captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: the drug-store chain c.v.s. said today it will stop selling cigarettes and all other tobacco products by october. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. also ahead this wednesday, a u.n. panel's blistering rebuke of the vatican for how it has dealt with clergy accused of sexually abusing children. >> woodruff: and we go to california where there's a big push to get latinos to sign up for health insurance. a group critical to the success of the affordable care act. >> if you look at, historically, who have been the uninsured, it is the latino community. >> woodruff: those are just some of the stories we're

covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i've been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. the ones getting involved, staying engaged. they are not afraid to question the path they're on. because the one question they never want to ask is, "how did i end up here?" i started schwab with those people. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org

>> 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. >> ifill: millions of winter- weary americans got no relief today. instead, a new system knocked out power, grounded flights and sent cars careening the second major storm this week dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain from the midwest to new england, causing delays for thousands of commuters at airports and on the road. >> i'm waiting for the summer. i've had enough. please, no more snow. >> ifill: more than a million homes and businesses lost power, most of them in pennsylvania. and, the governors of new york and new jersey declared states of emergency. in the midwest, indianapolis

began trying to dig out from eight inches of snow that fell tuesday. at one point, a southwest jet arriving in kansas city, missouri, had to be towed off a snowbound runway. >> i came here because i thought i would be going south and it would be warmer. and it's really not. even so, many judged it safe enough to take to the streets. >> the roads aren't bad. i mean, if you've got four wheel drive you can get around in this. >> ifill: others found out the hard way just how dangerous the roads could be. >> we've had a situation where people thought because they were in a four wheel drive vehicle, that they were in invincible. >> ifill: meanwhile, more and more cities and counties reported they're running short on rock salt, and the funds to pay for street plowing and cleanup. school districts have their own troubles: many are running out of snow days, which may force them to make up the lost time when the weather finally warms up. >> ifill: the nation's second largest drug store chain will no longer sell tobacco products beginning in october. c.v.s. made the announcement

today, citing its new emphasis on working with doctors and hospitals to improve public health. we'll explore the health and business implications of that decision, right after the news summary. the united nations has documented new horror in the syrian civil war, the torture and killing of children. a u.n. report, released overnight, charges government forces have tortured children they suspect of having ties to rebel groups. some were as young as ten years old. it also accuses the rebels of executing some children and recruiting others to fight. >> ifill: meanwhile, the syrian government missed another deadline today for destroying its chemical weapons. the regime was to have handed over its entire arsenal by now. instead, u.s. officials estimate only a fraction have actually been surrendered. still, white house press secretary jay carney said today the agreement is still alive. >> we have heard from the russian government that it is their expectation that the assad

regime will be delivering a substantial portion of its chemical weapons supplies and economy in the relatively near future. >> ifill: the syrian foreign minister insisted today his government intends to meet the june 30 deadline to complete the process. in iraq, multiple bombings rocked baghdad today, killing at least 34 people and wounding scores more. the worst was near the iraqi foreign ministry, where two car bombs exploded. other bombs hit commercial districts, and a suicide attacker blew himself up near the entrance to the green zone that houses foreign embassies. the u.s. has sharply reduced drone strikes in pakistan, as the government there seeks peace talks with the taliban. "the washington post" reported today, pakistani officials asked for restraint, and the lull began in december. the report said the obama administration will still carry out strikes against senior al- qaeda targets, if the opportunity arises. >> ifill: a united nations committee lambasted the vatican

today over its handling of priests who sexually abused children. the committee on the rights of the child condemned what it called the roman catholic church's code of silence. it demanded disclosure of all files on pedophile clergy and bishops who concealed their crimes. >> the holy see has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators. the holy see has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children's best interests. >> ifill: the committee also criticized church teachings against homosexuality, contraception and abortion. the vatican shot back that the report is distorted, and it accused the u.n. panel of interfering with religious freedom. we'll take a closer look at the report, and the response, later in the program. google agreed today to display competitors' links more

prominently in europe, to settle a major anti-trust action. the search giant entered a deal with the european union, ending a three-year investigation, and avoiding a fine of up to five billion dollars. google has a 90% market share in europe, compared with about 70% in the u.s. >> ifill: wall street spent the day looking for direction and mostly, didn't find any. the dow jones industrial average lost five points to close at 15,440. the nasdaq fell almost 20 points to close at 4,011. >> ifill: the olympic torch arrived in sochi, russia today setting the stage for the winter games to open on friday. spectators lined the streets to watch the flame paraded through the host city. it was one of the last legs on a nearly 40,000 mile trip that's taken the torch around the world, under water and even into space.

