wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ john: tonight on "pbs news weekend" -- with squabbling on capitol hill over border security measures, the latest fm the border in arizona, where migrant crossings are hitting record highs. then, how the process for college fincial aid is changing and how it's effecting students and parents. danielle: i think a lot of advocates are worried that students may miss out on aid

that they otherwise would have qualified for because so many instances it's first come, first serve. john: and, days before her funeral this week, the legacy of supreme court justice sandra day o'connor and the work she did after retiring to end the practice of electing state judges. ♪ >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, this is sam, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, i thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions --

and friends of "the newshour." ♪ this program was me possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening. i'm john yang. israel has reopened a border crossing into gaza, providing a second entry point for much-needed humanitarian aid. it's at kerem shalom, which is on the gaza strip's southwest corner. it's south of the rafah crossing, where desperate gazans swarmed the few aid trucks that arrived from egypt. phone and internet service in gaza has been down for four straight days, the longest period of isolation since the war began.

meanwhile, the israeli military released footage showing a newly discovered hamas tunnel, wide enough for a car. it's at erez, which had been the main pedestrian crossing between israel and gaza. and in tel aviv last night, thousands of people took to the streets as public pressure builds on the govement to renew negotiations for the return of the 129 hostages still captive. former president donald trump is being roundly criticized for anti-immigrant comments he made last night at a new hampshire campaign event. mr. trump: we got a lot of work to do. they're poisoning the blood of our country. that's what they've done. they poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world. they're coming into our country from africa. from asia, all over the world. they're pouring into our country. nobody's even looking at them. they just come in. john: republican rivals nikki haley and chris christie both denounced trump's language and the biden campaign said he parroted adolf hitler. in his manifesto "mein kampf," hitler called immigration and

the mixing of races "blood poisoning." the waters off the entire east coast from florida to maine are under gale or storm warnings as a large weather system moves north. it dumped as much as five inches of rain on florida, flooding streets. high coastal winds forced the cancellation of holiday boat parades. the faa warns that holiday travelers could face delays, especially at new york city's three airports. pope francis turned 87 today, becoming the oldest pope in the last century, and one of the oldest popes ever. he's been hospitalized twice this year for abdominal surgery and bronchitis. he's said he'd consider resigning if he was unable to carry on. and, in boston last night, they marked the 250th anniversary of the boston tea party with a reactment. people in 18th century dress dumped crate after crate of tea leaves into the boston harbor, recreating the famous act of defiance that helped kickstart the american revolution. the tea dumped last night was

provided by east india company -- the same british supplier whose tea was dumped 250 years ago. let bygones be bygones. still to come on" pbs news weekend" -- what to know about changes to the federal student loan process. and how late supreme court justice sandra day o'connor worked to end the practice of electing state judges. >> this is "pbs news weekend" from weta studios in washington, home of "the pbs newshour" weeknights on pbs. john: this afternoon, white house officials and senate republicans resumed talks aimed at a deal on new border security measures. without an agreement, republicans say they won't vote for more money for ukraine. a record number of migrants on the southern border could push president biden to consider restrictions that in the past he's denounced. for a look at the situation on the border, danyelle khmara of arizona public media.

danyelle, we hear these numbers. we hear them say, you know, a record number, record surge of migrants at the border. you're there. you go to the border. what does a record surge look like there? danyelle: so basically the numbers of people that are coming across the border right doubled in the last few months. this area is now the area that's getting the highest number of migrants crossing the border. and what it looks like is it looks like hundreds of people a day, up to a thousand, sometimes over a thousand people a day crossing the border and then basically turning themselves over to border patrol, waiting to be processed by border patrol. and border patrol prioritizes processing families and people with young children, of which there are many. and then they will process these single adults, mostly single men after that. so some of these migrants are waiting out in the desert for days, waiting to be processed. john: now, i've read that they've closed one port of entry

