captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. fewer americans applied for unemployment benefits last week raising hopes for a healthier job market next year. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the "newshour" tonight, we recap the latest numbers and take an end of the year look at the stock market, mostly up despite a lackluster economy. >> brown: then, from sudan: jeffrey kaye reports on the changes ahead after next month's vote on independence. >> i have never seen a country which will be starting out with as little infrastructure as southern sudan should the referendum result in a vote for separation. >> suarez: we have two takes on charitable giving-- a look at the use of social media for

fundraising and the story of a company that puts its profits into philanthropy. >> brown: judy woodruff talks with veteran congressman james oberstar of minnesota, one of the leading democrats swept out of office in last month's election. >> suarez: we examine an arizona law that restricts what can be taught in ethnic studies classes. ♪ >> brown: and we remember the life and music of jazz ambassador billy taylor. >> brown: that's all ahead. on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> okay, listen. somebody has got to get serious. >> i think... >> we need renewable energy. >> ...renewable energy is vital to our planet. >> you hear about alternatives, right? wind, solar, algae. >> i think it's going to work an a big scale. only, i think it's going to be affordable. >> so, where are they? >> it has to work in the real world. at chevron, we're investing millions in solar and biofuel technology to make it work. >> we've got to get on this now. >> right now. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and...

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: there were hints of hope today for americans hunting for jobs or trying to keep the ones they have. government figures showed first- time claims for unemployment benefits hit the lowest level this week in two and a half years. that word came as the stock market neared the end of a year of strong gains. the dow jones industrial average lost 15 points today to close at 11,569. but it's up 14% for the year. the nasdaq fell nearly four points to close under 2,663 today. but for the year, it's up 16%. for a look at what's behind the market's recovery this year, even as the rest of the economy is coming back much more slowly,

we turn to roben farzad, senior writer at bloomberg "businessweek" magazine. rob en, welcome back. as the year end, set the context for us here, how far back have markets come? >> it's unbelievable. if you had slipped into a coma right before lehman brothers collapsed and just woke up right now, god willing, sued think that nothing changed. the markets are back to where they were before the con table on, the blowup -- the cat aclis imof 2008 and markets have had a riff roaring two years. if they keep this up it will be the best run since 1932. >> brown: what's the prevailing view of why this happen has happened? >> it's two-fold. companies have cut to the bone. and into the marrow and then some. so any kind of increment al

revenue they get goes down to the bottom line and employees are being asked to do a lot more with less, so product it is high. two, we saw a lot of our wares abroad, you look at a cater pillar, ibm, coke ka cole will, these are u.s. companies. but they get upward of half their revenue in terms of the sp 500 abroad. and country as broad, as we've heard about china over and over again, brazil, india, indonesia, they're doing quite well and we export a lot of stuff to them. so their profits of these multi-nationals are somewhat increasingly getting time of day from the market. >> brown: we often think between main street and wall street, if companies are working the ones they have to the bone, as i think you just said to increase their profits and stock prices go up. >> yeah, this has come full

circle, in this economic crisis in this recession never before i think in american history have you seen such a crash at the corners of main street and wall street. where everybody was taken down. banks failed, banks took on this real estate debt and main street was seeing foreclosures left and right. and everybody was going down. but also never before have we seen in kind of disconnect in terms of wall street and many firms had a record year last year, were paying out bonuses and main street seeing a 10% unemployment rate, you talked about the jobs numbers earlier. there is cold comfort had the jobless claims are stablizing, but we're nowhere near clating the jobs we need to get to get the unemployment rate cut in half. >> brown: who is driving these markets right now? >> well, institutions are investing on behalf of institutions and individuals. but to the extent that individuals have self determination they've pulled money out of the market, to the tune of $90 billion since march

of 2009. and they put that money into bond funds, which many people have argued have seen a bubble and into cash, kind of i want my money back, i don't care what i get on it after the horrors of the financial crisis and seeing banks fail and worrying if your bank was going to be seized friday afternoon by the fdic. you don't want to deal with the pyrotechnics of the stock make. it was a flash crash earlier this year that no one seems to understand what happened in may when the market shed 900 points in a few minutes, and i think the blame could be laid on the shoulders of these hedge fund that trad hundreds of thousands of shares every two seconds, and the individual investor by and large is saying i don't want to have my heart broken for the fourth time in 10 or 15 years, so i'm staying a way from it. >> brown: are we beginning to see changes there as people realize that their money isn't earning much anywhere else,