>> ifill: still to come on the newshour. c.v.s'. decision to drop selling tobacco products; a u.n. panel's stinging rebuke of the vatican; how latinos are critical to the success of the affordable care act; reports of more ethical lapses in the u.s. military; plus, we kick off a new series on how lawmakers plan to tackle the country's economic divides. >> woodruff: today's announcement by c.v.s. that it will stop selling tobacco products this fall resounded quickly and loudly today in the world of business and public health. c.v.s., which has 7,600 stores nationwide and is creating more in-store health clinics, said it will lose about two billion dollars annually. but in making the decision, the company's chief executive, larry merlo, said:

for more on the significance of this decision and what was behind it, we turn to: doctor ron depinho, the president of the m.d. anderson cancer center and stephanie strom of the new york times. welcome to you both. let me start with you, dr. depinho, how significant do you think a move this is? >> i think this is quite significant. in isolation, it may not have a specific impact, but it send a very strong message to all retailers that tobacco is a dangerous product. it extracts a very significant social, economic, toll on our society that is responsible for about 20% of deaths in the united states, and about 30% of cancer deaths. so it's a very important problem.

and i greatly applaud cvs' bold move in this direction. they've placed people before profits. >> woodruff: stephanie strom, how long has cvs been thinking about doing this, and why do they say they're doing it? >> well, it's really unclear, judy, how long this has been going on internally, in discussions. my own guess is that larry merlo, the c.e.o., who is himself a pharmacist, started with the company 20 years ago as a pharmacist, he may have been sort of thinking in this direction before he even got into the c.e.o.'s chair. and i suspect they've thought about it long and hard. and finally came to the conclusion that now is the time to do it. they are determined to become a health care services company, if you will, more so than just a retail drugstore chain. and they believe that this is one more step in their plan to

evolve that way. >> woodruff: well, in connection with that, how much of a risk are they taking from a business standpoint? >> well, you know, the company said that they would-- it would reduce their sales by about $2 billion. that's not all cigarettes. that's cigarettes plus other things tobacco buyers might purchase at the same time they're buying their cigarettes. that's off the top line. they did estimate on an annual base, it would cost them about 17 sentsz per share. so it will deal a blow to their profits, if they don't find a way to replace those revenues. they said that they would probably try to replace some of those revenues with a new smoking cessation program, that physicians, care groups, hospitals, and others might refer their patients to, which

would, of course, add revenues to cvs. but they were kind of unclear about that, and i think that's why the stock took a little bit of a hit today. >> woodruff: dr. depinho, wean cvs has about 7600 stores around the country, but we're told there are something like 250,000 stores across this country where people can buy tobacco products. so how much of a dent is this really is going to make in the availability of cigarettes? >> well, in isolation it may not make that significant an impacted in itself. but if it gains momentum, it will have an impact. scientific literature has shown that if you reduce access to tobacco products, you actually reduce usage. so if this gains momentum, and other retailers, like wal-mart and others, also follow this very courageous path forward, it can have a significant impact on

access to tobacco products and their use. >> woodruff: so, stephanie strom, is it expected that these other stores that sell cigarettes, tobacco products, are going to follow suit? >> well, both wall greens and rite aid today issued statements saying they were always reevaluating the mix of products that they sell, and they would do what was best for their consumers by answering their consumers' demands. it is really unclear, i think at this point, whether others will follow suit. there will be, however, pressure on them because, of course, health care advocates are going to use this as leverage. >> woodruff: well, let me-- >> also, i think-- >> woodruff: yeah, go ahead. >> one point that might be worth making here is that when you have these signal events look at what mayor bloomberg did in new york city when he took the courageous act to ban tobacco use, smoking in restaurants and

other public places and bars and so on. that had a tremendous ripple effect across many other cities around the world uan, and other mayors, other legislative officials felt that they had the cover needed to also pursue because of the leadership of new york city in this regard. so while in isolation it may not be that impactful, symbolically, it may inspire and galvanize many others, particularly, those in health care, such as other pharmacy chains and so on, to really take a step towards becoming involved in health care as opposed to disease care. >> woodruff: speaking of that, stephanie strom, what does cvs do now in the way of health care-- being a health care provider? and what more do they want to do? >> well, cvs has gone further than almost anyone else in

establishing these they call minute clinics, which are mini clinics inside of their stores. they're typically staffed by nurse-- physicians assistant, a nurse practitioner, and you can go in there and if you have pink eye, they can tell you you have pink eye, and here's what you need to take for it. also, their pharmacists are becoming much more advisers to people. the u.s. has lost a great number of primary care physicians over the years. and so these kind of mini clinics in places like cvs, are stepping in to that role. if you have a cold, if you have strep throat. >> woodruff: right. >> the basic medical ailments we all have fliment. >> woodruff: dr. depinho to you, finally, quickly, you're the head of a major hospital, major cancer center, do you see health care delivery changing in