along the arizona-mexico border, cutting off legal migration. how does that help? danyelle: yeah. so basically, there's this port of entry in a town that got shut down a couple of weeks ago. officials said that they were shutting that down so they could move the dozen or so customs officers to help border patrol process some of these migrants. what that means is that the direct route that was provided by that port of entry to puerto banias go to beaches that arizans lovingly call arizona's beach in mexico. that route is now shut off, which has had devastating effects for the economy in that area. as well it is having an impact on the small communities that live around that port of entry who used to have a direct route to cross the border, to visit family, to go shopping, to go to doctor's appointments. and now they no longer have access to that direct route, and they would have to go hours out of their way to be able to do that crossing. john: in addition to that,

having to go farther to cross the border, how is this affecting life for residents on the ameran side? danyelle: so, you know, as far as the large numbers of migrants that are crossing, it is not affecting the majority of residents that live on the border and around the border. and the reason why is because a number of non-governmental organizations have really rallied together to put up services for these migrants, temporary services. there are a number of them along the border. border patrol will drop f migrants with these services. and then there are more robust services that send busses to bring the migrants to tucson and to phenix, where they can give them overnight services, they can give them clothes, food and assistance to make their travel arrangements to go to their final destination, which is typically with friends and family members in other parts of the country. so your average person living in

these border communities is not seeing these large groups of migrants on a regular basis, or for most people, probably not much at all. john: now, i know the governor has sent the national guard to the border. what are the national guardsmen going to do? danyelle: yeah. so she just announced this on friday that she would be sending the national guard to the border. we have in this region right now, i believe it's 243 national guard. so as far as what they're going to do, she said that they are going to be helping with border security measures. that cld include drug interdiction, that could include possibly helping with the number of migrants that are crossing into the country. but since she just announced it on friday, it is yet to be seen what that is going to look like on the ground. john: and she's also asking for help from the federal government. she wrote a letter to president biden. what she what does she want? what is she looking for? danyelle: yeah, well, basically, she asked president biden to

open the port of entry immediately, which one of the reasons why local officials want that port opened is arizona's economy, especially their tourist economy, does get a lot of money from mexican tourists coming into the region. and also, our governor and other elected officials have been asking for more robust money and more robust services to be helping with getting these migrants services once they come into the country and getting them to their next destination. john: is is situation sustainable or does something really have to change? danyelle: one of the many things that's not sustainable is that a lot of the non-governmental organizations that are helping migrants in cities like tucson and phoenix are constantly in a state of concern that they are not going to have enough resources to continue providing these services. and the reason why is because the federal government has been doling out grants to help cover

these services in short, short funding amounts. so these non-governmental organizations can only plan so far ahead. and with the large influx of migrants, the fact that more and more people keep coming and that number keeps growing, the money is not lasting as long as these organizations need it to last. they have been saying for quite some time now that they need a funding source that is more sustainable and more long term. john: danyelle khmara of arizona public media, thank you very much. danyelle: thank you so much. ♪ john: paying for college can be costly and confusing. the road to financial aid usually begins with what's called the free application for federal student aid, or fafsa. it helps determine which federal grants and loans the student qualifies for, and schools use the information on the form to

make their financial aid decisions. now, after years of delays, a new version of the form is to be released at the end of the month. and while it promises increased access to financial aid, the delays are likely to be putting universities and students in a bind, giving them less time to crunch the numbers and comb over the details of financial aid packages. danielle douglas griel covers the economics and finances of higher education for "the washington post." danielle, what are the big changes in this form that were significant changes and why are they being made? danielle: so there are a lot of really important changes to this form, one being fewer questions. instead of 106 or down to 36 questions, which is great for families. also, there are far more people who qualify for the maximum amount of the pell grant award. this is a form of federal aid that goes to low and middle income students. now, instead of only a few million being able to qualify for the max, another 1.5 million students wl get the full max, which at this year stands at over $7,000.

