coming ground offensive.
And, today, war cabinet member, opposition leader and former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Benny Gantz warned of a long war.
BENNY GANTZ, Israeli War Cabinet Minister (through translator): The maneuver is only one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will last for years.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Complicating Israel's mission, more than 220 hostages held by Hamas, only four of whom have been released.
Hamas vows to release all of them if Israel stops the bombing, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian reiterated today in New York.
HOSSEIN AMIR ABDOLLAHIAN, Iranian Foreign Minister (through translator): Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners.
On the other hand, the world should support the release of 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Iran helps fund the record number of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza, like this direct hit today into a residential building in Petah Tikva.
In Gaza, the direct hits are relentless.
Today, Israel launched more than 250 airstrikes and said it killed the co-planner of the October 7 terrorist attacks.
Senior Hamas officials live within and fire from residential neighborhoods.
Israeli airstrikes have destroyed about one out of every 20 Gazan buildings in one of the densest parts of the planet.
Northern Gaza's Beit Hanoun before and after the airstrikes.
Beit Hanoun's Izbat neighborhood before and after.
And al Karama before and after; 2,000 miles away in Brussels, the European Union today called for humanitarian corridors and pauses to speed the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid.
DR. NEDAL ABED, Al Quds Hospital: In the coming days, it's very difficult if we don't -- if we didn't get any fuel in the system.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Dr. Nedal Abed is an orthopedic surgeon affiliated with Doctors Without Borders in North Gaza's Al-Quds hospital, which said it received an Israeli evacuation order this week.
DR. NEDAL ABED: We don't have the capacity to do normal work.
We operated a patient on the ground.
We -- some patients left to die in these.
It was a very difficult situation.
And this event, actually, it's happened every day and in every hospital.
NICK SCHIFRIN: His family, seen in happier times, are worried about him.
On Sunday, an explosion hit near the hospital.
He says the majority of his patients are children, younger than his own daughters.
His family's home was also destroyed.
His 12-year-old, Noor, (ph) lost every toy, but saved her cat.
DR. NEDAL ABED: Also, my house was destructed in the building where I live.
And that's happened with a lot of medical staff members here.
We lost many, many doctors, many, many nurses, many, many officer for ambulances.
We lost a lot of personnel, medical personnel in Gaza.
We don't have the luxury, actually, to bring psychological teams aboard.
I try to do some work now today.
One girl's around 10 years old age.
She lost all the family.
She start to cry.
I didn't know what to do.
I am a surgeon, but I try.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And joining us now from just outside Rafah in Southern Gaza is Tom White, the head of UNRWA's operations in Gaza.
Tom White, thank you very much for making the time.
Welcome to the "NewsHour."
You have said today that your fuel is -- quote - - "almost exhausted."
What does that mean and what is its impact?
THOMAS WHITE, Director of UNRWA Gaza: Well, I go actually beyond fuel.
In terms of our whole operation, we are literally exhausted.
We are rationing what reserves of fuel we have now in Gaza.
Essentially, what we should be getting to hospitals, what we should be getting to bakeries to bake bread, we are rationing those supplies.
And then, on the other hand, we have teams who are running displacement centers, for example.
We can't get them basic sanitation.
We can't provide enough shelter for people in these locations, so some really difficult choices.
Which communities are going to go without essential humanitarian support?
And it's going to get to a point where people become very ill and some people are going to lose their lives because we can't get the assistance that they need.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel is blocking fuel from coming into Gaza because it says Hamas steals fuel and already holds large stockpiles.
So, have you seen any evidence that Hamas stockpiles fuel?
THOMAS WHITE: Look, I'm not seeing any evidence that Hamas is stockpiling fuel.
What I can say is, I know what we're doing with the fuel that we have got.
With the fuel reserves that we can access from within Gaza, we are making sure that is going to desalination plants, it's going to bakeries to produce bread.
NICK SCHIFRIN: More than 600,000 Gazans are internally displaced and sheltering at some 150 schools-turned-shelters.
That is three times those schools' intended capacity.