the way we hear cvs thinking about doing it? >> well, if you look at the affordable care act and the emphasis today, there is a major shift towards prevention and early detection of disease. in the case of cancer, about 50% of cancers are preventable, and tobacco plays a major role in that impact. so i think the entire health care system is moving towards, as i mentioned before, more of a health care system as opposed to a disease care system, where we can be far more interventive in disease as opposed to dealing with the problems of advance disease. >> woodruff: we want to thank you both, dr. ron depinho and stephanie strom. >> thank you. >> ifill: the vatican has long been criticized for its handling of sexual abuse cases. but today's report from a united

nations panel was especially harsh. the "committee on the rights of the child" said the vatican had not adequately acknowledged past crimes, and cultivated a code of silence that provided immunity for perpetrators. the vatican calls the report distorted and unfair, in that it ignores corrective actions taken by the church. here to flesh out those arguments, are reverend thomas rosica, chief executive officer of canada's catholic salt and light television network and an english-language spokesperson for the vatican. and katherine gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the center for constitutional rights. reverend, how does this report differ from what you've heard before. >> first of all, let me address the question of sex abuse, and that this report has a central mission to address that. it is criminal. it is evil, and the church is doing everything possible to address the issue. particularly, since 2001, when all of this exploded in boston

and other places. what i find disturbing about the report, basically three areas. it's a great deal of ignorance that the committee reveals in the report. first of all, ignorance of what the church has already done, and what the church is doing. especially under the pontificate of pope benedict, and now under pope francis. secondly, there is gross misignorance-- gross ignorance, i should say, of the understanding of the reality of the church. how is the chuck structured? one could read the report and get the impression that the church is is this huge monolithic structure-- the headquarters, if you will-- dictating to all the branch offices. that's not the reality of the church. a very serious point of the report is its ability to meddle in the internal life of the church, in the basic tenets of our faith, what some would call the doctrinal issues and the report is contradictory in a couple areas. my first reaction in reading

this really calls into question the united nations and some of its committees which really are noisy gongs and clanging symbols in many regards. they're fueled by special interest groups, and by focusing on so many different things they're doing a great injustice to the victims of sexual abuse and the efforts the church has taken to address this crisis. >> ifill: katherine gallagher, that gives you a lot to chew on. is there anything significant that an international body weighed in like this? >> what we see today is quite a historic day. we at c.c.r. represent of survivors network of those abused by priests and for survivors who have been working for decades to bring to global attention the scope and scale and severity of sexual violence against children, are very gratified by the the n.of u.n.'s report today. it's notable that the u.n. calls out, not just the perpetrators, the individual perpetrators but

high-level officials whose practices and policies have enabled the continuation of sexual violence by covering up instances of violence by requiring confidentiality, by shifting priests from one jurisdiction to another without any warning where they again commit more acts of sexual assault. so we see today's report rs which recognizes that the catholic church, the vatican, puts its reputation over the safety of children as a very, very welcome report. >> ifill: reverend, let me walk you through a couple of things, the doctrinal issues that the report brought up, which were not about swul abuse, the use of the term "illegitimate children," the destigmatization it called for of homoswullity. the call on the church to aassess the children born of priests, corporal punishment,

abortion. is that what you are talking about when you say the u.n. went too far? >> the u.n. went over the top and went too far. the purpose of this was to call attention very specifically to the protection of children, and the efforts that have been taken by the church in this regard. i believe that the church has been in the vanguard of dealing with this issue, much more than other institutions in society that have ignored it. that being said. i agree with katherine gallagher, who is with me. the church has had an evil. it's had a crisis. it's had a plague. there have been all of those things that you've mentioned, of cover-up, of moving people around, of doing all kinds of things to obfuscate the reality, "and, yes, we have been interested in preserving the reputation of the institution, rather than the individual victims. that has taken place without a doubt. and we are grievously sorry for that and we pledge to make sure that never happens again. that being said, let the report acknowledge the information that

was presented at the hearings on january 16 in geneva. let the report at least conditional the efforts that we have taken, whereas many others in society have done nothing about this, some of the greatest issues of sexual abuse of minors, the pedophilia issues take place in families. >> woodruff: let me ask katherine gallagher about that report. sorry to interrupt. let me ask katherine gallagher with that. has the church gone far enough in taking action? and short of scolding bishops for having participated in cover-ups? >> north carolina clearly, the church has not. and i was in geneva when the committee was questioning the vatican, and its growing frustration over the course of that day when it was hearing vague words, rather than clear actions that the catholic church has taken. and what the committee has asked for is actions that show accountability. it has asked for cooperation

