captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: mitt romney stayed on the attack today taking on rick santorum and criticizing what his rival said in the debate last night. and president obama hit back on g.o.p. attacks on his energy policy. good evening, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight: we update the presidential contest as the campaigns power toward a stretch of crucial primaries. >> brown: then, we get the latest on the coordinated string of bombings that killed at least 55 people across iraq from jane arraf in baghdad. >> when you do not have a coherent, stable political system it really sews unrest and fear. >> woodruff: special correspondent john tulenko

examines a growing trend in the u.s.-- kids logging in to attend school online full time. >> we'll raise our hand or they'll just call on you and then you'll have a microphone. >> how do you raise your hand? >> there's a button to click it and then the mic will pop up and whatever you have to say that's it. >> brown: we debate the politics behind moves to rein in abortion rights, in virginia and across the country. >> woodruff: and we update the investigation into the nation's worst mining disaster in 40 years as west virginia officials issue their final report citing 253 violations. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> 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. >> woodruff: sparks were still flying today in the aftermath of the latest republican presidential debate. the candidates went after each other as two key primaries drew near. in phoenix, mitt romney picked up where he left off at last night's arizona debate, charging that rick santorum compromised on conservative principles in his u.s. senate days. >> i didn't expect what happened. what happened was we saw, in this case, senator santorum explain most of the night why he did or voted for things he disagreed with.

and he talked about this as being taking one for the team. i wondered, which team was he taking it for. my team is the american people, not the insiders in washington and i will fight for the people of america, not special interests. ( applause ) >> woodruff: santorum, meanwhile, released a new television ad in michigan, using some of romney's past statements to question his conservative beliefs. hours earlier, the two leading republican contenders had repeatedly traded blows on the debate stage in mesa, arizona. santorum said romney unfairly criticized him for supporting federal funding earmarks, when romney had repeatedly lobbied for federal money himself. >> he's out there on television ads now unfortunately attacking me for saying that i'm this

great earmarker, when he not only asked for earmarks for the salt lake olympics, in the order of tens of millions of dollars, sought those earmarks and used them, and he did as the governor of massachusetts, $300 million or $400 million. he said, i would be-- something like i'd be foolish if i didn't go out and try to get federal dollars. >> woodruff: but romney fired back that santorum picked the wrong projects to support. >> in the history of the olympic movement, the federal government has always provided the transportation and security. so we came to the federal government asking for help on transportation and security. i was fighting for those things. our games were successful. but while i was fighting to save the olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere. >> woodruff: that ultimately led to this tense exchange between the two men over the earmarking process. >> we've had thousands and thousands of earmarks. they are typically tagged onto-- bundled onto other bills. >> wait-- wait a second. >> ok, go ahead, go ahead. go ahead, mr. speaker. go ahead. >> ( laughter ) you're entitled to your opinions, mitt; you're not entitled to the-- to... >> i've heard that line before. i've heard that before. yeah. >> to misrepresent the facts, and you're misrepresenting the

facts. you don't know what you're talking about. ( boos ) >> woodruff: santorum also was on the defensive over his support for "no child left behind," the education reform measure enacted under former president george w. bush. >> i have to admit i voted for that; it was against the principles i believed in, but, you know, when you're part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team for the leader, and i made a mistake. ( boos ) you know, politics is a team sport, folks. and sometimes you got to-- you got to rally together and do something. >> woodruff: texas congressman ron paul said that answer highlighted what needs to be changed in washington. >> the senator's for-- was for "no child left behind," but now that he's running for president, now he's for running to repeal "no child left behind" once again. but-- and he calls this a team sport, he has to go along to get along, and that's the way the team plays. but that's what the problem is with washington. that's what's been going on for so long. ( cheers and applause ) >> woodruff: former house speaker newt gingrich seized the opportunity to accuse the press

again of bias against conservatives on a question about birth control policy. >> but i just want to point out, you did not once in the 2008 campaign-- not once did anybody in the elite media ask why barack obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide. ( cheers and applause ) okay? so let's be clear here. if we're going to have a debate about who the extremist is on these issues, it is president obama, who as a state senator voted to protect doctors who killed babies who survived the abortion. it is not the republicans. ( cheers and applause ) >> woodruff: and romney joined in, after moderator john king of cnn pressed him to answer a question about what the american public knows about him. >> is there a misconception about you? the question is a misconception. >> a lack-- you know, you get to ask the questions you want; i get to give the answers i want. ( audience reacts ) >> woodruff: all four candidates again defended their opposition