Do you have what you need?
Do you have the ability to keep those people safe?
THOMAS WHITE: We don't have the humanitarian supplies to look after those people in those shelters.
Conditions in the shelters are getting very desperate.
But our major concern is also that these people are sheltering under a U.N. flag, and we cannot guarantee them protection.
We have had over 40 of our installations with collateral damage.
We have had five direct hits.
It's cost the lives of 17 Gazans sheltering under the U.N. flag, and 281 people have been injured in our shelters because of fire.
NICK SCHIFRIN: I reported from inside Gaza during the 2014 war, the last time Israel launched a ground incursion into Gaza for about six weeks.
And I personally saw how Hamas fired rockets from next to UNRWA schools and stole supplies from UNRWA schools.
Why aren't you able to prevent that?
THOMAS WHITE: Look, we're calling on all parties to the conflict, everybody involved in this conflict, to stop this war.
We're calling for a humanitarian cease-fire.
The reality is, we are operating in a -- in many cases, in an urban battlefield.
It's very chaotic.
There are firing positions from within the urban population and, of course, coming the other way, fire into urban areas.
So, my concern is that we have got a large number of civilians who are caught in an active conflict zone.
NICK SCHIFRIN: There is a very extreme shortage of numbers of trucks coming in to Gaza compared to what you need and compared, certainly, to what used to come into Gaza before October the 7th.
What do you believe is causing the numbers of trucks to be so limited?
THOMAS WHITE: So, what we're dealing with is a verification process that is run by the Israelis down on the Egyptian-Israeli border.
That process is very slow.
It has been problematic.
We really need to have a verification process with the Israelis that enables a processing of well over 100 trucks a day.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And, finally, sir, the commissioner-general of UNRWA today described Gaza as a place where - - quote -- "There is not much humanity left and hell is settling in."
What does that look like for you?
How deep is Gaza's despair?
THOMAS WHITE: People are questioning, what does the future hold?
Where am I going to be safe?
There is so much uncertainty, so much fear that I really question, where is our humanity to be allowing this level of death and destruction on the Gazan population?
NICK SCHIFRIN: Tom White, head of Gaza operations for UNRWA, thank you very much.
THOMAS WHITE: Thank you.
Thank you.
AMNA NAWAZ: It was nearly three weeks ago that Hamas attacked Southern Israel with ferocious terror, killing more than 1,400 people.
Now, as Israelis mourn their dead, many are still trying to find their loved ones.
The task is monumental, painstaking, and often horrific.
Leila Molana-Allen reports.
And a warning: Images and accounts in this story are disturbing.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Along Israel's Gaza border, nearly three weeks after Hamas' terror attacks, there is still more horror to clear.
Soldiers secure the area against rockets and militants still infiltrating the border fence, but the most brutal of tasks now falls to hundreds of civilian volunteers, sorting through human remains; 56-year-old Eli moved to Israel from Rhode Island as a kid.
In peacetime, he is a carpenter.
ELI HAZEN, Volunteer: We are going after everything else through the houses in order to collect all the remnants.
Where we know the person was identified in this particular house, we put everything into a bag, and buried with him.
Other places we don't know, it is just buried in a mass grave.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Inside every shattered home in these small farming communities is another story of barbarous cruelty; 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Moshe (ph) was sleeping in his room when the kibbutz was attacked.
Militants fired the RPG at point-blank range through his armored window and then sent in two hand grenades afterwards to make sure he was dead.
In the living room, a lovingly made collage for grandpa.
Outside, volunteers have spent today collecting Moshe's remains from his shrapnel-ridden mattress.
The team isn't only trying to identify victims, but to lay their remains to rest.
By Jewish tradition, every part of the body must be buried.
Two young parents and their son were killed by grenades in this room of their house.
ELI HAZEN: They're working with paint scrapers, scraping off specks of paint and body -- skin or residue from the ceiling.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But many houses, cars and bodies were set aflame, leaving them burned beyond recognition.
On this army base in Tel Aviv, dozens of combat and civilian specialists, morticians, doctors, dentists among them, have come together to set up this mobile morgue and field forensics unit.
