captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: armed u.s. predator drones are now targeting moammar qaddafi's forces in libya. good evening, i'm jim lehrer. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, we have the latest on the war. and examine beefed-up efforts by the u.s. and by nato on behalf of the rebels. >> lehrer: then, we sort through the competing democratic and republican plans for medicare. >> woodruff: robert macneil reports his fourth autism story. tonight, treatment and schooling for children with the disorder. >> for children with autism, many of the lessons teach basic life skills to talk, to sit still, pay attention, learn how to shave, know the dangers of

traffic. >> lehrer: plus, we have two takes on the b.p. oil spill. hari sreenivasan talks to joel achenbach of the "washington post" about his new book chronicling the disaster. >> woodruff: and we close with a sampling of the year's images from the gulf coast taken by a.p. photographer, gerald herbert. >> there's whole sections of this island that are not even recognizable from what it was before. so, where there was mangrove, now it's dead. pelicans are now nesting on the bare earth. >> lehrer: 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 got to work on a big scale. and i think it's got 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 alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. 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.

>> lehrer: the u.s. today added a new weapon to the fighting in libya unmanned planes carrying missiles. that news came as rebels claimed they've seized a post on the tunisian border. but the libyan government claimed it holds more than 80% of misrata, after weeks of fighting there. the siege of misrata continued today with devastating effect and estimates of at least 600 dead so far. the forces of moammar qaddafi have libya's third-largest city surrounded on three sides firing mortars, rockets and tank shells night and day. in turn, the rebels stepped up their pleas this week that nato do more to defend the city. >> and that has to be done by any, any... any way or any how. either troops, or latest technology and latest weapons. >> lehrer: so far, the nato campaign has been limited to air

strikes, under a u.n. mandate to protect libyan civilians. today, u.s. defense secretary gates announced armed predator drones will now further aid that effort from the air. he said nato has bright lines it will not cross on the ground: >> they are very concerned about not going beyond the mandate of the united nations security council resolution, and most of the opposition had said they don't want foreign troops on the ground. >> lehrer: but now, the british, french and italians have announced they are sending in small numbers of military advisers to aid the highly- inexperienced rebel forces. in a radio interview this morning, british prime minister cameron insisted it is not a prelude to inserting ground forces. >> the u.n. security council does limit us. we're not allowed, rightly, to have an invading army, or an occupying army. that's not what we want; that's not what the libyans want; it's not what the world wants.

>> lehrer: in tripoli, a spokesman for the libyan government warned against any move to deploy outside forces on the ground. >> if nato comes to misrata or any libyan city we will unleash hell upon nato. >> lehrer: there will be no american advisory unit sent to libya. but yesterday, the u.s. did announce $25 million in non- lethal aid to the rebels, such as body armor, boots and uniforms. secretary gates said today it's still too soon to give them more sophisticated arms. >> i'm not too worried about our canteen technology falling into the wrong hands, but there's still a lot we don't know about the opposition. >> reporter: officially, at least, the nato objective does not include ousting qaddafi. at the same time, president obama, prime minister cameron and french president sarkozy have all said qaddafi's removal is the ultimate objective. but more than a month into the

campaign in libya, the colonel remains in power. after leading the initial air strikes, the u.s. handed off responsibility at the end of march, although american planes still fly 25% of sorties. in all, just six of the 28 nato nations are taking part in bombing missions, others are protecting the no-fly zone and nato's largest european nation germany is not participating at all. those divisions were laid bare yesterday by british defense minister liam fox after a meeting with his italian counterpart. >> we have had a very stark reminder of the countries in europe who are willing to stand up and not just talk about international law and not just talk about moral responsibilities but act in support of those responsibilities, and it is >> lehrer: in washington today, secretary clinton had a more conciliatory take. >> we have a lot of confidence in nato and our partners. we know their capacity.

but we're very satisfied with the activities and performance of our allies and others who are participating in this effort. >> lehrer: there was also a warning from moscow. the russian foreign minister said any escalation of nato's role could have unpredictable consequences. and now to terence taylor, a former career officer in the british armed forces. he is now the president of the international council for life sciences. and nicholas burns, a former career diplomat who served as ambassador to nato from 2001 to 2005. now at harvard's kennedy school of government. mr. ambassador, first, what do you think of the u.s. introduction of dronz into this combat? >> well, jim, i think it was absolutely necessary. we have to remember that since april 1949, nato has been led by the united states, and you saw in the first episode, the first 10 days of this crisis.

