captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: syria's government agreed to stop the shooting and implement a peace plan by april 10, according to the united nations and arab league envoy, kofi annan. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest on the prospects for peace, even as the u.s. and others promise to help the rebels. >> woodruff: then, in advance of three more republican primaries tomorrow, we preview the closely watched contest in wisconsin. >> ifill: special correspondent stone phillips reports on new research on the big league hits taken by pint-sized football players. >> because they lack the

protective neck and chest muscles of older players, the youngsters are sort of like bobble-head dolls. almost every hit is like a surprise hit. >> woodruff: jeffrey brown looks at the landslide victory for the opposition party in myanmar's military-dominated parliament. >> ifill: and margaret warner talks to marcia coyle of the "national law journal" about today's supreme court decision upholding routine strip searches. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> city turns 200 this year. in that time, there have been some good days and some difficult ones, but through it all we've persevered supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could

be yours. >> bnsf railway. >> 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: the government of syria signaled today that it is ready to stop the shooting next week. that word came from united nations peace envoy kofi annan, and was met with skepticism by u.s. officials. the former u.n. secretary

general spoke to the security council in closed session and reported no progress toward an immediate cease-fire in syria. instead annan said the syrian government has agreed to withdraw its troops and heavy weapons from towns by april 10. a full cessation of violence would follow 48 hours later. but the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., susan rice, said the syrians have broken similar pledges in the past. >> the united states, for one, would look at these commitments and say yet again that the proof is in the actions not in the words. >> woodruff: meanwhile, in syria, it was another bloody day of clashes. residents of homs said these pictures showed a renewed bombardment by the army of the president assad. this followed another bloody weekend. at least 70 people were killed yesterday, bringing the total number of dead closer to

10,000 in the year since the uprising began. people running away from the violence continue to stream out of syria. this group crossed into turkey where 20,000 syrians are now seeking refuge. yesterday in istanbul, turkey, the group named "friends of syria," including the u.s. and 70 other nations recognized the syrian national council as the legitimate voice of the opposition. secretary of state hillary clinton announced further sanctions and additional aid to syrian civilians and refugees. >> but the united states is also going beyond humanitarian aid and providing support to the civilian opposition, including communications equipment that will help activists organize, evade attacks by the regime, and connect to the outside world. >> woodruff: separately, saudi arabia and other persian gulf

countries planned a $100 million fund to pay syrian opposition fighters and compensate defectors. but they stopped short of shipping weapons to the outgunned fighters who are battling the assad regime. it added up to disappointment for some members of the syrian national council who attended the conference. >> it was not at the level of expectation of the people. >> woodruff: indeed back on the turkey-syria border, the offer of aid but not guns was met with disappointment in refugee camps. >> this will give assad the opportunity to carry out more massacres. >> woodruff: as the fighting continues, the head of the international red cross headed to damascus today on a two-day mission to expand humanitarian operations in syria. for more on this i'm joined by joshualandis.

director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma. he was a senior fulbright scholar in syria in 2005 and runs a web site called syriacomment.com. and hisham melhem, the washington bureau chief for the al arabiya news network. joshua landis, to you first. between the kofi annan efforts and the meeting and efforts of the friends of syria group, do you see promise in all of this for an end to the violence? >> not an end to the violence. in some ways the international community is working at cross purposes because annan is working on essentially a surrender document for the syrian opposition. because it leaves assad in power. it calls for dialogue. the opposition said they don't want any of it. they want to overturn this regime. they don't want to talk with it. and the foreign community, led by the united states, has been promising the opposition that it will beef up its support for it in order to bring down the regime. so there are messages going...

messages at cross-purposes going on here. but to a certain extent this is positive news for the syrian opposition. the foreign community has put them on training wheels, if you will. the foreign... the opposition has been very faxalized. the free syrian army just a few weeks ago called the syrian national council a bunch of traitors. there have been defections from the national council. i think clinton and all are very worried that they're going to invest a lot of money in people they're not sure are going to be winners. they're giving support. but they aren't guaranteeing a lot yet. they're going to... in a sense they're saying come back in a few months and show us that you've got a real leadership. >> woodruff: are they working at cross purposes in your view or do you see some positive movement here? >> obviously the syrian opposition is working for regime change. in arab states are working for regime change. the united states essentially is calling on assad to leave power. and the american position did not change. i think those who believe that

assad will accept the annan plan are few. and the opposition is convinced, according to people i spoke with-- and according to the public pronouncement-- that he's not going to implement anything. by the way, judy, you know, last year he gave the same assurances to the turks, to the arab league, to the united nations. every time such commitments are made, quote unquote, we've seen intensification of fighting. i mean, people are focused now on the cease-fire. but even if you have a cease-fire, the other conditions will be practically impossible for assad to implement. is he going to release tens of thousands of political prisoners? is he going to allow unfettered access to the international media? if that happens, i can assure you what you will see in the streets are massacres, in alep owe. hundreds of thousands of syrians demonstrating. he will be forced to shoot them otherwise he will fall. >> woodruff: you don't see progress. >> i don't think we see progress. i don't expect that. i think if you read what the secretary of state and the