to the bailouts of auto giants general motors and chrysler. it's a point that president obama's re-election team highlighted in a new tv ad released today in michigan ahead of its upcoming g.o.p. primary. >> but when a million jobs were on the line... every republican candidate turned their back. even said, "let detroit go bankrupt". not him. >> don't bet against the american auto industry. >> woodruff: the president spent today in florida, where he addressed rising gas prices and republican criticism of his energy policy. >> only in politics do people greet bad news so enthusiastically. you pay more, and they're licking their chops? and you can bet that since it's an election year, they're already dusting off their three- point plans for $2 gas. i'll save you the suspense: step one is drill, step two is drill,

and step three is keep drilling. we heard the same thing in 2007, well the american people aren't stupid. you know that's not a plan, especially since we're already drilling. it's a bumper sticker. >> woodruff: for now, national polls show santorum is leading the race to challenge mr. obama in november. he and the rest of the republican field face their next test in arizona and michigan tuesday. >> brown: still to come on the "newshour": sectarian violence in iraq; learning lessons online; the politics of the abortion fight and the failures at a west virginia mine. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: there was new violence in afghanistan today over the burning of korans at a u.s. base. riots broke out across the country for a third day, and five people were killed. hundreds of demonstrators also tried to storm a u.s. military site. at one protest, a man dressed as an afghan soldier shot and killed two american soldiers.

meanwhile, president obama offered his sincere apologies in a letter to afghan president hamid karzai. new images of desperate conditions emerged today from the city of homs, in syria. forces loyal to president bashar assad kept up a fierce artillery barrage, despite world appeals to stop. we have a report narrated by jonathan miller of "independent television news." >> reporter: international revulsion and horror over the shelling of civilians in homs has done nothing to stop the bombardment. this unverified footage, filmed this afternoon. here, a mosque's being mortared. the panicked voice says, "look at this; where are you, you arabs, you muslims. god will judge you."

these boys are at their father's funeral in homs. "you took my dad, bashar," he says. "god curse you." and as they hurriedly place the shrouded body in the ground, more shelling. this is paul conroy, the sunday times photographer who survived the direct hit on the media center that killed the paper's renowned foreign correspondent, marie colvin. dr. mahmoud al-mahmoud says he's in reasonable shape, but he needs urgent evacuation. syrian state tv has today been advertising this weekend's referendum on reform.

as more unverified pictures from other cities in syria show it's not just homs in trouble. in the town of al-rastan, government snipers cause panic. and clashes today in syria's second city, alleppo, too. 60 nations, under the banner of the friends of syria, meet in tunis tomorrow. some want to strangle bashar al- assad with sanctions; some want to arm the rebels. what all seem to agree on is that civilians in syria need humanitarian help. fast. >> holman: in london, u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton warned the opposition in syria will only strengthen, unless the regime gives way. u.s. army private bradley manning was arraigned today on charges he leaked more than 700,000 classified documents to wikileaks. manning appeared in a military court in fort meade, maryland. he deferred entering a plea, and there was no date set for the start of his court martial. manning could face life in prison, if convicted. seven u.s. marines were killed in california overnight, when two military helicopters collided. it happened during nighttime training exercises in a remote area of the yuma training range

complex near the arizona border. the area is frequently used to simulate afghanistan's landscape. the cause of the crash was under investigation. the parliament of greece approved a huge bond deal today, to cut its outstanding debt by more than $140 billion. the emergency legislation will write down the value of greek bonds held by banks, pension funds and other private entities. the move is in conjunction with a new bailout for the greek government, approved this week by the euro-zone nations. in u.s. economic news, the number of first-time claims for jobless benefits was unchanged last week and the four-week average remained the lowest in four years. the news helped wall street to modest gains. the dow jones industrial average added 46 points to close above 12,984. the nasdaq rose more than 23 points to close at nearly 2,957. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff.

>> brown: and we turn to a very bloody day in iraq, as attacks in baghdad and more than a dozen other cities from the north to the south left at least 55 people dead and 225 wounded. the wail of ambulance sirens pierced the air as plumes of smoke rose above baghdad. the spree of bombings and shootings began during the morning rush hour and lasted for several hours. but the violence wasn't isolated to the iraqi capital. a wave of coordinated explosions and other attacks unfolded in 14 other cities around the country. in musayyib, to the south of baghdad, dozens of children at an elementary school were the main victims of a car bomb attack. the blast spewed shards of glass into their classrooms. >> ( translated ): this explosion is unjustifiable. here is a primary school. children were coming to school and nearby there were people shopping in that shopping district. >> brown: to the north, in kirkuk, security forces

