resource officers talks about their role in school safety. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. ♪ good morning. it is saturday, march 3, 2018. president donald trump and the justice department are urging congress to act on legislation to address the opioid addiction boost federal as law enforcement's ability to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. lawmakers unveiled a bill this week that would increase funding for addiction treatment and prevention, and encroached opioidg limits on prescription. meanwhile, president trump held a white house opioid summit, where he suggested that some opioid drug dealers should get

the death penalty. so we are asking our viewers today our government efforts to combat the opioid crisis working? we have special lines for this question. if you have been affected, you can call (202) 748-8000. all others can call (202) 748-8001. you can also reach us on social media, at @cspanwj on twitter and facebook.com/cspan on facebook. a little more about efforts from congress. a report on the new opioid bill that was introduced in congress this week. it says a group of eight senators on tuesday unveiled bipartisan legislation that would increase funding for addiction treatment and prevention by roughly $1 billion and impose a sweeping three-day limit on opioid prescriptions for initial pain treatment. 2.0 act, billed as the people to the comprehensive addiction and recovery act of

late 2016, would be the most substantial backs and caution -- action congress has taken to address the opioid crisis since president trump took office. as legislation comes republicans in both changers of congress are ramping up their legislative efforts to address the opioid crisis. and the president held in opioid crisis summit at the white house. let's take a look at some of his comments from that. [video clip] than have been involved more than any administration, by far. it is a problem that is growing. drugs are a similar but different problem in the sense that we have pushers and drug dealers that don't -- i mean, they kill hundreds and hundreds of people, and most of them don't even go to jail. , they shoot one person give you life, they give you the death penalty. these people can kill 2000, 3000 people and nothing happens to them. we need strength with respect to

the pushers and drug dealers. if you don't do that, you are never going to solve the problem. if you want to be weak and you want to talk about blue-ribbon committees, that is not the answer. the answer is you have to have strength and toughness. the drug dealers, the drug pushers are really doing damage. they are really doing damage. a very, verys have tough penalty, the ultimate penalty. by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do. will have to be very strong on penalties. hopefully we can do some litigation against the opioid company royce -- companies. i think that is very important, because a lot of states are doing it. i keep saying if the states are doing it, why is it the federal government doing it go -- why isn't the federal government doing it? [applause] host: more about the president's comments from nbc news, they

come several days after axioms reported that president trump -- reported that president trump privately discussed executing drug dealers like the philippines and singapore. addressing the group thursday, which included attorney general jeff sessions as well as families and individuals epidemic,y the opioid trump promised action from his administration "over the next three weeks." james is calling from virginia beach. do you think the government is doing enough? caller: yes. i think the government is doing plenty for the opioid addiction. this is a problem that we have compared to another problem, the crack epidemic. these people are not worried about the opioid epidemic. it is not just the opioid epidemic, it is a methamphetamine epidemic also with white people. there are becoming addicted,

they are dealing with people's arehese drugs, and they dying at an early age. so the white people who have made it a top priority -- those people in washington are probably on opioids are prescription drugs and things. let's treat people how we treated people who were on that cocaine. -- crack cocaine. crime, punishment, like they did black people. i was caught up in that for a little marijuana charge. these people -- if you go to jail, you cannot get to those drugs, and we need to treat these people the same way. -- crimecried records records to last them the rest of their lives. they need to be punished, just the way people were treated on crack cocaine. host: robert is on the line in hazard, kentucky. robert, do you think that the government of the efforts to address the opioid crisis are working? caller: well, usually i

agree with president trump on everything he says. i always go with president trump because i love him. but i do not think you should go after the prescription companies. i think you should leave them alone. the prescription companies are trying to help the american people are in pain. people are really in pain. the last caller who called about blacks and whites, he is saying are one's -- whites methamphetamines, he should say that she should not -- he should not say white or black. i believe we are the same. we have a bad problem in america with it and we need to address it, but it is the young kids that do not need to do the drugs and parents need to get more involved. hazard, kentucky has no problems at all area we can live together, the blacks and whites here live great together. we are all friendly together. i wish america would come

together a little bit more and settle down. i don't know what's going on in these big cities, but we feel good back in here. host: all right. i want to get to some other headlines about kentucky, where according to stats, kentucky could become the first state to tax opioid prescriptions, as long workers -- lawmakers in kentucky are pushing the latest effort in a string of so far failed attempts to pull revenue from the painkillers that help seed a nationwide addiction crisis. the proposed tax, a $.25 levy on drug distributors for every dose bythe state, was approved the kentucky house thursday as part of a broader budget and tax plan. other states where lawmakers aims to steer the new revenue to addiction treatment and education programs, the kentucky plan, if enacted, would direct the money to fill budget gaps elsewhere, including

boosting funding for the state's public schools. mike is calling from clearwater, florida. mike, you have been impacted by the crisis. how do you think the government's efforts are working so far? caller: well, i think the of explaining to people what happens with opioids . the natural opioid people have been taking since the beginning poppy., which are the brother that was, for several years, a functioning addict, and he died because of a minor cut that was put in there and the stuff that was in the cut. when he was drying up, he would drink during that time. he had more than one problem with drugs. the main thing they never tell you is these synthetic opioids are a lot different than the

natural opioids, especially stuff like methadone. that is a synthetic opioid. that is highly, highly addictive. versus the milk of the poppy type opioids. you like to see the government due to address this issue? caller: one, education. when you are taking pain pills, your pain threshold moves and moves in a bad way. when you don't have the pills, then everything hurts. every little bump on the wrist hurts like it is tenfold. that is the problem. people do not understand what they are getting involved with. when you start moving your pain threshold, you are moving things in your nervous system that mother nature did not intend. thosere you take vicodins, thend

lower your pain threshold goes. if you bump your toe, it feels like someone smashed it with a hammer. and that is not even brought up. i am surprised. that is something that people need to know before they start playing with this stuff. host: sylvia is on the line from ocean shores, washington. you have also been impacted by this crisis. good morning. caller: hi, yeah. my brother got a hold of some pure black tar heroin and died at 43 in april. the toll it takes on the family -- we did everything we could think of, and my dad would say please help your brother. i said dad, what could i do? i have tried everything, he has been to hundreds of treatment centers. is --, anding i know

my son has been doing drugs since he was 12 and everybody kept it from me. now he is in jail for a drug chance and has one more -- they are going to put him in there for life. illness, and drugs sometimes help people when they think something is not right, so they go to the drugs. we need to find out why these people that are turning towards drugs -- they are doing it because something is not right with them first. host: how would you like to see the government respond? what would you like to see the folks here in washington and in washington state due to make things better for folks like you and your family? caller: it killed a family. sickerme sicker and

because of what we have to do. i ask my family, just leave him alone. you are enabling him. how do you abandon a child you raise from a baby? i would give my life right now if i could save my son. all i am hearing is let's arrest .verybody if you do not get to the underlying cause of the mental problems these people are facing before they even start, i know people that have been given drugs either family and they think it is funny -- by their family, and they think it is funny, like my husband did to my son. people that have been on it, they get off, and go back. they cannot cope to every -- with everyday life. i know how that is. with my illness, i cannot hardly cope, but i do not do any kind

of bad drugs. i just do my medication. hard, this world is very to cope with, and drug addicts, that is their escape. host: let's take a look at what north carolina governor roy cooper said at last weekend's nasa and are governors -- national governors association about the role of health care coverage. >> one thing we cannot forget his health insurance coverage. over 50% of the people who was at -- present to our emergency room in north carolina do not medical coverage whatsoever. no medicaid, medicare, private insurance. we have to close this health insurance coverage gap so that we can make sure people get .ccess to treatment and individuals react to treatment in different ways. individuals respond positively to different kinds of treatment, but we have to number that health care coverage -- remember

health care coverage when we are talking about this issue. we have to remember that. host: in the national institute on drug news, they had some sister six -- statistics on the opioid crisis. the misuse of and addiction to opioids, including script and pain relievers, harrowing, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. the centers for disease control and prevention estimates that a total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse alone in the united states is $78.5 billion a year, including the cost of health care, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement. joann is on the line from congress, indiana. good morning. caller: good morning.

i have a problem with all these descriptions of this problem. it is not opioids. it is not the pill problems. i am 62 years old and it took until last five years for me to get close to a pain pill. what is going on is some of these people that you get these ,ain pills do not stop drinking they keep drinking and kill themselves with it. killing their liver and their kidneys. what is actually happening out here is that heroin problem. a heroin addict problem. unfortunately, china has gotten ,nto it with the fentanyl putting it into it, cutting it up, trying to make it go further , as addicts do, i guess, and killing our children with it

because they don't know the difference. they don't know what kind of things has been cut with the things they are doing. they are out there experimenting and dying. my family just buried a child because of this, ok? help hery tried to except for her own family. nobody. host: what would you like to see the government do? what would you like to see your state and federal people in office due to --do toue to help help families like this? caller: address it properly. heroin, tell the kids it is the heroine, not the pills. we've the heroine alone. -- leave the heroin alone.

if the doctor prescribes them to you, fine. if he doesn't, they are not yours to take. mothers, start telling your children the proper things going on instead of whitewashing it down the road with something else, ok? the actual problem is heroine. -heroin. host: mary is on the line, she has also been impacted by the opioid crisis. do you think what the government is doing to try and address opioid addiction is working? caller: no ma'am, not at all. i am going through it right now with my daughter, who two years ago was quite normal. is flooded with heroin andmath and crack -- meth crack. unless you want to get help, they will not seek help. they will alienate everyone in the family, they will hide away,

but we watched the natural progression, even though we have all tried to help her. now she is staying in a house full of heroin addicts. nobody works, she just lost her job, she was able to go on for a couple of months, but that was inevitable. look atpolice -- you the arrest logs, and it is all marijuana, marijuana, marijuana, but you never see any arrests for heroin dealers, meth dealers, or anything like that. people, at least most of the ones i speak with, believe our government is facilitating this problem and ignoring it on the other side. host: what do you mean by that? caller: our family is a basket case. we don't know what to do. host: what do you mean that you think the government is facilitating the problem? caller: goodness, back in 1996 they let the fta tell the

tell the public that opioids they were about to put on the market were not addictive, doctors overprescribed them, and when they wanted to make a show for political reasons, they came in and close down the pill mills and pushed a lot of people into the streets to get the heroin. my daughter, i have never known her to do the pills. it is not just those people who were taken away from the pill mills, it is the people they get to know, they branch out. they say oh, why don't you try this? before you know it, the person tries it because they are in that group of people, and it is very easy to get addicted to. meth, crack, heroin, and that is our main problem here. host: some other headlines today, reports say that to the justice department is urging congress to rewrite opioid legislation, and the justice

department is urging congress to rewrite legislation passed at the pharmaceutical industry's behalf that has undermined the drug enforcement administration's efforts against companies suspected of violating the law. this system attorney general wrote -- boyd assistant attorney general stephen boyd wrote in a letter wednesday that the justice department seeks to bring a lot more in line with the original intent of congress, according to a copy obtained by the washington post. he was responding to congressman greg walden, chairman of the house energy and commerce committee, which is investigating the opioid industry. "we believe the changes will make it easier to fight the withd epidemic consistent president trump's priorities to end this crisis," said the justice department spokeswoman. steve is on the line, calling from illinois. do you think what the government is doing to combat the opioid crisis is working out go --

working? caller: i really don't know about the -- it is not working on the street level. me, 2004 in september, 935 -- 9:35 a.m., i was run over. i had three third-degree burns, two thirds of my body. approximately two and a half years in the hospital. fentanyl. they locked me out of the rehabilitation center at 200 milligrams. today, i am at 50 milligrams. i tried to reduce it, i can't.