right? >> indeed. that's the sad thing. it heart ening to see people finally coming out from their bunkers and participating in the capital markets again. but it's also, when the little guy comes in institutions say that's when they get out, that's a sign that the mom and pop investor has a pen chant for selling at the lows and buying at the highs, just doing the opposite of what you're supposed to do and not being thick skinned enough to ride it out. a couple of mutual fund companies have done studies that if you just suck -- stuck the course and didn't cancel your 401 k contributions and were diversified you could be quite north of where we were fwf the financial crisis. but a lot of people didn't see it that way. this was such a historic meltdown, the entire system was about stairing down the abyss, but though one wanted to give the market the benefit of the doubt. and i think they realize they need to take control of their

retirement again and need to do something, because they're not getting any cash. >> brown: charles robb en farzed a, thank you. >> my pleasure, jeff. >> suarez: still to come on the "newshour": southern sudan's coming vote on independence; new models for charitable giving; departing democrat james oberstar; shutting down ethnic studies classes and remembering jazz legend billy taylor. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the snow plows kept going in new york city today, four days after last weekend's blizzard. officials said crews have plowed every street at least once, and they're trying to get down to the asphalt streets. some blocks were still impassable because of abandoned cars. mayor michael bloomberg today called the city's response to the storm inadequate and unacceptable. he's been heavily criticized, but he promised to get answers, after the cleanup. >> you can get angry or you can focus on number one keep our work force out there and trying to solve problem of today.

number one priority and to do it safely. number two, we can then go and have an investigation to learn so that we can do it better. >> sreenivasan: meanwhile, new storms in the west dumped heavy rain and snow on arizona, california, nevada and washington state. the ski area near lake tahoe, california had wind gusts of 100 miles an hour and 20 inches of fresh snow. and snow and ice forced several major highways to shut down. thousands of people in northern ireland were warned today the water may not get turned back on for several days yet. the main utility northern ireland water struggled for a ninth day to repair pipes that burst in last week's cold. we have a report from lewis vaughan jones of "independent television news." >> reporter: this is what counts as bath time in belfast. he's three, she's had a vomiting and diarrhea bout for days, all without running water in the house. >> insects, --

>> reporter: this is how so many families across northern ireland are now living. and the morning routine starts here. collecting water, and even washing at the local place. >> we have to get water to flush the toil it's and make sure you don't mix the drinking water with the dirty water. so it's been terrible. >> just come here to shower? >> yes, have you to come here to shower. >> reporter: so people here are still coming to places like this to collect their water. the only difference is this water is now from scotland. the donations from the government there. ministers here are now trying to work out what they should be doing. this evening the number of homes without water doubled. to nearly 60,000. and as the leaks continue some people won't have running water again until next week.

>> sreenivasan: in afghanistan, a roadside bomb blew up a minibus in the south, killing at least 14 people. meanwhile, the "new york times" reported u.s. officials have raised concerns that pakistan is holding thousands of taliban suspects and political separatists, without charges. the account said the state department is urging the pakistanis to address human rights abuses. the former russian oil tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky was sentenced to six more years in prison today on charges of stealing from his own company. a moscow judge read the verdict as khodorkovsky stood confined in a glass and steel cage. supporters said he was targeted for opposing vladimir putin, russia's current prime minister and former president. the u.s. condemned the outcome as an abusive use of the legal system. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to ray.] >> suarez: and we turn to the african nation of sudan. a referendum set for next month could split the already war-torn country in two. special correspondent jeffrey kaye has the first of two reports on the challenges and opportunities if the south declares independence.