This facility had to be brought together as fast as possible to deal with the sheer scale of death from these terror attacks, behind me, cargo containers hastily formed into fridges to store the hundreds of bodies waiting to be identified and returned to their families.
Gilad Barat runs the operation.
Every day, truckloads more bodies arrive.
GILAD BARAT, Chief Superintendent, Head of Investigations: I have seen babies 6 years old, 2 years old that were -- was burned alive.
We had a truck the other day of I don't know how many, but small bags with children that each one of them was burned alive, mothers, mother hugging their child, trying to protect them.
And after they shot them and killed them, they abused the bodies with shovels, with axes.
They cut their heads, their hands.
We have many bags that contains body parts here.
We don't know if it's part of bodies that we already have here that are missing parts, or it's new bodies.
We don't know.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: In a private screening with the Israeli military of footage from Hamas' body cameras, CCTV and victims' phones found at the scene, the "NewsHour" witnessed a record of the horrors of October 7, grenades thrown directly at families, a man being decapitated with a shovel from his garden, the tiny burned bodies of babies.
The shadow behind Gilad's eyes shows he has seen much more.
GILAD BARAT: The problem is that part of the bodies did not survive.
We cannot take fingerprints.
We cannot take DNA from them.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: More than 1,400 people are confirmed dead; 222 are known to be held hostage in Gaza.
For the families of those still missing, their fates unknown, the weight is agony.
Esther Yahalomi is a grandmother to her core, plastered on the wall outside her bedroom pictures of her grandkids, so they're the last thing she sees at night and the first she sees in the morning.
That terrible morning, when Hamas militants entered her son Ohad's home, they shot him in the leg and kidnapped him, along with his wife, Batsheva, their 12-year-old son, Eitan, and their two daughters.
Batsheva and the girls managed to escape through the fields.
Eitan and Ohad have not been heard from since.
ESTHER YAHALOMI (Mother and Grandmother of Missing Victims): On one hand, I pray they're OK, and, on the other hand, I'm afraid to know.
But the not knowing is killing me.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Esther can't stand feeling so powerless, relatively safe here, when she can't do the same for her loved ones.
ESTHER YAHALOMI (through translator): I wake up in the morning and I ask myself, did he eat?
Did they give him clothes to wear?
He was just in his pajama shirt.
Are they beating him?
We don't know anything.
It's terrible.
During the days, I can hold myself together.
I don't want anybody to see me falling in my spirit.
But the nights, I'm torn between hope and fear.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: And so she waits, hoping for good news, but preparing herself for the very worst.
Like so many here, her nightmare is far from over.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Rishon LeZion, Israel.
GEOFF BENNETT: It was back to business on Capitol Hill today.
New House Speaker Mike Johnson spent his first full day meeting with the Australian prime minister, who's in town, and later President Joe Biden.
That's as major tests of Johnson's leadership await.
Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is here to walk us through what's ahead.
So, Lisa, Speaker Johnson has been on the job for one full day.
He already faces a potential government shutdown in just three weeks.
What do we know about what his speakership means for the chances of avoiding a federal government shutdown?
LISA DESJARDINS: There are some early good signs that one can be avoided here.
One, as you said, Johnson did speak with President Biden in person today at the White House.
We will talk a little bit more about that later.
Relationships so far are cordial.
Lawmakers are trying to build relationships, and so is he right now.
But another big sign, Geoff, is that he knows that a stopgap or a continuing resolution funding bill might be needed, and he actually sent a memo out to Republicans, a dear colleague letter, yesterday.
And I want to highlight one part of that letter.
He wrote: "If indeed stopgap funding is needed," he wrote, "I would propose a measure that expires January 15 or April 15."
In other words, the new speaker is immediately getting behind the idea of a temporary funding bill, which is not something that the rest of his conference has always backed.
But talking to Republicans today, most of them do like this idea.
They're worried that something worse would happen, a giant omnibus bill at the end of this year, if they don't have a temporary bill.