with law enforcement at the national level, rather than hiding away priest priests and . it asks for data to be brought forward and to be shared. the vatican refused to do so. i don't think we have seen an institution at the vanguard of how to deal with sexual violence. rather, weaver seen a continuation, and the committee makes it clear there is an ongoing problem, a continuation of the code of silence. >> ifill: reverend, is there anything-- >> let me ask you the question. >> ifill: go ahead, finish. >> what authority does such a committee have that is so not credible in how they proceeded with their efforts? does it have any jurisdiction or authority? look at the very credibility of the united nations and of such committees who seem to set themselves up as some kind of a watchdog over areas for which they don't even have the proper historical background. and so i call into question, not

serious issue of sexual abuse, but the methodology that was used, and how it was certainly fueled by some special interest groups, which produced a very distorted report. that's my concern. because i believe that the united nations, at its best, could serve as something calling us all to greater integrity, to justice and to peace. >> ifill: miss gallagher air, final thought. >> yes, thank you. the holy see voluntarily signed on as a party to the convention on the rights of the child. and that convention has a number of provisions, including placing the best interests of the child at the forefront. so the vatican has taken upon itself the obligations to protect and safeguard children, to treat them with respect and with dignity. and so it was very much within the committee's purview to say that we find, vatican, that you have not been doing what you have pledged to do as a signatory to this convention. >> ifill: katherine gallagher

and reverend thomas rosica, thank you so much. >> woodruff: as states across the country continue to grapple with the rollout of the affordable care act, much attention has been placed on the latino population, because they represent more than a third of the uninsured in the u.s. many eyes are on california, where there's been a big marketing effort directed at the latino community. the newshour's cat wise has our story. >> reporter: its a typical busy day at la clinica de la raza in oakland, california. the federally funded community health organization serves more than 85,000, mostly low-income latino patients, each year. >> reporter: latinos represent more than half of california's seven million uninsured. both here and nationally, latinos are considered key to the overall success of the affordable care act because they are the largest uninsured ethnic group in the country.

and they tend to be younger and healthier, which can help off- set premiums for older, sicker enrollees. in the months leading up to the october launch of the affordable care act, there was a big push in california to get latinos educated about the new law. tens of millions of dollars were spent on ads targeting the community around the state. but la clinica c.e.o. jane garcia says a lot of educational outreach is still needed. >> if you look at, historically, who have been the uninsured, it is the latino community. so it's not a big surprise to us that people don't understand what a deductible is, or what a co-pay is, let alone the comparison of the health plans that has to happen. >> reporter: la clinica's staff have provided personal application assistance to 900 patients in recent months, but

only about 25% have actually enrolled in covered california, the states insurance exchange, or in medi-cal, the states version of medicare. statewide, latino enrollment numbers are also lagging. new figures released by covered california show just 74,000 enrollees through december described themselves as latino. far fewer than the estimated 1.2 million who are eligible for premium subsidies. at a recent covered california board meeting in sacramento, the issue was front and center: >> with regard to the latino enrollment, this is an area we know we need to do more. >> reporter: covered california executive director peter lee says he's pleased with the overall enrollment numbers in the exchange so far, more than 600,000, but he acknowledges they got off to a slow start with the latino community. >> like many of the exchanges around the country, our customer service has not been great, but we're doing a lot of things to improve it. this affordable care act is brand new, this is the first

open enrollment in history, were learning a lot as we go to make sure we get as many latinos enrolled. >> the covered california board does not have a representative currently on the board that either is of latino descent, or understands how to market this population, and i think that has been the reason why they have failed at reaching latinos. >> reporter: state senator norma torres, who represents a predominantly latino district near los angeles, believes the agency's problems go way beyond their marketing efforts. she says the customer service for primarily spanish speaking californians has been, well, awful. >> what i believe has been a major obstacle that this group has not signed up, is number one, the application was not made available to them in spanish until this month, we're talking about january 2014. also, the hotline.

