on this edition for saturday, january 11th, the former israeli political and military leader ariel sharon has died. margaret warner looks back at his life. in our signature segment the rise of poverty in the suburbs. >> we see one of the few food pantries but it's multiplying on a level that it's hard to comprehend. and we'll examine how wages have not nearly kept up with inflation. next on "pbs newshour weekend." "pbs newshour weekend" is made possible by -- lewis b.

cullman and louise hirschfeld cullman. judy and josh weston. joyce b. hale, the wallach family, in memory of miriam and ira d. wallach, cheryl and philip milstein family, rosalind p. walter, the annie e. casey foundation. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america. designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support is provided by -- and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios, hari sreenivasan. >> good evening. ariel sharon one of the most important military and political figures in modern israeli history died today. he was 85. sharon suffered a massive stroke eight years ago and had been in a coma ever since. we'll look at his life right after the news summary.

the winter olympics in russia are four weeks away and today authorities there said they arrested five men they called members of an international terrorist group. they were armed with grenades, ammunition and a bomb. the incident occurred about 190 miles away from sochi. the site of the games. islamic insurgents have threatened attacks during the competition. back in this country, federal authorities are continuing to deliver truck loads of water to charleston, west virginia. some 300,000 people in and around the city have not been able to drink water or use it to bathe since a chemical spill was discovered thursday morning. many people are complaining of headaches, vomiting and rashes. and the settlement has been upheld against b.p. in connection with the oil spill this the gulf of mexico. in october the company projected the cost of the settlement at more than $9 billion, but said it could go significantly

higher. the explosion of the deep water drilling rig and rupture of an oilwell killed 11 people and led to the biggest off shore oil spill in u.s. history. major league baseball's arbitrator reduced alex rodriguez's suspension. it's the longest drug suspension in baseball history and rodriguez will forfeit his yearly salary, $25 million. he may challenge this ruling in federal court. large parts of a tibetan city, one of several claiming to be the inspiration for the fictional paradise shrangly what burned to the ground today. for more on the life of ariel sharon, margaret warner. >> he was one of the most controversial figures. a ferocious military strategist

and hard nosed politician whose life and career spanned the entire 65 year history. at just 20, ariel sharon shone as a platoon commander in the war of independence in 1948 and launched his meteoric but at times contentious military clear. in the years after independence he earned the em myty of many by leading unit 101 and sometimes brutal attacks against resistance fighters and civilians. unit 101 responded to the dilling of three israel -- killing of three israeli civilians with the attack on a west bank town, leaving 69 palestinians dead, including many women and children. it was to be a lesson he wrote years later in the autobiography, i was to inflict as many casualties as i could. i was to blow up every major build managing in the town. his tough and defiant streak

showed up in the suarez war. egyptian soldiers ambushed and killed dozens of his israeli troops. forcing them to retreat. but in the six day war he was hailed as a hero when as a commander in the sinai, he captured the entire peninsula from the egyptian army. he played an important part in the decisive victory that left them in control of the golan heights and sinai. he was lauded for his role as a brigadier general in the yom kippur war when he responded to egypt and syria's surprise attack with a counterattack that cut off the egyptian army in sinai. it marked the turning point in the war. after retiring from the army, sharon plunged into three decades of politics.

as a prime minister's aide and head of different cabinet ministries, he promoted a hard line on security issues. above all he championed the establishment of jewish settlements in the occupied territories. following a rationale he would later describe as everything we take now will stay ours. everything we don't grab will go to them. his most controversial cabinet tenure came as defense minister. beginning in 1981. the following year, after the shelling of northern israel by the palestine liberation organization in lebanon, sharon unleashed an invasion of israel's northern neighbor. the plo was driven from lebanon but thousands of israelis and palestinians died. many hundreds of palestinians slaughtered during a massacre at the refugee camps by lebanese christian militiamen. a commission found that the israeli army indirectly responsible and faulted sharon personally for not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed.