However, there are some, like Representative Matt Gaetz, who I talked to today, still not on board that idea.
If there is a shutdown issue, it would be with that group of people.
We will watch it closely.
But Speaker Johnson is trying to get past November 17, create a path.
GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk more about Johnson and his policy stances.
As you told us yesterday, he's a staunch conservative.
And it's striking that his election as House speaker is being celebrated by the people who helped oust Kevin McCarthy.
What more have you learned about his background?
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
This is what conservatives love about him.
He is hard right.
He is a social conservative.
As I said yesterday, he opposes abortion in almost every case.
He opposes gay marriage.
He has in the past.
He opposes gender-affirming care for kids.
Those are things conservatives love, but those are things that those on the left are very fearful of.
They think that that is exclusive.
Now, when you look at his issue, where he is on guns, we want to look at that today, particularly in light of what's happened in Maine.
It's a conservative stance that he's well-known for.
The NRA has backed him, donated to him.
He has received thousands of dollars in donations from the NRA and other gun groups.
He has opposed in the past universal background checks.
And he's also opposed things like reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.
That, I want to talk about specifically.
The reason that he opposed that and some other conservatives is because it would have put more restrictions on those who are found guilty or accused of domestic violence, more restrictions on gun, the ability to use and carry guns.
And that's why Speaker Johnson voted against it.
So that's the kind of thing, that the right likes as saying pro-Second Amendment, and the left says is going too far.
GEOFF BENNETT: And we should say that the Senate, the Upper Chamber, has been working during what had been this prolonged period of House Republican dysfunction.
What's the latest with this funding bill that links Ukraine aid and aid for Israel?
LISA DESJARDINS: Let's go through all of the funding requests that are out there.
They're all important and they're very big.
So this is so far what President Biden has outlined that he would like Congress to pass, $61 billion for Ukraine, for helping Ukraine, as well as $14 billion for Israel, $14 billion, in addition, for the Southern border.
And then, in a separate request -- this is new from Laura Barron-Lopez, who was passing this on to us yesterday -- $56 billion for domestic needs.
That includes disasters, fighting fentanyl, and childcare, some other things.
All told, it's about $161 billion that the president is requesting.
Talking to senators and Senate leaders, they are behind the Ukraine and Israel money right now.
They're probably going to keep those two things together.
I think we will start to see some action as early as next week, perhaps, in committee there.
But keeping that together, the Ukraine money, has a very long shot.
It's going to be very difficult in the House.
One other factor, I want to talk about Democratic Leader in the House Hakeem Jeffries.
How is he going to work with this man?
He was asked today about what he knows about Mr. Johnson.
Here's what he said.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): I found him to be an able and capable adversary, from the standpoint of the authentically held positions that he would articulate, even when there was strong disagreement on our side of the aisle.
But there were also opportunities where we were able to find common ground, including on criminal justice reform.
LISA DESJARDINS: It's an interesting moment.
That bipartisan agreement on criminal justice reform is an exception.
Generally, Speaker Johnson has not worked with Democrats, but there is hope right now.
There is also concern.
He is -- has been an election denier.
We have talked about that.
I think we're going to talk about it more.
And I think it's a moment where both sides are testing and waiting to see what he is like as an untested speaker, and hasn't even been in Congress that long.
GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, thanks so much.
LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.
AMNA NAWAZ: While Congress has resumed its regular work, new House Speaker Mike Johnson will soon face the same struggle that plagued his predecessor, a narrow Republican majority.
And he's got to protect that majority in next year's elections.
But two redistricting updates could complicate that 2024 political landscape.
North Carolina has approved new congressional maps, while a Georgia judge has tossed out that state's maps.
For the details, I'm joined by Mark Niesse of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Rusty Jacobs of WUNC Public Radio.
Gentlemen, welcome to you both.
And, Mark, let's start with Georgia.
So, tell us why the plaintiffs in this lawsuit argued that the map needed to be changed.
And tell us about the judge's decision.
MARK NIESSE, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: What happened is, in Georgia two years ago, Georgia's political maps were redrawn because of the census.