when a spanish speaker calls, the message was also in english, and that was one of the very first changes that they made as a result of my office pushing back that they needed to improve their customer experience for spanish speakers. >> reporter: senator torres and her staff have also been closely tracking the covered california website and say there have been spanish translation problems since it launched. alex barrios is senator torres communications director. >> as a spanish speaker, one of the first challenges i have when i go to the website, is i go to www.coveredcalifornia.com, which is the website that the spanish language advertisement tells me to go to, i click on that, and the first thing i see is english. so that's really hard for me. >> reporter: covered california officials say they have been working diligently to get translation problems fixed, both on the website and phone hotline. but another problem looms large

for those anxious to see more latinos enrolled. la clinica's jane garcia says many patients are reluctant to reveal information about undocumented family members during the enrollment process. only citizens and legal residents are eligible for health coverage. >> one of the biggest issues that we, our enrollers, have faced is the question of immigration status. many, many of our patients are in mixed immigration status families. i think at this point we really need a high visibility person, whether if its our governor, whether it's our senators, or our president, if he could make a statement that people could stand on that says this will not have consequences to your immigration application, i think that would go a long ways toward easing peoples minds. >> reporter: for their part, covered california officials are

trying to reassure people the information they share will not be used against them. >> we've been working to get the word out that we have a rock solid, you know, letter from the homeland security saying information on immigration, which we need for eligibility purposes, will only be used for one purpose, eligibility for health care. >> reporter: lee says boosting the latino enrollment numbers over the coming months is a top priority. hiring is now underway for 350 mostly bilingual call center counselors. and a new $155 million dollar federal grant will help the state with overall outreach efforts, including new ads targeted at the latino community. >> ifill: california officials plan to release an ethnic breakdown of the states medi-cal enrollment figures later this month. whether the focus is income

inequality or economic mobility, both democrats and republicans have turned their attention more and more to the growing divide between the rich and poor in this country. tonight, we begin a series of conversations, called "closing the gap", that will ask leading members of both parties how they propose to tackle the problem. we kick things off with democrat george miller of northern california, who is retiring from congress after this year, having served 20 terms in the house of representatives. he is co-author of a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 cents an hour. congressman miller, welcome to the "newshour." and let me just begin by asking how do you see economic opportunity in the this country today? >> well, i think economic opportunity is still available to individuals, and certainly, you know, it's been dampened because of the great recession caused by the financial scandals on wall street. but the country is starting to

recover, and jobs are starting to be made available. they're different jobs than maybe before the great recession. but they're starting to appear. the question will be whether or not our workforce and individuals are in a position to take advantage of those jobs. but there's also a whole host of jobs that have been available in this country for many, many years, but they don't pay enough for individuals to support themselves or to support their family. and that's a real problem in the economy because they're a trag on main street. there's just simply not enough income to families and individuals to make a vibrant economy go even better than it is now. >> woodruff: how much of the responsibility for addressing that is on the shoulders of government? >> well, government has to deal with the issues of minimum wage because i think it's very important to you maintain a livable wage, which is a floor under wages, and business and other entities can make decisions about those wages. but it's really incumbent upon us, and it's been true

throughout the history of the country, to deal with the minimum wage. and right now, the minimum wage is lagging way behind the cost of living, way behind the growth in the economy. and it really is back to less than wages were in 1968, but the prices aren't 1968. and i would with say if a business believes they have to maintain a 1968 wage, that's their business plan, they've got bigger problems than the minimum wage. >> woodruff: congressman miller, how do you address, though, the contribution of this who say raising the minimum wage-- which what you're talking about from $7.25 an hour to $10.10-- 40% increase almost-- their argument is that it doesn't really get to those people in poverty, that so many of the people working-- earning a minimum wage are younger workers, and they may be the second or third earners in a family-- in other words, that you're not really addressing the problem. >> those criticisms are criticisms that almost-- they're

very out of date. they're criticisms that were launched 20 years ago. most of all of the new economic studies show us that in compete, counties or cities where the minimum wage is higher in one state and lower in the other, where they join one another, small businesses are hiring more people in the area that has the higher minimum wage. there's more economic activity on the main street of where there's a higher minimum wage. the fact is, more than half of all of the minimum wage workers are over 20 years of age. many of them are providing a major component of that family inthk, whether it's a mother and a child or husband and wife and a child. that minimum wage worker is very important to that family. and we know that that minimum wage circulates through the economy very rapidly because these are people who must spend that money to pay their bills, to make the car payment, to put gas in the car, to take care of health care. that money goes into the economy right away, and the estimate is that today about 85,000 jobs would be created if the federal