>> reporter: the dusty city of juba in south sudan could be on the verge of becoming the capital of the world's newest country. with less than two weeks before the south votes on whether or not to secede from the north, there's a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation. if there is separation, do you think your life will change? >> yes, my life will change. >> reporter: how? >> because things are now very hard, lack of job opportunities. >> if independence comes, from day one, there'll be a lot of development. >> reporter: already, juba has the hallmarks of a boom town. laborers are putting up commercial and government buildings. store fronts are conducting a brisk trade in construction materials. there's traffic congestion, vibrant commerce and the hope by many for rapid change. >> ( translated ): i'll vote for separation because then we'll have water. >> we need to be free so we have

our own school to be free and to join any studies. >> we have been brutalized for >> reporter: on posters plastered around juba, an illustration of a hand waving goodbye has become an icon of independence. it's the symbol of separation that will appear on the ballot when the referendum begins on january 9th. opinion polls indicate that voters in south sudan, which is largely african, christian, and traditionalist will vote overwhelmingly to secede from the north, which is mostly arab and muslim. independence would split africa's largest country into two, after decades of civil war that ended with a 2005 peace agreement and semi-autonomy for the south. in juba, crudely-lettered signs south sudan remains a largely pre-industrial region whose people are among the poorest on the planet, a cruel irony, since the area has vast reserves of oil. its flow, however, is controlled by the north.

that's one reason the stakes are so high. right now, oil income is supposed to be equally divided, but southern officials such as believe the south isn't getting its fair share. but will the oil riches be shared? there are fears of renewed violence if the south secedes and the two sides don't reach agreement on the division of oil revenues. the united states, which has no official position on secession, has been pushing for a peaceful and fair referendum. the u.s. is stepping up its presence in south sudan.

>> we have to be able to house our people; we're building increased housing on our compound. >> reporter: r. barrie walkley is the u.s. consul general in juba. >> i have never seen a country which will be starting out with as little infrastructure as southern sudan will be, should the referendum result in a vote for separation. >> reporter: the u.s. has become the largest donor of humanitarian aid. >> we spend around $280 million per year in southern sudan on development and assistance projects and we spend another $100 million to $150 million a year on food aid. we are interested in not only in >> reporter: one u.s. program headed by ambassador robert loftis is the state departments six year old office of reconstruction and stabilization. >> we're heading up to rumbek which is the capital of lakes state. the idea is to meet with the governor and some of his

officials and talk about progress on the referendum. >> reporter: we accompanied loftis during part of a recent fact-finding trip from washington to south sudan. loftis flew with three staff members to the town of rumbek, a hundred and 90 miles northwest of juba. rumbek offers a bleak in rumbek, like the rest of south sudan, most people live in thatched huts without electricity. they have limited or no access to schools, health care or drinking water. paved roads are rare. in south sudan, the vast majority of adults, including police and government officials are illiterate. the first stop for ambassador loftis was the office of lakes state governor chol tong mayay. >> when we have our people here what will be the most useful thing for you to have our people work on? >> the area of water because the water issue makes people not to be stable and is one of the causes of conflict.

>> reporter: people often move with their cattle to obtain water, so its control and availability is a major source of tension and violence, particularly among rival ethnic groups. a year ago, at least 140 people were killed and thousands of animals stolen after raids on cattle herders. >> during the dry season, the governor tong says more water wells will reduce the conflict. >> the long term solution is that in the rural areas, we have to increase the number of bore holes, we have to see to it how they are going to be maintained. >> reporter: do you have the money to do that? >> we don't have money and that is why we are asking our development partners, our friends to help in that area. >> reporter: do you want money or equipment? >> what i need is the equipment, not money. >> reporter: what's the most urgent need? >> roads are very important, because in this country, we don't have road to even

transport to have things come to the country. >> reporter: south sudan parliament member dr. martin says the primitive state of roads often impassable during the rainy season hinders commerce and prevents access to schools, health care and food. to address the problem, the u.s. agency for international development is funding construction of south sudan's first paved highway. right now, there are no paved roads or railways linking population centers, no efficient way to move people or goods in a country the size of france. so, by building this highway, this 120-mile stretch of road will connect the city of juba so, by building this highway, the government is, in a very real sense, laying the foundation for a new economy. investors see opportunity. among them is china, the sudan

oil industry's largest investor and customer. china provides foreign assistance to south sudan and recently opened a consulate in juba right next to a chinese- owned hotel. a beijing-based developer is building another juba hotel, the eastern pearl. the time is right for chinese investors, says serena chen, an official with the firm. >> we want to invest here just because the south and the north will separate and i will know, there are plenty of chinese and as long as china is a responsible partner, that's what's important. >> reporter: the chinese are not the only ones to see business prospects in south sudan. close to the river nile, it's miller time. a subsidiary of s.a.b. miller beer has invested $50 million in a beer and bottling factory-- the largest foreign capital investment other than by oil companies and cell phone providers. the brewery employs nearly 300 sudanese to produce beer and bottle water and soft drinks.