, and i have open wounds see my doctor every two months, and i also see a psychiatrist. can to never i allow these drugs to leave my house. i have a caregiver that also comes in and watch is to make sure sheatches to make sets up my prescriptions and drives me to and from my doctors. home health program. she watches me so carefully, and i am so scrutinized over this stuff. if they change these laws, i don't know what i would do. they estimated to repair my body, it would cost another $10

million to $12 million, and it would take five to seven years. so i don't know. way it is bad, but a lot of isse fentanyl and heroin coming from china and mexico. the doctors can prescribe this to feed the demand that is going on in the united states. host: let's take a look at what ,ddiction specialist dr. andrew testifying on capitol hill this week, said about how to get around barriers of treatment for addicts. [video clip] >> the only way we are going to get there is with a massive federal investment in the billions. we have to create a treatment system that does not really exist yet.

the majority of the state licensed drug and alcohol treatment programs do not offer this, or have enough physician times to be able to prescribe it people who are even getting it right now. people who have insurance have to pay out of their own pocket for the doctor's visit. their commercial insurance is only paying for the prescription. if we want to see deaths come down, it has to be easier to get treatment than it is to get a bag of dope. if someone is opioid addicted, when they wake up in the morning they are going to need to use. many people will have something by the bedside because they will feel sick when they start to wake up. if they have $20 in their pocket and they know where they can get if it has fentanyl in it, that is what they are going to do. a finding a doctor is more expensive and more difficult, we are not going to see overdose deaths start to come down. so we have to build out a system that does not exist, and i do

not see any other way other than existing -- investing billions in that system. midwest and mid-atlantic states in particular are facing a provider the opioid address epidemic. it says medication assisted onetment, including medication, is considered the gold standard of addiction care. addiction expert picks -- experts point to expanding as integral to fighting the nations -- the nation's opioid crisis. a panel of experts found that would devote most of the resources to treatment options, especially medicalization -- medication treatment assistance to address the ongoing opioid crisis. there is a shortage in the midwest and mid-atlantic states. linda calling from lexington, kentucky. you are impacted by this as

well. what do you think? caller: please allow me to speak, because i possibly have six months to live. threatening life sepsis from a perforated ulcer, found out i had cancer, sent home, and i am due to have another surgery next week. i have spasms so bad that i almost passed out. their solution is go to the hospital and they will give me an iv drip, but they will not write me a prescription because of these drug addicts in lexington, kentucky. i don't care if they die. take some responsibility for themselves. i raised four children. occasionally, they take plain pills -- pain pills but they are not addicted. dying andng here these people -- i watch them all the time -- they can't even walk on the street because they can get a pill. i go to a doctor, dying of this

stuff, i can't get anything because these drug addicts. let them die. one more thing, trump is an idiot. the line,ara is on calling from tennessee. do you think the government is doing enough to address the opioid crisis? caller: i think the government has gone crazy. i'm with the lady and the gentleman that called earlier. was takingran, and i hydrocodone, vicodin, whatever leftcalled it, because i the connecticut v.a. to go take care of business in texas. ofas unable to get a refill my pain medicine. i have very bad lower extremity, back problems, and my legs are really bad. months that iur could not get it. i'm living in tennessee now, and

they say they want to try and do everything else, but it is because of these drug addicts. these people that take, they thatwith this medication we need. it helps us with our pain. i am sick of it. when the crackhead epidemic started, they did not get it because it was affecting the black and brown communities. they did not care. but these pills are affecting the white people, they just go crazy. i do not think a lot of these drugs are coming from over. if they are coming from mexico and china it is because the people want them to get high, and they need to work on that. but by cutting us off that need the pills, it is bad. it is really bad. anything, they give

me all-time's of stuff that does not do anything. it does not touch the pain, and i cannot get surgery until i get .y medicare it is sad, really sad. i don't want them all to die, but start locking them up. for the been looking drug dealers coming from people's houses. start locking them up. rock,tim in flat michigan. you are also affected by the opioid crisis. what you think about the government effort? caller: yes ma'am, i think the government is failing this problem dramatically. arm policey need to officers, people on the front reversalh antiheroine -- sorry, and i had a friend who was addicted to heroin.

him suboxone prescriptions. it ford would only cover three months, and then it was up to him to pay out-of-pocket. well, 10 prescriptions, a 10-day $175 forost him over 10 days. medicaid will not cover it and i think that the government has to law forhe medicaid opioid abuse and mental health. thank you so much, c-span, for taking my call. host: more from that washington post report about the justice toartment urging congress act on a law in a way that is written that hamstrings law

enforcement's ability to enforce laws against the pharmaceutical industry. the insuring patient access and affected drug enforcement act was pushed through congress in 2016 by a small band of lawmakers backed by a powerful array of drug companies. the legislation was the subject of a joint investigation by the post and 60 minutes in october. the initial version was written by a drug industry attorney who once worked for the dea. it was sponsored by congressman fromarino, a republican pennsylvania, and senator orrin hatch, a republican from utah, and they negotiated a final version of the bill in the senate. in aprilgned by obama 2016. while it would have been easier if the department had made these suggestions when i was working with them on the bill, before it sailed through congress without objection and was signed into law by president obama, i plan to study the department's proposal closely, hatch said

friday. it is important for policy in this area to properly balance law enforcement and patient needs. david calling from los angeles. even, what do you think about the government's efforts to combat the opioid crisis? caller: i am listening to your callers and looking at your expression of compassion and caring and concern. ofit relates to the misery addiction that hurts the nation and families. i am one that is over 30 some years of recovery. i am also one of the black community who had experience with the means and methods through government policies that are still -- hear me now -- affecting the black community when they were dealing with

their addiction problem. you have the criminalization of a whole community, totally devastated. people still running around here with criminal convictions on their records. this should have always been dealt with from a medical, psychiatric point of view as opposed to a criminal, justice point of view. as the government starts trying to think of policies as to how to deal with this outburst of addiction and pain with opioids, please do not forget to go back into make the corrections -- in to make the corrections that the government did through policies that have devastated the black community, which is still being affected by all of the way in which they were dealt with with the criminal justice policies. this is a medical problem. all right? can you hear me?

host: i can hear you, david. when you say go back, what would you like to see the government do? caller: one of the things i would like to see them do is go back and to take these records off of these communities. all of these policies that won't allow them to go to school because they have a criminal record now due to crack or even our community,t? as you know, has been totally devastated by the addiction of crack and other drugs dealt with in the very harsh and cruel manner through the criminal justice system. it is still being affected by it. and when weo back treat these opioid addicts and , with the medical modality and compassion, don't

forget that you devastated a community with this criminal justice stuff. go back and make that right. a caller from memphis, tennessee. you have also been impacted by the opioid crisis. good morning. caller: good morning. yes, what the government is address the opioid crisis is not working at all. this is not a drug problem. this is not about someone's pain. i have it every day and have been prescribed opiates, but i do not take them, as i have told every doctor who has given them to me for the pain i have had, because they are something you can get addicted to. what they need to do is treat this problem, because we see in affecting more young people than

anybody else. what they should do is treated as a drug problem and treat it all illegall have drugs in the united states. what they are doing now is doing no good at all. ,he numbers have not gone down and nobody is getting an answer to what they need. it must be treated as a drug addicting problem. in some other headlines today, the washington post is reporting that the president may be changing his tone when it comes to gun reform. it says the white house appeared to soften its tone on gun control measures friday after president trump met privately with officials from the national rifle association and i before. the night before. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders said the white house is still deliberating on what type of proposals that will support shootingke of a mass in parkland, florida.

she says trump still supports raising the age limit to buy assault crisis -- assault rifles from 18 to 21, but understands there is "not a lot of broad proposal.or such a i think he thinks it would have more potential, but then it would -- but in the states more than it would on the federal level. on background checks, she said president trump is not necessarily support universal checks, but improving the background chexsystems. he wants to see with the legislation, the final piece of it, looks like. universal means something different to a lot of people. donald is on the line from san antonio, texas. do you think what the government is doing to try to combat the opioid crisis is working? caller: no, and i don't think they should get involved, because it is a decent money thing. i listened to some of your s talking abouter

the opioid thing, it is now in the white community. it hurts because i hear people calling. when these drugs were in our community, where was all the noise then? right now, the white community is an uproar because it is killing their children. they are getting it from the doctors and all that, go look in grandmas, mothers, fathers medicine, that is where white people get medicine from. it has to be at the state level. right now you want the federal government to come up with a to createoney facilities to send their white children to to get help. it is a disease now. when it was in my community, criminal. lock them up. the way i feel right now, and i don't wish death on anyone -- lock them up the same way you

did my people, because there is nothing the federal government can do right now. the white community is in an uproar because it is killing their children. dollars go toward building facilities to help their children, but what it -- when it was in our community, [indiscernible] deal with it. minnesota,ler from you have also been impacted by the opioid crisis. what do you think about the government's efforts? caller: i would like to make a comment on what i heard jeff sessions talk about the other day. he was talking about having the companies, the drug companies be more responsible. they are making billions of dollars off of all of these young people, anyone dying from i believedoses, and it would be a good idea to have been chip in to help support

more addiction centers and more mental illness -- mental illness is the big thing. if our country started chipping in more for mental illness and getting rid of the stigma of mental illness and addiction, people would reach out more. there would be more solutions, and that would solve so many problems with the gun thing, the overdoses, so many problems in our country. we need more help with mental illness and drug treatment centers. thank you. host: let's take a look at what a surgeon general, dr. jerome said, speaking this week at the national association of attorneys general about the stigma of addiction and his own brother being in federal prison for drug use. [video clip] >> we can't as partners in communities -- ask partners and communities to act with compassion if they do not understand addiction as a disease as opposed to a moral failing. i know some of you disagree with me on that last point, that

addiction is a disease and not a moral failing. please don't get me wrong. than not, more often a number of bad choices that people have made when they go down the substance misuse disorder pathway. i am not dismissing that or saying that it did not happen. some of you might be familiar with my own brother, who is in state prison in maryland, a few miles from here right now, due to bad choices that he made. but those bad choices ultimately led him to becoming addicted to opioids and committing more and more bad choices that landed him in state prison. as a public health person, i always want to get upstream. i ask myself, if we had intervened earlier, recognized the signs, given him options for treatment instead of continually prosecuting him and sending him through that revolving door, maybe we could have made a difference in his life. on the line from

kokomo, indiana. what you think about the government's efforts to combat the opioid crisis? are you there? go ahead. caller: yes. i'm calling about the opioids. to the time in , lots of cocaine, these people pick one subject, opioids, when there are more things out there that these peoples are taking. i do not know why they just pick one thing. they should include everything. back in the 1970's, when marijuana came out, they had commercials on television,

y yourana could fr brains. they put an egg on the street and let you see what marijuana could do. i wish they would include everything instead of just one thing. everyone should have a test. this is including all of the officials and everybody else, and you will see how many people are taking this stuff. instead of opioids, there are more stuff out there that people are taking that do one thing, and they run it into the ground. include everything out there. calling from is frederick, maryland. you have been impacted by the opioid crisis. what do you think about the government's efforts? caller: i think the government's efforts are all in vain. we have seen years and years of failing drug policies and other countries, they had heroin

problems and drug issues and went ahead and regulated the drugs. abel knew what they were getting, there was not this sentence -- people knew what they were getting, there was not this sentinel stuff coming in -- fentanyl stuff coming in from the middle east. just like that lady that was just speaking before, going on about the egg and just say no, that is part of the biggest issue with drugs today in this country, is that my age group was told just to say no instead of actually giving them actual drug class that told them what drugs did you and what the consequences of using drugs are. i would like to bring up -- i am a chronic pain patient for 15 years, and there are a lot of people in my position now that don't know where to turn. a lot of them are killing themselves because they can't access their opioids at all,