And even though Black Georgians gained about 500,000 people in population, they lost representation in Congress.
And so the U.S. district judge, Steve Jones, ruled today that that violated the Voting Rights Act, which is meant to protect Black voter representation.
AMNA NAWAZ: And, in that ruling -- actually, I will pull out just a piece of it -- the judge wrote this, that: "The court reiterates that Georgia has made great strides since 1965 towards equality in voting.
However, the evidence before this court shows that Georgia has not reached the point where the political process has equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone."
So, Mark, they have until December 8 to draw a new map, I understand.
What happens now.
And, most importantly, what's the likely impact for Democrats and Republicans?
MARK NIESSE: What happens now is, Governor Brian Kemp ordered a special session to begin November 29.
So all of the Georgia General Assembly will return to Atlanta and vote on new maps to meet that December 8 deadline.
And the likely impact, if there is an additional district where Black voters make up a majority, that -- because Black voters overwhelmingly vote for Democrats, it is possible, and perhaps likely, that Democrats would gain a seat among Georgia's congressional delegation.
Currently, Georgia has nine Republicans and five Democrats in Congress.
And, before redistricting, it was eight Republicans to six Democrats.
So we might see a reversion to the previous way that Georgia was divided politically.
AMNA NAWAZ: Could be a big change in a key state there.
But let's turn to North Carolina as well.
Rusty, this week, the North Carolina legislation approved new congressional maps.
What changed on the map and what is the impact?
RUSTY JACOBS, WUNC: The impact is pretty clear to anybody who looks at the map that was approved.
And that is, you're going to go from a 7-7 split right now between Democrats and Republicans to at least a 10-4 advantage for Republicans.
Republicans in North Carolina have managed to do this year what they tried to do in 2021, drawing maps after the 2020 census numbers came in.
But, in 2022, the Democratic majority in the state Supreme Court at the time said Republicans went too far.
They drew maps, they gerrymandered the districts with excessive partisanship.
It was a landmark case, but it only lasted a year, until Republicans flipped the state Supreme Court majority in last year's midterms, revisited that partisan gerrymandering case, and have found that courts should play no role in policing partisan gerrymandering.
That pretty much gave Republican lawmakers the free rein they needed, and they now have maps that guarantee them at least 10 congressional seats for 2024.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, Rusty, there's essentially a few Democratic incumbents who are kind of written off the map in this new landscape.
One of them is a man named Wiley Nickel from the Raleigh area.
He posted his reaction to this on X, using some rather colorful language.
He said: "The maps are an extreme partisan gerrymander by Republican legislators that totally screw North Carolina voters.
It's time to sue the bastards" -- end quote.
Rusty, are these maps going to end up back in court?
RUSTY JACOBS: For sure.
I could say that without a doubt.
And I will say too, echoing what Mark was talking about, echoing what the U.S. Supreme Court said in this Alabama Milligan case that looked at the idea that the VRA, the Voting Rights Act, Section 2 is alive and well and meant to preserve voting power of high concentrations of Black communities, Black voters.
There are already claims that at least, in a state Senate map here in North Carolina, state Senate district, that Black communities are being sliced and diced in a way that dilutes their voting power.
So there are definitely legal claims being formulated right now.
AMNA NAWAZ: And, Rusty, to be clear, this is likely to be handled in the courts, right?
Even though there's a Democratic governor, there's no veto on this, right?
RUSTY JACOBS: Correct.
That is a quirk of North Carolina.
In fact, the governor now, the Democrat, Roy Cooper, was a leading legislator at the time that they enacted the governor's veto, but they left out redistricting.
Maps cannot be vetoed by governors.
AMNA NAWAZ: Mark, back to you.
If this is where the judge has decided things are now, how likely is this to just continue to be appealed?
And is there any precedent we have seen, if it makes it up to the Supreme Court, of how this might go?
MARK NIESSE: It seems very likely to me that it will be appealed.