government took this stand to raise the minimum wage. we would get to 10.10 over three years. so it's not going to happen overnight, but over three years. it's a very important part of the completing the economic package to grow the economy. that's why governors and mayors are doing this because they know they can't have a vibrant state air, vibrant city on the backs of low-income workers that can't provide for themselves because of the low wage. >> woodruff: and one other question about that, one other argument one hears, employers when they are required to pay more money to individual workers are just not going to higher as many people. and that especially when the economy is in a fragile state, as many people believe it is right now. >> the evidence really doesn't hold up anymore. that was true-- which i first came to congress there was a lot of evidence suggesting that's true. you look at an employer like costco, they see greater savings in a higher minimum wage because of the retention of their quality workers and not getting that constant churn of workers

that happens at the low-wage area. and that's why they support the increase in the minimum wage. so i think the evidence it clearly turning, and the support pie the american public across all regions, across all political parties is overwhelming. they know because of the experience of american families today where they have a member working at the minimum wage, people with high school-- i mean, with college degrees. so the empshe 3 is much different it was a year ago. people are asking themselves who are making $15, $20, $30 an hour, how can anyone live on $7.25 an hour in that's a compelling reason and that's why the congress is going to pass the minimum wage increase. >> woodruff: we know, having heard these arguments, the political reality continues to be tough for the minimum wage because so many republicans remain opposed to it. but just setting that aside for a moment, what else do you think needs to be done to address income inequality in this country?

and where do you see the two parties being able to come together to do something about this? >> i think the two parties may come together around intensive job training, recognizing that the jobs that people will be seeking or of are different from the jobs that they rest. five million people showed up at community colleges seeking additional skills, and training because they lost their jobs. we weren't prepared for that. but i think there's some interesting negotiations going on right now around federal job training, an exeks of the current programs, a renewal of those programs. i think clearly you have to look at the education system. we cannot continue to send people into the job market who are unprepared in the basic fundamental tenets of education in terms of literacy and math and science. it just-- we can no longer afford it as a nation, and we don't have to afford it any longer as a nation, as you woman know. >> woodruff: just very quickly at the end. what happens when you sit down across the table from a

republican friend of yours with different views? are you able to have a conversation about this? >> it's very interesting. i think this is starting to turn in the congress. these discussions are going on around the work incentive act and job training. my republican colleagues, some of them know eventually they're going to need and want a vote on the minimum wage. and i think even in early childhood learning we have a bipartisan bill. we have a number of republicans on that. we have other republicans who have told us they're not quite yet ready to sign on the line but they're in favor of the legislation that senator and harkin and i have introduced on behalf of the administration's early learning opportunity. some of this is starting to turn because they can't justify their positions, and certainly the american public supports early learning as a keystone to a successful education and participation in the workforce overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis. they support the minimum wage overwhelm on a bipartisan basis.

and they support idea we would help people retrain for new jobs or hold the job that they have that requires new skills. they overwhelmingly support those. you can pick a fight in that arena if you want, but the public is not with you if you're not for the government being proactive in these three key areas. >> woodruff: congressman george miller. we hear you, talking about closing the gap, thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: next week we will talk with florida republican senator marco rubio who recently outlined his own antipoverty agenda. >> ifill: the military has increasingly been wracked by scandal, as three of its five branches face allegations of cheating and fraud. just as the utmilitary is winding down 10 years of high-tempo operations, three of its services are ramping up

investigations into some of the most serious scandals in a generation. the latest involves charges that navy trainers cheated on certification exams to teach at a nuclear reactor school in charleston, south carolina. >> to say that i'm disappointed would be an understatement. >> ifill: the chief of naval operations, admiral jonathan greenert, spoke at a pentagon briefing yesterday. we need to and we will remain vigilant. we will continue to drive home to our people the importance of integrity: the fact that it is the foundation of all that we do in the u.s. navy. the air force, meanwhile, is conducting its own investigation in the nuclear ranks, one that grew out of a drug probe. it's alleged that nearly 100 missile officers cheated on proficiency tests at a base in montana. the pentagon's top spokesman said secretary of defense chuck hagel sees a troubled road ahead. >> i think he definitely sees this as a growing problem. and he's concerned about the depth. and i don't think he could stand

here and tell you that he has, that anybody has, the full grasp here and that's what worries the secretary. >> ifill: and a third scandal, involving army national guard recruiting, is among the largest in the service's history. senior officers and others are suspected of taking kickbacks under a program that awarded cash payments for signing up new recruits. thousands of personnel are under investigation. the fraud is being counted in the tens of millions of dollars. at a hearing yesterday, missouri senator claire mccaskill, said the misconduct went beyond those in uniform. >> because anyone could sign up to be a recruiting assistant, there are also cases of people unaffiliated with the army stealing names and social security numbers of potential recruits, and receiving referral payments that they were not entitled to. >> ifill: and it doesn't end there. "the washington post", using freedom of information act disclosures, has reported on general officers and admirals