because of their doctors and the giveas going to not anybody anything. in reality, our constitution -- we should be able to put anything we want into our bodies. nobody should be able to tell us what we can and can't do. unfortunately, there are people that are mentally ill and people that are not. i am fortunate enough to say that i am not mentally ill, and that is probably the reason i did not euthanize myself by putting illegal drugs into my body. some other headlines the new york times is reporting. the chief of staff of the white house admits to mishandling how allegations about an eight -- aide were handled. nearly a month after rob porter resigned among allegations of domestic abuse, jonathan kelly acknowledged on friday -- john f on fridayowledged

that he had stumbled in response to initial reports of the allegations. he told a group of reporters gathered in his office that mr. porter had presented himself as the ultimate gentleman while he worked at the white house. i never saw him mad or abusive in any way, said mr. kelly. on friday, mr. kelly offered his aversion -- his version of events, adding to the whiting timeline on this outer -- winding timeline on this matter. withtime, mr. kelly agreed a chronologic provided by christopher wray, the director of the fbi, who said that the information had been delivered nearly a year ago. willie, calling from west virginia. you have been impacted by this crisis. what is on your mind? caller: i do not think it is the government's place to take care of this. i think it is the family's place , and i do not think this burden

should be put on the taxpayers and the community. if they overdose, let them deal with it. if they die, so what? it happens to all of us, all people. host: ok. tommy is calling from woodward oklahoma -- woodward, oklahoma. what do you think about the government's efforts to combat opioid abuse? caller: good morning, i am very thankful you got me on this morning. oklahoma has a raging epidemic with dr. shopping. a lot of people have three doctors and go back and forth between them. even in different cities of oklahoma. another thing that goes on is right now there are two doctors being prosecuted in oklahoma for prescribing too many opioids to their patients. it is like the rest of the n aunty, but i had a

that was 80 years old and had gotten the shingles, and they put her on opioids. in a short time, it eventually killed her. but the problem was she did not need the pill half the time, but because it was prescribed she would take it. , andhe kind of abused it it was really sad. there was nothing i could do. see: what would you like to lawmakers in oklahoma and here in washington do to help with folks who are a part of this crisis? caller: more paperwork for the doctors, i'm sure. they need to have a list in a state or an area, who is on it and double check that these people are not dr. shopping. and in oklahoma, the prisons are

drugng over with addicts. they need more drug courts. prisons do not have plans for the people in the prisons to go to meetings or have helped inside the prisons who are taking drugs. there are a lot of prescriptions being given for all kinds of opioids, valium, and other things of that nature. i had a home health care job, and this lady i took care of had three doctors. she had pills hidden all over the place. she was not an elderly person, she was about 40 years old, and it was really sad. her husband -- she would hide the pills, and she'll most died. i spent one weekend with him trying to make her eat and make sure she was getting the right nourishment and everything. he took her to the hospital on monday morning after the weekend that i stayed with her, and the doctor said that she would have died if he had not brought her in that day. it is bad. when you see something like that -- i am a recovering alcoholic,

and i was afraid to take painkillers and those drugs because they were not legal, to get high. i did it with legal alcohol and learned a lesson there. thank you for hearing me and i hope this has helped somebody. host: stateline from pew charitable trust is reporting on some state efforts to boost .rescription drug monitoring long before the current opioid epidemic, some states developed drug tracking systems to allow physicians and pharmacists to check patient prescriptions and drug use to determine whether they might be seeing 28 held at too high a dose or in dangerous combinations with other medications, such as additives and muscle relaxers. muscletives and relaxants. but few prescribers took advantage of the systems.

now faced with a drug overdose epidemic that killed more than 63,000 people in 2016, at least 39 states are insisting that health officials -- health professionals use the system to analyze each patient's prescription drug use before writing another prescription for highly addictive drugs such as percocet, vitamin and does vicodin, and oxycontin. in missouri, the only state without a monitoring program, state lewis county -- st. louis local drugted a tracking system and made its use mandatory. you are also impacted by the drug epidemic? caller: i am, and i am a veteran as well. i have degenerative discs, arthritis, everything. i pretty much need my pain medication. when it comes to the government doing something, i figured the vets would have been the last ones to get hit with this, but we were the first ones.

i watched your program on c-span, that they pretty much, the congress blackmailed the v.a. and said if they wanted extra money, they had to detox all the veterans off of the opioids, which i thought was a raw deal. if we can get our arms and legs loan off but we cannot aloft -- blown off but cannot get a pain pill. i wonder how many of these deaths that are actually heroin overdoses they consider opioid overdoses? william in new york city. what do you think about what the government is doing? is it enough? caller: i actually don't think they are doing anything at all. i think they should use the japanese government method, two buckets,ve you where one has water and one is empty, and you come out of the cell and you are cured.

[inaudible] had surgeriesave on my spine and head, and i have received prescriptions for opiates. i don't take them. even though i am only 53 years , wherekeep them put away one day if i am really in a lot of pain. so i can't heal properly because i am in pain. so if those 63,000 want to die, they did it themselves. i did not do anything to myself. and the government is [inaudible] --, methadone and free which they implement it into their drug menus, to hell with them. all right.

in other news, fox news is reporting that president trump off the gop primary season by siding with incumbents. on tuesday, the president announced his support for a slew of incumbent republican that primaries in texas this week, george p bush, son of rival jeb bush. that primaries in texas are set for march 6, and there are several republican opponents in the reelection bid up for the texas land commissioner post. the president is backing incumbents in some other states as well as the primary season gets underway. carl is calling from florida. you are impacted as well by the opioid crisis.

what do you think about what the government is doing? caller: well, i would like to say that i was addicted to oxycontin for over 20 years. when i moved to florida, i went to a methadone clinic because i could not get my prescription filled here in maryland for methadone. i never abused them, but i needed them for pain. i had a back operation at 17. to make a long story short, i did a lot of research on , and ine and suboxone went on suboxone after methadone. they are both synthetic, and when you get addicted to those two, the withdrawal can last for years. they tell you you should only take suboxone for eight weeks and taper off. any of these drugs very slowly. if you are addicted to any opiates, you can withdraw after a few weeks and actually quit. but suboxone and methadone, you need years to taper off of those drugs.

everyed to do 50% less few weeks, that is what i had to do. i am just saying, they need to find a better pain medication that is not as addictive. host: carl, the you think the government should have a bigger role in this? do you think it is the pharmaceutical companies? who would you like to see act in order to get information out about these kinds of drugs or regulate them differently? caller: we need a national program for addiction. i believe that methadone clinics could work, but when you are on methadone you need to taper off it over years. i went to the clinic and a lot of people were taking anywhere from 100 to 300 milligrams. i took 30, the minimum, because i wanted to quit. it was like a monkey on your back. you felt you had to take it to survive, to live, to work, and that is the case for many people

. also, chronic pain patients are getting the bad end of the stick here. they are the ones suffering from all of this regulation and they are blaming the pharmaceutical companies. that is not really the problem. i think the government needs to do what other foreign governments have done that have been successful for heroin addiction. they have many other programs that actually work. here in america, we seem to be puritanical in our view. we want to punish drug abusers instead of it being a medical condition. another headline, the wall street journal is reporting that a key white house advisers future is unclear. -- advisor's future is unclear. gary cohen told colleagues privately wednesday night that a president trump signed an order signing -- slapping foreign countries with broad tariffs, he might have to quit.

after an intense battle in the white house, mr. trump went ahead with his terrace, anouncing them an a -- in meeting with steel and aluminum industry executives on thursday morning. while the tariffs were not there,y imposed then and president trump said he would do it in the following week, rejecting concerns that tariffs will lead to higher prices and lower economic growth. mr. cohen believes he has some time to shape new policy, but friends who have spoken to him believe he could resign at any moment. a caller from california. what do you think about the opioid crisis and how the government is responding to it? caller: hi, and thank you for letting me speak. -- as a positive example of what drugs can really do if it is in the right hand. -- is a powerful force and/or -- on earth and it serves a purpose. the powerful people in

government have got people driven -- tripping. they are killing people for the power. pharmaceuticals are some of the richest companies and people on earth. seven is pharmaceuticals. if drugs were in their hands, they could regulate it like meat. drugs can get people to the fifth dimension if in the right hands and move us into our space. people have to die. it is about life-and-death. but if people do not see the big picture or continue to abuse those trying to act in their best interests, like donald trump, he is going to be jaded and he does not have anybody to protect him against the powers that be that are trying to make them fail. up, we have valerie

economic policy institute. she will be here to talk about epi's new report on how african-americans are doing economically, 50 years after the kerner commission. later on, mary beth breaks -- mary beth first, this weekend, our c-span cities tour exploits the -- explores shawnee, oklahoma. here, the mayor talks about the city's demographic and economy. is located about 40 miles east of the intersection of interstate 35, which runs from houston to kansas, and interstate 40, which runs from north carolina to california.

we have a city population of about 30,000. a county trade population of probably 40 or 45. we have five tribes that border shawnee. they are an independent, sovereign nation, each one of them. have interjurisdictional issues from time to time in terms of taxation. we try to cross deputized so that their police and our police work together. we supply them with fire, service, and a number of other things. we have a good relationship by and large with them. we do have issues time to time like any family members. shawnee is driven economically by a pretty diversified group. we have oklahoma baptist

university here, which is traditionally ranked as one of the top liberal arts university's west of the mississippi. we have a good manufacturing base as a result of an extensive solicitation project that occurred during the late 1960's and early 1970's. we are fairly close to oklahoma city, so we are somewhat of a bedroom community to oklahoma city. a generation coming on is all about place. in my generation, i went where the job was. the kids now don't do that. they seek out a place that will give them the lifestyle they want to have, and then they try to figure out how to make a living there. we are trying to be that place. we feel like that will help us the kind ofecruit employee that our manufacturing base needs and we will move this community forward. "washington journal"

continues. is valerienow wilson, the director of a program on race, ethnicity, and economy at the economic policy institute, and is here to discuss their new report on the economic inequality gap for african-americans. thank you for joining us today. valerie: thank you for having me. host: tell us a little bit about the report. what are the highlights you found about the economic position of african-americans? in the: what we found report, progress can be measured ways. there is absolutely sent terms of whether or not african americans today are better off than they were in 1968, but that is relative. relative to whites. have we closed the inequality gap any? along those measures, the results are mixed. on one hand, there has been significant progress in our is like education, income, health, to someven wealth

extent. however, there has been much less relative progress with regards to closing the inequality gap. host: for this segment, we do have a special line for viewers to join us. if you are african-american, you 202-748-8000. this is on the anniversary of the kerner commission report. i want to play the cbs news report on the release of the kerner commission report, as it was released in february of 1968. [video clip] >> the american people are deeply disturbed. they are baffled and dismayed by the wholesale looting and violence that his occurred in small towns and great metropolitan centers. no society can tolerate massive violence any more than a body

can tolerate massive disease. we in america shall not tolerate it. we need to know the answer, i think, to three basic questions about these rights. what happened? why did it happen? what can be done to prevent it from happening again and again? >> in their answers to those questions, the president's special commission on civil rights orders has confronted the american people with a new shock to our national sense of well-being, a shock and a warning. our nation, says the report, is moving toward two separate societies, black and white, separate but unequal. if the division is allowed to widen, we will find ourselves living in a state of tension and lawlessness held in check only by repression. in those words, the report summons and image more like the other side of the iron curtain, or the garrison state of latin america, then our image of the united states.