But what we have seen from the U.S. Supreme Court case that Rusty just referenced in involving redistricting in Alabama, the Supreme Court let Alabama's redistricting stand and, in fact, rejected appeals from Alabama to try to not comply with lower court orders that would have changed Alabama's maps.
So, the Supreme Court has recently upheld the Voting Rights Act.
There will certainly be appeals.
And their action in Alabama isn't any guarantee that they would rule the same way in Georgia's case, but it's certainly possible.
That is the recent history of the Supreme Court, that they have upheld the protections of the Voting Rights Act that are meant to ensure Black representation.
AMNA NAWAZ: Two key states in Georgia and North Carolina we will be paying close attention to.
Thank you to you both for joining us today.
That is Mark Niesse of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Rusty Jacobs of WUNC.
Thank you.
MARK NIESSE: Great.
Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the U.S., there are millions of outstanding arrest warrants, the vast majority of stemming from low-level offenses like traffic violations.
As Christopher Booker reports, one group is reimagining how to clear these warrants and keep people out of jail.
JASMINE ALLEN, Mother: That's super easy.
How many times does two go into two?
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: It's a Friday night in Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb north of Detroit.
And Jasmine Allen is helping her two youngest daughters with homework.
JASMINE ALLEN: So, those are the notes you're supposed to copy and turn in.
STUDENT: Yes.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: At 33, she's a busy single mom of three who works part-time jobs in retail and manufacturing.
But she has bigger dreams.
JASMINE ALLEN: I want to go to nursing school.
And that's all I keep thinking about, is going to nursing school, so that I can better position myself and my daughters.
So, what's five times five?
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: For Allen, nursing school seems out of reach because of one frantic evening back in 2016 when she was speeding to be with her dying father.
She received two tickets that night, and her father died shortly after.
JASMINE ALLEN: So with all of that going on, I completely forgot about all of the tickets.
I got pulled over again two years later, and that's how I found out that those tickets had turned into warrants.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Because Allen had failed to pay her previous tickets or contact the court, a warrant had been issued for her arrest.
The officer let her go, but did issue additional tickets, which also ended up becoming warrants.
Day to day, how often are you thinking about these warrants?
JASMINE ALLEN: Every day, every day, all day.
WILLIAM SNOWDEN, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law: People assume folks are missing court because they're trying to evade justice or evade prosecution.
But, oftentimes, there's things that are happening in people's lives that are preventing them from showing up to court.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Loyola University New Orleans Law Professor Will Snowden says Allen's situation is not unique.
WILLIAM SNOWDEN: People often miss court for three reasons.
One, they simply forget that they have court.
Two, they don't have transportation to get to court.
Or, three, they have childcare responsibilities that they aren't able to get covered.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: What actually happens when someone misses court?
WILLIAM SNOWDEN: It's very likely that a judge will issue what is sometimes called a bench warrant.
Essentially, when a person does not show up to court, the judge will order this warrant for that person to be picked up and arrested and brought to court, so they can actually proceed with the case.
JASMINE ALLEN: When I think of one to the courthouse, I think of them just locking me up, taking me and locking me up off that warrant.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: What would be the potential outcome if you were to be arrested?
JASMINE ALLEN: I probably would lose my job.
I'd be taken away from my girls.
That's what I'm worried about the most.
WILLIAM SNOWDEN: When we zoom out and we look at the demographics of our prisons and jails across the country, we know that there's an overrepresentation of Black and brown people.
We can see how, if people don't trust the criminal legal system to work for them, when they show up and they want to explain their case, there's a reality that they're perceiving a higher likelihood that they're going to get punished more severely.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: But there are efforts under way to disrupt this ongoing cycle.
ANZA BECNEL, Growing Real Alternatives Everywhere: We believe community has the answers to what the new court system should look like, because we're the ones who fall victim to it so much.
And all we did was say, if community creates court for itself, what would it look like?
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: In partnership with the national nonprofit Black Voters Matter, Anza Becnel, the founder of Growing Real Alternatives Everywhere, or GRAE, works with local judges and community grassroots organizations to run weekend warrant clinics.
Held in the community, the clinic's atmosphere is far removed from the traditional courtroom.