clinton has been saying and others go through the process so they will return to the security council to give them another chance. i hear from american officials that they are sensing a slight-- and i underline slight-- change in the russian position. they are talking now more and more by russian impatient with assad. >> woodruff: do you see that glimmer of hope on the part of the russians, joshua landis, and do you see the difficulties that hisham melhem is laying out here? >> well, i certainly understand what hisham melhem is saying. i think he's absolutely right. i think the russians are about to turn on the syrians nor the chinese nor the iranians. you know, president assad has been pounding the syrian opposition in the last month-and-a-half. he believes... he stated just the other day that the opposition was finished, that he was wrapping up. that he's mopping up things. that's what he's hoping. that's why he's given the date of april 9. he thinks he can beat this opposition. clearly the international community believes that devastating sanctions

supporting the opposition that in the long run the, you know, the sunni muslims are 65% of syria. the others are 12%. that's the leading group in the military and the president. and that this is going to be decided on the part that the sunnis are going to win. that's a win for america. it's pro saudi arabia. it's anti-iran. it's good for the majority of syrians. so that's what they're counting on. i think that's going to be a long, drawnout struggle of years because the syrian military is still very strong. it's professional. and the people at the top are dedicated to carrying out this... to quelling this insurgency. so the united states has a big job ahead of it in trying to get this opposition together so they can bring down the army. >> woodruff: hisham melhem, between what you mentioned that may be some softening in the russian position, this notion that, no, the friends of syria, they're not providing weapons but there is money, support, going to the friends of syria. why wouldn't that begin to

make a difference on the ground? >> those who are arming or are likely to arm the syrian opposition are not going to commit themselves publicly. i can guarantee you from what i hear, from arab diplomats that weapons and money are pouring in or they will be pouring in on a massive scale in the immediate future. the united states now is going to provide medical aid, communication gear, and the secretary hinted, secretary clinton hinted that it will be intelligence information. the united states is watching the situation with their drones and their satellites and whatnot. intelligence is extremely important. actionable intelligence helping the opposition will be extremely important for them. so what you're going to see is a protracted fight, obviously. but the regime is not as powerful as the regime would like to maintain and to create the picture that it is... the sanctions are biting, there are more defections. people talk about between 10 and 40,000 defectors.

we've seen demonstrations in the heart of damascus, in the heart of the syrian capital. assad cannot preside over a failed state, a north korea-like state on the levant. it's a question of time. but definitely the syrian opposition got a boost. they didn't get what they want obviously but we're getting closer to the day where it will be overthrown. >> woodruff: joshua landis, do you see the holes in the armor or chin k-s in the armor of the assad regime and what about this promise that they will stop the violence a week from now? >> well, they're not going to be able to stop the violence. the opposition is going to take it to the army. the syrians are going to blame this on the opposition. they're going to say, "look at, how can we stop? our duty is to bring security to the nation. we're not going to let these people shoot at us and pull out of the cities." they're going to have a ready- made excuse. this is going to go on because both sides believe that time

is on their side, that they can win this fight. they both feel confident or at least they're trying to exude confidence on both sides. we're in for a long, protracted struggle. it's going to take time for the syrian opposition to get a command structure, to get the proper arms. i believe they will pour in. slowly the balance of power will be brought on to the side that saudi arabia and the americans are willing to arm. and that they will win this war in time. but it's not going to happen in a year. >> woodruff: joshua landis, hisham melhem, we thank you both. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour, tomorrow's primary contest in wisconsin; hard hits for young football players; a victory for the opposition in myanmar; and strip searches of minor offenders. but first, with the other news of the day, here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: a gunman opened fire at a christian college in oakland, california, this morning.

police reported seven people were killed and three wounded. a short time ago, i spoke to rachel dornheim of kqed public radio, who was on the scene in oakland. >> this morning, there was... police would say they received a 911 call from the university, reports of a multiple shooting, i believe they're saying. the tragic incident. they seem to have the shooter. they took someone into custody far from the university or at least not on the university's site, a little bit later in the morning. they're still being very careful and have swat teams searching the building and area to see if there might be anyone else who was involved. >> sreenivasan: we saw pictures of helicopters hovering over the area. we basically saw some of the victims laid out on the lawn, right? >> yes. that was the scene here. this area is in a low industrial park, very close to the oakland airport. a lot of people in the adjoining office building said they didn't know about anything because it is so spread out. but there was this drama unfolding. information is coming out that