in the riots of last summer, the commission seized the whole shape of that danger. the violence of that summer, it says, was more white repression then need group protest. hope, toonly one reverse the course of racism, which is its basic cause, to rub out the boundaries of the ghetto and relieve the poverty. to do this, and what the commission calls a commitment to national action. [end video clip] host: you can watch the full cbs news special report on the kerner commission findings saturday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. valerie, tell us the significance of doing the epi now, and how does it compare to the findings of the kerner report 50 years ago? valerie: it is significant to consider we have had 50 years since the report was published.

unfortunately, it seems that many of the conclusions that were drawn then are still things we can say today. we know that in a lot of major cities across the country, there has been unrest. we also know when we look at the data on economic outcome that the level of inequality between blacks and whites is not very different than it was 50 years ago. in some areas, for example, homeownership -- we are in the same place. when we consider incarceration, we are much worse than we were 1968. the incarceration rate among african-americans has nearly tripled. then we look at things like unemployment. we have this persistent two to one black-white unemployment gap, whether in good or bad economic times, and at every level of education. are talking with valerie wilson, the director of the program on race, ethnicity,

and the economy at the economic policy institute about the new report on the economic inequality gap of african-americans. if you are african-american, call 202-748-8000. i want to read a little bit from this report that highlights some of the things you were talking about. black workers make 82.5 cents on every white dollar. black americans are more likely to be in poverty. the white family has almost 10 times as much wealth as the immediate black family. were unemployment rates 7.5%, up from 6.7% in 1968. that is roughly twice the white unemployment rate. the homeownership rate has been virtually unchanged since 1968,

40 points behind the white -- 30 points behind the white ownership rate which saw modest gains. president trump frequently touts the fact that the black employment rate is better now than it has been in several decades. what do you say as evidence of that how well black americans are doing? what do you say to that? valerie: there are a couple of issues with that statement. one, it neglects the fact that the unemployment rate for blacks is double roughly the white unemployment rate. 7.5% may be better than it has been in decades, but i would venture to guess that if the white unemployment rate or national unemployment rate was 7.5%, we would not celebrate that. the bar seems extremely low. another thing i think it's important to note about that is that we have gotten to the 7.5% years, overt four

the course of the economic recovery. i know president trump likes to well.redit for that as he really can't take credit because we were moving along that path long before he was in office or running for president. host: kathleen is calling from los angeles, an african-american viewer. good morning. caller: good morning. i really don't even like to be referred to as an african-american, i don't know how that got into our lexicon. i am a black american. the point i would like to make is that during jim crow, before jim crow, black americans had .7% two-parent families after jim crow and being with the democratic party, we now have 25% two-parent families. point -- other data yes, it would take 228 years for the average black family to get

to the average white family. for five decades we voted democrats. we did not focus on economics, we focused on race. i don't know why you don't have dr. anderson on. he talks about democratic's -- economics. politicianscratic talk about racism. they never talk about economics. d onfive decades, we focuse economics, and we would have had more small businesses. people focus on the democrats for five decades. they have failed us. the democratic party has failed us. we need our fathers in our home. we need to parent families. host: all right, i want to give valerie a chance to respond to that. valerie: what i would say to that is one of the things that came out of the curtain or

commission, they were recommending massive and sustained investment in education and jobs. i think what is on target with that recommendation is they are addressing economic problems with economic solutions. i think that is exactly what we need. i think a lot of the problems that led to the unrest in the 1960's and today is that largely the government has been responding to economic programs with greater policing. byy are addressing poverty imposing more policing in communities. i agree we need economic focus to address economic problems. host: all right, a color from selma, alabama. -- a caller from selma, alabama. caller: good morning. i want to talk about back -- c rack, it came from the troops,

fighting in afghanistan and stuff. then when it came back, crack and stuff came in. you can look back in the day swine, theyt out had to eat the guts and stuff, then the tobacco, then they went to boot licking -- bootlegging. they knew it was bad, but they kept doing it. .ven we know that now they are going to say that crack, how did it get here? it got here from asia. they said they wanted to take care of the blacks. they found out about the poppy seeds in afghanistan and stuff. host: i want to give valerie a chance to talk about the impact of drugs and other things on the black community.

valerie: i think one of the things we learned from those howk epidemics is that unequal and unjust the administration of "justice" is in this country. we know there were disparities in penalties of crack cocaine versus powdered cocaine, and those penalties were weighted against african-americans. that is largely what contributed to the rise in incarcerations that we find in our report, and disproportionately so in african-american communities. i think one of the problems with that, one of the issues is that in a lot of poor, black communities, people are disposable.s that is the challenge we face with regards to drugs and how justices administers with -- administered with regards to drug policy. the: the kerner commission,

national advisory commission on civil disorders, which was created by president johnson to address, in the wake of widespread unrest and racial tensions at the time, that report called for national action. what was that, and what has worked since then to address some of these issues, and what hasn't? valerie: again, what they were recommending was a massive investment in education and jobs, specifically targeted for african-americans and in those communities. i think that the challenge we face in looking back at whether or not that has been effective is that we have not consistently met both of those objectives. i think that things we have done at times have been too small, and also they have not been sustained. we know that with politics, things tend to ebb and flow. during one administration we

prioritize one issue, and then then next, it is not a priority. they have not been consistent. the other thing that came out of the kerner commission, what was known as the koerner egos, everyone does better when everyone does better. the problem we had with that is that the legacy and ongoing issues around racism and sexism that are in direct opposition to that. racism and sexism say only certain groups of people get to do better, and those privileges and disadvantages and advantages and/or -- endure. unless we do something to deliberately and intentionally shift that in balance, -- in mbalance, that continues. host: we have a colors from cease -- st. petersburg, florida. caller: thank you so much. i would like to make three

statements. the first statement is, it we try to go back to the very beginning of racism, we will have to go a long way back. i try not to focus on that these days. what i look at for america is how president obama had done such a wonderful job of unifying this country and its race relations, but except for one way. the ku klux klan did not march for eight years. at the moment donald trump got into power, they went to south carolina, took off their hoods, put on a new marker, brought guns to south carolina, and right in the face, in spite of all america, they marched and heather heyer died. donald trump inside it that riot, incited that violence. froms brought the backlash

the realistic and legitimate denial of allowing a racist group to protest with hate speech, which is not free speech, on america's streets. host: all right, i want to give out reagents to talk about that. we have seen an increase of more overt actions taken by white supremacists and other groups. what do you attribute that to, and how does the airport -- report address this? valerie: i think it says we have not made nearly enough progress on race in this country as we would think. i would disagree with the color -- caller, i don't think we made huge strides under president obama. i think he was better at speaking about it in more eloquent terms, that people could relate to, but in terms of what is actually going on in the country and how people relate to one another, i don't know i

would say race relations got better under his administration. i would agree that a lot of what we are seeing now is a backlash. that plays out in terms of the numbers that we report in our report. again, racism, sexism have legacies. it is difficult to say that happened long ago, let's not look at that. been,t does still have and also a lot of the advantages and disadvantages put in place by those systems continue. those things perpetuate themselves over generations. unless we decide we will shift the balance of power and undo those things, they will stay the way that they are and sometimes get worse. host: we want to dig down in some of the different areas this report goes into. first, i want to go into history that lackssues

americans are two and a half times more likely to be in poverty, and the median white family has almost 10 times as much wealth. particularly, the issue of wealth. what is it about wealth attainment that is so difficult for black americans to get as opposed to other groups? valerie: i am glad you asked that question could the issue with wealth is related to what i'm saying about the legacy of racism and other defects. -- effects. wealth is important because it is there as a safety net. we use our wealth in times when we don't earn as much on the job either because we've become disabled, we have become ill, gotten older and retired. wealth is there for people when they lose a job. also, wealth is available for families to fund higher education for their children. home ownership is the single largest means of attaining assets in this country.

lackyou lack well, you each of those things that i just described. another thing about the wealth plays ahat inheritance large role in the expansion of the gap. if you come from a family who lacks wealth, there's very little well for them to pass on to you in the next generation. each generation essentially starts over. that gap continues to get wider and wider. wealth is very important when you consider economic well-being and how we address economic disparity. i will say, however, where that was one area we found mixed results. the median black family does have just 10% of the wealth of the average white family, however, in 1968, it was 5%. there has been some absolute progress, but still a huge taping -- gaping gap in terms of wealth.

valerie: what are the factors? earning potential, the access to business capital? keepare the factors that black people from attaining the same wealth as others? host: valerie: i would say it all of the above. mentioned homeownership as being a major factor. we know that in this country, there was a period of time when homeownership was encouraged. it was promoted. it was subsidized, even, by the federal government. however, african-americans did not have access to those that if it's. that -- those benefits. otherss a period when had access to those benefits. on the other side is the debt. your net worth is the difference between your assets and liabilities. we know african-americans also are burdened by a significant

amount of debt, specifically with regards currently to student loans. jay is calling in from lexington, south carolina, also a black you are. you are on with valerie wilson. caller: yes. valerie, i commend you on what you are doing. i would like to emphasize that what's really going on in the black situation is everything does start from the beginning. it started during slavery. when you think about all the wealth that came from the white ancestors to attributed wealth off the backs off of free still labor,r -- free slave they attributed wealth. wealth, they about

got free land and free labor. black people were systematically, economically disenfranchised out of the whole system. then when you think about the whole scenario, now all the and itmmigrants come in, seems like they are obtaining wealth over the african-americans. you can look at it in so many different ways, but you have to go back in history. you have to read the constitution. the way it was written. you have to go back and read the 1866 indian treaty that was written. they allowed the indians to enslave some of the african .eople talk about jim crow laws and the supreme court system that was set up to block black people from achieving. then, social integration along

with economic and judicial. black people only attained one half of 1% of wealth in this country, where white people attain 80% to 90% of wealth. host: ok, i want to give valerie a chance to respond. valerie: yes, i would agree with most of what you said. the current wealth gap we see is the result of the history of exclusion and exploitation of african-american labor and people in this country. host: chuck is on the line from new mexico. caller: good morning. i have a different perspective. my family, we came from hawaii. my mother is japanese. we came to new jersey in 1949. i was raised in an environment where there was racism towards my mother. my mother was totally educated, and she could not get a job.

we were desperately poor. i worked on a farm in new jersey. used to getd -- we people from camden and philadelphia, black families, families -- word got out that they were going to pass dependent children. as soon as they did that, the farms went out of business. i noticed something and i have googled this. the nuclear family was destroyed. caller sayslor -- 86% of black families were two parent families. after that, it has gotten to 25%. it is disturbing that the professor keeps giving excuses for people to fail. you can say racism or whatever. everyone in my family, we were poor, we had holes in the roof,

we could look up and see the sky. everyone in my family went to college. we had to work our way through. but what my mother gave us was a feeling of self-reliance. i'm hearing from the professor, it's not your fault, it's someone else's fault. if you give people the incentive or the current to work hard -- courage to work hard and study, to hell with the racism business, because you can overcome that if it is the individual. host: i want to give valerie a chance to respond. giving: i am by no means an excuse to fail. i would like to fight some of the statistics from the -- cite some of the statistics from the report. you mentioned education. i would say that compared to 1968, african-americans have made tremendous strides on education. in 1968, just slightly over half of african-american adults from