>> the biggest raw material in there is water and that's from the nile river. >> reporter: what do you have to do to the water? >> all we really need to do with it is purify it. take out organic material and then sterilize it. the water quality in the nile is still very good. >> reporter: ian alsworth-elvey, a south african who manages the plant, says he's played host to a stream of potential foreign as a pioneer investor, sabmiller had the advantage of helping the south sudanese write business- friendly legislation such as tax breaks. >> i think we're going to see a decade of great economic growth here in southern sudan, as soon as the future is made clearer by the results of the referendum and we're going to see a lot of investment in southern sudan, >> reporter: these juba residents say independence will bring not only development, but freedom.

>> reporter: you agree? >> yeah. the government will change all your lives? >> yeah. >> reporter: if, as expected, the south does become a sovereign nation, many issues will be outstanding. clear borders will have to be established. questions remain about the status of southerners who fled north during the war. and there is deep concern about whether referendum results might provoke violence. but as the sun sets over what may be soon the old sudan, south sudanese hoping for independence see the dawn of promise and a new day.

>> brown: jeff's next report looks at building a healthcare system in southern sudan. >> suarez: as the year nears its end, americans are expected to have given roughly $300 billion in charitable donations. the largest source of that money-- individuals. last year, they donated more than $220 billion. now, social media is increasingly becoming a new tool for nonprofits and organizations to connect with potential donors. there was a 5% rise in 2009. facebook was most frequently used. for a closer look at the role of social media in philanthropy and its limitations, we turn to allison fine. she's co-author of the networked nonprofit. she also hosts "social good"-- a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy. alloyly son, when we look at this sector, how does special media help doane authors find causes and help causes find donors?

>> that's a great question, ray. thank you for having me on tonight. so social media democratizes the entire feed of geting and receiving donations. it enables donors to search for causes, to find out what people are saying about those causes, why people are giving it to it and to hear the stories of people that the causes are helping. and on the flip side social media is pulling insiders out, and allowing outsiders in. to organizations. so that they can create a more meaningful relationship between themselves and their cause. >> suarez: do we have good numbers yet? do we know if an overall charger chunk of all giving is being done through social media? >> so the percentage of giving online and through social media is rising very quickly, but still to have an overall perspective of it, ray, it's still less than 10% of all giving. >> suarez: does shall creates

another channel for people who are already givers to accomplish that? or are you increasing the size of the pool, bringing new people into that world of charity through social media? >> so, part of what's going on is that this is a huge opportunity to engage younger donors. we have a generation, the 15 to 30-year-olds, who are the largest living generation, regardless of what the boomers think. there are over 70 million millenials out there, and this is the way they hear about causes, that they learn about what's going on and that they are going to give in the future. so it is is a must-do for nonprofit organizations to learn how to build relationships with future donors online. as of yet, we're not quite sure of who exactly is giving online. but there's no question that this is the future of giving,

and it's a different kind of giving. this is not direct mail. online. people who are online who are giving want to develop relationships with causes, with organizations. and those relationships are earn currenting people to give more over time online than they do in traditional ways. >> suarez: i'm glad you mentioned direct mail, because one of the way we've been told to keep an eye on what charities do with our money is take a look at the figure they spend on outreach and administration. does the use of social media make it cheaper to identify new press respects for giving, and does actually getting the money from place to place cost less when you use online media? >> well, the one of the great up sides of social media is the issue of scale. that organizations used to have to spend an enormous amount of time and particularly money to reach large numbers of people either through direct mail or through forecast media.