we saw in-fighting among the europeans, and frankly an inability to employ the kind of technology that was necessary in a place like misrata, so the decision by secretary kbaetss today, that the united states will use predator, is exactly what has to happen in the close combat, street-by-street, alley-by-alley, in misrata which is a besieged and embattled city. i think this is a very good decision by the obama administration. >> lehrer: do you agree with that? >> absolutely. this is a unique capability, these remotely piloted vehicles that only the u.s. can deliver in this situation, and fighting in an urban area, where the combatants are in very close quarters. they're mixed up with each other. it needs close oversight, a good view from the air in order to deliver the capability against the heavy weapons that the

qaddafi forces have deployed. >> lehrer: do you see it same way ambassador burns does, as a kind of re-entry of the leadership position of the united states? >> well, the u.s. has the leadership position. it has supreme allied commander europe. >> lehrer: period. >> period. and there's a certain amount of politicking going on. there have been complaints in the past on the part united states that the nato countries, particularly europeans don't stand together. if you take afghanistan as an example, some of the nato countries, european countries limit the mission deliberately. their forces of the same response of the political situation in their own countries and to a certain extent now that's what's happening with the united states. the president is reacting to concerns about another military operation and a third muslim country. >> lehrer: and as a matter of fact, mr. ambassador, the situation-- you agree with those who say there's essentially a stalemate between the rebels and

the libyan government, and some people are even saying it could be-- it could lead to a partition that could become permanent if something doesn't happen to change. do you agree with that? >> i do agree with that. i think, jim, this is the great dilemma faced by the united states and europe is that after the initial successes we had, the firepower that we deployed was just not strong enough, led by the europeans, to dislodge qaddafi and to help the rebels. we have to remember, we intervened in a civil war. we essentially intervened on behalf of the rebel alliance, and the national position of the united states, of britain and france, is that qaddafi has to go, but as long as there's a stalemate, qaddafi wins. and there is a real possibility over the next weeks and months that if greater force is not brought to bear, there will be a true division in this country between the east, a rebel stronghold in benghazi, and the capital of libyan government in tripoli in the west, and i don't think the united states and the european countries can define

this entire mission as a success if qaddafi stays in power. so that's why you've seen this very dramatic announcement by the united states today with a lot of encouragement from the nato allies to put the united states back in to the center of the military leadership of the effort. >> lehrer: do you agree, as we sit here right now, the mission, the u.s.-nato mission has essentially failed to accomplish what it set out to do? >> i think it's too early to say that yet. i think we're in fair long haul here. air power alone cannot do this. the advisors that the italians and french and british have sent that will have some effect on improving, probably, communications amongst the-- and organization and so on. >> lehrer: but that's not considered "boots on the ground. of. >> it will help but it's not going to have a help like tomorrow or the next few days. it might over a few weeks have some effect. i don't want to overstate that."

and certainly these are not combat troops. as the great crying, boots on the ground. so i think that's a big challenge ahead. i think the nato air campaign has prevented moammar qaddafi from taking over the whole country again, so i think one should authorize for the moment. but there does appear to be a stalemate, and it's hard to see right now how we're going to move things forward on the ground towards the west. >> lehrer: what else do you think could and should be done beyond unmanned armed drones to move in th situation from stalemate to victory? >> well, as far as i-- i'm still very encouraged and surprised by the determination of these rebels in misrata. if the qaddafi forces have been really determined with all the firepower they have, they would have taken misrata by now. but there's an amazing amount of determination being shown by

ill-equipped and poorly trained with very limited weapons, that the qaddafi forces have not pushed them out of misrata yet. there is a great deal of determination, and this thing will be won or lost by determination on one side or the other. the rebel movement needs a lot of political support. i think this is very good signals being sent now by the u.s. and u.k., even sending those advisors is a great political support and give encouragement to the morale to the people on the ground. but better equipment, better training, and better organization is the only way, i think, that the rebel where's going to hold on, and even get towards tripoli. >> lehrer: and you think it still can be won, mr. ambassador? >> i i do. i think president obama has made the right decision, jim, not to put american combat troops on the ground in libya. we have far greater interests in other parts of the middle east, in egypt, saudi arabia, yemen, bahrain. but if we can sustain military attacks on qaddafi's forces. >> lehrer: but you think it's military. it can be done through military

