>> on this edition for saturday, september 14th, the united states and russia strike a deal to eliminate syria's chemical weapons. in our signature segment, a look at british columbia that have dramatically reduced drunk driving deaths. >> these rules epitomize syria's action. >> and how are americans really feeling about the economy? next on "pbs news hour weekend." >> pbs "news hour weekend" is made possible by...

. >> good evening, thanks for joining us. there is now a deal in place to force syrian president bashar al-assad to get rid of all-his chemical weapons by the middle of next year. >> that means a military strike is unlikely any time soon. after three days of marathon talks in switzerland, they announced the agreement. >> the united states and russia

eliminating chemical weapons in the soonest and safest manner. we agree that syria must submit within a week, not in 30 days, but in one week a comprehensive listing and additional details will be addressed regarding that in the coming days. there can be no games, no room for avoidance or anything less than full compliance by the assad regime. >> under the deal, international inspectors would be on the ground in syria in november and almost immediately begin destroying equipment used to produce chemical weapons. one potential complication is how to enforce the inspection agreement when the country is in the midst of a civil war that's resulted in more than 100,000 deaths. the rebel leader pledged today not to interfere with the inspection process but says the deal was nothing more than a stall tactic by the assad regime. >> and we think the russians and the syrian regime are playing

games to waste time and to win time for the criminal regime damascus, there will be no cease-fire. >> can the chemical weapons deelts be enforced and what other weapons does the assad regime retain and how much of a let does it remain? our national security analyst joins us from washington. i have to ask, the rebels said this was a stall tactic. you were at the pentagon, how confident are they in the enforcement of the deal? >> nobody can be confident yet. the deal covers all the bases. it talks about verification. it talks about disposal. it sets tight deadlines. it gives access to the inspecting votes. on paper it's really good t. problem is you never know how any of this works until you go into the field. you will be doing this in a

country that's at war. there are a lot of different sites. they all have different types of weapons. until you actually get there, you don't know what methods of disposal you are going to use. you don't know the problems in moving them if you are going to take them out of the country. you don't even know the technical way to do it. then you run up against the problem of exactly how many are there? can you really do challenge inspection? will he try to hide some? >> so, let's say, best case scenario, the chemical weapons are removed off the table, what about all of the other weapons that the assad regime will still retain that might have been taken out had there been a military strike? >> well, quite frankly, those are the key. they have been the source of virtually every single kashlthty that has occurred. no matter how you estimate it, even if you only count the dead and not some 6 million syrians that have been displaced or made

into refugees, chemical weapons would cause less than 20% of the most conservative estimate in any number of people. the killing mechanisms have been artillery. they have been executions. there has been a u.n. report, issued up on our 9/11 that shows that the primary mechanisms have been things like torture, detention, displacements. this has not been something where chemical weapons have played a major role. and we know first that they can shift very rapidly. after the president made his announcement, the first time that he would use cruise missiles, within hours, they'd show a populated area in syria that was covered by the bbc. after they announced this deal in terms of abolishing chemical weapons, and it was clear

there'd be a pause to the certain government immediately started using air power and artillery again. so this is not going to make much difference as far as any of the syrians are concerned. >> all right. finally, a quick question. i'm assuming even though vladmir putin makes his case in the new york times, he is still applying assad with weapons. we have had statements by members of the congress that there are regular russian shipments. one of the problems we have here is no one has provided any assessment at any level from the administration of our efforts to ship arms, of how many arms they are getting from the 18ian, how many arms they are getting from the russians. we've heard estimates of some 5,000 hezbollah without anyone fully verifying it. there are reports of at least three iranian training camps for

the militia and, yet, none of those have been made public. >> thanks so much for your time. >> thank you. >> and now to colorado where extensive flooding has left hundreds stranded north of denver. the national guard has been air dropping food and water to them. at least four people have died and more than 170 are unaccounted for. new concerns tonight about bus safety. this a greyhound because en route from detroit to cincinnati fell off i-95, flipped over and landed in a corn field. more than 30 people were injured. last year the u.s. department of transportation shut down 26 bus operators, calling them quote imminent hazards to public safety. greyhound was not among if companies cited at that time. and were the two experts from the u.s. environmental protection agency are heading to honolulu. their mission is to try to contain a spill of 1,400 tons of molasses near that city's harbor, which has killed approximately 2,000 fish.