but social media is relatively inexpensive, almost free in a lot of cases. and allows organizations to reach an exponentially larger number of people. now the question is what do you do when you reach those people. if you, if organizations continue to talk at them, tree them like atm machines, they'll just go away. but i read a post by a great blogger today, deborah gansy on the north american bear center which is doing a great job of engaging nearly 120,000 friends on facebook, to follow willie the bear and her cubs and at the same time turning those friends into funers, they've rised nearly $200,000 this year. so that's the kind of relationship that people are going to expect to have with their causes, their organizations, using social media, that we never could have in the direct mail era. >> suarez: is it easy to oversell all of this?

i think of for instance in the past year the example of haiti, where many people were shocked by what they saw in the aftermath of the earthquake, simply used their cell phones to make donations. but it was so easy, so frictionless, so effortless, that i'm wondering about the depth of commitment. can you go back to those people for anything else? or bring them into a deeper relationship? >> well, i think we need to separate out, you know, a huge episode, a natural disaster like haiti, like the tsunami before it, is a unique activity. the american red cross raised over $30 million through text giving, which they were fully prepared for an episode like that. that's very, very different than the ongoing relationship that you're going to have with say a local humane society, or a food bank or a shelter. those relationships are personal and will happen over time, and

it is incumbent on nonprofit organizations to invest in those relationships that will then turn those online friend into funders. >> suarez: allison fine, the host of "social good" thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure, ray, happy new year. >> suarez: happy new year. >> brown: now, another model for philanthropy: one pioneered by a well-known actor. our story comes from our colleagues at connecticut public television. it's narrated by wnpr reporter john dankosky. >> reporter: after decades on the silver screen in 1982, paul newman turned his energies to a very different kind of venture, and the result is now familiar on grocery store shelves across the nation. together with writer and close friend a.e. hotchner, he founded the retail food company, newman's own. the company continues to thrive even though newman died in 2008. that's because it was never

designed to be the runaway success it has become. at least that's how newman saw it in 2007 when he was interviewed about his charitable giving. >> the food business literally got started because one christmas i decided that christmas presents to the neighbors-- the bottle of wine and all that kind of stuff-- was just kind of passe. so i'd always made my own salad dressing, so i got wine bottles and filled it up with salad dressing and took it to the neighbors for christmas presents. and about the first of february, i got people knocking on my doors saying where's the second bottle? so a germ of starting a small little boutique business of salad dressing got planted. i don't think there was ever a business strategy except to say that we were going to try to provide stuff with the best possible ingredients that we could lay our hands on and you know, being in the motion picture business didn't hurt. it gave us a leg up on name recognition right from the very

beginning, and that was critical, i think. >> reporter: bob forrester is president and c.e.o. of newman's own foundation. >> the moment it made money, that's when he said this is, this is crazy, this is just pure luck, let's give it all away. >> reporter: and so, a new philanthropic model was born. newman's own, incorporated was a uniquely structured company, designed to donate all profits and royalties to charity. >> we know nothing else that we are a hybrid. we are a business like any other business. we operate in one of the most competitive markets there is the food industry and then where we're different and we look like a non-profit is unlike a commercial company where they're paying dividends and giving great big bonuses, we take our money and just give it away. >> reporter: to date, paul newman and the newman's own foundation have donated millions of dollars to thousands of charities worldwide. >> what paul had is he had an enormously fine-tuned sense of food.

and he was a great risk taker. but on the other side he was an enormously conservative person financially. so he didn't build a large empire. that's part of the success of newman's own. >> we aren't a huge foundation that gives away like the gates foundation or rockefeller, three or $400 million every year. but we can move very, very quickly. and when katrina hit, we were... we were there, i think, within three or four days with a sizable donation. >> reporter: from shining hope for communities, an organization that combats intergenerational cycles of poverty in kenya to the fidelco guide dog foundations' german sheppard guide dog program for veterans, newman's own foundation supports non-profits around the world and here at home. one high profile example of the philanthropy of newman's own is the hole in the wall gang camp, which paul newman founded in 1988 in ashford, connecticut.

>> paul newman had the idea of creating a place where children whose lives had been turned upside down with serious illness could find a safe place in which they could just be themselves and be children again. >> the most interesting thing, aside from just watching children that have had the bad luck of being hit with a... a life threatening disease, the reciprocity that occurs between the campers and the staff people. the children demand a lot but the reward that comes from the caregiver is, is equal to what, you give as much as you get, and that was something of an astonishment. what could be better than to hold your hand out to people who are less fortunate than you are? that's simply the way i look at it.