means? >> i do. we proved that back in the 1990s in kosovo, as well as in bosnia. we didn't use ground troops. over several months we used airpower. sustained, american-led airpower will weaken qaddafi. and then i think what the administration is hoping is that qaddafi will be overthrown from within or he will leave libya and go into exile because he won't be able to survive politically. i don't think this means a true war with combat forces on the ground are but sustained airpower and american leadership are going to be required to take this to the next stage, in my judgment. >> lehrer: mr. taylor, there is people who have said from the very beginning that this thing is never going to end until moammar qaddafi's last blood is shed and all the people around him. it's not going to be what ambassador burns outlined. it's possible he might go in exile and there might be a peaceful solution. >> i think that's an unlikely

outcome that somehow he will give up somewhere along the line. he could be, of course, ousted by his entrage in some way or another. that certainly is a possibility. one has to remember all the sanctions that are being applied. it is limiting his resources to be able to carry out his campaign, but this is a longer term effect. but it is a combination of the airpower, the sanctions, a lot of political pressure being applied. but the key is the determination of the rebel movement to keep fighting. and i think that's the fundamental key. >> lehrer: plus, do you agree with ambassador burns, what's that what happened today-- the combination as you outlined, mr. taylor, the advisors, as well as the introduction of drones should be seen as a major escalation from the nato side? >> well, i hesitate the word "major" but i think an important one and a great signal to the rebel movement. and i think it will lead to improvements over time. particularly the drones. i think they will make a big difference. >> lehrer: okay, gentlemen, thank you both very much.

>> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": dueling fixes for medicare; treatments for autism; a behind the scenes account of the b.p. oil spill and gripping images from the gulf coast disaster. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: police in indonesia arrested 19 people today leading to the discovery of five large bombs. they were found and defused in a town outside jakarta buried under a gas pipeline near a catholic church. authorities said the explosives had been set to detonate by cell phone at 9:00 am tomorrow when good friday services would be taking place. in japan, another earthquake sent a new scare through the eastern part of the country. the epicenter was on land this time near the coast. there were no immediate reports of damage. meanwhile, the government formally banned thousands of people from re-entering the 12-mile zone around a crippled nuclear power plant. an egyptian court has ordered the names of former president hosni mubarak and his wife be

removed from all public facilities and institutions. that includes hundreds possibly thousands of subway stations, schools, streets and squares. the judge cited allegations of widespread corruption in the mubarak regime. a former governor of new mexico gary johnson announced today he's running for the republican presidential nomination. johnson said he wants to make the government justify its spending and wants to repeal health care reform. he appeared outside the new hampshire statehouse, and acknowledged he's an unknown. but, he said he hopes to make a mark in early primary states. on wall street today, stocks rose again, after another batch of strong earnings reports. the dow jones industrial average gained 52 points to close just under 12,506. the nasdaq rose 17 points to close at 2,820. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: and to the battle over curbing medicare costs.

controlling the cost of medicare has become central to the escalating debate over the federal deficit. >> this is the path to prosperity. >> woodruff: house budget chairman paul ryan rolled out a republican approach two weeks ago as part of his long-term budget proposal. under the ryan plan, medicare would switch to paying fixed amounts to private health insurers, instead of directly to hospitals and doctors beginning in 2022. any increases in payments would be linked to the consumer price index. beneficiaries would bear any costs above what the program provides. but, current medicare beneficiaries would not be affected. president obama laid out an alternate path. it calls for medicare to bargain with pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug costs. and a panel called the independent payment advisory board established under the

health care reform law would cut medicare costs if spending rises faster than the g.d.p. but it would not end traditional fee-for-service medicare. last sunday, congressman ryan defended his proposal and attacked the president's. >> and i would simply say the president had one idea he gave us on wednesday, which is have this board of 15 people that he appoints ration and price control medicare for current seniors. so we just don't think government rationing on medicare is the answer. >> woodruff: mr. obama, in turn, was critical of the g.o.p. plan at a town hall meeting yesterday, with facebook employees, in palo alto, california. >> the republican budget that was put forward i would say is fairly radical. i wouldn't call it particularly courageous. i do think mr. ryan is sincere.