inspected the wreckage from bombings targeting police patrols. the interior ministry blamed al- qaeda, and a member of baghdad city council agreed. he cited plans for his city to play host to an arab league summit next month. >> ( translated ): i think they don't want iraq to move forward. they don't want iraq to reunite with the arab countries and interact with arab people. so they impede iraq's progress with such acts of violence. >> brown: in washington, the u.s. state department condemned the violence. >> obviously these were horrible even heinous acts that took place today. we view these as desperate attempts by terror groups to sow fear during a critical juncture in the iraqi political process. >> brown: the last u.s. troops left iraq in december, and there's been a series of large scale attacks in the weeks

since. earlier today, i spoke to jane arraf of al jazeera english in baghdad. jane arraf, welcome. tell us more about the targets here. they were clearly aiming at shiite neighborhoods and institutions? >> they were for the most part, jeff. mostly shi'a neighborhoods. in fact, even some in... near a shi'a shrine. but they were also aimed at security forces. some of them were gunmen opening fire on police here in baghdad and mystifyingly one of the targets appeared to be an elementary school. this was in the town of hillah... near the town of hillah south of baghdad where a car bomb exploded just outside the gates of a primary school injuring dozens of children. so a wide range of targets but all of them with a common denominator of seemingly seeking to destabilize security services here and instill fear-- which they did. >> brown: well, what is known about the insurgents who might have carried this out?

who are they and tell us more about their possible aims? >> everyone's blaming it on al qaeda. "everyone" meaning from the interior ministry which said al qaeda was clearly to blame to the foreign minister who he spoke with earlier today. he said he believed it was al qaeda-linked groups and further more that this was aimed at disrupting preparations for the arab league summit. now, baghdad is due to hold a summit for the arab league next month. it was supposed to be... postponed last year for security reasons. and they're going full steam ahead. if you look out in the streets of baghdad you wouldn't recognize a lot of them. it's an incredible beautification project, they have heavy security out and they're aiming to show the city is safe enough. the point they're making is when arab leaders come here they will indeed be safe but that doesn't help a lot of people here in the streets so the main culprit is thought to be al qaeda, they haven't taken responsibility, but they have taken responsibility for similar attacks in the past and what a

lot of people are looking at is the fact that this was sectarian in nature and that has been a hallmark of theirs. attacks on shi'a shrines, attacks on shi'a neighborhoods and an attempt to restart that sectarian violence. >> brown: jane, when they say "al qaeda," what exexactly does that mean? to what extent, for example, are there foreign elements involved? >> that is a really key question. al qaeda tends to be quite frilly and it's become a franchise so what we're talking about here in iraq are increasingly decentralized and small cells that are either linked to al qaeda central although in a very diffused way or to what has become the main umbrella group, the islamic state of iraq and increasingly links with other groups. one of the things the u.s. and iraq say they did was take down a lot of that network. it disdisrupted their communications, their lines of command and we're not seeing big attacks that we have in the past. but perhaps they don't need the

big attacks. this was a series of small attacks but astonishingly in more than 15 different cities in a wide variety of places and it does demonstrate they still have that ability to plan, to carry out these things and, importantly, to destabilize the feeling that iraqis have that their country is secure again. >> brown: of course, this does raise more questions and concerns about the iraqi security forces since the u.s. forces left in december. >> it does. now when you they to iraqi officials, they say "well, we had big attacks, in fact, even bigger attacks when the americans were here." but one of the things, interestingly, that was in the reaction to these bombings today were groups such as followers of moqtada al-sadr, a political party that belongs to his front which says there was a failure of iraqi government intelligence and that's what it comes down to because you can't prevent car bombs, particularly suicide bombs, but what you can do is to

find out he's behind them and get into those networks and use intelligence gathering and analysis. it's something iraqis have been relatively weak on and it's something the americans help them with a lot. they help them with analysis, technology, it's technology they don't have and in some cases can't buy from the united states and there is a feeling that on that side of it they are indeed suffering. >> brown: finally, jane, this comes amid a continuing political conflict there, right? the u.s. embassy called this a heinous act that "tears at the fabric of iraqi unity." what is the state of iraqi unity in the government at this point? >> well, that fabric was pretty torn already. it was supposed to be a unity government. it was brought together partly by the united states which helped broker a deal in which there would be a wide-ranging coalition. now that coalition has really frayed and it would take hours to get into the complications of exactly how dysfunctional the political system has been but among the highlights are a sunni

vice president wanteded for terrorism who refuses to come back for trial, no defense minister, no interior minister, almost a year after elections were held. despite that, this country sort of stumbles along and it's one of the astonishing things. so they are talking about a national reconciliation conference, if you will, of political leaders to try to solve some of this but clearly when you do not have a coherent stable political system it really sews unrest and fear and a lot of iraqis in the streets if you go out today and ask them-- which we've done-- who they think is behind this they'll say al qaeda. but they also say it's political violence and by that they mean very bluntly that political leaders are killing people. that is the level of fear, uncertainty and suspicion here that underpins almost everything. >> brown: jane arraf in baghdad, thank you very much. >> thank you very much.