whose behavior was unethical, cruel, inappropriately sexual or, in many cases, illegal under military law. >> ifill: so how serious are all these incidents? for that we turn to craig whitlock who cover's the defense department for the washington post. where to begin? let's start with the navy. how serious are the charges in charleston? >> well, they are serious. we don't know the extent of it. yesterday the chief of naval operations and another admiral came out and said, "we just found out about this." one sailor tipped us off that answers were being circulated among people who were operating nuclear reactors, but they don't know the extent it. we know there are 30 people under investigation. as we saw with the air force, that tend to spread pretty quickly. >> ifill: there was another case involving the navy, involving silencers, contracting schemes? >> that's right. a very bizarre case where senior intelligence officials in the navy bought a whole bunch of silenters, upmarked one for a

few million dollars, that only cost a few thousands dollars to produce. this is another strange case the navy is struggling to get to the bottom of. >> ifill: the recruiting scandal, the recruiting investigation involving the army, how much money are we talk pentagon? >> millions of dollars, and this is something that had its beginning at the height of the iraq war, when the army was having trouble recruiting people. and essentially they offered bonuses for refeferls, but they didn't check up on people who were claiming them within the army. and, again, they've had a difficult time giving extent of it, but it's a lot of money, millions and millions of dollars. >> ifill: and how many people are involved and who's involved in that? >> hundreds of people in the army and including up the chain of command, up to a two-star general. >> ifill: and maybe recruiters as well, regular high school recruiters, maybe? >> it could be. i think also a lot of people in the army who just had regular jobs who were referring people they said would be good candidates. >> ifill: and what is the status of the ongoing investigation in the air force,

involving the folks who had their hands on the button at malstrom air force base? >> so far, about 100 people have been implicated in that investigation. officers, who as you put it, missile silos for cheating but what we know less about is drug use allegations. the air force is investigating a drug abuse ring. that's how they found out about the cheating to begin with. they've been pretty tight lipped about how many are involved. cheating is one thing, but drug use among people with their fingzerrers on the button is alarming. >> ifill: haven't branches of the military investigated themselves before, including the recruiting scandal. this is not the first time we've heard of that. >> it's not the first time. they don't like to air their dirty lawppedry, and with the recruiting scandal this is something highlighted in the congress? the senate. senator claire mccaskill had a hearing on it the other day. these are not things many

branches of the military like to expose. they tend to come out drip, drim, drip, sometimes with reporters, sometimes with congress, and it takes a while to figure out the scope of them. >> ifill: that's what freedom of information acts are all about. is this something the top brass or the civilian brass is eroding public confidence in the military? >> it is, and it was pretty striking today to hear the pentagon secretary come out and say defense secretary chuck hagel is worried about the moral character of the force. those are very powerful force but especially in the military where honor and integrity are really the core of when they do. the public holds these commanders and enlisted people in very high esteem for what they do. when the top man in the pentagon says he's concerned about the moral courage, moral character of the force, and how big of a problem it is, that's pretty soors. >> ifill: is this something which multiple deployments can exacerbate? >> well, it could. and that's something that the pentagon has admitted it's asking itself. general martin demp see, the

chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has wondered if the strain of war has had an effect on things and whether the military during war time maybe turned a bit of a blind eye towards character issues that it was so focused on whether commanders had tactical ability, were good at war fighting, but maybe they weren't paying as much attention to their ethical flaws. >> ifill: it sounds like the pentagon is moving away from the notion of these were all just one-offs and more toward the notion that maybe there's something systemic going on? >> well, that's right. they are questioning that. they don't know the answer. but clearly it isn't just one-offs. we're seeing a pattern again and again and again. a lot of it is personal misconduct, integrity issues, gambling, drinking, sleeping around and among, again, the top brass with this. people, their human frailties. there are always going to be people on who engage in this kind of conduct, but it's rare to hear so many of these cases involving high-ranks commanders. >> ifill: it's rare and it's

disturbing. craig whitlock of the "washington post," thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: finally tonight, a look at family, love and growing old, all with a musical beat. jeffrey brown has our book conversation >> brown: it's been almost 30 years since we were first introduced to music fanewscastist jimmy rabbit in "the commitments. he was the manager of a ragtag irish band determined to bring soul music to dublin. the book was made into a popular movie in 1991. flash forward to today as we learned in the new novel "the guts" in which rabbit is facing middle age, changing times in the music world, and his own mortality. author and booker prize winner roddy doyle joins us now. welcome to you. >> thank you. >> brown: the first thing i should ask sition what made you want to revisit these characters? i think they were popular for a lot of people but they called