but i think that what he and the other republicans in the house of representatives also want to do is change our social compact in a pretty fundamental way. >> woodruff: over the years, both parties have found it hard to make changes to medicare, including cutting payments to doctors. and, there are signs of broad opposition this time as well. a new "washington post"/abc news poll found 78% of americans oppose cutting spending on medicare to reduce the national debt. in the meantime, medicare's trustees have warned the day of reckoning is coming. if nothing is changed, the trust fund will run out of money by 2029. the house passed the ryan plan last week. it's not expected to pass the senate. but cutting medicare costs is a key part of the debate over deficits. we assess the two central ideas out there with gail wilensky, former director of the federal agency overseeing medicare during the first bush administration.

she's a senior fellow at project hope, a foundation for health education. and chris jennings. he's a former senior health adviser to president clinton and advises democrats today. he has his own health consulting firm in washington. we thank you both for being here. >> a pleasure. >> woodruff: lawyer, we are talk about costs and let's just talk about that, first, gail wilensky. one time of cost is the cost to the government. what would the ryan plan, the republican plan mean in terms of government spending? >> it would set the amount that government would spend, as opposed to now, where medicare is an open-ended entitlement, and government spends whatever it costs in the program. but it also is important for people to understand that while we talk about this in the context of the debt and the deficit, the problems with medicare have gone on much

longer than that. we were going to have problems with medicare because medicare spending was growing way more than than was sustainable, and on top of that we have the baby boomers who are starting to retire, and they'll double population on medicare. >> woodruff: but on balance, it would save the taxpayers money? it would specify what the amount would be. it's been compared to the notion of having defined benefits versus defined contributions in terms of pensions. an amount would be set-- could decide whether the amount that congressman ryan said which was the growth of the economy or some other amount is a right amount, but that would be the amount that would count for the spending by government. people would have a variety of plans, and that limits the government's obligations. >> woodruff: and thus would lead to lower government spending, chris jennings, is that right, on medicare?

overall? >> sure it would cap what medicare pays for health care for seniors. and the issue really is capping doesn't contain costs. it just shifts costs. and the real challenge of our health care delivery system is not siloed in the medicare program. we have health care costs in the private sector, in medicaid, and the medicare program throughout the system. and one of the problems when we do this sort of silo-type health care is that we just shift it to businesses, to consumers, and in this case--. >> woodruff: and what would happen in this case, the ryan plan versus the obama plan? >> the scary thing about the ryan policy is it caps the federal contributions to the medicare beneficiarys, and in so doing, beneficiaries would pay twice the amount of money out of pocket when first implemented in 2022. so from $6,000 to over $12,000. >> woodruff: so are you saying-- and then under the obama plan

the government wouldn't save as much money. chaim just trying to get to-- >> i think we have a very substantial difference, but under both programs you would slow the rate of federal expenditures. but in the obama plan, there really is a right way and a wrong way to do it, and if you just cut it to pay for a very large tax cut, people have some very real concerns about that. >> woodruff: let's talk about cost to patients and the system overall. that's the other story of the costs. >> correct. >> woodruff: how would those change? >> what we need to do is understand what's happened thus far with medicare. all the pressure has been on how the providers and services are paid, and what the obama administrations and other administrations have done previously is reduce the amount that is given for treatments by hospitals or for treatments by physicians or kept them constant even though costs are going up. the idea here is to set aside an amount-- like we do with part

d. medicare--. >> woodruff: which is the prescription drugs. >> which is the prescription drugs. the benefit was passed a few years ago. what we've seen is that by having that amount set in advance, vague lot of competition between these private plans, spending is actually been running 45% less than congressional budget office had predicted. >> woodruff: so you're saying people are saving-- spending less for medicare under that plan and you're suggesting the same thing would happen under the ryan plan. >> total spending has been much lower. and the amount that people are spending-- and we have a federal employees health plan that this is modeled after, this ryan plan. so it's not like it's completely unknown. >> woodruff: is that-- is that how you would describe the ryan plan as well, that people would spend less money for their care? >> well, that would be the hope. of course, the part d. analogy is probably a little bit of a stretch because actually, gail is correct that the costs are lower than they had originally been projected. but that was system wide because

