john: tonight on pbs news weekends, how one state is trying to help teenagers transition from foster care into adulthood. then the unregulated shadow industry helping veterans make

disability claims despite federal law. and how researchers and medical experts are trying to better understand why every year as many as one million pregnancies in the u.s. and in miscarriage. >> and happen myself and i am the specialist in the field but most of the time it is not your fault. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- >> consumer cellularhow may i help you? this is a pocket dial.well, pocr cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contracts. 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 made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ john: good evening. palestinians say israeli airstrike on a u.n. aid distribution site in gaza city has killed at least eight people. the israeli military says the islamic jihad had been operating at from the building. palestinians save those killed were either sheltering up a site or had gone there to get water.

this comess netanyahu doubles down on his new claims about the biden administration support. >> about four months ago there was a dramatic decline in arms supplies from the u.s. to israel. we have turned to our american friends with the request to speed up deliveries. we did it time and again. john: a rival of netanyahu is to meet inashington this week with the biden administration officials. the white house has denied any slow down in weapon shipments. thalth minister of saudi arabia says 1300 muslims died amid scorching heat to making a pilgrimage. they are required to make the journey at least once in their lifetime. more than half of died came from egypt, leading egypt to revoke the licenses of 16 travel agencies for failing to provide adequate services or protection for the heat. at least two americans were among the dead. police in arkansas say they

beeve the victims of grocery store shooting were targets of opportunity. 14 people ranging in age from 20 to 81 were shot. four of them family. the suspect is charged with capital murder. and shikari richardson is headed to the paris olympics. her winning time last night in oregon was the world's fastest so far this year. in 2020 she won the olympic trials but was banned from the tokyo games after testing positive for thc. still to come, the search for answers as to why pregnancies and in miscarriage and how 1/9 grader is helping to restore this's oyster reefs. -- restore mississippi's oyster reefs.

onny given day in the u.s. more than 400,000 children are living in foster care. each year, nearly 20,000 of them system, leaving them without the support of a guardian arizona ld a measure including a pilot program to help teens in foster care find safe permanent homes before aging out darcy is the founder and ceo of the center for the rights of abused children. you are not only an advocate that you are a foster mother yourself. what do those who age of the system face? >> we all know that children should grow up in families and there are so many region for that -- reasons for that. kids that age out are a testament as to why families are so important. most of the kids disproportionately become

meless, pregnant before they would like to be, they will be unemployed and fill the prisons. john: and they are beginning their adult lives. that must impact their lives further on. darcy: it is devastating for children and this program we have passed in arizona should reduce the number of children aging out of the system by about 30%. you are talking about 5000 or 6000 children a year, teenagers 17 and 18 having children who otherwise wouldn't. john: explain the plan in arizona. how does it work and how do you prevent the children from aging out? darcy: it's a model from georgia that was studied and works well. what we will do in arizona is the system will red flag kids who look like they are at risk of aging o. if you are 16 and in the system

there is a 5% chance you will get a family. we know for sure it will be a lot of the older children who have lingered in the foster care system. once they are identified, we build a team around them. psychiatrists, private investigators, attorneys. private investigators look for relatives that might not have been identified at first. you build this team around the child and you meet monthly and talk weekly and you supercharge the efforts to find a home for this child. it is critical we implement programs like this and we advised the government to sp up and make it happen. john: the ideal in foster care is that they are eventually adopted or reunited with family? darcy: 100%. when you go into foster care for temporary safety the goal is hopefully you can go home, they

hope it is a situation that can be remedied. if it cannot be, they will look for relatives wherever they can. if they cannot take you, then they will look for a foster family. as a foster mother, i've foster 10 little ones a four of them needed to stay forever because no family came forward and that is pretty much what happens nationwide. this program will help them, help them build a bridge to those families. john: those who you foster who stay forever? darcy: they are by now. the other -- they are mine now. the other six went on to find either relatives or a special placement with a special family. john: besides georgia do other states have similar programs?

darcy: we are not aware of any states that have been as successful as georgia in terms of increasing the number of children who get families so we thought this was the best model. hopefully we can do better than georgia, stand on their shoulders. we believe there is a home for every child and it is simply the government's job to build that bridge for the children in need to a loving and safe family who want nothing more than to take them in and give them a great home. john: our other states looking at programs like this? are you pushing this and other states? darcy: we are taking it around the country and we hope to see most state legislatures opened in january, we hope to see many of them and their governors introduce the program. john: darcy olson, thank you very much.