>> warner: now learning lessons in virtual classrooms. online charter schools are on the rise around the country. our special correspondent went to pennsylvania where the demand is high and where questions are being raised about the quality and costs of the instruction. >> reporter: it's 8:00 a.m. at the smiths' home in new castle, pennsylvania. >> is everybody in your class today? there you go. >> reporter: time for seven-year-old landon smith to log >> good morning! we will start with the question of the day. >> reporter: down the hall, his brothers cameron, age 10, and austen, age 12, are also logged in. the boys have gone to school this way for most of their lives. they're among some 30,000 pennsylvania students who go to

school online, full-time. >> i think the main benefit is my influence on them is greater. >> reporter: alicia smith works nights to be home during the day. >> my day is structured that when they're in school that's what i'm doing. i'm doing school. the older ones are a lot more independent. i'm there facilitator. >> reporter: the children's classes meet five mornings a week, led by virtual teachers. >> i can see the teacher. they can be anywhere in the country. i've had teachers in florida. i've had teachers in pittsburg. >> what happens if you have a question? >> we'll raise our hand or they'll just call on you and you have a... >> how do you raise your hand? >> there will be a button to click it and then the mic will pop up and whatever you have to say, you will say it.

>> reporter: full-time public online schools are now an option in 30 states. pennsylvania alone has 13. nationally, these cyber schools as they're called serve some 250,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12, and that number is growing. >> are cyber schools a fringe movement or a better, revolutionary approach to public education? in pennsylvania, we examined these schools closely- to see what students are getting, how they're performing, and, because this is taxpayer money, exactly where the dollars are going. >> reporter: like most cyber schools, the one the smiths chose, called p.a. cyber charter, supplied them with all the equipment they needed free of charge. >> something kids get in this country is how to power up into technology, they get that. >> reporter: nick trombetta started p.a. cyber 12 years ago. with 11,000 students from across

pennsylvania, it's among the largest public online schools in the country. >> cyber school is sort of a leveling. it is like the great equalizer in education. for kids who are trapped in schools that don't have many choices, or kids who are trapped in places that give them bad choices cyber schools are necessary. no matter who you are, where you live, you're going to get the same quality of service. >> i get 100% participation from my kids every single class and i get it through either them doing a problem on the board, sending me a chat. i get 100% every single class. >> right, so then we're going to multiply both sides. >> reporter: for p.a. cyber teachers like tom ward, the classroom is this workspace, designed with the look and feel of an internet start-up. >> so let's break you guys into groups of four. >> reporter: webcams allow for real-time teaching. >> i'm going to eliminate the last row of problems. >> and whatever teachers write or put on their screens can be seen by their students at home. >> and with the click of a

button, we can access a different website, a different video clip, we can have students doing different things at the same time. >> i'm going to be popping through the groups to see how everything is going. >> reporter: there are new ways to keep tabs on students too, like instant polling and private messaging. >> they can send me an anonymous note saying i don't understand number seven at all and we say, let's go over number seven again i'm getting several notes. >> and you can't do that in a brick and mortar. a lot of kids have those poker faces and they can fake you out. this puts that right live, right in your face, saying i don't get it. >> reporter: but in practice, it can look and sound a little different. >> now i believe we might have a video if that's right, mrs. wrangel. that's right. >> it's the teachers fault! >> i think one of the most common problems would be the technology.

you can't get connected if something goes down. sorry about that. >> reporter: the smiths say p.a. cyber does its best to troubleshoot, but even that has limits. >> students that have satellite internet if it's snowing, if its raining, if there's a cloud that goes through the sky. it's going to throw them off a little bit. >> reporter: something else threw-off austin wall. one of many struggling students drawn to p.a. cyber for a fresh start, wall was never given live courses, taught by virtual teachers. >> i really didn't know who was in my class, it was just me, myself, and i all alone just doing school work. it was boring. extremely boring. >> reporter: cheaper to run, self-paced, independent study courses like walls are the kind given to 60% of online students statewide. >> i had to do like six hours a day and i did like an hour, if that.