25 to 29 years old were high school graduates. today it is over 90%. is justollege graduates under a fourth. there have been tremendous gains in terms of education. what that tells us is that education is important for economic mobility. i also said we gained in income and wages. the poverty weight -- rate, though still higher than whites, is significantly less than 1968. education is effective as a tool of economic mobility. education alone has not been effective in terms of eliminating racial inequality. african-americans have made tremendous issue -- efforts and done a lot to improve economic not led tout it has as much progress in terms of greater equality in

this country. host: another aspect you look at is the effect of incarceration on the position of the black americans. what did you find? valerie: what we found with incarceration is that the number haswe found that number has grown. it has grown for both blacks and whites. it has grown must faster for -- much faster for blacks for reasons such as the rise of the mass incarceration in the 80's and 90's largely associated with our nation's drug policy. what we have seen is that this rise in incarceration has an effect on individuals and communities post-incarceration. when people are released they have problems getting housing, they have problems getting jobs, that has a significant effect on those individuals in terms of their ability to earn and support themselves, but also for the families they come from and

the communities in which they live. that is a major problem we need to address when we talk about criminal justice reform. host: robert is calling from massachusetts. another african-american viewer, good morning. theer: i would like to say, best house that ever came on c-span was susan. everybody talks about that susan was the best. kudos to susan. , when youtalk about get down to black americans, don't call me an african-american. that is the worst thing you can do for a black american. is to say african-american. we are americans. do your member the difficult , reconstruction when we were close to get 40 acres and a mule. do you remember that? who took that 40

acres and a meal? -- mule? they gave it to the homage, they gave at the mormons, sitting on my 40 acres and a mule. today they ought to give me 10 tractors and 100 acres. you can say what you want to say. let me say one more thing. this is the end of this very miss kimberly -- this is the end of this. miss kimberly, you were gone last saturday on the same show i am talking to right now. .he same day you were on msnbc opinion because you explain your opinion. you are also a fox contributor. this station should not have anybody from msnbc or fox. i want to give valerie a

chance to respond to the issues you brought up. guest: we talked earlier about backlash in terms of race relations. ofh regards to the period reconstruction, that is a lot of what happened there as well. african-americans, black americans, whatever term you wereto use, black folk advancing or making some gains during this period and that was disheartening or not looked upon as a positive thing by many white southerners. then we had the rise of the klan and all of the domestic terrorism that went on against the black people in our country and the stripping of a lot of and politicalains gains that we were able to obtain during that period. exploitedericans were during the period of slavery,

during jim crow, and continue to be in this country. i think we cannot lose sight of the fact that progress is extremely slow because we have this process by which any gains are ultimately perceived as a threat in some communities and then we have backlash against that. there is always this tension and back-and-forth in terms of progress for it -- progress. host: artist is calling from georgia. arnest is calling from georgia. caller: i am the chief of the black muscogee nation. color,h certificates as color, and the growth, black american, african american, it does not matter. i am an indigenous person. i've also a researcher in the national archives looking for bonds and treasury notes and so

forth. theave to look at what dorchester, bank of america, and the rest of those banks did when it came to redlining black communities with zip codes and telephone numbers. we also have to think about how the banks started doing the domino effect when it came to taking houses and reselling them. we also have a problem with world war ii, we did not have black people during the time of the war get a good professional jobs, only indigenous jobs. whatso have to talk about happened with the 1866 treaty of paris. we have been blocked by a lot of laws that have been put before us to make sure we did not find the information we needed to get money in our neighborhood. segregation has not ended. we still don't have a permanent right to vote. host: i want to give valerie a

chance to address that point. things i want to talk about are things like access to capital, talk about the importance of that and where you see it going. guest: access to capital is important because that is one of the avenues by which people have to build wealth, to start businesses, purchase property, to make other sorts of investments that are going to be appreciating and value and contributing to wealth. access to capital is critical. when we talk about wanting to address the wealth gap. period whening the we had the housing boom and the bursting of the housing bubble, there were a lot of unscrupulous practices that a number of banks engaged in. quite frankly they are -- there unscrupulous practices that wells fargo has been accused and found guilty of engaging in. that does go on and it is an

impediment in communities for building wealth and strengthening our economic security. host: teresa is on from alpine, california. just a couple minutes left with your questions for valerie wilson. -- am i on?n? i would like her to respond to the other problems. i am hearing what she is saying, but having grown up in the military where all different types of people got along, and working a job where in the beginning of 20 years everybody got along so well. , it wasturned into almost like this tribalism people talk about, or if you don't agree with everything a black person says in a work environment than you get shunned and they try to get you in trouble. rhetorical question of, have you worked with black people lately? that could be a lot of the problem. iatistically in the past

would have agreed with what you are saying, things have just gotten way to bank difficult. and i am calling from california. difficult. i'm calling from california. it is the constant victimization and i don't understand how that benefits at all. it seems things are not only getting better, but persistence to be skewed so much it is hard to believe anything anymore. it sounds -- host: i want to give valerie a chance to respond. guest: people have a right to voice their concerns, to voice , and to beience frustrated and discontented about it. is any newnk there problems in terms of race in this country and how black people feel with regards to opportunities and access to opportunity for

advancing themselves. opportunities to make a better life. everybody in this country was the same thing. i think that a lot of what happens is that people feel they are concerned -- their concerns and their complaints are invalidated or dismissed. that is where we get some of the tension that go on in terms of conversations. i am an economist, i focus on the data and what the numbers say. quite frankly, the numbers in our reports show that there has been absolute progress in education, but that progress and those gains in education have not resulted in the kind of progress and economically would we would in economics expect. that leaves us with the question of why not. in a number of studies that i have done, controlling for any number of factors that could reasonably affect someone's wages. when did a major report on the

black white wage gap in 2014. there is no way of accounting for why that difference exists, apart from there being this persistent racial disparity, racial gap. that the be things we can't measure or control for in data, but it could also be something very real, which is racial discrimination. wilson, director of the program on race, ethnicity, and the economy at epi. you can find the report at epi.o rg vicki so much for joining us. guest:thank you. coming up next we will take your call. democrats can call (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. mary beth griggs a populist science magazine will be here to talk about why america is taking

on several nuclear power plants -- taking several nuclear power plants online and what it means for the future of america's energy. we will be right back. tv,his weekend on book today at 2:30 programs featuring guns and the second amendment. ,tarting with michael waldman the president of the brennan center for justice at the nyu law school, examines the history and debate surrounding the second amendment. the mother of one of the columbine shooters discusses her book "a mother's reckoning: living in the aftermath of tragedy." a former president of the national rifle association with his book "shall not be infringed: the new assaults under second amendment." author and journalist joanne lipman discusses her book " that's what she said: what men need to know and what women need to tell them about working together. cap journalist jorge -- working

together." journalist jorge rob most discusses his book "stranger: the challenge of a latino immigrant in the trump era." we are live with best-selling jeff shaara. >> monday on landmark cases. we will explore the civil rights the supreme court decision that struck down the civil rights act of 1875, the federal law that granted all people access to public accommodations like trains, theaters regardless of race. justice john marshall harlan cast the lone vote in opposition and his dissent eventually eclipsed her legacy of the majority opinion. explore the legacy of this ruling with the dean of howard university's law school and an

attorney and member of the commission on civil rights. watch landmark cases live monday. or listen with the free c-span radio app. case,ckground on each order your copy of the landmark cases companion book. it is available for 895 -- eight: -- $8.95. additional resource there is a link on our website to the national constitution center's interactive constitution. >> washington journal continues. host: we are taking your questions. finding out what is on your mind as we take a look at some headlines from across the nation. the st. louis of post-dispatch, news of a global trade war, president trump calling for the most protectionist policy in 100 years. the charlotte observer is led by

the general service of billy graham who was laid to rest yesterday in what is called his last crusade in south carolina. the atlanta journal-constitution talks about delta airlines and its plan to review all discounts after ending its nra discount, something that has led the state to look at its tax credit. in mount pleasant, michigan, the morning sun reports that shots fired at central michigan university. at the time of this reporting was still on the run, suspected of killing his parents inside a dorm. after just going from trenton, new jersey on our republican line. good morning. caller: i was hoping to talk to that last guest, but i can pose the question to you as well as our listeners. do you know what separates free men from slaves? can choose what is best

for them and their family. slaves must accept whatever is given to them, they cannot discriminate. the other question i wanted to pose was, affirmative action proves that the races are not equal. the myth is the quality. this is why the blacks cannot keep up with the whites. it is not racism, it is lack of ability. i think most would agree with that. host: alex is calling from new jersey on our independent line. what is on your mind? disagree withlly the statement just made. do with nothing to anything on race or anything else. also, i am just wondering -- many specific causes as to what african-americans don't do as

indians, oranics or chinese. what is needed to make sure that this goes away? that is all. host: the washington examiner reports that a general will face tough questions next week about the ambush in niger that left four soldiers dead. the u.s. general who led the investigation into the islamic state-based ambush will testify before the house on tuesday and could reveal new details on what went wrong with the mission. the pentagon is poised to release the findings of the probe by general thomas ahead of the u.s. -- the head of the u.s. africa command and the general is likely to be peppered about the ambush and the military's advisory mission on the continent when he appeared before the house armed services committee.

anna is coming from texas on our democratic line. caller: good morning. you do an amazing job on this channel and msnbc. i am 69 years old, i came through jim crow and had parents who said -- my parents were divorced. divorceen did not get a . my mom made it clear that education was important to us. wehad teachers who cared, had parents who go to pta meetings. i have grandchildren who go to school here and i participate in the process. i called five congressmen, black-and-white, every day, then i pick another day and i do senators. there is a book called "succeeding against the odds." most kids, colleges, and schools don't have it. when my kids and grandkids, i

helped them in college. i give them money and i help their parents. we can talk about slavery, it happened to us. it is a part of our history. you have to move forward. my son owns a company. do you think that people would want a job? even my husband told him, you don't have diversity. you just have hispanics, he said that, people will come out and work. people want to sit in an office. they don't want to start at the bottom. they want to start at the top. i have worked for a major retailer. i was a manager there. you have to want to do something and get out there and call your congressman. replace them if they are not doing anything. you keep doing what you're doing. i love your show. host: virginia has on our republican line from waldorf, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you. host: i am good, what is on your

mind? whyer: i am curious as to we are always addressing black racism but never white racism. carolinahouse in north and i had to come back north. names,alled all kinds of i was told i was not wanted in the neighborhood, it was really brutal. if you are going to look at racism, look at all of it. it is both sides. it is not just one side. that is all. --at a porting automobile and played industries are going to be hurt by terrace proposed by president trump. "while the trump administration continue to downplay the potential economic effects of proposing double-digit tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, experts continue to worry about widespread effects throughout the economy.

commerce secretary wilbur ross went on cnbc to say market plunges in the wake of thursday's tara: nothing -- terra announcements were overblown and what amount to nothing for consumers. but the automotive and construction sector would bear the brunt of the terrorists are tp -- of the ariffs." president trump could mitigate the terrace by accepting canada and other countries that the artist a test trade agreements with. democrats can call (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8003. (202) 748-8002. --(202) 748-8002. harvey is calling from virginia. caller: it would probably take all day to express my feelings. i think a lot of our problems

with the black race -- within the black race is with sin. i pulled myself up by my an 844aps, i now have credit score, great savings, i went on to notre dame. know when we were born that we are behind the power curve. you have to have self-discipline. nobody is going to give you anything. you have to go out there and get it for yourself. this is something i have done. i could care less about my white neighbors or my black neighbors. self-discipline. if you want something in this world you have to work hard for it and block everything around you out. we have to work three times as hard as a white man, asian women, and so on.

when your feet to the grind and get what you want. i'm so proud of you kimberly, i know you had good parents and that is why you are sitting there today. they give for taking my call. host: terry is calling on our public in my from michigan. wilson gave ae lady, about the disparity between the blacks and the whites. she did not give any statistics. she just said there was a division. whilst he was talking i was writing down some categories. may i give those? you, mentioned one of them at the end of the program. prisons. host: go ahead. caller: here they are. prisons, johnson prostitutes -- john's and prostitutes, how about food stamps, welfare,

