>> brown: tonight, politics and the economy. the republican candidates adjust their message in the face of improving jobless numbers. nancy cordes has the latest on their run for the white house. who's working again and who's not? correspondents axelrod and petersen with two snapshotes from the the nation's changing labor force. a japanese doctor with american help confronts massive challenges. bill whitaker visits this hospital one year after the tsunami. and rolling rock. ben tracy has been tracking the travels of llz's latest arts sensation. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news."

>> brown: good evening. i'm terrell brown. in the latest round of campaign 2012, rick santorum won today's caucuses in kansas, where 40 delegates were at stake, mitt romney still energize wide lead on delegates over all. ball amia and mississippi hold primaries tuesday. the economy remains voters' number one issue. nancy cordes is in robertsdale, alabama, tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, terrell. the republican candidates have been hammering the president on the economy from the beginning, but recent and encouraging jobs figures have forced them to recalbright their message and their central rationale for change. until recently, the phrase "where are the jobs?" was a constant refrain on the campaign trail. >> our current president doesn't include how you create jobs and most of his policies are destructive at creating jobs. >> this president is not interested, in my opinion, in providing jobs. >> reporter: even before yesterday's positive jobs

reports, 227,000 jobs created in february, the unemployment level had been creeping downward from a high of 10.2% to the current 8.3%. the shift has promptedly the republican candidates to turn their focus to other economic worries, like the debt, over-regulation and rising gas prices. >> look, since this president has been president the cost of gasoline has doubled. not exactly what he hoped for. >> he has a two-letter energy policy n-o. >> they must walk a fine line country teaguing his record on jobriation without appearing to root for a weak recovery. this is gingrich today. >> the only reason unemployment is dropping is people are leaving the workforce. if you count those who are underemployed and those who dropped out gallup reports real number is 19%. >> reporter: gingrich also argued the president wants gas prices to go up so americans will turn to greener

technologies. all the candidates are calling for more oil exploration, a message that plays well here in the gulf. >> the use of drilling rigs in the gulf is the lowest of any place in the world, lowest utilization. that's because of this president and the moratorium he put in place that's illegal. >> reporter: this veegz recovering from a trio of setbacks -- hurricane katrina, the gulf oil spill, and the economic recession, so voters here told us jobs are still their number one concern despite the recent uptick in hiring. terrell. >> brown: among the americans going back to work in growing numbers are senior citizens. as jim axelrod tells us, their return to the workforce isn't necessarily a sign of economic health. >> reporter: when ericka weidner gets her hands on movie tickets, she's not thinking about a senior's discount. she's just worried she's ripping them right. >> theater 3 is on your left, of course. >> reporter: how old are you?

>> 87 going on 88. >> reporter:and you're still working? >> why not. >> reporter: weidner got a part-time job taking tickets for $7.25 an hour for three and a half hours a week in maplewood, new jersey. adding $100 a month to the social security check she lives on. and does that make a difference? >> it does because it helps me put gasoline in my car. i can put a little more in my car now than i did before. >> reporter: one in four seniors surveyed by the american association of retired people used up all their savings during the recession. the number of workers over age 55 is up 14% in four years. jean setzfand is with the a.a.r.p. >> the definition is very individualistic these days. so retirement in the past means not working any longer. for many people, it is probably still working in some form or fashion. >> car wash in jersey city. >> reporter: at 78, wayne

polay is back to work. he's a salesman for an outfit that brokers sales of small business in new jersey. were you as well set as you wanted to be as you hit your 60s? >> no, i was not. >> reporter: why not? >> well, for lot of reasons. first of all, a divorce. second of all, i lost some money in the market. >> reporter: then five years ago, he had a stroke. he was out of work for two years, and after relearning how to speak, he came back to work last august. because you had to dig into your savings. >> yes. >> reporter: it gave you the push. >> it gave you pause and you said, whoa. when will i be able to work again? >> reporter: a question more seniorseniors are having to askn if they don't like the answer. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: jim axelrod, cbs news, union, new jersey. >> brown: overseas, now, u.n. arab league envoy kofi annan met with bashar al-assad today in the latest mission attempting to

emed the crackdown on syria's citizens who uprising began nearly a year ago. the meeting did not go well. clarissa ward in neighboring lebanon explains. >> reporter: in a two-hour meeting president assad effectively ruled out immediate negotiations with the opposition, telling annan that no political dialogue could tyke place while, "armed terrorist groups were operating in the country." annan had come to damascus to negotiate an immediate cease-fire. yet, even as he sat with the syrian president, the military was ratcheting up a crackdown on the city of iblib, a bastion of anti-regime resistance since the uprising began nearly a year ago. rockets, mortars, and shells rained down, killing at least 16 people, activists said. we visited the city last month. rebels told us they believed after the crackdown on homs, the regime would come for iblib ne