>> reporter: what did you do instead? >> played call of duty >> reporter: video game. >> yeah. >> reporter: for how long? >> all day. 'til my friends came home. then i went outside. >> reporter: did the school ever call up? >> they called me two times a week to do schoolwork and i just never did it. >> reporter: did they ever send anyone to your house? >> no. eventually they were like, were going to kick you out and so i came back here. >> reporter: to prevent students from falling through cracks, p.a. cyber employs 170 instructional supervisors- people whose job it is to call homes and make sure students are doing what they're supposed to be doing. in austin's case, that wasn't enough. >> it's disappointing. not what we want to be and what we want to represent and i'd want to know who that person was. we struggle not to be that kind of place, that kind of school. >> reporter: wall lasted only two months at p.a. cyber.

that's not unusual: the school's turnover rate is around 25%. however, at pennsylvania's other online schools, turnover rates typically exceed 50%. >> and so we've had to remediate those students and get them back onto their grade level. >> reporter: rob postupac and ron sofo are school superintendents in two small districts that neighbor p.a. cybers home base. it was sofo's district that took back austin wall. >> when kids attend a cyber school, they attend if they turn the computer on for one minute. if a kid comes to my school and they show up for one minute and go out the door, they're truant. i don't get it! >> they do have students that attend there and that's a reasonable education when students strive in that environment. but if a student is not striving in that environment should we not be notified since it's our tax dollars that are paying the bill? >> reporter: funding is another controversial issue.

every student who attends cyber school represents a financial loss to school districts. >> we don't have the ability to reduce costs for those students. so you lose a kindergartner, you lose a first grader, a fifth grader, you lose a 9th grader- you can't close down a fifth classroom because two students left. >> reporter: so how do you make that up? >> we have cut programs, we have reduced staff, and we have made larger classrooms. >> reporter: but at p.a. cyber, it's a different story. the way the funding works, cyber schools bill school districts for each student they take. but they're allowed to charge different amounts based on what the districts themselves spend. >> he's sending 11. i'm sending eight. rich school districts are sending 14,000 or 16,000! >> reporter: but p.a. cyber spends less running its school. >> the p.a. cyber school profited in the past two years, $20 million. a profit of $20 million! >> reporter: other online companies are also doing well and drawing scrutiny for $5

million executive bonuses. >> reporter: last year, nick trombetta earned $163,000. however since its founding in 2000, p.a. cyber has collected a total of $45 million in profit. and the question is what is p.a. cyber doing with leftover money? >> well, we're investing it back into research and development, we're investing it back into our program, we're investing it to multiple centers across the state to serve more children. we're investing that back into p.a. cyber. >> reporter: most of the money has been spent within a 12 block area of tiny midland, p.a.-- a former steel mill town where p.a. cyber is based. midland now boasts its own performing arts center, also designed to house the company's offices, for which p.a. cyber paid $10 million. a few blocks away, $12 million more built the virtual teachers

center in what had been a steel workers union hall. and close by the money is also funding construction of new corporate headquarters, in addition to $5 million in other properties recently purchased in midland. to critics, hiring more teachers and creating more live courses would have made better use of taxpayers education dollars but trombetta defends his choice. >> we do need buildings for our employees. i mean it costs money to lease then and to build them and the dollars that we do receive, were able to squirrel some away over the years and invest in that. >> reporter: p.a. cyber also spun off its own not-for-profit business developing online curriculum to sell across the country. together, the non-profit and the school have grown to employ 694 people in what was a dying steel town.

>> we decided to create a new industry and it was an industry to replace the old. and you're right and it was to create opportunities for children across this commonwealth and across the united states. this has been huge for this area. >> reporter: the town's comeback even earned it a nickname: the midland miracle, though not everyone believes. >> wait a minute! i didn't know public schools and the funding of public schools, should be an economic development strategy for one small section of one county. i don't think that's the purpose of public education in this commonwealth or in america. >> reporter: some people might say all well and good that you're creating jobs but doesn't the money belong to the kids? >> it does belong to the kids and as long as the children are receiving a quality service for that investment, and it's of the quality that gets them what they need, then we're happy to provide that to them.

