captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: the search for that missing malaysian airliner took another twist today, after a week of few clues and no answers, new evidence suggests it flew for hours after vanishing from radar. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. also ahead, margaret warner reports from crimea, ahead of a key decision to pick a side in the crisis that's splintered ukraine. a lot of unease. even among pro russian people. >> the weight of history, and

>> woodruff: and it's friday, mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the week's news. 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: >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. >> woodruff: the search expanded for that missing malaysian jetliner today as new leads emerged about the mystery behind it's disappearance. the new york times reported radar readings show the plane climbed sharply, then dropped, while turning several times. other theories ranged from piracy to a cargo fire. but there appeared to be growing agreement that the plane turned west and flew for some time, toward the indian ocean. we'll talk to two following it all, right after the news summary. ukraine is facing a fateful weekend, with a sunday referendum in crimea to secede and join russia. as that vote neared today, russia deployed more troops and armor in crimea. moscow also repeated a threat to intervene elsewhere. the warning followed overnight street battles in donetsk, a mainly russia-speaking city in eastern ukraine, where at least

one protester was killed. meanwhile, a delegation of u.s. senators, led by republican john mccain, visited the capital, kiev. they laid flowers at a memorial honoring slain protesters. >> woodruff: in london, secretary of state john kerry and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov held six hours of talks, but failed to make headway toward resolving the crisis. they spoke to reporters afterward. >> ( translated ): we do not have common vision of the situation. the differences are there but the dialogue was definitely constructive and it could help us to understand how much and how good we understand each other. >> the foreign minister made it clear that president putin is not prepared to make any decision regarding ukraine until after the referendum on sunday.

the united states' position on that referendum i must say is clear and it's clear today. we believe the referendum is contrary to the constitution of ukraine. it's contrary to international law. >> woodruff: if crimea secedes, the u.s. and the european union plan to impose sanctions on select russian officials and businesses, as early as monday. that threat hit russia's main stock index again today. it's down 16% in the last two weeks. we'll return to the scene inside crimea, where margaret warner is on the ground, later in the program. the u.s. government will give up direct control over administration of the internet. the commerce department announced the decision today. the practical effects were not immediately clear, but news accounts said a new oversight body must be created. that group would work with icann, a california non-profit that oversees assigning internet domain names and web addresses.

a watchdog group now claims the problem behind a major general motors recall may be linked to 300 deaths. the center for auto safety says it studied accidents where a faulty ignition switch may have disabled airbags. g.m. says the defect resulted in 12 deaths. it has recalled 1.6 million vehicles but is being criticized for not acting sooner. president obama will look for ways to ease the effects of deporting those in the united states illegally. the move was announced last night. two million people have been deported under mr. obama, and hispanic leaders are pressing for relief. but white house press secretary jay carney cautioned today, there are limits to what's possible. >> the president understands and is concerned about the pain caused by separations that have come about through deportation, but he also understands and has

made clear that there's no comprehensive fix he can himself enact. congress has to act. >> woodruff: so far, though, there's little prospect of comprehensive immigration reform this year. the president says enough people have signed up, under his health care law, for the program to work. he told the medical website "web m.d." today that enrollment to date, 4.2 million, is sufficient to make the program stable. but he also urged young and healthy people to sign up, to off-set costs. the deadline is march 31st. the u.s. education department will try again to crack down on career-training colleges whose graduates can't pay their student debt. these programs account for almost half of all student loan defaults. education secretary arne duncan called today for stripping schools of access to financial aid if their pupils can't find decent-paying jobs. a federal judge rejected earlier rules as arbitrary.

wall street lost more ground today. the dow jones industrial average dropped 43 points to close at 16,065. the nasdaq fell 15 points to close at 4,245. and the standard and poor's 500 was down five, at 1,841. for the week, all three indexes lost 2% or more. still to come on the newshour: expanding the search for the missing malaysian airliner; a critical vote in crimea that may splinter ukraine; mark shields and david brooks on the week's news; plus, the story of edward snowden, and the leaks that led to a spying uproar. >> woodruff: malaysian airlines flight m-h-370 remained officially missing today, with all 239 passengers and crew. a variety of explanations.