darcy: thank you so much. ♪ john: in the two years the landmark expansion of veterans benefits the pact act has been in effect, more than one million disability claims have been approved and more on the way. but a number of for-profit companies are also reaping benefits, even though what they do is against the law. reporter: the pact act is the largest expansion for veterans benefits in a generation. 3.5 million could benefit and the program couldn't dear $1 trillion and spending. as the disability really claims grow, so to the profits of private firms helping -- pledging to help those with claims, despite a federal law. washington post says scores of

uncredited for-profit companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars helping veterans file disability claims. patrick, how is it these firms are making money all of this? >> they falsely offer veterans hope they can get their claims done better and faster if you pay for it. it is a legal. right now there is no penalty for breaking that law. in 2000 six that was removed so these companies are operating in a loophole that allows them to charge exorbitant fees and not be held accountable. reporter: it is odd to have a law with no punishment. we have talked about this pack to act before. the idea that the federal government is prohibiting anyone from charging these benefits, we

see the companies involved however our advertising as if the service was legal. a company the washington post mentioned, it sometimes offers a level of free advice as an entryway but then later they are charged a price. how is it they are able to operate even if there is no penalty without anyone overseeing it, is it about the bureaucracy at the v.a.? >> the v.a. has sent multiple demand letters to these companies telling them to stop. it is a legal. and the department of affairs is telling them so. but sternly worded letters are as far as they can go because criminal penalties were removed reporter: i do not know that everyone realizes how large the act is. is this misconduct and illegal activity predate the pact act?

>> it did. many larger companies operated for years. the pact act amplified what they are looking to take from veterans. v.a. recently announced the one millionth claim was granted. they are putting out so much more money into veterans pockets. a lot of these companies see an opportunity to take a cut. so it was happening. the pact act really amplified that. reporter: you have talked with veterans who have fallen prey to this. what has their experience been and how did they get involved with the companies? >> many veterans thoug this was just a fast tracked way to get things done, they did not know it was illegal. but it is not true.

any one of these claims sharks come up once they submit your claim for you it goes into v.a. adjudicates it. first-come, first-served. the companies who say if you give us $10,000 to get it done faster, it is a lie. reporter: veterans guardian is one of these for-profit companies that offer these services and in a statement they wrote, anyone who has filed a discipline of the claim with the v.a. knows the system is onerous and time-consuming and that has created a backlog of nearly 308,000 pending claims and we believe more options are necessary to clear the backlog and pride benefits veterans have earned. dealing with many of these kinds of systems, social security, medicaid, can affect the owners especially seniors trying to navigate the system. what is so wrong with having a service help them? >> that statement is taking a

real issue, there are claims, there is a backlog. but what they are misleading people about is that anyone on the front end can make it any our service officers help veterans every day but once we file it is up to the v.a.. first is how they look at the claims. just sending someone a bill afterwards does not make the service faster. reporter: couldn't help them understand what documents they need and how to get them to the v.a.? that can be complicated. >> it can. reporter: is there any sign these agencies are pushing people whose claims are not valid? >> yes. we know v.a. is rejecting some of the claims.

they get a nexis letter for ptsd for someone they've never spoken to. v.a. rejects them so they are sending people to doctors in their own networks that they have financial ties with and these appointments or were not worth anything because the v.a. just rejects them outright. reporter: what advice do you have for veterans about how to approach this? >> we try to tell everybody to do your homework first. work with vfw, another organization or on your own. there are resources. some companies in their contracts even say their expertise is the same as publicly available information, it is there for everyone. there are so many people looking to help veterans for free and regardless of membership, for

free. like the vfw. so people need to arm themselves with the most information. reporter: patrick, thank you for this and thank you for your service. >> you are welcome. john: every year in the u.s., when million pregnancies end in miscarriage and in as many as half the cases, doctors are at a loss as to explain why. experts say stigma and shame hamper efforts toearn about what causes miscarriages. pbs newshour deputy senior producer courtney norris looked into this -- for a very personal reason.