>> reporter: but here's the catch: math and reading scores at p.a. cyber are below the state average in regular schools, sometimes well below. most other online schools in the state do worse. but it's p.a. cyber, the largest, that's had to respond to stepped-up criticism. >> don't go telling people that your state scores are better when you know that i'm taking kids from you that weren't performing well. and now i've got to do the catch-up. you know, that's not fair. >> reporter: but school districts don't buy that. >> at the end of the day you're taking resources away from school districts that are doing a reasonably decent job to serve entities that have mixed results. and i think there's the rub. >> i understand that they're angry. i understand that financially this is a hit when you lose a kid. win them back. win them back. don't complain about the school that won them from you. win them back. >> reporter: to win them back,

one pennsylvania district has started its own cyber-school, and is offering $1,000 toward computers and supplies to every student who transfers in from schools like p.a. cyber. >> brown: and for more: two cyber students offer real-life tales about going to school online, plus educators weigh the costs and benefits. you'll find a link to those "learning matters" stories on our website. >> woodruff: now to the heated battle over reproductive and abortion rights. it's a debate that has been playing out heavily in many states over the past year. virginia is the latest as national attention has focused on a proposed law. a furor gripped virginia's state legislature in recent days, as republicans pushed to mandate ultra-sound testing, which would be internal for many women seeking abortions.

on monday, more than a thousand people-- mostly women-- held a silent protest against the bill outside the state capitol in richmond. and, the proposal quickly drew the attention of national television, including the "daily show." with criticism rising, virginia's republican governor bob mcdonnell-- mentioned as a potential vice presidential nominee-- yesterday announced he'd changed his mind. he issued a statement that read: "mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state." instead, mcdonnell said, the bill should "...explicitly state that no woman in virginia will have to undergo a trans-vaginal ultrasound involuntarily." within hours, virginia's house of delegates did just that passing a version that requires the more traditional external abdominal ultrasound, but makes the trans-vaginal test optional.

>> the amendment i believe enhances the bill. it's still consistently pro- life. >> woodruff: democratic opponents said even the amended legislation calls for a pointless procedure. >> what you have done is mandated, for any abortion done early in a pregnancy, an ultrasound that will be utterly useless. >> woodruff: according to the guttmacher institute, which studies reproductive health issues, texas is the only state that currently enforces a trans- vaginal ultrasound before abortions. arizona, kansas, louisiana, mississippi, alabama and florida require an ultra-sound, but leave it to the physician to determine the type. but the battle in virginia highlights nation-wide efforts to roll back access to abortions and related services.

last year, 24 states imposed new curbs on abortion services. they included bans, waiting periods and clinic regulations. many states also cut funding to family planning services and providers. the next state to enter the fray may be pennsylvania, where lawmakers may require ultrasound at least 24 hours before an abortion. a vote is expected sometime in april. for more on the battle over these questions in virginia and nationally, we turn to charmaine yoest, president of americans united for life which backs the proposed virginia law and nancy keenan, president of naral pro-choice america which opposes it. >> we thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> what has made this virginia legislation such a flash point, nancy keenan? >> i think they overreached in virginia and we saw this the other day when over a thousand and more people showed up to

express their disappointment and i thinks that state law that is requiring a woman to undergo a procedure she didn't ask for nor that her doctor recommended and that these are politicians that are practicing medicine without a license. >> woodruff: was it an overreach charmaine yoest? >> absolutely not. it is very political because it's an election season and because virginia is a swing state in this election. so the pro abortion forces are trying very hard to pursue a disinformation campaign about this law. that is protective law that is working to protect women's health to ensure they get the cold standard of medical care prior to abortion. >> woodruff: you're saying it's about medical care, you're saying it's what about what? >> it's an enforced procedure. they talk about informed consent. it is neither. this is not about information nor consent. women are going to be forced against their will to undergo a procedure, again, that she didn't ask for.

it's not medically necessary, nor did the doctor recommend. and i think this is where politicians don't belong in that place between a woman and her doctor in this decision. >> woodruff: charlayne yoest, are you saying the procedure would not have been required? is that your argument here? >> i don't know how nancy can say this in good conscience in terms of protecting women's health. look, the chairman of the americans united for life board is an ob-gyn. our attorneys have been working on this bill and so i can tell you what it's all about. ultrasounds are the gold standard for protecting women's health you need to have an ultrasound prior to abortion in order to determine the gestational age of the baby. you need to know where the baby is located. there's a host of standard medical practice for ensuring the woman is safe. one thing many people don't know is that the f.d.a. has noted that at least two women have died after being given chemical

abortions having an ectopic pregnancy. so this protects the woman's life. this is a very, very serious situation. >> woodruff: so what i'm hearing is that it's important for the well-being of the woman to have this ultrasound? >> well, let me tell you, this is about women and a decision with her doctor. these are politicians who think they know the situation of every woman in this country whether it's in virginia or across this country, that they know the situation, they know what's going on in her life, they know what's going on with her medical situation. and, again, these are politicians that are wanting to mandate a procedure that she did not ask for. >> no. >> nor did the doctor say was necessary. >> woodruff: in fact, governor mcdonald of virginia said in his statement it would mandate an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent. >> well, nancy's misrepresenting what the bill would do. again, our attorneys worked on this bill so i can tell you. it did not mandate and does not at this point mandate what kind