students were escorted from the building in the aftermath and put directly into armored vehicles and taken away by oakland police department. >> sreenivasan: have the police released any information about the suspect they have in custody? >> no. there's very little known about both the suspect and the victims at this time. there are some reports that it may have been a former nursing student at this university, but the police said they're busy talking to witnesses. an ongoing investigation. they're not releasing any confirmation. >> sreenivasan: thanks so much for your time. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: iraq marked a milestone of declining violence today. the government reported deaths from attacks in march were the lowest since the u.s.-led invasion, nine years ago. official figures said 112 people were killed, many of them in coordinated bombings and shootings on march 20. in pakistan, the widows and daughters of osama bin laden were convicted today of entering the country illegally. at this court in islamabad, the five women were sentenced to a short prison term.

they got 45 days, with credit for time already served. the women will be deported to their home countries after finishing out their sentences in about two weeks' time. they were detained last may, when u.s. commandos killed bin laden at his compound in abbottabad. president obama defended his health care law today, as the u.s. supreme court ponders its fate. the president said, "it's constitutional." and he echoed past warnings by conservatives again judicial activism by an "unelected" body. >> i'm confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress. >> sreenivasan: the supreme court is expected to rule on the law in june. today marked the one-year anniversary of the first full- facial transplant performed in

the u.s. the recipient, dallas wiens of texas, appeared alongside his doctors in boston, where he had the ground-breaking operation. he had suffered near-fatal burns on a construction site. the accident left the 26-year- old wiens permanently blind. the credit card processor global payments worked today to reassure card holders, after a major security breach last week. the atlanta-based firm said the problem is "absolutely contained," but the investigation continues. initially, it appeared hackers stole credit card numbers for one and a half million visa and mastercard users across north america. today global payments said the number affected may be smaller. martha johnson has resigned after accounts of lavish spending. the "washington post" reported today on a training conference that ran up costs of $835,000. the expenses included $3200 for a mind reader and $75,000 on a training exercise to build a bicycle. the g.s.a.oversee supplies,

office space and transportation for federal agencies. on wall street, stocks opened the second quarter with modest gains after a key index showed gains in manufacturing. the dow jones industrial average added more than 52 points to close at 13,264. the nasdaq rose 28 points to close above 3119. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: and we turn to the presidential campaign. republicans go to the polls tomorrow in three places: maryland, washington, d.c., and battleground wisconsin. mitt romney focused exclusively on wisconsin today. campaigning alongside popular congressman paul ryan who endorsed him last week. >> if we have leaders that are willing to tell the truth and live with integrity, who understand how to lead and understand how the world and the economy works, and are willing to draw on the patriotism and willingness to sacrifice of the american people, we will rise to the occasion, overcome our

challenges and keep america as it has always been: the hope of the earth. i intend to be one of those leaders with your vote tomorrow. >> ifill: romney also earned the backing of wisconsin's republican senator ron johnson who like ryan said it's time for the party to rally behind the nominee. >> governor romney is the person to lead our party, to lead our nation. >> ifill: with 42 delegates up for grabs in tomorrow's winner take all contest a wisconsin victory could boost romney's mathematical chances of capturing the nomination. wisconsin's g.o.p. voters are clustered in the conservative milwaukee suburbs where romney has been outspending rick santorum 4 to 1. as a result, romney has held a comfortable lead in every recent poll. he's also expected to do well in maryland and washington d.c., which also hold primaries tomorrow. santorum remains romney's chief rival. he said he plans to remain in the race. he's been campaigning heavily

in wisconsin over the past several days. newt gingrich, who spent today in maryland, vowed yesterday to fight on until romney officially wins enough delegates to clinch the nomination. >> he has to earn the 1144. we're not going to concede it to him. >> ifill: as romney has stepped up his attacks on president obama, the democrats have begun to push back. >> i think governor romney is a little out of touch. >> this is about the middle class. none of what he's offering does anything. it's just return to the old policies. >> ifill: at a white house news conference today, the president said his plan is to ignore his republican critics... for now. >> it's still primary season for the republican party. they're going to make a decision about who their candidate will be. it's worth noting that i first arrived on the national stage with a speech at the democratic convention that was

entirely about american exceptionalism. and that my entire career has been a testimony to american exceptionalism. but i will cut folks some slack for now because they're still trying to get their nomination. >> ifill: after tomorrow the next voting doesn't occur until april 24. in delaware, connecticut, new york, rhode island, and critically in santorum's home state of pennsylvania. so what is at stake tomorrow in wisconsin? so what is at stake tomorrow in wisconsin? susan page, washington bureau chief of "u.s.a. today," is just back from a reporting trip there. and craig gilbert of the "milwaukee journal sentinel" newspaper joins us from milwaukee. , let's start with you. we've heard that there are five polls out now showing romney with a pretty substantial lead. is everything as it appears? >> well, he does have a steady lead. i wouldn't call it a commanding lead. it's somewhere between 5 and 10 points. it hasn't really moved around. very much. i mean it's... when the candidates came here they stepped into a very strange