health officials say that number is expected to grow in the coming days. if spill occurred about 5 miles west of the popular way can i can i fourist area. for some new englanders up on their history, the event was a reminder of the great molasses spilled in boston nearly 100 years ago. and now to our original segment featuring original an in-depth reporting around the world. one of our aims to spotlight programs that could conceivably considered in this company. our approach is on a new approach to reduce drinking and driving. it's hardly a topic. but it was back in the noudz when a young man confessed online to his role in a fatal accident. maybe you saw it. >> my name is mathieu cordell. on june 22nd, 2013, i hit and

killed vincent canzani. >> because so many people die in drunk driving accidents, about 10,000 a year. the national transportation safety board recommended tougher laws to stop drinking and driving. a few program in british columbia has been very successful reduceing the number of deaths our news hour correspondent traveled there and files this report. >> reporter: five years ago, a terrible family tragedy occurred here in royal british columbia. but over time, it became much more than that. this tragedy set in motion dramatic changes to the laws governing drink and driving, changes supporters say have already saved accidence of lives. >> that tragedy involved a 4-year-old girl. her name was alexa. >> it was a beautiful may long weekend and my daughter alexa loved this one particular horse and she really wanted to show her grandparents that horse. so i remember saying good-bye to her.

then very shortly after that, we heard all kind of sirens. at that moment i just, i just knew, i said, it's alexa. something's happened to alexa. >> a 56-year-old doing nearly twice the speed limit smashed into the exact spot where alexa stood feeding the horse on the side of the road. the woman admitted to police she had three class ifs of ween before getting into her car. >> when we knew roadside that our daughter was dead, i remember my husband just in the ambulance, we both held each opts and he said, this will not wreck us. this will define us. there will be some change in this. >> reporter: after the accident, alexa's parents, michael and laurel, launched a campaign to try and change the culture around drinking and driving to deter people from doing it their he vent became a local feature on the local news. >> we will honor our daughter

and we will make the necessary changes that number one... >> they soon realized it would take more than that. they realized they had to change the drunk driving laws, which like in the u.s. set the local alcohol limit at .08%. after lobbying the government for nearly a year alongside groups like mothers against drunk driving, their efforts paid off. in 2010, the proishl government not only stiffened penalties against driving at .08 but, more importantly, it targeted drivers who fall below that to .05. two drinks for a woman and three for a man can impair your ability to drive. the big change was if you are now caught driving with a .05 blood alcohol level the police are authorized on the spot to fine you, suspend your driver's license and immediately impound your xar for at least three days. they would get you out of the vehicle and a tow truck would haul it away.

if late 2010, police began enforcing the new laws and police impound lots across british columbia began filling up. the changes sparked an uproar, civil libertarians argued it gave the police too much power. restaurant owners like mark robert said the new laws damaged the economy. he says his business dropped between 10 and 20%. >> when the change of drinking driving laws came out, we knew it was going to have a strong impact on our business. >> what did you think, that customers would suddenly by a played the and wouldn't come to your door? >> we thought there was a lot of unknowns of what that meant a, how many drinks people had. there was little information about how that was going to be enforced, how it was going to impact what people could drink. we were creating non-alcoholic drinks to try to make up for those lost sales. it really was a lot of fear, a lot of unknown and some real changes in people's behavior. >> reporter: and the impact was immediate. during the first year the if you laws were in effect, the number

of drunk driving deaths in british columbia plunged. critics argue that first year was a fluke. but the second year the football declined again. a 55% reduction in deaths in just two years. the message, it seemed, had started getting through to drivers. >> so it was quite well publicized and for deterrence to work it's about as much as knowing and expecting a consequence than fully being likely. people's perception that it was way high than it actually was. >> and that's key? >> it is key. it's very important. >> reporter: he is an expert on policy at the university of victoria, he told us he can't think of a single reform that's had this big of an impact this quickly. he and his colleagues reviewed a peer study of the effectiveness of the new laws. >> these laws epitomize taking action and it's very important to understand that you don't need dra conian severe