>> when it came to philanthropy, paul didn't think he was doing anything special. he just thought everybody should be doing it and that's why he was never very noisy about it. my promise to him was that if you can figure out how to walk back in the room 20 years after you're no longer here, you'll basically approve what's going on. you won't know the people, but you'll approve of how they're thinking and how they're doing things. >> reporter: and newman would likely approve of the latest milestone his organization hit. last month, they reached the $300 million dollar mark in charitable giving. >> suarez: next, the last in our series of interviews with democrats who were voted out of office this year. veteran lawmaker james oberstar of minnesota has served in congress for nearly four decades. just before the 111th congress

came to a close, the powerful chairman of the transportation committee sat down with our judy woodruff. >> woodruff: congressman james oberstar, thank you for sitting down to talk to us. >> it's a privilege to join you, thank you for inviting me. >> woodruff: so leaving the congress after 18 terms, what happened to you? >> there was a wave, no question about it. i've seen other waves. there was one in 1974. >> woodruff: that swept new. >> that was the year that i lost the party endorsement, but i ran in the primary and my theme was the people will decide. they did. in 1974. they decided again this year. and the outcomes were very different. but as thomas jefferson said, taking a group through the capitol after you had left the presidency, stopped at the door to the house chamber and said here, sir, the people rule. the people rule. >> woodruff: a lot of voters

said in this election that we are frustrated, we're even angry at washington, we don't think washington is listening to us. is that anger, that frustration justified? >> the nationwide, yes. and in this era of the black berry, we have instant communication, people expect instant results. i think that's a very large part of it. with the obama presidency and the commitment to the stimulus, people expected to see jobs turn around. i think the democrats overall overstated what they could deliver. we have unemployment down, that we'd have jobs created, the tax cut that was part of the stimulus, i have yet to find someone who realizes that he or she got a, the cut. and at least one person who said oh, but we have to give it back. so we didn't message it right. we didn't deliver aggressively to the people, the message of the jobs created. but there's no denying the

million 300,000 construction jobs, 35,000 lane mimes of highway built, and 12,000 trance i busses purchased and 1200 bridges repaired. but there wasn't enough of that all over the country. >> woodruff: having said that, people were saying we think you wasted government is wasting our money, government is spending more than we want it to spend. that money should be kept with the taxpayer. >> that message was delivered, it was a very effective message on the part of the republicans. but they're talking about the tarp. $750 billion in the troubled asset recovery program. nearly all of that money is being paid back. all but say 35 billion, and i think much of that will come back yet. with interest, for the taxpayer. but somehow, we were not effective in getting the message across to the public that the

tarp is being repaid, general motorss has repaid, they've come back into private ownership. the jobs, 55,000 jobs created in the automotive sector. but we somehow didn't message it right. >> woodruff: looking forward, you have voters saying and members of congress saying my mandate is to stop things from happening. how do you reconcile that with the kind of things you're talking about where government was active? is that the role of congress, basically, to listen to individual members, constituents? or is it to think about the greater, the needs of the country overall. how do you see it? >> those are two themes. the constitution protects the right, quote, of the citizens to petition their government for address of grievances, any time a person or group writes to me or any of my colleagues, they

are petitioning their government for redress of a grievance they have or a need they feel. but it was burke, edmund burke, a british political scientist, who wrote, there are two roles, the agent and representive. which of those do you follow? are you to represent or are you an agent strictly limited to only that message you hear from the people? the representative is the larger view you talked about. of looking at beyond your needs, needs of your district or the voice of the district. >> woodruff: how do you reconcile that? >> that's your challenge as a member of congress. >> woodruff: how optimistic are you that the government as it works now can seven the needs of this country and eats people going forward? >> i think there has to be a meeting of the minds. i think there has to be a recall of the era of the 60s, 70s and even before that when members of congress sat with each other,