>> it is by far the most common complication of pregnancy but many think it is rare. reporter: i turned to experts like dr. williams with columbia university and i turned to the director of childhood health and development. >> what is different about miscarriages the guilt factor. why couldn't i continue this pregnancy? people came up with all kinds of explanations why they lost the pregnancy and probably none of them were true. >> one problem is the stigma that comes with the loss. an ob/gyn herself miscarriage. >> all of us blame ourselves. i did it myself and i specialize in this field. but most of the time it is not your fault. there are other reasons for

pregnancy loss. the majority are genetic. reporter: most miscarriages are because of chromosome abnormalities. >> there is still this area where pregnancy loss occurs and we do not know why. it is a big area of investigation. reporter: part of the problem is the stigma around discussing miscarriage despite the fact that it is the most common pregnancy complication. >> it is not something people are willing to share. it is often kept as a family secrets. many cultures it is particularly important for a woman to be fertile and any discussion of anything that does not result in that is not encouraged. reporter: another reason science is behind is how hard it can be to connect with patients when they lose a pregnancy. >> with a miscarriage, it is quite difficult to collect the

material to study. so often times the first indication theres a miscarriage, there is bleeding. one might not recognize they are actually passing tissue. reporter: and it is difficult to get participants for clinical trials. >> there is a reluctance to be randomized to a placebo group and not receive treatment. it is a real limitation to conducting the rigorous randomized control trials. reporter: while the science catches up, there are ways to support people who miscarry. friends, checking in, employers, giving time off after pregnancy loss. >> even if it is really early in pregnancy, it can still be hard for that person. they need the time to be with

their family and heal. reporter: one hopeful thing, many who miscarry go on to have full term pregnancies. ♪ john: over the past two decades, the oyster population in mississippi's gulf waters has been devastated by natural and manmade disasters, including hurricane katrina and the deepwater horizon oil spill. among those working to restore oyster habitats, called oyster reefs, is a ninth grader named demi johnson. the national geographic society recently recognized her work over the past two years growing more than 1000 oysters and those

oysters are likely to spawn millions more in years to come. recently, i spoke with demi and asked her what goes into an oyster farm. >> first you need oysters, and you need a pier to do it off of, and you need cages, and you need to be able to do weekly maintenance on these oysters. john: what does it take to sort of raise oysters? you do not plant them. you do not put them in the ground. how does it work? >> you're going to put oysters in a cage, and then you're going to have a roof, and you're going to tie it to the outside part of a pier. and naturally, if you were to drop these cages in while they're tied up, they're going to be just kind of in the water. so, honestly, when it comes to maintaining or taking care of, once a week is fine just to shake the cages and to get the critters out because they are seen as a food source to other animals. once i'm done with the oyster gardening, they are dumped out into another area and they start to become their own reef.

john: how did you get started in this? how did you get interested in it? >> i found out about this through my girl scout troop simply from my girl scout leader. so there's a thing called the silver award, and you have to do a project for your community, something community based, and she just kind of put it up in the air. she was like, hey, you can do oyster gardening at my pier. and i was like, okay, i'll do it. it doesn't sound too bad. and, you know, it's just something easy for me to do. john: and then a researcher at auburn university found out about you, i understand, and has actually become a mentor. what have you gotten out of working with her? >> i've gotten a bunch of information about oyster gardening. so when i first started oyster gardening or starting this project, i had no clue about this. i only thought oysters could be eaten, i didn't know they can be used for restoration. so i was able to learn a lot through her and she was able to

keep in contact with me and i have been able to learn more and more. more opportunities have been given to me. john: demi, you said when this began, you really had no idea about this, and you've learned a lot. what's the coolest thing you've learned? >> i think the coolest thing i've learned is that oysters actually serve as a filter on the water. i did not know that. and they actually can serve as a home to over 300 species in the water. so that's just super cool. john: how does it make you feel that you are teaching people about this? >> i think it is really cool. i went from having little to no background about this topic to knowing a lot more than i did. so i just think that's like, super cool, and i'm happy that people get to learn more. john: where does this project go from here? >> well, in september, oyster season will be starting. and i'm going to go from five cages like i did last season to nine cages. so just expanding.

john: has this affected what you think you might want to study in college or what you might want to do as a career? >> yes. i want to attend university of michigan and major in environmental law. once i am done with that, careerwise, i want to represent environmental groups. john: demi johnson, oyster farmer, thank you very much. ♪ john: now online, ahead of this week's first presidential debate of 2024, a new poll finds that many americans aren't happy with either of the leading candidates. l of that and more is on our website, pbs.org/news hour. and that is pbs news weekend for

this sunday. on mondays pbs news hour, what the depletion of the great plains' aquifer means for the agriculture industry. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. have a good week. >> major funding for the "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for plic 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.]

(hopeful music) - [narrator] it is time to celebrate. after two years, friends and families can once again get together over food. but some of us may have forgotten the basics. - there's just too much to do. like, it's a two-page recipe. - [narrator] and if you can't cook. - oh my god, look at the mess i'm getting! - [narrator] a special dinner. - [rima] oh no, sliding off. - [narrator] can be memorable. - that's not supposed to be crispy. - [narrator] for all the wrong reasons.