penalty -- draconian severe penalties, more important that they are certain and swift. so on the spot, losing your car for three days a week, that's severe enough. the new laws have setbacks. police have problems with breathalyzers. courts ruled drivers deserved a better appeals process. j you this week, a judge ruled in favor of a driver what appealed his 2012 driving suspension. critics say that ruling could force a rewriting of the laws. for now, though, the heart of the laws remain intact. >> what about the argument that there have been so many leaves saved by these new rules that, yes, they may have taken a hit out of the bore business, but to save people's lives, that's an okay price to pay. >> yeah. it's hard to argue that. i simply certainly am not going to sit here and say, well, we should alopeople to drink whatever and whatever the

consequences are, that's the way it's going to be. i certainly wouldn't advocate that. >> why do you think this has been so effective in. >> i think because the consequence is firm. i think that people respond when there is a harsher consequence and i think, too, because it's a larger bowl. just like second-hand smoke, we have no tolerance for that anymore. just like when seatbelts came in, there was that fundamental shift. my goal has always been there will be a fundamental shift that it's not okay to drink and drive. drinking, fine, absolutely drink whatever you like and enjoy and partake, just don't mix it with driving. >> visit the news hour online, use an interactive map that shows the role alcohol plays around the world. you will find our new feature anchor hours where we take your questions about vancouver's drunk driving law. read a transcript of the twitter chat at newshour.pbs.org.

now the economy has surprising findings. a poll from nbc news, for more from that, we are joined by the journal's washington bureau chief. we were particularly struck to the responses to one of your questions, what worries people the most? access to affordable health care, saving retirement tops the list of concerns. 26%, one in four said they most worry about paying for their groceries and utility bills. what does that tell us about the economy? >> well, it tells you what the rest of the finding also tells you which is five years after the economic collapse on wall street, people are not very comfortable with this recovery. you know, people worry about health care. >> that suggests obamacare is addressing the right question even if you don't think it's the right answer. you are right, it is striking how many people woish about things day-to-day right now. the other number that jumped out at me, last fall, 45% of people said they tot the economy was the going to get better over the next 12 months. >> that number is now down to

27%. so, you know, people have been looking for five years for the sign the real recovery that's going to produce the real economic growth may be a little bit of an economic boom is coming. they still don't see tlits and so they're worried not just about the long run, they're worried about the short run. >> the other number i was worried is the number of people in your survey that identify themselves as poor double and the percentage calling themselves middle class has slipped. how unusual is this. >> that is unusual. >> that itself the american dream. the people who are poor and they strive to be middle class. the middle class strive to be riven. you see a reversal of that. the other number in that regard that jumped out to me those people who consider themselves middle class, known% said they might, they fear at least they might drop out of the middle class in the next few years, in the next five years or so. that's a real sign of worry as well. you said, can i pay my grocery bills, my utility bills? this is a number long term

concerns not just short term concerns. >> finally, there is only 24 percent of respondents said they had been affected a great deal by the housing crisis, so what else accounts for this growing number of people who feel poor or think they have fallen out of the middle class? >> two things, if you divide that number by the people who said they were somewhat affected be i the wall street collapse, you get over 50%. so people didn't just observe this crisis. a lot of people felt it affected them or somebody in their family. that's the first thing t. second thing i think it's produced a general anxiety. you see the in a lot of poll numbers. frankly, i think you see it on the debate on syria. this is an uneasy country. even if you didn't feel you were directly affected by the wall street financial crisis, you sort of watched it up close, close enough that you worry about it and it's produced kind of an underlying anxiety and there hasn't been enough economic growth to make that anxiety go away. >> that i think is the real residual effect five years later.