There is a deejay, food, and limited police presence.
There's also childcare and transportation for those who need it.
ANZA BECNEL: Even holding court on a Saturday gives a lot of folks more opportunity to do what they actually want to do.
And that is take care of their matters and be productive citizens.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: But, for Allen, the main draw was written right on the poster: "No Fear of Arrest."
JUDGE CYNTHIA WALKER, Oakland County, Michigan, District Court: You keeping your mom company?
People are understanding this is not a sting operation.
We are really lifting these warrants, so that people can be out there legally.
Part of it is just building back trust.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Allen and her daughters appeared before a plainclothes judge, Cynthia Walker.
JUDGE CYNTHIA WALKER: Most courtrooms have the judge sitting a little bit higher, and I think there's more of a feeling of connection with a person sitting across from you.
Tell me what your names are.
STUDENT: Cadarier (ph).
JUDGE CYNTHIA WALKER: Cadarier?
STUDENT: Callie (ph).
JUDGE CYNTHIA WALKER: Callie.
OK. Glad to have you here.
JASMINE ALLEN: Thank you.
JUDGE CYNTHIA WALKER: Normally, children are more of a distraction to the parent, so we encourage them not to bring their children.
But the whole feel of this today, there was a young woman who had her two daughters with her.
And she said she wanted them to see the process.
It's an educational opportunity.
I want them to know that, where I'm sitting, they can be.
I may be a judge, but I'm a person just like them.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Outside, 7-year-old Josiah (ph) and his sister, 11-year-old Faith, colored with a volunteer while their mother, Zeneva Ware, spoke with Judge Walker inside.
ZENEVA WARE, Mother: Just the beginning of the month, that's rent, bills, everything.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Thirty-five-year-old ware has had warrants hanging over her for nearly two decades, beginning with a traffic violation when she was 16.
But she says the fear of being arrested and separated from her five children, two of whom have special needs, kept her out of the courtroom.
ZENEVA WARE: A lot of the people that have warrants are the head of households.
So, even when we want to take accountability, life doesn't even allow us to step up and say, hey, I'm ready to take care of this, because we are responsible for our kids, family members, households.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: This is Ware's second trip to the warrant clinic.
She struggled to pay her fines and court costs since her last visit, and her tickets went back into warrant status.
To Snowden, this represents one of the limitations of the clinic.
It can get people in the door, but they're still at the mercy of the costly legal system.
WILLIAM SNOWDEN: You might be able to extinguish your warrant by showing up to these clinics, but these fines and fees perhaps can still hang over your head.
Well, if you didn't have the money to begin with to pay the fines and fees, how are we expecting people to come up with the money now after these clinics?
ZENEVA WARE: Well, that was easy.
Thank you.
I was scared.
(LAUGHTER) CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: But, for Ware, who left with a reduction in her payment plan, the warrant clinics have been a source of hope.
ZENEVA WARE: I have been running from this or hiding from this, wanting to take care of it.
And all of a sudden, it's just a gift box with a bow, like, here, come fix it right now.
JASMINE ALLEN: Thank you.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: After her turn with Judge Walker, Jasmine Allen had a similar response.
JASMINE ALLEN: I am warrant-free.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: How are you feeling right now?
JASMINE ALLEN: Great.
I'm ready to go dance.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: In just five hours, this clinic helped more than 200 people and lifted 160 warrants, a good day for the advocates here, but hardly a dent in this nationwide problem.
Millions of Americans still live under the threat of warrants.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Christopher Booker in Pontiac, Michigan.
AMNA NAWAZ: We turn now to a story about art and love.
Rhode Island PBS Weekly reporter Pamela Watts introduces us to a Massachusetts artist whose work took a dramatic turn when she says her husband began to lose himself to Alzheimer's disease.
It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.
SARA HOLBROOK, Artist: Art is essential for my life here.
I'm visual.
And it's important for me to express myself through art.
PAMELA WATTS: For Sara Holbrook, being able to express herself through her art took on a whole new meaning more than a decade ago.