we saw-- to make the analogy that one is same as other i don't think holds up. think the big--. >> woodruff: i want to try to get to the dinss in terms of the two proposals. >> sure. and i think where i disagree with gail somewhat, the affordable care act legislation that passed as part of health care reform didn't just include constraints and provider payments. it really laid the foundation for and planted the seeds for real delivery reforms, whether that be through organizationing like accountable care organizations or whether that be through investments... that gail has endorsed. really to foond ways for people and plans, purchasers, businesses to make informed choices about constrange overall costs and not just medicare specifically. >> woodruff: and you're saying that's as important as looking at the cost over all. >> i think it's more important. >> woodruff: what about more important? >> you're not just talking about

shifting costs. you're talking about containing costs health care wide. >> woodruff: let me move on quickly to two other things. how do plans differ in terms of the number of seniors covered? would ever senior, presumably, gail wilensky, be able to get coverage under the ryan plan and the obama plan? >> absolutely. they're going to get an amount of money upon they're going to have private plans be available to them. the private plans will have to meet certain criteria. the notion that people will have money-- which by the way will increase as people get older and if they are sicker and those who are low income-- would receive additional amounts. people who are 55 and older now would just continue on the original medicare plan. >> woodruff: so there's no question the private insurer would be available to everyone, chris jennings? >> it would be available. the question is, would it be affordable, and more importantly for seniors, what would be their out-of-pocket costs. remember, it's not just what the insurer pays.

it's what you pay out of pocket through premiums and cost sharing. the big concern again is if you double the exposure of out-of-pocket costs for seniors at a time when they have very limited incomes you'll just be finding many of them will not get the care they need because they can't afford it. >> woodruff: and you're saying that's what would happen under the ryan plan. >> year, i think the problem with that is the shifting rather than the constrange of costs. >> woodruff: finally, just this idea of quality, which, you know we have less than a minute now to address this, but, gail wilensky, do you see a change in the quality of health care for seniors under these two plans? >> i think people will be able to get information about different kinds of plans, be able to pick the one that suits them. the government will continue because we have traditional medicare continuing, and because there are rules already in place to make sure that quality continues to be an important measure. >> woodruff: so you're saying it wouldn't-- it wouldn't

deteriorate. chris jennings? >> again, what people don't really understand today is the medicare program is growing at a much lower rate than the private sector. if you squeeze too much, you might-- you might threaten quality over--. >> woodruff: in terms of costs. >> in terms of costs. and more importantly, if you constrain too much too quickly, those costs may be shifted to the private sector in terms of employers and employees for the under-55 population. so, again, the big key is constrange overall costs, program-wide, sector-wide, and i think the way that the-- the ryan prescription is the wrong one. >> woodruff: all right. well, it is a big subject, and we're just taking it off bite-- piece-- bite by bite, i should say. chris jennings, gail wilensky, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> pleasure. >> lehrer: now, the fourth story in robert macneil's "autism now" series. tonight, he explores treatments, and the vital role education plays, for children with autism.

( chorus singing ) >> reporter: in new york city, schools there are more than 7,000 students with autism. 7,000 students with autism. 700 of them, from preschool age to 21, attend this public school for autism in the bronx-ps 176. ( chorus singing ) these children see doctors periodically, but they go to school every day.

it's the public school system that bears most of the burden of treating children with autism, because treatment means teaching. and federal law mandates that all children with disabilities are entitled to a free, appropriate education. the principal for the last 16 years is rima ritholtz, whose students cover the full autism range, severely challenged to higher functioning. >> well, my educational philosophy is that they're children first before they're children with autism.

and they deserve the exact same quality of programming and professionalism that any student would get anywhere. >> reporter: her teacher to student ratio begins at one teacher-plus a teachers aide to six students, moving as students progress, to less restrictive classrooms, with eight to twelve children. >> we're trying to approximate the general education programs and hopefully-- eventually we'd like our students to return to general education. >> reporter: and what proportion do? >> i would say-- a very small proportion. >> reporter: small being? >> out of 700 students i would say maybe ten students return to get education. today we-- we're talking about the ipad and we think this is going to be a value-- very valuable tool to use with students on the spectrum. we have a certain number of them. we don't have the money to buy more. >> reporter: how many have you got so far?