and unique environment where the recall fight over wisconsin's governor has really dominated everything. i think it's made it difficult for santorum to punch through that aura of inevitability that mitt romney reacquired in the last few weeks. >> ifill: tell me about wisconsin. who are the romney voter theirs in the g.o.p. primary and who are the santorum voters. >> santorum's strength has been in rural areas and romney's strength has been in more upscale sub urban areas. there is a big rural vote in wisconsin but the heart of the republican electorate in wisconsin are in these counties that ring milwaukee where you have... they generally deliver massive turnouts and massive... for republicans. one of these counties gave john mccain his biggest raw net vote margin in 2008. these counties really tend to determine the outcome of republican primaries. i would expect to see romney do pretty well in that part of

the state. >> ifill: are conservative voters like that, are they beginning to coalesce around romney, he would like to say they are, or are they still kind of flirting with rick santorum. >> craig and i were at the g.o.p. dinner saturday night. >> ifill: what a nice way to spechbd saturday night. >> i think there were basketball games going on too. we didn't see those. in talking to voters there, voters who were inclined toward santorum i found several of them saying i like santorum but it's time to get this race over. there's concern that this battle, this continuing primary is hurting the republican prospects in november. all the republicans i talked to their number one goal is getting rid of barack obama, denying him a second term. even if it means supporting romney who might not necessarily be their first choice. >> ifill: are there messages on television there as harsh as they have been or is it all beginning to tail off at this staining? >> i can't remember the last time i saw a positive ad for anybody. santorum is up with a new negative ad that likens romney to obama in his positions.

so there's a lot of... there continues to be a lot of negative ads. i think if you're watching the air waves, there's just nobody to feel very good about. >> ifill: craig, there have been a couple of big endorsements in the last several days. feels like they're being rolled out in a pretty regular way. for wisconsin voters especially, the republican senator ron johnson and also paul ryan last week. does it matter, these endorsements? >> i think it's been helpful. i mean paul ryan has sort of been mitt romney's inseparable escort around the state since friday. he's very popular in the state. and both ryan and johnson, you know, kind of give the conservative seal of approval in wisconsin. to mitt romney. so i think that has been helpful. >> ifill: have we seen any sign of competition coming from newt gingrich or ron paul in wisconsin? >> not much. they really haven't been a factor. one thing that struck me about the polls in wisconsin is if you look at the personal popularity ratings of both santorum and romney they're almost identical.

they're both fairly positive among republican primary voters, but i think that tells you that romney's advantage really is about this sense that he's the nominee and that it's time for republicans to move on to the general election phase. >> ifill: it does seem to be a pretty stredy drum beat. is there pressure being brought in... from the republican establishment or from any republicans to get santorum to step aside? >> i think a lot of senior republicans would like santorum to step aside. that's really a decision that santorum gets to make. and some concern that if you push him in that direction maybe he'll resist or make it harder for him to get out. the big question is, if he loses tomorrow in wisconsin, as we expect, does he choose to hang on for three weeks for his home state of pennsylvania or does he give it up then? if you listen to what he said today, he says he's in it all the way to the convention in tampa. >> ifill: doesn't seem to be a lot of incentive to get out at this point. i wonder to what degree this

makes it more difficult for mitt romney to do what he says he wants to do which is start focusing on president obama. >> i think if mitt romney wins wisconsin tomorrow night and we expect him also to win d.c. and maryland, that wednesday morning starts the general election. i think that mitt romney, the reporters who cover him in this campaign and the obama campaign, move on to a general election strategy, whatever rick santorum or newt gingrich or ron paul does. >> ifill: in a state like wisconsin, craig, where president obama did pretty well in 2008 we've seen, according to polls that the president is doing pretty well in a theoretical head to head. is that something which is going to... when the race changes, talking about the general and if it's over in wisconsin or is it still competitive? >> i think the republican party certainly thinks it's competitive. i think, you know, fact that it was so close in 2000 and 2004 and the fact that the republican party had such an

historically successful election in 2010 in wisconsin makes wisconsin a very tempting blue state target for the republicans not to mention the fact that the chairman of the republican national committee is from wisconsin. they will go after wisconsin. i think that lead will tighten as republicans rally around mitt romney assuming he's the nominee. then we'll find out in the summer and the early fall if the republicans can hang in there in wisconsin. >> ifill: what about the recall movement, the effort to recall the republican governor. is that mobilizing republicans? >> absolutely. it's mobilizing everybody. i mean it's the recall that consumes and angers and exasperates and inspires and energizes people. nothing else is a close second. both sides are getting kind of a trial run, organizationally, in this recall election that's coming up in june. and we're going to see, you know, a very polarized state turn out in extreme numbers in november as a result. >> ifill: finally, susan, i was referring to your newspaper showing the