SARA HOLBROOK: My husband, Foster Aborn, he was the love of my life.
Probably about 12 years ago, he drove home in a snowstorm, and he forgot where he was going.
And he called his doctor the next day and said that this was not usual.
He was worried about his memory.
And, at that time, he had mild cognitive impairment.
They said not to worry.
And he was still fine for a long time after that.
PAMELA WATTS: Holbrook specialized in watercolors, but was curious about photography and enrolled in a class.
SARA HOLBROOK: I fell in love with photography.
And then it was crucial when my husband was ill, because I didn't have time to paint.
That takes a lot of time and concentration.
If he took a nap or something, I could do my art in stages, which is important.
I would take a background photo, and then I would take a photograph of myself.
I had to be dressed as I needed to be for the photograph and I had to be in the right position.
And that was always a little difficult to figure out how to do that, but that worked.
And then I put it on the computer and scaled it down and then printed it out, and I cut it out, and I pasted it on to the background photo, and then I rephotographed it.
That was my process.
PAMELA WATTS: A process that later turned out to be a mirror image of what she was experiencing.
SARA HOLBROOK: I entitled my work 99 Problems, because that also reflects what I was dealing with as a caregiver for somebody with Alzheimer's, as somebody's trapped and couldn't get out.
As a spouse, you're stuck.
The hardest part for me was not getting any sleep.
I was always on alert, because he would wake up in the middle of the night and leave the house, so I had to be ready to try to persuade him to come back, or I'd have to follow him outside and walk around, and call the police sometimes if I couldn't persuade him to come back.
The police knew him pretty well.
How I dealt with it on the worst days was by knowing that I loved him and that he was a worthy human being, even if I was frustrated.
PAMELA WATTS: But Holbrook says humor often eased her frustration.
SARA HOLBROOK: You don't know whether to laugh or cry when you look at my work, but you get it.
This is called Rinse Cycle.
It was a very, very bad day.
It just shows intense frustration.
So, we both love Paris, and that was my place for shooting with my camera.
I just felt so alive there.
In October 2019, I was walking around Paris with Foster.
I had been taking photographs, and I saw some people gathering.
They were carrying these life-size cutouts of people, and I was just fascinated.
I wanted to take a photograph, and it wasn't long at all, but I turned around, and Foster was gone.
And after an hour of looking, I came back to the hotel, and Foster was there with this lovely young man, and the man said that he, in fact, was a researcher in Alzheimer's.
And Foster found him in the whole city of Paris and went up to him and asked for help.
Absolutely amazing.
I kept him far longer than anybody said that I should have at home, because I loved him.
And putting him somewhere just didn't seem right, but, eventually, I had to do it.
We were really close to one another.
And even when he was in memory care, we had fun.
I danced with him when I would go in.
You know, it was still very intimate.
PAMELA WATTS: Foster Aborn passed away in April of 2023, but memories of him still live on in Sara Holbrook's art.
SARA HOLBROOK: My understanding of Alzheimer's is, it's really a different process for everybody, but it is usually very frustrating for the caregiver.
It's just your favorite person has become somebody else, basically, and that's very hard to digest.
If you're an artist, you're driven to do something artistic.
It gave me a way to express how frustrated I was, and, somehow, that relieved the frustration.
And art's terrific that way.
PAMELA WATTS: Holbrook says she finds some comfort in knowing that her art has helped other people in the same situation.
SARA HOLBROOK: Even though they didn't do the art -- for me, it was a joy to do the art, but people looking at it, I think, feel that it gives them license to own that frustration as well.
I hope my art shows the love that I have for my husband, but also shows that it's the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with in my life.
It was a long journey to be with somebody with Alzheimer's, because this is really a strange one.
When people's minds go, it's difficult.
I have just been coping.
It's -- I don't know how I'm doing.
It's just going to take time.
I will deal with it at some point and be on another project.
PAMELA WATTS: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Pamela Watts in Providence, Rhode Island.
AMNA NAWAZ: What an incredible love story.
GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.
AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
Thank you for joining us.
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