>> i've got 23 for... >> reporter: for? >> 103 classes. 103 classes. over 700 students. >> reporter: jesse mojica is the director of education policy for the bronx borough president. we talked to him about the ipad issue. >> there are so many questions with regards to autism, so many things we do not know. but there are certain things that we do know, and technology plays a very important part, in particular, with children with limited ability to express themselves. >> reporter: jesse mojica speaks not just as education official, but as a father. he and his wife anna have a son with autism. adam was attending ps 176, but was not doing well. >> he was exhibiting self- injurious behavior. he was-- he is non-verbal, but he was really drifting inward. >> reporter: then a charter school for autism was announced, with 30 places to be filled by lottery. >> and i heard about the charter school, and i said, "wow, that's fascinating." one on one, you know, teaching,

and i said, "that's what adam needs." and we put our... our hat in the lottery. and we found out that... that adam just barely missed it. and it was devastated to us, it was devastating. here was something that i felt would help my son, that i felt powerless to help him. and i... i was heartbroken, i was, but it is the way it should be. i mean, it... it is by... it is by lottery and it-- there is no preference to anybody, no matter where you are from, or who you know, and that's fair. >> reporter: but this boy from the bronx did win the lottery to the charter school in manhattan, >> a gift from god. ( laughs ) we won the lottery. that's what i like to tell people. because it really was a lottery. >> reporter: his mother carol is a community organizer in east harlem. his father, raphael santiago, is a doorman in a manhattan apartment building. >> there's no set one curriculum.

there's not set one thing that has to be done. it's, "what's going to work for this child at this particular time. let's... let's take that and let's apply that." and... and that's... that's the key, that commitment on the one to-one level. and really, that, you know, if you look at it, they get close to 40 hours of a.b.a. a week. and that's-- you know. >> applied behavioral analysis. that's the gold standard. the-- only proven, really, educational standard for autism. >> reporter: julie fisher is the director of the charter school founded by the new york center for autism. it is funded under the federal disabilities education mandate, plus some private fund-raising. >> i think ralphie would fall on the more sophisticated end of the autism spectrum. he is charming, first of all. he is very smart. and then just social interactions are very challenging for him. >> reporter: whatever else he's

learned, when not in school, ralphie is still a non-stop talker, compulsively on his preferred subjects, especially the new york subway. >> we usually wait for the two or three, then we take it to times square, 42nd street. but last time we had to take the two to the shuttle, to the five, to the six. >> reporter: the only charter school in new york state exclusively for children with autism, this was created to be a model of possibilities. >> well, we are fortunate in that we have a great ratio in almost every classroom. we have the ability to instruct pretty much one to one. so we have a lot of staff here that allows us to do the high level of individualizing of everything that we do, which i

think is so critical when you're educating kids with autism, because they're so different from one another. you really have to construct things on an individual level. >> reporter: for children with autism, many of the lessons teach basic life skills to talk, to sit still, pay attention, learn how to shave, to wash their hair, know the dangers of traffic. or to overcome the terror these children often feel going to the doctor-- a fear the school eases with it own in-house clinic.

>> what should i do? >> i don't know. you tell me. 7.99. you have to figure it out fast. other people are waiting. >> jennifer connolly is the school's director of education. >> without using a calculator, you gave me 8 and it costs 7.nn. what is your change? >> one cent. >> each of and it's a-- an opportunity for us to come together, often with parents, and kind of have a think tank session. so looking at specific programs, specific skills, and then problem-solving around how to best help our students squire those skills quickly. >> reporter: ralphie's mother carol santiago is now on the board of the charter school. she believes its approach should be used to improve autism education in all public schools. people trained in teaching children with autism not general education should be in charge.

>> i wish that every single student within the new york city public school system can have a model like that. it's just not possible. the resources aren't there. but at the same time, you are creating something that is helping those children, and you are training a group of educators that will go out and will become the heads of school systems, you know, or heads of schools within the system and educate others. >> reporter: the day we visited was adams 12th birthday. he now attends a different a.b.a. school in manhattan and jesse says he's happy. but at the end of the day, whatever the school experience, the treatment of autism comes home to the parents. >> i am a very different person than i was before adam was in my life. and when he was diagnosed with autism, it was a very difficult time. this is a moment where your life

is changing dramatically, and you can either be broken by that, or it can take you in another direction. and where adam took me was, he made me into a better man. he's really taught me that, the true meaning of life is to love, and to give of yourself, and to be compassionate to serve others. and i've met a lot of very impressive people in my life, but no one's taught me that more than my son, and i will be forever grateful to him. >> woodruff: tomorrow night, robin examines the specific challenges facing adults with autism. but you don't have to wait until then to watch it. part five of the series is available right now, in its entirety, on our "autism now" webpage. where you can read extended interviews with some of those profiled tonight. plus, you can continue to send in your questions. robin will answer some of them after the series ends.