of sonogram. it simply mandates that the standard of care is followed so it does leave it up to the doctor to decide what kind of sonogram is needed in that situation to... for him to get the information that he needs to ensure that the woman's health is protected. >> woodruff: are you saying the governor is incorrect in his statement? >> i'm saying what the bill does is mandate a sonogram and the doctor decides. it's based on a standard of care. if you call planned parenthood in virginia, they always do a sonogram before an abortion because that's the... >> then why do you need the state law? and why are folks that are advancing this kind of legislation requiring a woman... requiring. there's no informed consent here. there's no decision. she is mandated by the law to have a procedure. >> i would love to answer that question. >> woodruff: very quickly because i want to broaden this out and ask about the moves that are taking place nationally. did you want to comment briefly. >> well, when you think about nationally we see women who die from... and think about the

house of horrors in philadelphia with abortion clinics that are... >> i'm not familiar with that. >> he's on trial now for women who died in his abortion clinic. some of these abortion clinics are very, very dangerous places for women and we need to protect their health by ensuring that a standard of care is followed and sonograms are the gold standard. >> woodruff: i want to ask you, nancy keenan, about moves as we reported in 24 states to discourage abortion through one requirement or another. what concerns you and your organization and others who have seen that? >> we have seen twice as many anti-choice pieces of legislation passed in 2011 than 2010. i think these are folks that ran for office, whether it was the state legislature or here in cochran on jobs and the economy and now are absolutely attacking women's health and particularly reproductive health. the hypocrisy here. at the same time that they want to mandate women to undergo an

ultrasound they are also trying to defund family planning, access to birth control. there's a hypocrisy here. >> woodruff: are you saying there's a coordinated effort nationwide to do this? >> absolutely. there's a strategy to defund women having access to birth control and family planning at the same time making all these barriers so women can't access a legal procedure in this country. >> woodruff: is that what's taking someplace >> the problem is that the abortion lobby is afraid a woman having access to a sonogram might be dissuaded by having the full information about her baby's development and about the abortion procedure. >> woodruff: but across the board nationally with these other requirements that have been proposed or enacted, longer waiting times, we mentioned some of the other... >> we saw 28 pieces of. au.l.-based legislation passed this last year and there has been a dramatic.... >> woodruff: how much of that is coordinated across the country? >> well, there was a huge influx of pro-life legislators elected by the people so they're

responding to their constituents to who want to see greater protections across the board. we're talking about parental consent, informed consent, things that people... the vast majority of the american people do support. >> this is so out of touch with america's priorities and values. americans are saying look, we elected you to fix the economy and jobs and these folks have shown up, again, attacking health care for women and that the priorities and values, people say stay out of the business between a doctor, a woman, her family. stay out of this relationship and the decisions we make with regard to our health care, that it's based on the freedom and privacy in this country. >> woodruff: what is the goal of the state-by-state efforts, charmaine yoest? is it to get as close as possibly to practically overturn "roe v. wade"? what would you say is the goal? >> i think it's responding to the fact that the majority of the american people say that they're professor life and there's a huge consensus in this

country on common sense regulations on abortion like sonograms. sonogram laws are... in 22 states have passed because the american people think this is common sense things we can all agree on no matter what your opinion on abortion is, is informed consent, parental consent, these are things the american people agree on. >> woodruff: nancy keenan, if this is the result of individuals elected in the state legislature and they're doing what they believe, it's the political process. >> it is. and elections matter and i think you're going to see that as we head into 2012, whether it's the presidential and the difference in having somebody like president obama who believes in the freedom and privacy of a woman's right to choose and... or these legislators at the state level who also have an agenda here, to put barriers in front of women, to deny them, deny them, the privacy of their doctor relationship in choosing a legal abortion in this country. and it's wrong. >> i can't understand why when you see situations where women have died at the hands of

abortionists in this country that you wouldn't be behind ensuring that they get the highest standard of medical care when you know that that's been a problem across the country. >> judy, this is not about medical care. this is about harassment, coercion and intimidating women. when you force a procedure and then force them to sign a waiver that says they will listen to the heart beat, to force them to have to look at a sonogram, this is not about protecting women. this is about a forced medical procedure and it's wrong. >> i don't think you should be afraid for women to have informed consent and to know everything they need to know before a medical procedure. >> woodruff: we'll leave it there. we thank you both very much for being here. nancy keenan, charmaine yoest. >> thank you. >> brown: finally tonight, new findings and charges in the investigation of the upper big branch mine disaster in west virginia.