president opening up kind of a theoretical lead over the republicans. what is driving that? >> we've done five of these polls since october. for the first time a significantly for any candidate this time for the president and it's due to shifts in support among women especially women under 50. now by 2 to 1 supporting president obama over mitt romney. so this debate that we've had over about the last month that involves contraception and planned parenthood some of these other issues it seems clear that that's reverberating with a lot of women who are moving to the president's side. mitt romney now has a 19-point gender gap with women. there are not enough men in america to elect you if you have a 19-point gender gap with women. that is something that campaign is going to have to address. >> ifill: we'll be watching to see how they do that. susan page with usa today and craig gilbert of the milwaukee journal sent sentinel. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, little kids and the danger of hard hits in youth football. there's been growing awareness of the risks of head injury for

those who play football at the high school level and higher, particularly at the professional level. but new research shows that young players may be knocking each other down with more force than many realize. special correspondent stone phillips produced this report for his own web site, stonephillipsreports.com. >> reporter: these seven- and eight-year-old boys played football for the eagles, a team in virginia. they're watching highlights from a memorable season. memorable because last fall their team took part in a ground breaking study. the first of its kind on head impact in youth football which accounts for 70% of those playing tackle football in this country. >> if you look at the nfl, you're talking about 2,000 players. college 100,000. 1.3 million in high school.

3.5 million youth, 6 to 13-year-old. we know a lot about the adult. we don't know much at all about this youth population. >> reporter: this man conducted the study. he's a professor of biomedical engineering at virginia tech. and a leading researcher in the field of injury biomechanics. the testing he does here is aimed at engineering better, safer designs for the auto industry, the military, even toy companies. learning about the limbs of human tolerance for impact and injury. for years he has also been focused on football helmets and player safety. his youth study with a auburn eagles began by providing the team with new helmets. seven of them outfitted with sensors to major hits to the head. the technology isn't new. but applying it to kids as young as seven and eight is. how does the helmet system work? >> what we do is we take a series of six, a battery and a wireless transmitter.

>> reporter: these are the sensors. >> we put it in the crown of the top part of the helmet. here it's shown in black. these sensors measure the head motion and the transmitter transmits to the computer on the side lines to record every impact every practicing game. >> reporter: if i hit this helmet right here, we'll see it on the computer. >> that's right. there you go. you see the top impact with 27.4 gs. >> reporter: you're going to hear a lot about g in this report. it's the unit for measuring acceleration, in this case, acceleration of the brain caused by sudden impact from a hit on a football field. the researcher said you can reach 5 g by jogging or doing jumping jacks. 15 to 20 g in a really aggressionive pillow fight and 40 g heading a soccer ball. using this helmet testing device he demonstrated what an 80-g impact is like. he says 80-g is a big hit in

college football. he knows because over nine seasons he's wired helmets and recorded more than 150,000 head impacts among players at virginia tech. the first college to use the system. the data helped duma understand what makes a safer helmet. for virginia tech's team doctor, the instant readout on the side line is an invaluable tool. >> i kind of think of it almost like a little bit of an early warning system. >> reporter: the beeper goes off any time there's a hit of 98-g or above. that's a red flag for possible concussion. >> that's somebody that i could potentially pull off the field and bring him to is side line right away and get an evaluation. >> reporter: he works closely with duma, and he says taking their college research model to youth football was overdue. >> sort of the standard thought process was, gee whiz, they're small. they don't weigh very much. they don't run very fast. you know, it's kind of like,

you know, beehive football. everybody runs around the ball. some of the kids fall over. not a big deal. but we needed know. is it a big deal or not? >> reporter: so duma's research team spent a season, every practice and all eight games, with the eagles, collecting impact data from the seven players wearing the special helmets. the eagles' coach welcomed the virginia tech study. >> i was very excited about it. it was the first time anything had been done to evaluate the hits that these kids are seeing on an everyday basis, whether in practice or in games. >> reporter: in college john clark was old school. a tough guy who played through injury. and he thinks possibly concussion. >> these are defensive ends. >> reporter: he says that's not an option for his players. >> who do you think would.... >> reporter: do you think about concussion differently with your son playing? >> i do. i'm not thinking about myself anymore. my son tray, if he had received a hard hit and felt foggy or was acting a little

bit differently, obviously i would pull him out. >> reporter: he wouldn't get the, "son, you play through this" routine? >> absolutely not. none of the coaches on my team would every do that. >> reporter: what did the study find? the research documented a total of 753 impacts. >> if you look at the course of the season, the average player in this youth football, from 6 to 8 years old, sustains about 107 impacts over the course of that season. you can compare that to high school which is about 500. and then college which is about 1,000 a season. >> reporter: what kind of magnitudes did you see? >> the mnitudes are very interesting. the median impact is 15-gs. that means half the impacts are above 15-gs, half are below 15-gs. >> reporter: remember, duma says 15-g is like an aggressionive pillow fight. in the same range where the vast majority of hits occurred. >> i'm not really concerned about the 10 to 20-g range.