>> lehrer: now, a pair of stories about the gulf coast oil spill, one year later. first, hari sreenivasan has a conversation about the battle to stop the damage last spring and summer. >> sreenivasan: in the days immediately following the deadly explosion and fire aboard the deep water horizon oil rig, both government officials and b.p. executives initially said the oil spill was a very small one. it turned out to be anything but. more than 200 million gallons of oil leak into the gulf. as engineers raced to plug the well. the disaster also raised many questions about deep water drilling for the future. jill lockenbalk has reported extensively on this for the post-. welcome. >> good to be here. >> sreenivasan: from today's perspective, there is still conversation, and there is still progress towards more deep water drilling and exploratory

drilling in the gulf, right? >> the industry wants to get back into it. they want to get back into the deep water and it's a very contentious issue, obviously. the administration has given 10 permits for new deep water exploratory wells and deep water is over 1,000 feet and ultradeep water is over 5,000 feet. the question is, is the industry ready to go this? is it safe to-- what have we learned from the past year? is it safe to drill in these high-temperature, high-pressure very deep water formations? the gulf is a tricky place to drill, as anyone in the industry will tell you. >> sreenivasan: so you said early on in your book, even the condo well wasn't situated particularly great. b.p. had big intentions for it, but under ground it wasn't the best of all wells. >> the industry will tell you--

there are 40,000 offside wells in the gulf of mexico. but how many are in mild deep water? the answer is a few hundred. in fact, one of the engineers who worked on the oil spill commission made point to me, he said, "how many wells looked like this one that had all these features? every well is its own challenge, not just geologically, but in the case of the macondo well, they were trying to temporarily abandon it, and there were a lot of anomalies with this well with the fact that they had the formation was very crumbly down there. they kept losing mud down the well. the drilling is a key tool for drilling, and they were losing mud like crazy. and this-- this-- this well was primed for a disaster, we now know. the tragic thing is that up until the very moment of the blow-out, it did not appear the

people on the rig realized how close they were to a disaster. >> sreenivasan: in the book, you also chronicle this parallel arc of how the administration tried to get a handle on it, and whether they liked it or not, it was the white house's problem. there was sort of the operational challenge and there was the political one. >> well, after katrina, you saw what happened with with president bush. he never recovered from the debacle of katrina, because it was bungled so badly by his administration. and i think the obama white house was very, very conscious of not wanting this to become obama's katrina. and i was able to obtain an enormous troph of e-mails that showed what the administration was thinking throughout this crisis, what the scientists were doing, how they interacted with b.p., how the scientists interacted with each other. you know, discussions about well kwe blow up the well was asking on fully two months after the disaster began, they were still

talk ago. >> sreenivasan: even a nuclear option at one point. >> they weren't talking about using nuclear. it is true there were nuclear scientists in the middle of the team, but they were thinking of conventional explosives to make the well collapse. but very quickly, that was shot down when the 82-year-old richard garwin, an advisor said, though, i've got the notes of enrico firmy right here. you can show you, bad idea. >> sreenivasan: so what was it like in that nerve center? there were so many different rooms, so to speak. you were there. you described it in a way almost like an "apollo 13" mission to try to stop this thing. >> this was a lot like "apollo 13." when i set out to do the book, that was the thought in my head-- i'm going to do the "apollo 13" story. how do the engineers in houston solve this very difficult technical problem. apollo 13 lasted four days and may they brought the spacecraft

back and saved the three astronauts. this didn't end until day 87 when they finally sealed the well. and tracing their thought process, how they did it. i mean, b.p. made some mistakes. also, it was more challenging than they thought it would be. they believed they had the tools in place to handle a deep water blowout. but as they moved down the continental slope into the deep water, they were entering a different world. and the rules were all different. the chemistry is different at that depth, the pressures, the temperatures. and so when they lowered the big containment dome, it immediately filled up with methane hydrate,. when they tried the top kill, when they shot mud down the well. the well was way too powerful and basically spit it all back out. >> sreenivasan: finally, figs huto boil it down, what is the key learning from the investigation board now? we're a year past. they made some findings.