understood each other and got to know each other as people to trust one another, to look squarely in the eye and say i understand what your views are, and we can find a common path. that view, that participatory democracy that sense of give and take with trust in one another has dissipated in the last decade. >> woodruff: how do you get it back? >> members have to spend more time here in washington getting to know one another. when i started -- >> woodruff: but many of them are saying they're not moving to washington. >> when i started on the hill in 1956, members of congress had one paid trip back to their districts per year. you had to fine other ways, they had to go home, but they had to find other ways of getting through. now it's a three-day session. per week. and members want to come here on tuesday night and vote, want to leave thursday night. that is not conducive to

committee hearings can't be held properly, you can't hear the voice of the people on the public issues to be debated. you need more time to work with one another. >> woodruff: can that happen? >> it can, but it's going to take a lot of moving, and coming to understand one another. >> woodruff: you served in congress for 36 years, 18 terms. what do you feel you, you're leaving behind here? >> oh, so much. so many, in the legislative arena and in the community service arena, to a casework of jim roses, a world war ii veteran who should have had but never did receive his silver star, appealed to me and the day i presented that silver star to him for his heroism and his tears rolling down his cheeks,

you that it you can never take that away. but the safe routes to school initiative i launched to attack childhood obesity, type 2 diabetes, you have safe routes to school in 10,000 school as cross america, will be able to change the habits of an entire generation of americans. the aging aircraft review that i initiated in 1990. all of those are accomplishments of which i am immensely proud and can never be taken away. >> woodruff: representative james oberstar, thank you very much. for talking with us. >> my pleasure. >> brown: when congress convenes next month, we'll talk with members of the new republican majority. >> suarez: next, arizona has been at the forefront of the immigration debate this year. one statute-- allowing police to detain people suspected of being illegal immigrants is tied up in federal court. another new state law takes effect tomorrow. it's aimed at shutting down

ethnic studies classes in tucson's public schools, but is binding on all public schools in the state. a version of this story aired on the pbs program, "religion and ethics newsweekly." the correspondent is lucky severson. >> what do we do? >> reporter: these high school students feel dumped on. they're protesting a new arizona law that would cut the tucson school drips's budget by $36 million a year, if the district doesn't top the way it's allegedly teaching its american mexican studies classes. tom horn wrote part of the law himself. >> it says that you can't have courses that are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnicity or that oh rouse resentment against other ethnicitys, that's the essence of it. >> reporter: the law also says classes cannot advocate ethnic solidarity or overthrow of the u.s. government.

he was just elected arizona attorney general after eight years as a school chief. each year he bam more determined to shut down the ethnic studies program. >> it was necessary because in the tuesday son strict they were dividing idz -- tucson district they were dividing kids up by race. african-americans, and native studies for the native kids. to me sound like the old south. >> reporter: his primary witness against tucson's mek can american studies program is john ward, who taught the class back in 2003. until he says he was pushed aside and eventually quit. ward is hispanic himself. >> i think clearly their purpose was to create the next generalers of ethnic radicals who can hit the pavement and they simply wanted to spread this message in a fertile classroom. >> they teach kids that they

live in occupanted mexico, that the united states is run by a white racist system, people that want to impress latinos. >> reporter: he's a principal of the tucson magnet high school. >> if he believes that we are putting kids in a position to mistrust their fellow student and the authority figures in their life, then there's not much i can say about that, other than to say, well, you may be describing a program, but you're not describing this one. >> reporter: he's an associate professor of the mexican american studies at the university of arizona, where the faculty senate unanimously approved a resolution calling the law disturbing. he says horn has never attended an ethnic studies class in eight years. >> if he came to the classroom he would see that the classrooms are diverse, the students spend quite a bit of time learning how to respect and respect ear other's cultural differences.

so there's not this idea that one culture is superior to the other. and that's what he's implaying -- implying. cultural superiority one gruff own the other, that's ridiculous. >> reporter: this is a mexican american studies class in the tucson drink. the class focuses on history and current affairs. the subject on this day was native american indian history. the teacher is maria broomer. >> i think it's important for everyone of our students to be strong citizens and knowing that they have a commitment to democracy, and part of that commitment is knowing exactly where our country is coming there, our history. some of it might be negative. and if it's our responsibility not to repeat any part of that negative history again. >> reporter: the superintendent says the classs are dividing kids by race, but not all the kids in this class were hispanic who make over 62% of the students.