he was dismissed from the defense ministry. but sharon went on to other cabinet posts. overseeing a rapid expansion of jewish settlements in the occupied territories. he opposed the 1993 oslo peace act korlds and in 1998 he declared -- >> israelis against having a palestinian state. and the government is against having the palestinian state here. because of the vengeance. >> in 1999, he was elected leader of the rightist likud party. a year later during his campaign for prime minister, he made a provocative visit to the temple mount, the third most revered by muslims. shortly afterwards the second palestinian uprising or intefadeh begin. later in new york, sharon defended the temple mount visit. >> the temple mount is the

holiest place of the jewish people. i hope i'll be doing that in the future as well. no restrictions. we live in a free country. everyone can go within the sovereign area of israel. >> sharon had defeated ehud barak to become the prime minister in spring of 2001. reacting to an upsurge in suicide bombings by palestinians against israel, he launched the building of the controversial security barrier to separate the two. but in 2005, in a surprise turn around, sharon announced a unilateral withdrawal from the gaza strip, dismantling israeli settlements. the move infuriated many in his conservative constituency and later that year he quit likud to form a new centrist kadima party. he was widely expected to win another term as prime minister. the two strokes, a mild one in december of 2005 and a massive

brain hemorrhage two weeks later put an abrupt end to his political life. the life long warrior, never fully regained consciousness. as the newshour has been reporting, this week marked the 50th anniversary of the war on poverty. president johnson announced the initiative during the 1964 state of the union address. >> our joint federal local effort must pursue poverty. pursue it wherever it exists. in city slums, in small towns. sharecropper shacks or in migrant worker camps. >> that night, the president did not mention poverty in the suburbs. but in the year since the number of americans living in suburbs had surged. it's a very real problem.

newshour correspondent megan thompson has the first report in our year long series poverty in america. >> you want to do the chocolate chip or sugar cookies first? >> by all appearances, this woman is living a comfortable, suburban life. she baked cookies at her mom's place, about 65 miles east of new york city. she owns an suv. the girls spend their days at a nice day-care center. and she works a full-time job. >> people look at me and they judge me by looking at me like, okay, she has a job. you know? she -- you know, she has a home. and, you know, he kids look well taken care of. why would she need any help at all? >> she needs help because by official standards she and her daughters live in poverty. her job as a certified medical assistant pays just over $19,000 a year and offers no benefits.

so she is on medicaid and gets subsidies to pay for medical care she couldn't afford. this single mom lives in the two bedroom house with her mother and pays rent. her car has almost 200,000 miles on it. and is in such bad shape, she's afraid to drive it. >> i live paycheck to paycheck. that's what it is right now. yeah. >> do you have any savings? >> typically, i have enough probably to get me through the next week or so. but as far as having a savings, no. i worry about not being able to have enough food to feed the girls. i worry about them not having the opportunity that other kids are gonna have. so i'm constantly worrying. you know? i'm always worrying. >> according to experts, stories like lee's are becoming more common across the united states. >> there are now more poor residents living in suburbs than

in major cities. >> elizabeth me new bonn is a co-author of a book confronting poverty in america. >> it can be hidden. it can be harder to identify or even understand the extent to which need has grown because it may not be easily visible. >> today the nation's poverty rate is about 15% compared to 19% in 1964. when president johnson declared the war on poverty. >> our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it. >> newbone says some aspects have changed dramatically. >> well, when we saw the launch of the war on poverty, the geography of poverty is very different than today. the bulk of poor people in the country lived in urban areas, big cities or in rural communities. and since that time, we have seen a real shift.