>> this kind of thing will happen again. as i say at the end of the book, it might not be another blowout. it might be a different kind of technological disaster, and i mention the possible disaster at a nuclear power plant. i wrote that before the tragic events in japan at fukushima. i think people need to understand we live in an engineered world, and the technology, as marvelous as it is, there are these failure modz that lurk within it. so anyone out there who is in charge of one of these complex technologies, either as a policymaker or as an engineer, needs to say, okay, where the failure point in this whole thing? what's the thing i'm not thinking of that's lurking within it that makes the system less robust than i thought it was? >> sreenivasan: all right the book is called "the hole at the bottom of the sea." thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: finally tonight, the gulf oil spill through the lens of a photojournalist. associated press photographer gerald herbert spent the last year capturing images

of the environmental and personal toll of the disaster. he narrates this slide show of >> my name is gerald herbert, and i'm a photographer for the associated press based here in new orleans. looking back over the last year, it's been an exhausting process from the time the rig caught on fire to crisscrossing the region daily for months covering this story, looking for the first signs of oilñi approachingñliñi, to the human response to the disaster, and then the human toll and the toll on the environment as well. along the way, i've even had the sad task of meeting and photographing family members of those who perished in the rig explosion. i've also met fishermen and shrimpers and restaurateurs and others who were economically impact by this, to this day.

recently, i've been out deepsea fishing. i've been out for turtles by the louisiana department of wildlife and fisheries, and each time i go out on the gulf or fly over it, it's really nice to see how blue and clear the water is. and there are good indications that the water is clean and all the seafood that they're testing it coming up clean. but when you venture into the bay, which tookçixdi]xd the bruf this damage from the oil, it's really sobering and shocking to see. i even revisited several locations that imy photographet the height of the oil spill's impact, particularly the pelican the pelicans had just come off the endangered species list not too long okay and it was the first time anyone had seen oil

impacting the pelicans. it was quite a horror show. birds were swimming in oiled water. oilú.1s on the eggs and in the nests. oil was completely surrounding the island and lapping up on to theñi marsh grass that buffered the man groves from the sea. the man groves are where the pelicans nest.ñi one of the sad things is the pel cans will nest exactlyxdjf where they grew up, in th= 1ery same srjhññrñi brown pelicans are nonmigratory. they live here year-round. so where thereñrçó was mangrove, it's now dead. pelicans are nesting on the bare earth, and the difficult part of that is they're exposedñi to any minor storm surngs that might come along. these storm surges can overrun their nests with water and take them out. there are whole sections of this island that are not even recognizable to what it was before. when the oil spill first happened, many of these people

along the coast, they felt this was going to be another katrina, or that it would be worse than katrina. anniversary of this oil spill, and there's no question that those words are ringing true right now because the economy in the coastal community has not picked up. one crab fisherman they talked to, thomas barriose in golden meadow, he's having trouble finding crabs. he's not sure if the crabs have moved around because there's oil down on the bottom or if it's just a bad season. but it's frightening to them to have to face another bad season and not knowing if their business is ever going to rebound. just a couple of weeks ago, iwg3 flew out in a helicopter over deep waterñzicñrñi horizon rig,t sank ú+here the oil spill happened. and as you fly over it now, it's

just open blue sea. there's nothing lingering that would tell that you there was an oil spill there, and there's nothing indicating that it's a work site anymore because it's not. but there's no question there's other aspects of this that are affecting people's lives to this day, and affecting the ecology to this day. >> woodruff: that was associated press photographer gerald herbert talking about documenting the gulf oil spill over the past year. >> lehrer: again, the major developments of the day: defense secretary gates announced the u.s. will use armed, predator drones in the air war in libya. and police in indonesia arrested 19 people and found five large bombs near a catholic church. they'd been set to explode tomorrow, during "good friday" services. and to kwame holman for what's on the "newshour" online. kwame? >> holman: we checked in with chris choy, an oil rig worker on the deepwater horizon crew a

year ago. and on "newshour extra," students in louisiana told us how their lives have changed since the spill. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. >> lehrer: 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 12 more.

>> woodruff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you online and again

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