next. in spite of intense international pressure and economic sanctions, assad does not appear to be losing his grip on power. he continues to enjoy strong support among pockets of syria's release. sirpia expert andrew tabler says assad's forces are well positioned to keep on fightingly. >> they're certainly very well armed. they have recently been resupplied by the russians. they have tens of thousands of men who could be deploy to crack down to the opposition. >> reporter: a daunting opponent for syria's ill-equip rebels. rebel forces on the ground in idlib told us they were able to fight off syrian regime forces and prevent them from entering the center of the city today, but with only light weapons and limited ammunition, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to defend that area much longer.

clarissa ward, cbs news, beirut. >> brown: video out today shows renewed calls for reform in bahrain. last february, a wave of demonstrationing erupted across the american allied kingdom, only to be quickly crushed. yesterday an estimated 100,000 bahrainis returned to the street, demanding democratic reform. it was the largest protest against the government in months. russians rallied against vladimir putin again today but in smaller numbers than before last sunday's election. about 10,000 people showed up in moscow. they charged the election that returned putin to the perez daens for an unprecedented third term was flawed. yesterday, five days after the election, president obama called him to congratulate him. still to come on tonight's cbs evening news, the invisible jobless. their plight brought to light. schr

>> brown: apple is expanding its texas foot print. the company announced it's investing $304 million in a new campus in austin. the plan is to hire more than 3600 new employees for sales, customer service, and accounting, more than double apple's workforce in the state. as encouraging as the latest job numbers were in some respects, they still put the average length of unemployment at 40 weeks, barely shorter than the month before. then there are the so-called hidden jobless. barry petersen has some of their stories. >> reporter: barbara bobea is one of the hidden unemployed. people out of work so long, they have given up looking for a job and thus don't get counted in the unemployment rate. she lost her h.r. job two years ago, now lives in a homeless shelter and can't even afford a cell phone, which means

prospective employers have no way to call her. >> if they say i'm not work, hard enough to get a job, i would tell them that they should try one day of homelessness. >> reporter: 19-year-old jason julien has job hunted for two years. >> i'm actually pretty depressed about the whole situation. i'm pretty sad about it. i still can't get a job, and i'm just in a pretty bad position right now. >> they are disproportionately young. they are disproportionately less educated. and they are disproportionately low income. >> reporter: professor andrew sum at boston's northeastern university put it together by the numbers. starting with the unemployment number, 12.8 million. then he added the hidden unemployed, 6.4 million. then under-employed, like part-timers who want full-time work, 8.1 million. and one number more, people in low-level jobs despite having

better training. he calls those 11.7 million the mal-employed. it's 39 million americans, and the effect will last well past this recession. >> young people are losing work experience. they're losing training opportunities that will come to haunt them for the next 10, 20 years of their lives. >> reporter: jason julien keeps trying, attending a training program to finish his high school degree and the program provides breakfast and lunch which is how this young man with no income eats. barbara bobea spends mump of her day at the shelter, doing chores and worrying about where she will sleep. >> my need needs are to have the opportunity of getting a bed, a bed every day, and not having to go out for the night. >> reporter: their only real hope now is that as the economy improves, so will their lives. barry petersen, cbs news, new

york. >> brown: we'll be back.

>> brown: the united states and afghanistan have reached a deal to accelerate the transfer of american-run prisons in the country to afbegan control. the largest and most controversial of these is the prison at the bagram airbase, some 3,000 detainees are held there. more from mandy clark in kabul. >> reporter: bloody countrywide protests ripped afghanistan after american soldiers at bagram mistakenly burned copies of the muslim holy book last month. six u.s. soldiers died in retaliation. afghan president hamid karzai said the incident never would have happened if afghans had been in charge of the prison so

a new agreement signed yesterday by the expuz afghanistan will give the afghan government control of bagram prison in 18 months. >> it is yet another example of the progress of transition, and our efforts to ensure that afghanistan can never again be a safe haven for international terrorists. >> reporter: bagram is where the u.s. military is holding more than 3,000 detainees. their number has doubled in the past year, and is five times greater than when president obama took office. the tedeignees are afghan citizens. though their cases may be reviewed every six month, dedetainees don't get a lawyer or see the evidence against them and can be held against them. this lawyer has met many detainees and worries the

prisoners will be treated worse under afghan control. >> they have a history of using control to elicit confessions and that was found in the past year by the unites nations. it's not clear from the agreement how the united states is going to make sure that's not happening. >> reporter: u.s. soldiers will mentor and train the afghan prison yards for at least another year and the americans will continue to have access to the prison under 2014, when u.s. troops expected to leave afghanistan. >> brown: ahead, a small japanese hospital, still overwhelmed by the tsunami.