>> according to newbone the number of people living in suburbs has grown by 65%. for example, poverty is up by almost 16% in the suburbs of pittsburgh. up more than 27% in the suburbs of providence. up nearly 79% outside seattle. and in the suburbs of austin, texas, the number of poor has swelled almost 143%. more poor people live in america's suburbs than in cities or rural areas. the main explanation is simply demographics. many more americans have moved to suburbs in recent years. and that growth included low income residents and new immigrants. other factors -- suburbs are still recovering from the foreclosure and financial crises. federal programs for the poor were mostly designed back in the '60s with rural or urban communities in mind. and when hard times came to the suburbs, many were not prepared. >> often, suburban communities

have not built up the same level of infrastructure and safety net support that cities have been building up over decades. >> oh, boy. where do i begin with the challenges? >> richard cusack chairs the welfare to work where lee lives. local governments face greater burdens in the face of federal budget cuts and the winding down of stimulus funds. >> suffolk county in the last couple of years has faced $500 million deficit. >> even though suffolk county has one of the highest median household incomes in the country and multimillion dollar homes in the hamptons, the food stamp caseload is up. that's the case throughout much of american. food stamp use up dramatically coast to coast. >> it can be difficult to try

and scale up to meet the level of need that they're seeing. >> in suffolk county, charities have stepped up as the local governments have had a hard time meeting the demand. food pantry organizers have seen the numbers double in recent years. carol yardmisch leads this one in dix hills. >> you're one of many food pantries and it's multiplying on the level that it's hard to comprehend. >> advocates say they're not just serving people out of work. they see many with jobs who can't make ends meet. just like lee. nationally, real wages adjusted for inflation have been flat for several decades. even as costs continue to rise. >> we also have these larger shifts in the economy where a lot of the jobs we're creating don't pay enough to make ends meet for a family. so even if you're working full-time, you're just not

taking home enough. >> that's especially true in suffolk county. where many working poor don't qualify for government help because they earn too much to be considered officially poor. around $23,500 for a family of four. >> despite our affluence, we have a lot of middle income people who are struggling. we are one of the most expensive communities in the united states in terms of everything. gasoline, housing, food. >> in 2012, the commission put out a study estimating that because of the high cost of living here, the poverty rate's at least 20%. that's three times higher than the official census figure of less than 7%. another major problem and expense is transportation. in many suburbs, public transportation is limited. until recently, buses in suffolk county didn't run on sundays. >> if you're a working poor person, if you're a home health aide, many work on sundays, what

do you do? how do you get to work? you could take a cab, which could eat up to 20% of what you're earning that day. >> so many poor people depend on their car and car insurance and gas eat up about $600, more than 40% of the roughly $1,400 she takes home each month. in case you're wondering, her mom who just turned 60 really isn't in a position to help. she's working two jobs to maintain the family home she inherited. and last year, paid property taxes of around $7,000 on their small two bedroom home. why do you stay in this house and in this neighborhood? it's so expensive. >> because my mother is the only family that i have. this is her home. she said she'll never leave here. >> i can't force her to want to leave just because the cost of living is inexpensive some place else. >> she's gotten no help from the twin's father.

>> the child enforcement is trying to help me locate the dad. before i knew i was pregnant with them, i got up one day and he have gone. >> the situation happened to you, but why should taxpayers help fund some of these programs that you are being helped by? >> i mean, i started working when i was 12 years old. i have been working ever since. i've put injust as much if not more than what i'm asking for, you know? i understand the backlash, i really do. but at the same time, this is only temporary. >> but for the moment, she's facing a catch 22. the more she earns the worse off she might be. because if she accepts the small raises she's been offered another her job, she would earn too much to require for the child care subsidy and if she lost that she'd have to stay home with her kids, meaning she'd have no income at all. >> a system that works against

the system's own interest, it's so counterproductive. >> the welfare to work commission is trying to address this and other issues affecting the working poor. it's pushed for more child care funding. held hearings to call attention to growing poverty and helped get some public bus lines running on sundays and later at night. experts say it's critical for suburbs across the nation to recognize and address the changing face of poverty. >> what we're seeing in terms of the growth in suburban poverty is a real pressing policy concern, looking forward. if we think about the war on poverty, 50 years ago when lyndon johnson declared this war, if everybody had known what was going to happen, what would we have done differently? this is our opportunity now for suburbs to answer those questions. >> one factor contributing to poverty -- stagnating wages. as this graphic shows, wages adjusted for inflation have been flat during the past 45 years. but consumer prices have been