, military,ducation jobs. between the blacks and whites, who dominates these categories? interesting isn't it. thank you. host: the full report is available at epi.org which lays out all the categorical report took on. moscow,a call from mississippi on our democratic line. caller: good morning. we have to remove ourselves from backwards thinking. younger i heard jack and jill went up the hill to get water. water runs downhill. we had to fight for civil rights. if you have to fight somebody for civil rights you are teaching them how to become civilized. let people have always been civilized people. we had to create our own social

programs. we need black people to uplift all of us as black people and in america we need our own. we have to look after one another and be accountable. we are no stronger than our weakest link. when we completed number system for ourselves we can empower all black people to be above every race of people in the world. as long as we do according to what we have been taught, we will never get to where we are going. you spoke about that prison system. we are cash cows for america. they spend $4000 a month to house young black men in private prisons. take his around and girlfriend to give her $1000 in food stamps. they will put the kids on medicaid and medicare, then hit her for a utility check that is over $8,000 a month to keep a black couple from being together.

is that more than -- if that is more than what they can earn an income. join way out of this is to together and be accountable for one another -- the only way out of this is to join together and be accountable for one another. instead of individual wealth we need a wealth of our own. host: this weekend's c-span cities tour explores the american story as book tv and american history tv travel to oklahoma. eastern time,2:00 all of our programming from the city of shawnee will air together. we visit oklahoma baptist university archives. we will learn more about the settlement era, missionaries who published the indian orphan newspaper and advocated for the rights of native american orphans. >> the indian orphan was a

newspaper in a sense. it tried to promote the injustice, promote awareness of the injustice being done to native american orphans. it began with a request from mercer university. the president asked a student to consider coming to the indian territory. he used this press to spread word about the issue and to raise awareness for the issue and for the indian orphan sound. this is a typical example of a late -- of a printing press. it was operated two ways, with the turning of the wheel or the foot pedal. ,he way it would typically work this is the ink plate and the ink would be applied, it is really thick and almost like a paint. it would be smeared onto the ink plate. andy time the wheel is spun

the gears cycle through the mechanism, this plate is turned by 18. there would be a roller that comes up and roles across the ink plate to gather the ink. as the roller comes back down these plates separate. this top plate would hold the chase. the chase held the movable type. the roller would come down and go along the base of the type. this plate would come down, paper would be placed on that plate, and when the roller was moved out of the way it would come up, press the paper to the type, back down, rollers would then the-- re-ink, paper would come back forward. to booksure to tune in tv as we travel to shawnee, oklahoma. to watch video of all the other cities we have visited you can /citiestour.span.org

host: robert is on a republican line. caller: i see so many questions that we are not asking. for the basketball union, and for the nfl. those people are multibillion multibillionaires. what they do about palestinians. naacp -- basketball association, the nfl, and a lot of black organizations ask those questions. it is about time somebody stepped up to say something. or if the money going to into was controlling the money? whoever controls the money control the argument.

they know we are just going to be like wall street and all that kind of stuff. we have to start asking questions. who controls the tension? host: the jackets on our independent line from pennsylvania. what is on your mind, jack? caller: thanks to you for taking the call. slavery.e is wage i appreciate the struggle of the blacks in this country. aybody who is not making living wage for they can't go home and pay for car insurance and their home, that is called wage slavery. the only thing they are showing today is, yes people are mckinley income because they are working longer hours. in the greatest country in the world. that is a shame. wage slavery affects us all. i appreciate your struggles and the struggles of your people like i do my own. thank you for your show. host: the hill is reporting that

jeff flake is saying president trump will face a primary challenger in 2020. senator jeff flake, the republican from arizona, said he wouldn't rule out a 2020 challenge of president trump while predicting that the president will have a challenge from someone in the republican party. "flake, an outspoken critic of trump who is not running for reelection, told cnn that while he is not planning to run as an independent he would not swear 'i think the president will have a challenge from the republican party. i also think there will be an independent challenge, particularly if democrats insist on putting up someone from the far left of their party' ". we have a call from new york city on our democratic line. caller: it is good to talk to you. i want to say first that i have

seen you on other channels and as a person i think you are entitled to be whatever you wish, this is america. there should be no discrimination that you can't be here and you can be there and you can't use your own thoughts. thank you for that and thank you. has two classes of people, they want two classes of people. rich and poor, they don't want the in between. the reason why is because you cannot control people who are rising up. you can only control the poor. you can tell them where to go, when to come, and what to do. that is the setup of this country and they want to keep it that way. they don't want you in between to have your independence to say what you want to say. up where theyset can control. up not struggles to pull being able to read and write in the early days, that is a hinder

that causes a collapse of people. in earlier days circa were not allowed to work in certain places and to be a clerk in new york city. in new york city you could not be black to work as a clerk, you can only get menial jobs. you have to know where you came from to know where you are going. thank you and thank you for listening. host: another headline from the pittsburgh post-gazette talks about the special election that is happening there. than two weeks out from the special election and has a linear path 18 district, a democratic candidate appears to have expanded his fund-raising advantage of a republican -- over his republican opponent." the candidates are meeting for their second debate tonight and c-span will air that debate tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. eastern time. you can catch that here or on

c-span.org. coming up, we'll be joined by mary beth griggs of popular science to explain why america is taking several nuclear power plants off-line and what it means for america's energy future. of then, mac hardy national association of school resource officers will be here to talk about school safety and the role of school resource officers. ♪ , on american 10:00 history tv's real america. the 50th anniversary of the 1968 release of the turner commission report. the commission created by president lyndon johnson in the wake of widespread rioting, unrest, racial divisions, and civil disorders in several major cities including los angeles, new york, and detroit. it is documented in the special report "remedy for right."

>> -- riot. -- riot." >> where you can see and hear about the indignity of being black in rich, white america. spent more for my's food, more for rent, more for everything. every time i come to town you overcharge me for everything i get. how in the world do you expect for me -- people make criminals out of people. you're not going to give them nothing, just enough to keep them eating. i eat breakfast, i don't know where dinner is coming from. how do you think i feel? how do i feel? they do take all this money and

go there. we have been here all my life and we can make it. anguish is the real substance of the right commission report. his distress multiplied by the 15 million the gross who live in american cities. is most prevalent symptom poverty, the thing that hold them down his color. the racial attitudes and behavior of white americans towards black americans. >> watch real america tonight at 10:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span3. washington journal continues. host: joining us now from new york city is mary beth griggs, the assistant editor of popular science magazine. about here to talk recent piece on the debate over nuclear energy in the united states. the key so much for joining us. -- thank you so much for joining

us. guest: it is a pleasure to be here. host: what made you want to look into and write about america nuclear energy -- america's nuclear energy? guest: this piece was conceived at looking at the possibility of decommissioning a nuclear power but. we were interested in the process that goes into tearing down these massive structures. as we dug deeper we found the more interesting question was, why are they coming down in the first place? reactors,s 99 nuclear 19 of those are going to be decommissioned. in the next 20 or 30 years are going to be based out of operational life. they will have to be were nude or taken off-line. d or taken off-line.

we are at a turning point where we have to decide if we're going to keep going with nuclear and how we are going to do that, or if we are going to take another direction in terms of our energy. host: before we dig deeper into your piece, the give an overview for our viewers about the history of nuclear power plants in this country and the use of nuclear energy. one thing that i found really fascinating was, our nuclear power industry came out of our nuclear weapons programs. initially though started looking at how to harness the power of the atom. we figured out we could use this for power and some of the first designs for nuclear power reactors were designed or submarine use carrots that is where we get the design of our light water reactors --

submarine use. design where we get the of our light water reactors. it allows them to travel further and faster underwater without resurfacing. host: we are joined by merry christmas grace -- mary beth griggs, the editor of popular science magazine. she is your desire for her recent piece on the debate over nuclear energy that she is here to talk about her recent piece on the debate over nuclear and are -- she is here to talk about her recent piece on the debate over nuclear energy. democrats can call (202) 748-8000. republicans can call (202) 748-8001. can call (202) 748-8002. i want to read a expert from your piece. "this is one of 19 nuclear power plant in the united states undergoing decommissioning. ,f those 99 remaining reactors

as much as one third might be taken off-line within a decade or two. some might it -- apply for an extension, but many could close for good because of things that are killing off energy worldwide." -- worldwide. competition from chief natural gas, the rising affordability of wind and solar, and fear of radiation spewing accidents." talk about how the energy climate is changing. guest: this is something we have seen happening over time. as natural gas prices declined that became a much more affordable way to generate energy. it is also less of an investment to construct these natural gas plants that can run on this field that is not that expensive that is not-- fuel

that expensive. it is hard to justify investing millions of dollars in a nuclear power plant when you can have something that is less expensive. that is something people have been waiting over time. there are many other considerations that go into choosing what kind of energy company -- energy, energy companies are using. host: talk about the geography. how does that play into it. nrc there is a map that shows where the operating of commercial nuclear reactors are found. you can see there are many in the northeast as well as in the midwest and southern regions. .ewer out west how does that play into what types of energy resources we use to power the country? guest: when it comes to

geography, energy is a very local thing. you're not going to truck and energy from california to new york. it is something that depends on your region. when you look at where and how nuclear power plants are scattered throughout the country, some of it is historical legacy. when they were built in the 70's these were the places that had the money to put them in action from the 70's, 80's, onward. it is a matter of what other options are out there. out west you have more availability of land for solar panels. you have more hydroelectric power, you have more options in different areas of the country. host: sabrina is on our independent line calling from tennessee. good morning. guest: -- caller: why are we not funding cleaner to promote energy in our area.

the companies that are doing our energy right now are bleeding -- leaving our water pretty bad. nuclear plants increase the energy inside the water and they contaminated. we have enough wind to make solar power smaller. just because we don't have enough land for the the windmills and solar plants does not mean we should not be taking advantage of that. nature is what sustains us. easts our companies in the not taking advantage of this ?leaner energy sources the: i want to talk what cleaner sources of energy as opposed to nuclear. guest: that is such a good point.

there are a lot of people that would absolutely like to have renewable energy step in, that is something that places in europe, which also have constrained land, are looking towards. it is also a matter of scale. nuclear power can produce a lot more electricity at this point in time. it is not variable. wind and solar candy. you have to have -- wind and solar can be. you have to have the ability to store power generated by more variable forms. that is a good point. that is why we are having this conversation, we are kind of figure out what to do next. can you talk about the safety issues surrounding nuclear power plants? such as thes things caller pointed out, potential environmental impacts, two things like accidents or sabotage or terrorism? caller: that has become --

guest: guest: that has become more of a concern. september 11, that is on the nuclear industry started taking another look and adding more security and updates to their system. terrorism and seven touch, that is absolutely something on people minds. accidents do happen. extreme accidents like fukushima r chernobyl, those are extremely rare. unseen aspect of an environmental concern with nuclear energy is the nuclear waste that is left over after they have gone through the process of generating energy. john is on our republican line from kalamazoo, michigan.

caller: i have been trying to get through. it is funny that we are still generating electricity the same way they did way back when. nuclear does not really generate electricity. it only heats the water that generates electricity. that might be something for scientists to look at. absolutely. i think that is an important thing to look at. when we are talking about nuclear energy, the entire process is you have these nuclear fuel rods and you start ssion reaction that generates tremendous amount of energy for it that generates amazing amounts of heat and radioactivity. that is what is used to heat water that generates steam that

turns the turbines. that is something that is very similar to other methods of electricity generation, like coal, natural gas. they just to generate heat in different ways. host: we are joined by mary beth griggs, the assistant editor of ocular science. we're talking about her piece on the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and the debate over nuclear energy in the united states. talk a little bit about how the decommissioning process, what it .ntails how are these massive energy sources taken off-line? guest: it is a fascinating process. there is an entire industry that has sprung up around this. where you are dealing with something like a nuclear power plant, you want people who know what they are doing. you have companies that will come in and start the decommissioning process at these power plants. what they do is go through this process.