it was the deadliest in the u.s. in four decades: 29 men were killed on april 5th, 2010 after an explosion at the mine then owned by massey energy. today, state mining officials issued 253 violations against the company and released their final report. in it, they singled out two foremen saying they repeatedly failed to clean conveyor belts. or apply rock dust used to neutralize explosive coal dust all leading to unsafe conditions. just yesterday, federal prosecutors brought criminal fraud charges against the mine's former superintendent, gary may. we walk through the latest with npr's howard berkes. he's been covering this story since the accident. howard, welcome to you. so now we have this new state report. is the picture fairly clear on what happened that day? walk us through what we know. >> sure, the state report didn't really add much to what we already knew which was that this was a mine that was operated in

a way that there was... ignoring of fundamental safety operations that safety procedures were flawed at that mine. that equipment didn't work properly and that the management of the mine was more oriented to production than safety. the state pretty much repeated what the early investigative reports have said, that this was caused by a methane ignition, that water sprayers were not functioning and fail to control methane gas. that there wasn't enough ventilation in the mine to control methane gas and that that coal dust that you mentioned, there was so much of it that a small... relatively small methane gas ignition exploded into this massive explosion that coursed through the mine because of the presence of all that coal dust. >> brown: so these charges of... against... findings about the foreman, so it's a kind of

systemic failure rather than a particular incident. and i gather the state is limited in what it can do at this point? >> well, it's interesting that in that state report that noted that the maximum fine for those fore foremen, for citation, is $250. and state law doesn't permit citing anyone above the level of mine foreman. and those foreman didn't make up the way that they behaved in that mine. they were working at the direction of a mine superintendent superintendent, of the vice president and vice president of the massey energy subsidiary that ran that mine and we flow documents that have been released in the investigation so far and in a deposition by former c.e.o. don blankenship in another case that this mine was micromanaged and that blankenship and other senior officials at massie energy knew what was going on there. they monitored the coal production by the foot and by

the minute and so even though it's clear that these... that the superintendent who was charged yesterday and the mine foremen who were mentioned in the state report today were not acting on their own it appears it's very difficult in state law in west virginia to reach beyond the foreman to site anyone else and get anyone else held responsible. >> brown: so tell us a little bit more about the federal side of this and that foreman. gary may is the highest official charged to this point. what does that tell you? is he corporating at this point or this a way to get to some of the higherups? >> it certainly looks that way based on the way this... these charges were filed. gary may wasn't indicted. he was charged in a criminal investigation and federal prosecutors use a criminal information when the defendant

is corporating and when they're trying to get testimony against higher level officials. they was superintendent of the mine, one of two superintendents of that mine and he was responsible for day to day operations for portions of that mine but, again, he was somebody who was working at the direction of higher-level people at the subsidiary company that operated that mine and massie energy. he's not somebody who invented the... a way to operate that mine. he was working at their direction. so all indicators are... prosecutors won't say this directly but they hint gary may is corporating and they're working through him to get to higher level officials. >> brown: finally, howard, i know you've spent time with families of miners. what do you hear from them these several years later? >> they're still grieving deeply for their losses as if it just

happened yesterday. but they're encouraged by the fact that the u.s. attorney in the southern district of west virginia has filed this charge against gary may. they're encouraged by the idea that they're trying to reach higher into the upper management ranks of massie energy and what they say to me over and over and over again is that justice won't be done here until somebody goes to jail. around if somebody does go to jail it will be require and if somebody at a high level goes to jail it will be even rarer. mining company officials don't go to jail for killing coal miners. it rarely happens. prosecutors seem to be working with a way of trying to get at higher level officials and i know families will be relieved and feel that justice has been done if higher level officials have been charged. >> brown: howard berkes of npr, thanks so much. >> thanks for having me.

>> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: republican presidential hopeful mitt romney accused rival rick santorum of compromising conservative principles and president obama hit back against the president also apologized for the burning of korans at a u.s. military base in afghanistan, but fresh violence erupted anyway. in one incident, an afghan soldier killed two american troops. and in iraq, a wave of bombings and shootings killed at least 55 people and wounded than 225 others. remember the story our science correspondent miles o'brien reported about internet voting? we have a follow-up online. kwame holman explains. kwame? >> holman: an election historian gives miles a tour of voting technology over the years. included is a ballot for george washington. that's our science thursday entry this week on our science page.

plus, ahead of sunday's academy awards, we had a doctor examine the accuracy of health themes in this year's top films. that's on our health page. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> 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 nine more.

>> brown: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks, among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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