and then also, it'll be a whole lot easier for families to get their financial information from the irs automatically populated onto the fafsa form, which also really saves you time. skip a bunch of questions, make the whole process go by a lot faster. john: bringing up this new form, revising the form, why has this taken so long? danielle: well, the education department says that it has been a monumental undertaking. i think they've used that exact phrase several times in talking to them. and in part because you have to overhaul the existing system, systems that haven't been updated for 30 or 40 years in some instances. they have to meet new security standards set by the irs to make sure that information that they're populating onto the form is secure. all of these moving parts and pieces are happening at the same time as the department has a laundry list of policy projects to try to get done, including making it easier for public servants to get loan forgiveness, to make it easier for people who have been paying back their loans for 20, 25 years to get some loan forgiveness as well, in addition

to lots of other policy priorities. and there are only so many people at the department and they're all working on all these very important policies. so as a result, the department says there has been some delays. john: this is a whole new system. it's going to be brand new. are there advocates for students for financial aid who worry that there are going to be some glitches, unforeseen problems that will screw up the whole process? danielle: i mean, that's always a possibility when you are standi up a new system and when you're making such big changes to an existing system. i think right now a lot of advocates are more concerned with what the delays will mean for students and their families in terms of making informed decisions about financial aid and where to attend college. as you remember, this form not only is used by the federal government to determine aid, but also states to determine state aid for college students as well as the schools in which they attend. so all of those pieces have to come together in order for families to figure out where they can afford to go to college. john: and it'becoming

available sort of in the middle of the college application process. it used to be available at the beginning in october. what effect does that delay have? danielle: a lot of the states that rely on the fafsa to make their student aid determinations. some states have those forms out in january. some states have them out at the end of december. so having delays on the federal and could delay students ability to take advantage of state aid and without the federal government saying, hey, states we're a little bit behind, can you please cut students a little slack, i thi a lot of advocates are worried that students may miss out on aid that they otherwise would have qualified for because so many instances it's first come, first serve. and if there's a delay on one end, then it kind of sets everything else back. john: one of the other changes i understand they wanted to make was to adjust the numbers automatically in the form to adjust for inflation. but that hasn't worked out quite as well, has it? danielle: not exactly.

one of the components of the two laws that congress passed in order to make all of these changes possible was that there would be a greater amount of income protection. so for pents, an increase of 20%, students an increase of 35%, and students who have children on their own, an increase of 60% of your income would be protected in the formula. in addition to that protection, all of that would be adjusted for inflation. now the department accidentally forgot to input that inflation adjustment, and it happened to be at one of the periods of the highest level of inflation, the inflation records that we haven't seen for generations. so as a result of that, it creates an artificially high calculation of what people should be paying or what they actually should receive in federal student aid and state and institutional aid. so that's a huge concern. the department says they're aware of it. they're going to fix it for the next cycle. but fothis upcoming cycle, the 2024-2025 academic year, there are a lot of students who may not get as much aid as they are actually entitled to.

john: this is, as we've been talking, a very complicated, very complex process. sort of daunting for parents and students to go through. what advice do you have for parents and students who are doing thiserhaps for the first time? danielle: don't be frightened. i have to say, this form is a lot simpler and a lot easier to access than what i filled it out many, many moons ago. and i think that's a great thing, right? it's a lot shorter. it's a lot more intuitive. and it should be really helpful for parents to get through this with ease. i would also advise to get it done as quickly as you can. again, a lot of states are first come, first serve with their scholarships and grants. a lot of institutions in some instances also think about it in that way. but all that really matters is getting the form filled out. and don't think because you are a, you know, upper middle income family that you shouldn't fill it out. there is aid available for everyone and it's not just need based aid for this. it's also merit based in some instances. so please make sure to take

advantage of this form in order to get as much money as your student could qualify for. john: good advice. from danielle douglas gaiel of the washington post. thank you very much. danielle: thank you. ♪ john: tomorrow, sandra day o'connor, who died earlier this month at 93, will lie in repose at the supreme court, the setting for the accomplishments she may be best remembered for. but her 2006 retirement for the court was not the end of her involvement in public affairs. she spent her last act of years working to end the election of judges, which is currently the practice in 39 states. she saw it as incompatible with an independent judiciary. she explained it in a 2010 conversation with judy woodruff on the newshour.