>> brown: tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the powerful earthquake and tsunami in japan. it killed nearly 16,000 people

and triggered the nuclear disaster in fukushima. and one small town to the northeast, the medical crise is far from over. bill whitaker is there. >> reporter: japan has so much rebuilding to do, the big picture so daunting, it's easy to overlook a little place like motoyoshi hospital. how do you run a hospital like this? >> well, this is a very good question. >> reporter: dr. kentart hayashi runs this rural hospital with a rotating staff of one or two volunteer doctors, seeing 80 or more patients a day in a facility that almost was washed away in the tsunami. you can still see the waves washed through here at about this level. a year later, this hospital still has no central heat. the electricity is jerry rigs. and look here, these are the hospital records covered in mud. they have no staff and no time to file them away. the original staff of two

doctors were overwhelmed by the tsunami. they couldn't handle the stress of the patient lode and left. kozue shimabukuro is a pediatrician at ucla. >> i remember feeling so hopeless. now we are here, and what am i supposed to do? >> reporter: hayashi feels the same now that the foreign volunteers have gone how is it possible in japan, wealthy japan that you can have a situation like this. >> well, it's also not only in japan i think. >> reporter: like rural hospitals in the u.s., it's hard to get doctors to move here. throughout the disaster zone, there's just one doctor for every 700 people, so dr. hayashi recruits volunteers by way of the internet for a day or a week. he used to volunteer for doctors

without borders in burma and nigeria. how did this compare? >> i think that's why i can work in this condition. because of those experiences. >> reporter: for now, he runs the hospital on $350,000 donated by the japan society of the u.s. the japanese government promises to fix the ailing facility. and when is that supposed to happen? >> one more year. >> reporter: so you have to live like this for another year. >> i hope not. >> reporter: with the japanese government focused on bigger issues, little places like motoyoshi are falling through the cracks. bill whitaker, cbs news, japan. >> brown: jay mcmullin was one of a kind. mcmullen spent 35 years at cbs news and was one of the first reporter to go undercover. here he is in 1961 on the job in the award-winning cbs reports

documentary, "biography of a bookie joint." the point, which he narrated with wawment err concriet exposed corruption in the boston police department. he spent eight months under cover in mexico. today we learned the investigative reporter, writer, and producer died in greenwich, connecticut. he was 90.

>> brown: it's been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. that's especially true in los angeles tonight where in fact the boulder has become a rock star. here's ben tracy. >> stay on the curb, please. >> reporter: at 4:25 a.m., under the cover of darkness, this rock finally rolled into place. >> we've been up all night. we've been following the rock. >> reporter: 500 people were on hand to greet the 340-ton shrink-racked bolder at the los angeles county museum of art.

yes, this is art. >> the rock is held lightly by these walls. it's levitated mass. that's the name of the sculpture, levitated mass. >> reporter: and the masses in los angeles are all light headed about it. >> it's like billions of pounds. >> reporter: as the stone rolled towards l.a. it gathered plenty of fans. 20,000 people ciem out to see it on long beach yesterday. the rock left a quarry east of los angeles 11 days ago. it traveled 105 miles through 22 cities in a round-about way to avoid low overpasses. >> i thought it was going to be a little smaller but it's, like, huge. and this truck is big, too. it's a lot of wheels. >> reporter: 176 wheels, to be exact. the specially built transport truck is as wide as three freeway lanes halled this piece of stone said to be the largest boulder moved since the egyptians built the pyramids. it crawled at five miles per hour. the rock had its own twitter speed and left no pun unturned

thanking its marble-ous fans and you can't take anything for granite. except the inevitable backlash. cash-strapped california is somewhere between this and a hard place, so spending $10 million moving a rock may seem as dumb as, well, a rock. but it was paid for by donors and has certainly mai paid off n publicity for the hume. >> huge is the right word. this isn't artwork. toots a sculpture. >> reporter: it will take another two weeks just to levitate this mass into its place in the art world. ben tracy, cbs news, los angeles. >> brown: timely this evening, a reminder that dayed light saving time resumes at 2:00 a.m. in most parts of the country. clocks should be turned ahead one hour. and that will do it for the cbs evening news. i'm terrell brown, cbs news new york. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs

captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org area police chief, to set the record strai . he demanded changes, saying the news story wasn't right. the unusual length a bay area police chief went to set the record straight. highly regarded by some, simply hated by others. the rare bay area visit by an extremist leader. too many things to do, too little time. why someone wants to make your dirty work her business. cbs eyewitness news is next. ,,