people see that in their everyday life. when you start to get into the 30, 40, you start to think maybe these add up over time. we don't know. but that's sort of a cumulative risk of injury. when you're talking about acute injury now you're talking the higher level hits. >> reporter: those are the ones that really interest duma because they carry greater risk. the study recorded 38 impacts of 40-g or greater. significantly almost every one of those hits happened during practice. >> the impacts and the number of impacts that were into the 40, 50, 60-g range were more than what i would have expected. >> reporter: how did they compare with what you see with the virginia tech players? >> some of the impacts are similar to the big impacts you'll see on a college field. we saw, for example, six impacts over 80-gs. 80-g starts to get into the lower range of what we would consider to be a risk of concussion. that's a very high level

acceleration even in the college football you're into the 95th percentile range. we'll see five or six or seven impacts at that level throughout the whole game. so you see it but not very often. >> reporter: he explains that because they lack the protective neck and chest muscles of older players, the youngsters are sort of like bobble-head dolls. so, as he put it, almost every hit is like a surprise hit. >> because the neck is so small and so underdeveloped, relative to the head size, that's one of the reasons i think we're seeing some of these larger accelerations but there's no muscle tone that is affecting any of this. with the kids when you start seeing 50, 60, 70, 80-g blows, you're going wow! i mean that is really impressive in terms of the load that's occurring. again you have a young athlete, developing brain, subject to those kinds of loads. it's concerning. >> reporter: fortunately none of the eagles suffered a concussion this season.

why is it that some impacts will cause a concussion and others of the same magnitude will not? >> well, there are two basic reasons. one is direction and how you're hit. it's a big big factor. getting hit with a lateral impact versus a front impact. those are issues. our brain has different tolerances in different directions. the other issue is everybody is very different. our genetic make-up and ability to stand impact is different, it's different for our whole body. >> reporter: the effect of an 8-g hit on a college player versus the effect of an 80-g hit on a seven- or eight-year-old, how does it compare. >> 80-gs on an adult or kid is still 80. it's a lot of energy. how many they can sustain what's happening at the brain especially at the cellular level that's a real unknown right now. >> reporter: his research found that among those six impacts, 80-g or greater, there was one remarkably big hit. >> the highest one we measured was 100-g which puts you right

in the middle average of a concussion. >> reporter: is that surprising to you? >> it's very prizing. that's one of the reasons we wanted to collect the data. no one knew what this would look like. we had no idea how hard the kids were hit. there's a lot of discussion that maybe we need to change the design of a youth helmet. we have data is that would back up some of those design characteristics. >> reporter: including information on where each hit landed. the helmet system tracks all of that. >> what you see in the youth that you don't see in the adult is almost always you have this helmet to helmet contact because the head is so much a large part of their body. we don't have the head-to-ground impacts that you would see in a college level. mostly it's helmet to helmet and right on the front of the shell. >> reporter: are children more susceptible to head injury? >> that's a great question. on the one hand children recover quicker. they can recover and sustain injuries a little better. but on the other hand, the brain is still developing its not fully formed. it's not fully wired.

we just don't understand what that long-term effect is. >> reporter: virginia tech opened the doors to its football locker room. so duma could present his findings to the eagles and their parents. >> this is what the data looks like. this is what we get on the side line. we do linear acceleration, how the head moves linear and the rotating twisting moment. we capture that for every single impact. >> reporter: he and the doctor walked parents through the study. and what the results could teach them. >> the one area where we have i think a huge opportunity to reduce the risk of concussion and reduce the risk of head injuries i think occurs in practice. what we need to do is be very, very cautious with any kind of live or hitting drills and mitigate that risk in the situation that we can control which is really on the practice field. >> what we can do is take this data and use it to drive future designs. how do you want to develop these helmets for the youth versus an adult? how do we make it lighter? how do we change the

propertys? do we change the shape and the padding to tailor a helmet for little kids as opposed to just wearing basically an adult helmet? >> what did you think about what you heard? >> i thought... i was shocked by the amount of impact that these little kids can put out. >> a lot of times people don't think about the young kids hitting as hard. honest, i didn't realize it either. the data don't lie. >> one of the things i was really worried about. and to see the data is surprising. actually a really good thing. i was surprised we didn't have any injuries actually by watching some of the hits these kids took. >> these studies need to be done at these level especially if these kids continue to play. >> reporter: the findings of the virginia tech study may encourage youth teams across the country to take a closer look at ways to make games and especially practices safer. and it will hardly quiet the debate about whether kids this