you. >> i find it tempting to go back to characters. i never killed any of them. it was more than a quarter of a century since i finished with jimmy rabbit. and i wrote about him in a time. recession, which at the time we thought were normal life in ireland. having climbed out of that and spectacularly fallen back into it, i thought it would be interesting to go back to old characters and see how they are responding to it. >> brown: you are interested in looking at societal changes through these characters? >> i'm not sure i'm interested in it per se, but if you're going to write about characters in the present day you have to be really. you have to accept even though he's having an old-fashioned conversation at the beginning of the book between himself and his father, they both have cell phones. >> brown: glou it starts with his father asking about this thing, facebook. >> facebook, asking about facebook, and jimmy prebdzs he doesn't know about facebook but he does because he's involved in online music sales and he has to. i knew nothing about facebook,

either, but i had to find out a bit about it. in a way it forces me o out of e attic where i work, my office. if he has a family and there are teenagers in the family, how do they communicate? he bees or he wants to know. once you decide to write something in the present day, little moments, you know, little moments creep into it. >> brown: of course the other thing that's happened in the time, we're older, right. >> oh, yeah. >> brown: jimmy rabbit is in middle age, so all these things, financial security, insecurity, what has he done with his life, and he learns he has cancer. >> some years ago cancer was added to the list of things i talk about with my friends when we meet for a pint on thursday night. used to be football-- soccer, that is-- and music and our children. and then there were five of us and then there were four of us because one us died, and cancer very much became one of the topics. and we knew other people who had cancer. and, you know, you're worried. and then you find out-- i remember having a medical and i

was told the good news is you're too old for testicular cancer. and i was dying to get out so i could text my pals "you won't believe what the great news is." on the other hand, there are another couple waiting for you. >> brown: you're laughing as you tell this, and this is what so strikes me when i'm reading this book is it's about-- in part it's about a guy who gets cancer and has it deal with it. it's historically funny. >> i would hope so. >> brown: you would hope so, because? >> it's one way of confronting. when you laugh at things, you're not evading them. i feel that you're confronting them. you're running head long into them. even these days with texting, something awful happens, and the first thing that, arrives by text is a joke. it could be perceived as cruel but it is a way of coping. the book, i hope it's not tasteless, you be. i was trying to think if i was in this position, what would i do? what would i do? how would i address the fact to my children? laughter, it certainly was the case when i grew up, and it

still is in our house. my father is 90 and he still makes me laugh. it's part of what i grew up with, really. >> brown: two great themes they see through many of your books over time, starting with the trilogy, with the commitments. working class dublin and music. >> yes. >> brown: why? >> well,y grew up in one and listened to the other. it's as simple as that. >> brown: it's as simple as that. >> yeah, yeah. i suppose i grew up-- in many ways as a writer i'm blessed-- even growing older is a great thing if you're a writer and you can use this material. it's a very healthy way the humiliation-- >> brown: you're feeling okay about it. >> i take notes. it's the same when i was a very small child. i was living in what seemed a rural area of dublin, the very edge of the city, and as i got older into my teens, the fields that surrounded our house were dug up and became working class housing estates. to say i knew the area would be an understatement.

i knew the layers under it. music, i'm one of the billions of people on the planet who loves music. there's nothing deep opener dark to say. that. >> brown: but it stayed with you. >> di. i recently took the records, the vinyl down from the attic and reinstated the front room, the home of vinyl. >> brown: just like jimmy rabbit. >> and my kids have entered the spirit. >> brown: the new novel is "the guts,." roddy doyle, thank you. >> ifill: we have more from roddy doyle, he reads an excerpt from his new novel on art beat. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. the latest winter storm moved into the northeast, knocking out power to more than a million customers, grounding hundreds of flights and making a mess of roads. and the drug-store chain c.v.s. announced it will stop selling cigarettes and all other tobacco products by october. >> ifill: online, on the newshour's shiny new website

right now, being an adjunct isn't what most part-time university faculty had in mind when they envisioned being a college professor. we feature the story of one man whose dream of teaching at the elite level, turned out to be a big disappointment. that's on making sense. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, 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.

>> 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. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by -- >> the street.com. founded by jim cramer, the street.com is an independent source for stock market analysis. cramer's action alerts plus service is home to his multimillion dollar portfolio. you can learn more at the street.com/nbr. unfollow. twitter shares plunge following the company's first report on earnings as a publicly-traded company which failed to impress investors. we're zeroing in on the one thing investors need to watch. economic deep freeze. snow storms puts some hiring on hold in january, adding to evidence that the winter chill is coming at a big cost to the economy. kicking the