they will start by isolating and removing the high radioactive waste and securing that on-site. demolitionll begin and take down everything else. most of the waste that a nuclear power plant is not new your waist. it is not the stuff that -- it is not nuclear waste. it is not the stuff that we think about from tv and movies. it is construction equipment. it is the stuff you would see from regular office building. that is the majority of waste that comes up the sides. that goes out to specialized landfills in different parts of the country. host: nancy is on our democratic line. good morning, nancy. caller: thank you for taking my call. mary beth, i appreciate what you said about the fact that energy is a local thing. speaking of the west and land

availability, we are concerned about the sourcing of uranium. and milling yellowcake. we have an operation right here that is going to be closing down , and we need people who know what they are doing with decommissioning these sites, these source sites. go ahead, mary beth. guest: i think that is such an important point. this is something that affects not just the people there also,r power plants, but like nancy was saying, the people that are near the places where this is mined. this is something we have to look at all the way from when we uel, all the way to when we end up storing that fuel back in the are very that process is something we are

still trying to figure out the endgame. host: who bears the cost of decommissioning the sites? guest: when a nuclear power plant is built they set aside money for the decommissioning process. they will set aside and have a , before theyn for start construction they will have a plan for how they are going to take it down. before they even start that process of taking it down they will write up other plans that detail everything that is going to happen during that process. the energy companies have that initial cost. there is a different cost when it comes to dealing with the waste. that is something the federal 1982, made aack in deal with energy companies that said we will take and store your ste from the- wa

sites, we don't have a repository to do that. that is something energy companies paid into early on in the construction process. host: rory is on our independent line from texas. caller: i am from san antonio, texas. around the first nuclear facility in the united states up in pennsylvania. that is where i went to school. i am retired military. i get several scientific magazines. a few years ago i read a story that china was building nuclear 10% ofies that only took the nuclear fuel that our ones we use today. , i don't want to

name the magazine. new typeow about that of nuclear facility that only today orof the fuel was that a fictitious story? are advanced is 100%.and china they are looking into advanced reactor technologies at a rapid pace. that is something that people are looking into. when it comes to implementation at a commercial scale, actually people's power to houses, that is not the case yet. it is something a lot of different companies are working towards, including here in the u.s.. china is looking towards more advanced nuclear reactors that use fuel more efficiently.

that is something that people are looking at in the nuclear industry, how can they be more efficient, how can you generate less waste. some of these technologies like molten salt reactors are being looked at as the future of nuclear energy. host: i want to read another excerpt from your piece to talk about some of the things that can happen as we move away from using nuclear energy. -- write "at a summiot summit on energy and security it was said that a bending nuclear will leave the nation vulnerable to environmental and strategic threats, by sidelining a greenhouse emissions free power and by weakening national security interests: a brain drain of nuclear engineers and technicians for nuclear hungry countries is sure to

follow." what do you think about that statement. guest: -- statement? guest: this is something people are concerned with. our nuclear energy theastructure is about -- average age of a reactor is 36 years old. we have not advanced that much since then. we want to. think there are nuclear scientists around the world doing good research. they want to go to the places where there is funding and innovation. that is something that people are looking at going forward. where are these opportunities and what countries are providing them? host: dan is on our republican line from new york. you and yousten to remind me of my youngest daughter. i can't believe that your generation --

when you are speaking use the term kind of so much. i am wondering, how much solidity there is behind the discussion that is going on now. fuel,would be problems of and it wouldn't be very concentrated, and there would be great risk 30 or 40 years down the line with the containers of that fuel. you guysto know if really thought of a way of safely storing very concentrated amounts of fuel. that fuel's continuing existence when our respect and latitude towards areas where you can store fuel is very loose.

could you say something on the issue of spent fuel, how it can stored for an extremely long period of time, no matter how stupid people get towards each other? i can see a lot of problems happening from that field. that is what makes nuclear power , no matter how efficient it gets. host: i want to get married that a chance to respond. that is something people are looking into. scientists think one of the best places to store that fuel permanently our geological .ormations that can self seal what they are looking at our .ormations that self seal where talking about salts and clay. -- we are talking about salts and clay.

when you put the nuclear waste inside and you seal up the containers and the deposit, what ,appens is the clay and salt even if there are cracks, those can seal up over time because this is a fluid structure. permanente looking at storage, those are the kinds of places that we are looking at. say, having these kinds of repository scattered across the country right now we have 70 -- we have metric tons of nuclear waste stored on sites around the country. we want to put those in a permanent facility where they will be safe for the rest of time. there are some places that are doing good work in that. host: we read a quote from your piece that talked about former secretary moniz's view of moving away from nuclear power. what about the current administration?

have we gotten any clues about their views on the use of nuclear power versus other forms? that manyave not seen clues about domestic changes in policy in the united states. we have seen some movement mountain whicha was supposed to be the permanent repository here in the u.s.. that got close down during the previous administration. it seems to be reopening some of the regulatory paperwork, but nothing definitive has been decided. host: ron is on our democratic line from michigan. caller: good morning. as far as storing atomic boys poison. -- atomic an early louis dumpsite of this waste?

it is a smoldering waste of this atomic poison from hell. as far as yucca mountain, it is a leaking poison that we are want to shove down native american's the roads. it is going to burn through everything. please comment on that. i think that is absolutely a view that people have. they want nothing to do with this, this is not something that we want anything to do with in our communities, and that is something that people have had to address over time. when we are talking about that, it still remains the question of what are we going to do with all this waste that is situated around the country? just having a disappear is not an option at this point. i know some people are looking into reusing and recycling it as much as possible. that is something that is far in the future. host: allen is on the

independent line. caller: good morning. i just want to underscore what the gentleman just said about being a poison from hell. i can't overstate that enough. mary beth just commented about how that is a view, but the fact of the matter is -- i thought it would be good to mention three-mile island, japanese, the recent struggle that has been devastating. i wanted to go back to 45 years ago, i've been saying this for the last 45 years. when this industry came on in ,rkansas and across the country the first wave of plants. timeline with the increase in the oil industry

takeover, so-called takeover by the saudi's of the oil supply. to reason that happened was double or triple the price of to make it competitive with the fuel oil powered plants with the nuclear power plants that were coming online. they had so many cost overruns to try to make them safe that they were competitive any longer . just as mary beth mentioned, the natural gas plants are pricing of airplanes out of the market. that is the way it has been all along. host: i want to give mary beth a chance to respond to that. think the cost is such a huge factor here. economics are a big driver when it comes to nuclear energy. one thing we have not talked about are other costs that come into play.

there are obviously huge detriments with nuclear power and nuclear waste. i think we are all looking for ways to deal with and i think te all looking for ways to kind of deal with that. there are other people that are , andng at nuclear power they are seeing a carbon-free nuclear power is less carbon-intensive than natural gas coal. that is just something that we are going to have to pay attention to in the future and continue having this discussion. it has been warily wonderful today hearing from people across the country, and i think this is a conversation that has to keep going. host: thank you for joining us today. mary beth griggs is an editor at popular science magazine. you can find her on twitter @

marybethgriggs. thanks again. coming up, we will be joined by mac hardy, the national association of school resource officers. school safetybout in the wake of the parkland, florida shooting. in the episode of "newsmakers," with tom perez, he talks about texas and illinois. here is a bit from the interview, which airs tomorrow at 10:00 and 6:00. next tuesday in texas, and a big firestorm over a decision by the congressional campaign committee to post oppositional resource. two things -- was it the right thing to do, and number two, does this signal some tension between the progressives in your party, who have a lot of energy, and other less visual elements of the party that may be concerned about the party moving too far left?

mr. perez: we have been able to win elections -- susan: the first question. mr. perez: i would not have done it. when we talk about the issues, what we do what we did in the campaign, they talked about the issues, and at theend of the day, we won race, and we come out of their very strong. i would have done it differently. spirited debate. dan lipinski voted against the affordable care act. a lot of women's groups mobilizing. you are neutral in that race. for someonelace like dan lipinski an in the democratic party? mr. perez: there are many

democrats who play a very important role in the democratic party who have a very different role on that. i wanted to be elected, and we want that to happen. at the same time, we're talking about some of our plot is very it is notid that simply a matter of roe v. wade. it is also a matter of women's economic empowerment. so i very much believe in the that platform. but on the same token, i want to make sure that joe manchin gets reelected. >> "washington journal" continues. from joining us now birmingham, alabama is mac hardy, the director of operations at the national association of school resource officers. he is here to discuss the role andchool resource officers

best practice for active shooter month in the wake of last deadly shooting in parkland, florida. mac, thank you for joining us today. guest: thank you for having me on the show. host: please tell me about your organization and how it is funded. we are a not-for-profit organization third we in hoover, alabama, and we train school ,esource officers administrators all across the country and in several different .ountries around the world triad basis.a tryou lawol resource officers are enforcement officers, counselors, and get teachers involved in the classroom. host: for our viewers' knowledge, you are also a police officer, and you serve as a

school resource officer. us a little bit -- how many school resource officers are there around the country, and what, primarily, is their responsibility>? ? nott: firs there is formal way to tell how many school resource officers is there are around the country. there is no way to report how many they employ, but the primary role is to bridge the gap from law enforcement and the students inside that school, to create a sense of -- that there is a human inside of that uniform, breaking down the barriers of uniform between those students, build relationships with faculty and students so that there is an open line of communication between these parties. host: what is the difference between a school resource officer and a security guard,

who you might find that schools? guest: a school resource officer, there are three very to being aor us school resource officer. first, they are properly selected. officernot every police wants to be a school resource officer or is equipped personally to be a school resource officer. they received specialized training to work in a school environment, and they are also a sworn police officer. host: are they armed in the schools? guest: the school resource officer by the definition that i just relate to your should be armed inside of the school, yes, ma'am. host: ok. we talking about school resource officers and their roles in school, particularly in light of the recent school shooting in florida. we have special for this discussion with mac hardy. you are a parent or a student,

you can call (202) 748-8000. if you are an educator, you can call (202) 748-8001. enforcementf law can call (202) 748-8002. all others can call (202) 748-8003. for the purpose of this discussion. has your organization taken a position -- there has been a great discussion of teachers being armed in the school. has your organization taken a position on that? guest: we did take a position on that. we said that we believe that educators should be in schools to educate and not have to have the response ability and liability of carrying a weapon in the school. we believe that sworn, properly selected, especially trained police officers, sro's, should

be inside the school, and sometimes more than one sro per school. host: reading for you from website here, arming teachers, proposal, as you said, the organization is against that but you also said that for nasros we laid out, the continues to recommend against teachers carrying firearms, but you realize some states wants teachers to carry firearms in school, and some teachers already do. so you laid out some guidelines about what teachers who choose what schoolearms or districts, that you allow that should be. what are some of the things that you recommend, guidelines you recommend for schools who do have armed teachers? guest: we do recognize that there are some states that already have this in place.

when we do, we think that there uite extensive psychological testing, make sure that they are equipped if they are carrying a firearm on school grounds, that they are psychologically evaluated to make sure that they are capable of the responsibility to carry a firearm, especially in a crowded school setting. think that considerations that need to be taken from a very strong considerations on how firearms should be stored. if it is concealed, then it needs to be -- that is a thought officer's police pollster is a retention holster, and they are trained to keep that weapon in their holster on them and not have it taken away from them. that is a very strong consideration.