>> if you're in a normal american history class you learn the white perspective. like and if you're in the ethnic studies class, you learn from the different races' perspective like from asians who learn about how they have started their own perspective on things. >> they're not the, by far, the best students at the school. but because of these courses, they tend to do better than their peers at their school. they end up doing better, they end up scoring better on standardized tests, they end up graduating at a high rate, end up going onto college. >> reporter: the superintendent disagrees with just how successful the program has been. but it does seem to have created some enthusiasm with the students. this is 16-year-old carmen. >> i love my class, i love that class. >> reporter: why do you love it? >> it's just like you get to

learn other people's culture, you get to learn where other people came from. >> reporter: john ward thinks the part of the new law that prohibits teaching the overthrow of the u.s. government is not overreaching. do you think they were actually teaching that in these classes? >> i do. when they teach that the entire governmental system is solely the product of the white power structure and that these students essentially have to resist that, the end result is that you essentially have to either totally overthrow or in some way totally remake the government. >> reporter:. >> that's treason and we wouldn't be teaching students to overthrow and be traitors of their country of we actually teach students to actually love the country, and love to be here and be able to participate. and contribute to this country. >> reporter: wheel the grown

runs fight it out in arizona, the kids who attend ethnic studies are learning how democracy works. >> the law allows the state to withhold 10%. >> suarez: the law allows the state to withold 10% of monthly education aid for schools that violate the new law. eleven educators in tucson's mexican-american studies department have filed suit against the superintendent and the state board of education. >> brown: finally tonight: we remember billy taylor-- jazz pianist, composer, educator and advocate who died tuesday in new york of heart failure. for millions of listeners and viewers, he was doctor billy taylor-- the pianist who also had a ph.d in music education and a passion for spreading his love of jazz. >> i feel strongly about the arts. and i feel very strongly about the country i live in. >> brown: taylor began his professional career in new york in 1943, eventually serving as house pianist at birdland, the

legendary jazz club and playing with many of the era's greats, including charlie parker, dizzy gillespie and miles davis. he started his own trio in 1951 and also began lecturing and writing on jazz-- the beginnings of decades of work in radio, television and schools, bringing jazz to a wider audience. >> welcome to jazz alive. >> brown: he was well-known in the public broadcasting world hosting several programs on n.p.r. from the 1970s until 2002. in the early '80s, taylor became a correspondent for cbs "sunday morning." he interviewed other artists and on occasion played music himself. taylor also reached out to young people in numerous ways. he took his jazz mobile into new york's poorer neigbhorhoods and

around the country. and worked with up and coming musicians in his role as artistic advisor to the kennedy center for the performing arts. ♪ taylor was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the national medal of the arts. he wrote more than 300 compositions including "i wish i knew how it would feel to be free," which became an anthem of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. shortly after 9/11, the billy taylor trio performed the piece as part of a kennedy center special titled "a concert for america". ♪ billy taylor was 89. ♪

>> suarez: again, the major developments of the day: there were hints of hope for americans hunting jobs as claims for unemployment benefits hit the lowest level since 2008. and officials in new york city said crews have finally managed to plow every street at least once four days after a blizzard paralyzed the city. and to hari sreenivasan, for what's on the "newshour," online. hari? >> sreenivasan: we talk with jeffrey kaye about sudan's ballot-- one that voters who can't read can still use. find out about new technologies helping new yorkers dig out from the blizzard and explore a crowd-powered map of the clean

up effort. plus our politics beat has listed ten great political moments of 2010; watch video of their picks and vote on which one you like best. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. ray? >> brown: and again to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the iraq and afghanistan conflicts. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are eight more.

>> suarez: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm ray suarez. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. a program note before we go-- especially for our viewers in los angeles and the surrounding area-- as you may know, pbs programs are moving to a different station in los angeles next week. starting monday, the "newshour" will have a new home on channel 50-- that's koce tv. same time: 6:00 pm pacific. and you can learn more about the changes at pbssocal.org. and we will see all of you on-line and again here tomorrow evening with e.j. diown and michael gerson among much more. thank you and good night.

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