age should be playing tackle football at all. for eagles' coach john clark, who lives and breathes the game, the study delivered a high impact message about making football safer to make it better. >> i believe the game will flourish because of this study. there's no reason to be afraid of the information. the information is real. it's there. it's what we do with it. >> woodruff: you can ask stone phillips your questions about the research on young football players. join us for live chat at noon, eastern time, tomorrow. find the details on our home page. >> ifill: next, a remarkable landslide victory that catapults a political icon from imprisonment to power in

myanmar, the nation also known as burma. john irvine of independent television news reports. >> reporter: aung san suu kyi, m.p. she has just become an elected politician for the first time and it seems her party has done very well in the relative handful of seats it could contest. but such success might make the regime here nervous so she's been careful not to sound overly triumphant. >> we hope that this will be the beginning of a new era where there will be more emphasis on the role of the people in the everyday politics of our country. we also hope that we will be able to go further along the road toward national reconciliation. we would welcome all parties who would wish to join us in the process of bringing peace and prosperity to our country. >> reporter: burma hasn't known peace or prosperity for

a long time. but the regime will be hoping that foreign investment enabled by the lifting of sanctions will be their reward for accepting the lady into the political fold. ( cheers and applause ) for her part, she now has an inside seat which she can use to ensure that after all the waiting, her down-trodden constituents get a fair deal and a future. >> ifill: jeffrey brown takes the story from there. >> brown: and with me is priscilla clapp, a retired foreign service officer who served as chief of mission at the u.s. embassy in myanmar from 1999 to 2002, and last visited the country in january. she's now a senior advisor to the asia society. >> thank you very much. >> brown: it's still her party has a small minority of parliament. how do you see the significance of this victory? >> the significance is not in the numbers. of the seats in the parliament. it is in the size of the

victory. the information that we're getting right now is her party, the national league for democracy, took all of the 44 seats that they contested including four seats in the capital where... which is only inhabited by government officials and military. >> brown: even they.... >> even they must have voted for her party. >> brown: tell us a little bit about the government. if you think about how the government will now respond to this victory. are there pro and anti-reform factions within the government? how unified is it? >> yes, there is definitely a small conservative... actually probably a fairly sizable conservative faction, a small reform faction. the reform faction is on top. leading to reforms that the conservatives are resisting. they don't have an alternative program. this is going to create more tension between them. it could go one of two ways. either the reformers come out saying, look, our party, the

government party, is going to have to appeal to the people if it's going to win the elections, the next general elections in 2015. or the conservatives could say, look, you brought the n.l.d. back into the political arena and you've made a big mistake. you're now threatening our majority in the parliament. so you're on the wrong side of this. we have to move back to a more restrictive form of government. >> brown: it's interesting. i saw some speculation that some parts of the ruling party wanted her to win. even beating their own candidates, right? because they want to show the outside world. >> yes. absolutely. there is a at stake here with the outside world. they wanted to have at least heroin, but a fairly good win for the n.l.d. i don't think they expected the n.l.d. to take all the seats. that is really a major victory but it will help them with sanctions and with support from the outside world. it's going to help the reform

aagenda. it will help the outside world with the reform agenda. >> brown: i want to ask you about aung san suu kyi herself now. what happens to her? she's a symbol around the world as an outsider as an opposition figure. now she gets into government and sort of has to get into the nitty-gritty. >> she will be in the parliament. and the parliament is actually very visible part of the government now because they have a budding c-span there. they actually show it on television. she will now be on television for the national public, fairly often in the parliament she will continue to be a bigger and bigger symbol. i think she'll be very careful about how she manages her saying in front of the people she'll be dealing with there. i think she's going to be very careful but she will use the opportunity, i suspect, to make friends with the ex-military and the military that is sitting in the parliament because she believes that unless you have the military behind... firmly behind the reform it's not

going to work. >> brown: now you mention the sanctions. this is one of the questions of what happens now, right? what kind of discussions would be happening in washington and european capitals about how to proceed from here? >> leaders in all of the capitals have used april 1 as the date when they start seriously thinking about rolling back sanctions, even aung san suu kyi said let's see how the elections go on april 1. that will be the first test. and then think about rolling back sanctions. it's agreed that this is the time to begin thinking seriously about how you roll them back. i think the europeans will lead on this. it's going to be more difficult for the u.s. senators mcconnell, mccain, kerry and others have said it's time... if things go well on the first of april, it's time to start looking at rolling back sanctions. but our sanctions are extremely complicated legally. it's going to be difficult to do. >> brown: these are all aimed at economic reforms, right? >> well, we also had a lot of