veryso believe it is very, important to train. shooting a firearm is a diminishing skill. you can become efficient and then neglect your training, and your firearm efficiency goes down. remember that with your law enforcement, your teachers, or your criminals, that whatever is on the end of that gone, the projectile that comes out of the gun, host: we are responsible for it. we're talking -- we are responsible for it. host: we're talking with mac hardy of the national association of school resource officers. kelly is a parent from bluefield, west virginia. good morning. >caller: good morning. athink we are looking prevention here, but more importantly, we need to look at the cause. we did not have this problem 20 years ago. but now we have video guns that show nothing but violence and

killing, that it is ok. i think that we need to look at the cause to stop a lot of that, and you would not have as much of an emphasis on prevention. thank you. host: go ahead, mac. causes are --he you know, we have got to look into that, and we have got to figure out why these situations occur, but as a school resource officer, we also need to be proactive with our dealings with students and schools. that is why we stress in our training that we understand the human brain, we understand how students think, the process is that they go through is different than an adult brain, the development of stages of the brain. we also want resource officers in our school to work very closely with their administrators, with their school counselors, school psychologists and social workers

and with a team report approach, this collabe approach to working in schools is proactive. it is not just the school community, because we know the school cannot do it alone, law enforcement cannot do it alone, but we've got to the community into the discussion. we have to have an open line communication, community members empowered to communicate with their school resource officers, their school administrators, and school feel proactive in stopping a shooting from occurring, and maybe help the students that are in distress. host: mark is calling from boston, massachusetts. you are on with mac hardy. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to point out a couple of points. that it makeshink sense to have a student resource

officer, kind of like the air marshal on airplanes, you do not know who is on the airplane. it might be the air marshal, but someone is there, effective deterrence. there are plenty of teachers that would be willing to do this. so i think that makes a lot of sense. the teachers are closest to the students come up so, for example, the deputy that did not , at parkland,hool he did not go in, but i think the relationship with students is so close, they would feel like their own children, be willing to come of the teachers that did die eventually with no firearm, so certainly they would be able to effectively keep off a shooter, even with a powerful weapon. i do think it makes a lot of sense from a strategic point of view. we have court houses, airports, registries, sports stations all covered with firearms, security.

why did we make vulnerable our children? and does not make sense the other point want to put out there is that the thing that all these shootings have in common is all men all on psychotropic drugs. host: pro want to respond. go ahead. -- i want to give mac a chance to respond. go ahead. guest: we have listened to these concerns. before i became a law enforcement officer in 1995, i graduated with an education degree and spent seven years as school.r in the i understand the love of the teachers that they have to their students. us to live in the community that ataught in, and i still feel bond with the students that i taught you i see a lot of them on a weekly basis. i understand that, and i want to

lay down my life if i were in that position as a teacher. but i also understand tha went into the schools to educate. with that, we understand, we have heard teachers come and we have listened to the teachers, how difficult of a job it is to educate the children. as a law enforcement officer working in a school, i had that same love for the students in my school that i worked with. those students became mine, and i became a part of that faculty. and i also knew the responsibility everyday when i put on my uniform, but the day that i retired a few years ago, it was a relief that i did not into thatar that gun school because i also understand the liability to put a firearm on and where it into the school with the possibility of having to stop a shooter, which could have been a 15-year-old kid that i have dealt with on a daily basis of until that point. that experience and that liability is great, and there is much to think about than just

putting a firearm on your hip. host: mac, i want you to talk a little bit more about that stress and liability, a, knowing that in some of these situations, the person you are confronting could be a student taught and cared about, bu also the idea of having school resource officers in schools who are armed, that accidents can happen or a student can get a hold of. talk about those things. dost: first of all, you build strong bonds, not only as a student but as a community, you understand -- you not only talk to the student, we may have talked to his brother or his sister over the years. sometimes these teachers have even taught the student's parents. there is a community bond that ties these groups together, and that is very special in the

community, and we have to build upon that and be proactive. we have to open the lines of communication. when we hear things, we report it and so forth. the responsibility of carrying a firearm on school is great. we understand that responsibility. that is why law enforcement -- there is always updates on the holsters that police officers carry and the training that police officers -- it is mandatory that they receive this training on firearm or tension. training very physical that we go through. we have other officers who are continually trying to take the firearm away from you in different scenarios, and you have to physically restrain him from taking it for that is a responsibility that is upon that police officer, and that training is very serious. policeandatory for officers to receive it. host: all right. mike is a parent from new mexico. you are on with mac hardy. caller: hi, c-span. thank you.

hi, kimberly. thanks. thanks, mac, for doing this. i have been a united states concealed carry member for four years. i have not a proponent of arming teachers at all, because i think teachers just need to do their job like the senators and congressmen need to do their job without fear of reprisal. i have a question, and i am has investigated is really school security some, because i watched it on abc news -- bbc news. they seem to have their act together. semiautomatic for weapons they are is 27 years old. i am curious if you have investigated israelis. the other thing i am curious about that nobody ever brings up is bulletproof or ballistic backpacks or bulletproof or ballistic curtains, if you have ever investigated anything like that.

i would really like to hear your response. thank you. guest: well, on the israeli schools, i have not investigated, and thank you for mentioning it. we will certainly look into it. as an organization. but one thing that i have found in working in the schools for over 20 years and as a police officer is that we want to maintain that educational environment. we are not there to insert ourselves in or to dominate the situation. we understand as law-enforcement we step into an educator's world, and we work with those educators because we are in that same process of the education, but we are there to help them maintain a safe learning environment. sometimes we take steps, and we understand that. we do not want to make our schools into prisons, but we want to make them as safe and as inclusive as possible, and make sure that the people inside the schools are the people that are

supposed to be there, and the people that are not supposed to be inside of our schools, we keep them out. with doing that, we try to do that in a way that is manageable , and that is very important because there are all kinds of situations that all caps of ideas that has to be mandatory for the staff that is available for that. funding is very important in doing some of these things, and luckily, we have been seeing around the country a lot of people are taking note. we cannot let them put it on the back burner in a couple of weeks. we have to stay on top of it to continue to get that federal, state, and local funding to support the processes in the schools. host: i am sorry, go ahead. guest: no, please go ahead. host: dave is an educator from california. go ahead. caller: actually, i am not an do -- there is an aspect of this issue of gun violence that never gets

discussed and never gets reported. i guess maybe we always look for a quick, simple solution to difficult problems, especially social problems. has the, chicago strictest gun-control laws in the country -- or among the strictest -- and yet the level of gun violence in the. the country. and yet the gun violence in chicago is among the highest in the country. a number of these young men grew up without fathers in their lives, like the young man who committed the atrocity in florida. you know, historically, fathers played an important role and helps to socialize and civilized boys, teaching them the responsibilities of manhood, and yet fathers have virtually disappeared from the lives of children in many areas of our country.

listen daniel patrick moynihan used the phrase "defining behavior that" used to be unacceptable has become acceptable. that used to be unacceptable for you to have children out of wedlock. now it is commonplace. host: i want to give mac enough time to respond to that issue of the family. go ahead, mac. guest: i know that family issues are very important, but that is one world as a resource officer that i understood. i listened to kids talk to me over the years, and sometimes their stories were heartbreaking. them, i felt with them, i cried with them, and i understood what they were going through. and sometimes you can understand the pain and the anger that they and we empathize with

those students, and as a resource officer, we build those bonds. we do give them an outlet, we do give them a person to go through in times of stress when they are abused or they feel like they have been mistreated, and so to end answer that, we understand t are family issues, we can help what we can help, but we can be there to assist with these students in the meantime. i did not answer that man's question earlier fully. i wanted to mention about safeguarding our schools, students with ballistic backpacks, with the curtains and so forth. you know, whatever your community thinks that might keep children safe, that is -- all possibilities need to be looked at. of course a lot of times these things come down to funding, so to that question earlier, i did not avoid that, but i wanted to let you know that yes, you look at all options, and you a them, and you see what is best for your community. host: that come earlier this

week there was a teacher in georgia who barricaded his classroom and fired a shot your are school resource officers trained to deal with situations like that? guest: of course we are. we are law-enforcement officers, and everyday as a law-enforcement officer, you never know what you are stepping into third when you step out of your car, the surprise is something that you have to react to quickly come on your feet. you have to understand the situation. situation, that was very .cary you had a teacher in distress, and hopefully the person is iseiving the help that needed for the troubles that he is going through, but, you know, as a resource officer, we want to be part of the community that goes up and encounters this

person, because we are equipped, we are in trained to encounter armed suspects and armed people in distress. host: callers we have some -- host: we have some callers. eva is calling for california. you are an educator. good morning. caller: yes, i am a retired teacher. i taught for 34 years, and i worked directly with peace studies. concerns that -- at the level we are talking now, like the tragedy that has occurred, and how we deal with gun control and that kind of end product of the lack of curriculum development where you have teachers trained to deescalate conflict and then

students also trained to work anh their peers to come to understanding of the problems -- mediate between opposing those students who are in conflict with each other. until we deal with that, i think that is something that teachers deal with. host: mac, can you talk a little bit about that? conflict de-escalation. guest: yes, i can, and i came from a system that used a peer mediation program. the resource officers were very aware of it. we were a part of the discussions during the day with our peer mediation advisors and our peer mediation students. they did a good job when they are well trained, and there is a program that trains these students very well to listen to the concerns of other students that are in conflict with each other, and using that strategy that they have been trained on

to help really those conflicts. police officers are not in school to handle school discipline. we are not the enforcers. we are there to support educators, programs such as peer mediation. as we researched these things in order to be proactive instead of reactive on educating our kids in schools and to protecting our students, we need to look at the available, that have some substance to it, and that have been tested, and if that works in your community, in your schools and the community and law enforcement all in a collaborative effort feel good with that, go into it, do the research, and do it well. host: megan is a student in salem, massachusetts. just a few minutes left. what is on your mind? caller: i would say no more book backs, first of all. check your book at the door -- or keep your --

host: are you there? did we lose you? talk about that. talk about things students can do to create a safer environment. guest: i was really excited to have a student call in, because it is important that we listen to our students. they are the ones walking into the school doors everyday. life said earlier to them, we do not want to make their environment seem like a prison. only are we there, in my pants on and education to receive the curriculum that is very vital for the students to take with them later in life, but it is also the social skills that they learn by dealing with problems and dealing with other students their age and learning how to handle these things. that is where it is very important that we all, you know, keep that environment where the students can learn is very valuable social skills. if we locked down schools and we do not allow them time just to be teenagers, that i do not know

if that is the correct answer. we have to find a happy medium where everybody is working together and we are proactive in keeping our school safe. host: all right, mac hardy with the national association of school resource officers, you can find the organization at nasro.org and on twitter. thank you so much for joining us today. guest: thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] host: on tomorrow's "washington journal< we will be joined by vanderbilt university's jonathan metzl. mona charen will discuss the trump presidency, and earl anthony wayne will begin to discuss the state of u.s.-mexico relations amid disputes over immigration and trade. that is all for today's "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m.

in the meantime, have a great saturday. ♪ >> next, look at plans for a new fbi headquarters, followed by u.s. surgeon general and acting consumer financial protection director mick mulvaney speaking to the national association of attorneys general. later, former chair janet yellen talks about her career and the state of the economy with another former fed chair ben bernanke. this weekend on "looktv," today at 2:30 eastern, -- book tv, programs featuring guns and the second amendments with brennan center for justice, talking about the history surrounding the second amendment. and then the mother of one of the columbine shooters discusses her book.

and david keene, former president of the national rifle association with his book. then, tonight at 10: eastern on "afterwards," joanne lipman discusses her book. tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern, jorge ramos examines what it needs to be latino immigrant in america with his book. eastern,nday at noon "in-depth fiction edition" is live with jeff shara. c-span2 aktv" on weekend. fbi andials from the general services administration were on capitol hill this week to discuss plans for a new fbi headquarters.