justice o'connor: you can get decent judges by election, but what you get these days is large campaign contributions. when you have elections. and i don't think we should have any cash in our courtroo. it doesn't belong there. how can a judge be expected to be absolutely fair and impartial if the donor ibefore him in the court? john: she worked on this project with the institute for the advancement of the american legal system at the university of denver. rebecca love kourlis is the former executive director of that organization. she's also a former supreme court justice in colorado, where we should add that since 1966, all state judges have been appointed. when i heard justice o'connor talk about this in the past, she always linked it to her disappointment, i guess, i guess you would say, or dismay in the practical effects of a decision in the court in which she was in the majority. can you tell us about that rebecca: she was involved in a case by the name of minnesota versus white, in which there was a determination by the united

states supreme court that judges could not, under the first amendment, be constrained in their campaign speech. the practical implication of that is that or has been that judges are free to actually campaign for a judicial seat, much as one would campaign for any other elective office without the constraints at the judicial code of conduct would otherwise impose. john: so much of american politics over the last few years has played out in the courts. the fight over the 2020 election. earlier this year, there was record spending in a supreme court race in wisconsin. north carolina redistricting changed when the majority on the court changed. to what extent are events making the case for you? rebecca: [chuckles] yes,

actually, they absolutely are. but the problem is that changing judicial selection processes is constitutional in the various states across the country. and of course, just for clarification, we're talking here now about state court, judicial selection. federal judicial selection is a whole different ball of wax or can of worms, whichever way you want to look at it. but that's not something with which we worked with justice o'connor, and that is a united states constitution issue. so these are state by state constitutions, which are very difficult to change. but you are so right, the infusion of partisan politics where they don't belong and the increasing polarity of partisan politics absolutely makes the argument that judges should not be in the middle of that. john: your organization and justice o'connor came up with a blueprint for how to achieve this. what are the major points of that blueprint? rebecca: it's a four point plan,

which is called the o'connor judicial selection plan. in the first instance, it involves choice of a panel of individuals by a nominating commission variously appointed, depending upon the state you are looking at, but from different appointing authorities and with a bipartisan make up. that commission tenders names to the governor of that state who then chooses one of those individuals. the individual serves for a provisional term, is subject to a judicial performance evaluation process and then stands for what is known as retention on the ballot for a yes or no, up or down vote from the electorate, but with the benefit of having gone through sort of the job evaluation that the judicial performance evaluation interposes. john: how much progress do you

feel you're making on this issue? rebecca: not much, to be entirely candid. not much. people are very vested in the notion that they want judges to be accountable. and to some extent, i get that . you don't want rogue judges who have no connection to their community or to the pulse of the community. on the other hand, what that countability looks like is really the issue. a partisan election where there is an r or a d oan i or a u next to the judge's name and where the judge has to campaign and express opinions and as justice o'connor said in that clip, raise money. that's not the answer. there are other ways, such as this judicial performance evaluation process to achieve accountability without it invading impartiality. but it's a tough sell.

american electors want the capacity to yank somebody out of office if they think they're out of line or have some sense of control over the process. so it's a very tough sell. john: as you worked with justice o'connor on this, did you get a sense of how important this was to her? rebecca: oh, it was incredibly important. there was an initiative on the ballot in nevada in 2010. justice o'connor worked the state. i mean, she literally made herself available for interviews and clips and almost pounding the pavement in an effort to try to communicate to nevada voters how important this was. and it ended up losing 58-42, i think, if my memory serves. but she was willing to go all out. she was so passionate about trying to ensure that judges had

the capacity to be impartial, that the noises in their head or the angels or devils on their shoulders were not comprised of trying to elicit public opinion in some way or raise money. john: rebecca love kourlis talking about working with sandra day o'connor. thank you very much. rebecca: you are very welcome. thank you so much. ♪ john: now online, how nurses who worked at an historic black hospital are fighting to keep its memory alive decades after it closed. all that and more is on our website, pbs.org/newshour. and that is "pbs news weekend" for this sunday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. have a good week.

>> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, this is sam, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, i thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

- [announcer] this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. - my first production that i can remember was the best christmas pageant ever in nashville, tennessee. i had no lines, just a little chorus parts but that gave me a chance to look at every single person in the audience during the show and seeing them smile and laugh