political and administrative sanctions in place but those were easier to start moderating. because they were more under the control of the executive branch. but the economic sanctions are all legislative. and so they're going to require changes in legislation. that's difficult, as you know. and there are many different kinds of economic sanctions but the most comprehensive is the financial sanctions on the use of u.s. financial services. >> brown: all right. priscilla clapp on myanmar, thanks so much. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: finally tonight, the u.s. supreme court issued a split decision today in a case that pit jail security needs against personal privacy rights. here's margaret warner. >> warner: the justices ruled 5-4 that jail officials may strip search all incoming inmates no matter how minor the charges against them. the ruling came in the case of

albert florence of new jersey who was strip searched twice after being arrested on an out- of-date warrant for an unpaid fine. for more on the decision, we are joined, as always, by marcia coyle of the national law journal. welcome back, marcia. >> thank you. >> warner: remind about the facts of this case. mr. florence was driving with his wife and son on the highway. they're stopped. that's when the trouble began. >> the state trooper who stopped them got identification of the owner of the car which was mr. florence. checked his records. found there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. it was actually an erroneous warrant for an unpaid fine related to an incident seven years earlier. mr. florence had paid the fine. he was arrested because of the warrant. and transported to the burlington county jail where one of two strip searches ultimately occurred. the first strip search he had to strip naked, lift his genitals, open his mouth, lift his tongue, turn around, lift his arms. he was held there for six days

and then transported to the essex county jail. he was strip searched again. the only difference was they added to this strip search squat and cough. >> warner: justice kennedy wrote said this was not an ununconstitutional search. >> he brought a civil rights claim saying that his fourth amendment rights had been violated by the strip search. justice kennedy basically gave four reasons for saying this was not unreasonable. first he said that the strip search allows prison officials to detect and deter contraband coming into a jail. it also prevents diseases from coming into the jail population, and helps prison officials identify and isolate gang members. finally justice ken kennedy said that sometimes people who are arrested for minor offenses turn out to be very dangerous. he pointed to timothy mcveigh, the oklahoma city bomber, who was stopped for driving without a license plate just

hours after the oklahoma city bombing. >> warner: justice breyer wrote the dissent for four of the justices. >> yes he did. he was joined by justices ginsberg, society mayor and kagan. justice breyer felt there wasn't enough evidence here to justify strip searching people who committed minor offenses. he said reasonable suspicion should be required if the minor offense was related to drugs or unrelated to drugs or violence. he pointed to empirical evidence showing these strip searches really don't end up identifying a lot of contraband. >> warner: two of the justices, chief justice roberts, and justice alito, joined in the majority opinion but also wrote their own. what was that about? what was the thrust of theirs? >> they actually see a limit, a narrow opinion here. at the end of justice kennedy's opinion, justice kennedy said that the court

did not have to decide that a strip search of someone who is not going to be sent into the general prison population was reasonable or unreasonable. and also he said there may be concerns raised if there were touching of someone who was being strip searched by prison officials. justices... justice alito and chief justice roberts made it clear that the majority was not saying that it is always reasonable to strip search someone. they wanted to emphasize that, that there may be exceptions down the road. >> warner: bottom line here is that the majority rejected the contention that you can draw a line between who might be dangerous enough to be strip searched and who wouldn't. >> that's true. it's always been the case, i think, that the court has genelly deferred to prison and jail officials when it comes to matters of security. they did struggle with how you draw that line during the oral arguments in the case.

>> warner: what will be the practical effect of this? justice kennedy said in his opinion that something like 13 million americans are actually taken into jail each year? >> that's right. it's also estimated that 700,000 of those are arrested for minor offenses. there were at least seven federal appellate courts that had required reasonable suspicion for people arrested for minor offenses. that's no longer the case in those states in which the federal appellate courts operate. there are at least ten states that had laws as well. depending on how those laws are written, they may be open to challenge if they require reasonable suspicion. yes, it will have quite an impact. we'll have to wait and see down the road if the court will recognize exceptions. >> warner: marcia coyle, as always, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. >> ifill: again, the other

major developments of the day. the government of syria signaled it's ready to stop the shooting on april 10. the news was greeted with skepticism by u.s. officials. a gunman killed six people and wounded three others at a christian college in oakland, california. police said they had a suspect in custody. online, we have more on the opposition's win in myanmar yesterday. hari sreenivasan explains. hari? >> sreenivasan: special correspondent kira kay filed a blog post examining the election returns. and find links to kira's earlier stories. that's on the rundown. was the suspect in the killings of afghan citizens taking prescription drugs, and could that have played a role in the killings? find that story on our world page. on paul solman's making sense page, see a roundup of all his reporting on economic inequality. and join stone phillips for an online chat at noon eastern tomorrow about his story on pint-sized football players taking big league hits. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll look at the one-acre fund, an effort to turn

africa's smallest farms into successful businesses. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. citi. supporting progress for 200 years. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic

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