>> jerry, thanks, so much. >> sure. have happy to do it. . >> and now to the arts, last weekend, we promised to showcase arts programming by many reporters and local pbs stations around the nation. today, we make good on that promise. jared bowen of wgbh in boston recently traveled to lennox, massachusetts where he visited the mount. it was the home of one of the great writers edith warton, in many ways her enseparation. even today, edith warton occupies a place as one of america's leading ladies. she was born into the upper crust of new york in the 1,800s. a member of high society exposed through the prism of her pen. warton wrote more than 40 books in 40 years including "ethan fromme" and "age of innocence."

she won a pulitzer prize and she is remembered for her home abound and if a home can serve as an auto biography, the mount is it. sitting on a hill in lennox, massachusetts, the mount was conceived by the writer from the ground up. she dreamed its location, guided its aesthetic principles and designed her elaborate gardens. it was in a sense her own house of myrr which she lived in here. >> this house was an opportunity for her to do things the way they ought to be done. that was to champion a return of classicism, symmetry, balance, proportion. lots of light and opening up spaces and to make them livable. >> reporter: warton denied her home practically. no space went unused. it was large but not grand. and it favored her predeliction for privacy. a writer staged in her library, she actually wrote elsewhere. >> edith warton had always done

her best work writing in bed. that was where the creative genius inspired her. so i think in building the mount, she created a space where she could have the privacy she needed to get her best work done. >> she did love her library, throw, the full two-thirds of her collection has been returned to the mount. >> what does her library tell us about her? >> it's about a remarkable window into edith warton's intellectual life. she was reading and a voracious learner. she was reading in five languages, she was feeling up for a chamg, she was reading books on astronomy and theology. >> her books are riddled with marks, notation and destruction. dismade with one publisher's choice to feature illustrations in one of her books, she found a remedy. >>-her own copy, you can see on the title page, she has crossed out the name of the illustrator in pencil and then there all of

the illustrations have been razored out of the book. >> reporter: amazingly, warton considered herself a better landscape than novelist. >> that is less astonishing which her gardens appear as warton saga. all of this is a welcome second chapter to the mount's history. threatened with foreclosure five years ago, the home has managed to climb out of its fiscal hole and is running in the black. a footing regained. ed to the mount is positioning itself as the berkshire's literary hub, drawing the attention of writers the world over. its champions also include former first lady laura bush who first fell in love with ethan fromme as a west texas school girl. >> people read warton and realize a lot has changed, a lot is still very much the same and she just is so clean and muscular in a way that she sort of expresses it and observes it that her writing is as relevant today as it ever was.

>> this is pbs "news hour" saturday. . >> finally tonight an excerpt of a front line documentary airing tuesday night. it's called "egypt in crisis." the program examines the current chaos and asks, how do we get here and what happens next? >> reporter: from tahrir square, morsi stood already before his supporters in a signal he was not afraid, he showed the crowd he was not wearing any body armo armor. >> he got elected by the people, 52% of the people of the egyptian people. i don't care why they were voting against his opponent, but they elected him. why don't people just accept this? >> reporter: morsi promised to be a president to all egyptians and president obama hailed his election as a milestone in egypt's transition to democracy.

he had won but he was already facing powerful opponents. just a few days earlier, egypt's supreme court hacked with mu baring a judges had declared january's primary election invalid and ordered the parliament shut down. islamist parties led by the muslim brotherhood had won nearly 70% of the seats. >> they destroyed parliament two days before the presidential election and they knew if a president comes with an election voted in, these two institutions can literally start dismantling the old dictatorship bit by bit and they have to dysfunction one lemo element of that. >> the dlem na is the muslims will come to power through elections. this supposedly held the state, so they are in power, but they're actually not in power.

[ music playing ] . >> join us tomorrow on air and online because what's happening in this tiny coastal town in maine hold a key to america's renewable energy future? >> we have known for centuries when the tide is coming and going. we can fell you on this day 20 years from now at this moment how much electricity will be generated. >> recapping our load story, the united states and russia strike a deal to eliminate syria's chemical weapons. that's it for this edition of pbs' "news hour weekend." thanks for watching.

funding for this program is provided in part by aarp reminding you that now is always the time to go forward and reimagine all the possibilities that lie ahead an ally for real possibilities aarp explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you (announcer) from miami florida join us for an unforgettable performance ladies and gentlemen gloria estefan the standards