rising sharply during that same period. for more about this and its connection to poverty we are joined now via skype by a contributor for bloomberg business week. let's talk about the gaps between waging and purchasing power. why is that different? >> because if you look at the fact that i made $50 a week let's say for argument's sake and i make $60 right now and it's not bad, in reality you're fooling yourself in real terms because inflation is pernicious even if it's growing in the low single digits like 2% or 2.5% like we have been used to for the past decade. when you compound it over several decades it's like sin singeing off three quarters of your dollar every time you take it of the pocket. in the end, when they can't buy as much as they used to, on what they were making, they get blind sided. >> so what are some of the factors contributing to it? people will say, listen, now, i have access to goods and services from all over the

world, even cheaper prices. so maybe i don't need to make as much. >> well, that is tempered the pain, certainly, but that's a function of really aggressive off shoring and outsourcing and these jobs, these decent manufacturing jobs, it used to be a high school graduate or maybe an associate's degree from a two-year program at a college and get a decent living wage. and maybe get benefits and have hopes of raising a family of four and putting kids through school and what not. that's so deteriorated over the past several decades. you can't count on there being good paying jobs. people are realizing their pension programs are no longer guaranteed. the companies are using increasingly part-time workers and contract workers. >> let's talk about the cliff effect. this urge for people to not want to raise or not make a dollar more than what actually gets them into the poverty zone. >> it's one of the ever green and very valid criticisms of the

social safety net in the united states. it's so frustrating for people on the brink of getting out of assistance, whether it's food stamps or medicaid. but they know for every incental $10 they make, they'll lose all of their benefits. you can't do that. suppose you're making $19,000 a year and you have a chance to make $22,000 a year but you're going to have to pay for out of pocket health insurance or go uninsured and then pay for out of pocket groceries when you were getting food stamps before. it gives you a disincentive to find better paying work. until the system becomes more proportional, you'll have millions of americans especially the food stamp users sticking to the cliff. >> thank you for your time. >> i appreciate it. >> see the challenges the cliff effect presents for three families living on the edge of poverty. watch "losing ground" from our colleagues at rocky mountain pbs.

this is "pbs newshour weekend" saturday. finally tonight, a programming note. tuesday night on pbs, front line premieres secret state of north korea. the documentary featuring never before seen footage smuggled out of the isolated country explores life under kim jong-un. here's an excerpt. >> the undercover footage shows people all over the country being forced to prove their dedication to the new leader. but some resenting having to do it. these soldiers were ordered to build a railroad from kim jong-un's birth place to pyongyang to mark him coming to power.

>> the undercover footage shows a local official criticizing kim jong-un's succession. >> to compensate for his lack of experience, the regime made parallels with his grandfather, kim il-sung, who is still widely worshipped and is officially eternal president of north korea. >> there's all kinds of rumors that kim jong-un even had cosmetic surgery to look like his grandfather. but his style seems to be more like him as well.

join us tomorrow on air and online. nearly 70 years later, germany is still trying to prosecute former nazis for their role in the holocaust. >> because of their age, they may never reach trial or go to prison, but it is just and right that we go after these cases. >> that's it for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching.

>> "pbs newshour weekend" is made possible by -- lewis b. cullman and louise hirschfeld cullman. judy and josh weston. joyce b. hale. the wallach family, in memory of miriam and ira d. wallach. the cheryl and philip milstein family, ber and nard and irene schwartz, rosalind p. walter. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america. designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support is provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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. welcome to classical rewind. i'm martin goldsmith, and this is my music. tonight we're going to take you back with some real oldies from the 16th and 17th centuries. we'll meet many of the great masters and tell their stories. i promise you an exhilarating ride. along the way you're likely to hear melodies that you know but perhaps you don't know why. tonight meet the masters, next on pbs. ♪