hari sreenivasan begins with this report. >> sreenivasan: after nearly a week, the search, and speculation, continue to grow. ships and planes from a growing number of nations have expanded the hunt to the west and the east. various news accounts today quoted unnamed officials, both malaysian and u.s., that it's increasingly likely the boeing triple-seven changed course, possibly in an act of piracy. what's now known is the plane left kuala lumpur bound for beijing, reached an altitude of 35,000 feet and then stopped communicating with air traffic controllers around 1:30 in the morning last saturday, somewhere over the south china sea. one possibility, it made a hard left turn. the search areas now encompass thousands of miles, stretching further into the south china sea and also pushing westward into the andaman sea and the indian ocean. that's in keeping with reports the plane traveled several hours after disappearing, although malaysia won't confirm or deny

it. >> there has been a lot of media speculation today after comments from unnamed u.s. officials suggested the plane may have traveled for some time after losing contact. as is standard procedure, the investigation team will not publicly release information until it has properly been verified and corroborated with the relevant authorities. >> sreenivasan: in the last 24 hours, the wall street journal and other major news organizations reported the missing jet did convey some basic information via a series of intermittent satellite pings for hours after it's transponder stopped working. and the satellite communications company, inmarsat, confirmed today it recorded those pings. malaysian authorities are distilling that data with american help. >> we are now working very closely with our team from u.s. to get whatever information of satellite with the u.s. and we are working that to determine

the whereabouts of the aircraft. we cannot reveal the information right now because it's still under investigation. >> sreenivasan: separately, c.n.n. reported investigators are examining whether lithium batteries in the plane's cargo played any role. in washington, white house press secretary jay carney counseled caution and urged patience. >> this is a difficult and unusual situation and we're working hard in close collaboration with the malaysian government to investigate a number of scenarios for what happened to the flight. our hearts of course go out to the families of the passengers who are in this agonizing situation. >> sreenivasan: meanwhile, many chinese families waited anxiously for a sixth day for any nugget of news about their loved ones. >> ( translated ): we are racing against time. >> sreenivasan: and at a mosque near kuala lumpur's airport, worshippers prayed for the missing and for resolution to the week-long mystery. >> woodruff: to help us

understand what's known and what's still a mystery, i am joined by jim hall, who served as chairman of the national transportation safety board from 1994 to 2001 and oversaw a number of airline disaster investigations. and andy pasztor, a long-time aviation reporter who has been covering this story for the wall street journal. welcome to you both. andy pasztor, bring us up to date on what is known at this hour of the evening, this friday. >> so this case seems increasingly headed toward a criminal or terrorist track. even the most extreme conspiracy nearests are having trouble coming up with an explanation that doesn't involve deliberate acts on this aircraft. over a span of six hours, three different signaling systems were turned off, some requiring specific acts by whoever or whatever group did that had to be intentional, and the plane changed course and altitude a number of times, and i think

it's only, i would say, the most extreme theorists who would still say that this is not some kind of a criminal act. the big problem, of course, is we don't know where the plane is, we don't know what the intentions of the person or the group who did this are and the biggest ca conundrum is there'so debris. if there's any fact that's clear in an aviation case like this, if a plane this size goes into the water, there has to be debris. something will float from inside and we're just not looking in the right place if it crashed into the water. >> woodruff: jim hall, when you put together what is coming out, the signal systems being turned off, the apparent -- we're learning tonight -- abrupt changes in altitude, the changes in direction, you put all this together, what does it tell you? >> well, our investigators are going to have to still pursue

the dual course that we did in twa800 to look to see whether this is a criminal act or aviation accident. however, i would agree with andy, the window seems to be closing on the possibility of the actions on this aircraft happening as a result of an accident. there are certain -- i think in this situation almost everyone's an expert and no one's an expert because, the way the information has been handled by the investigative authorities in malaysia borders on irresponsible and, hopefully, we will see in coming days better cooperation and more information coming in a timely fashion so that the vast resources that are being used around the world to look for this aircraft can be better directed. >> reporter: andy pasztor,

much of this new information, some of it is coming from the malaysian military, but it's also coming, as we mentioned in that report, from satellite companies that own satellites and are telling reporters what they see. how much of what is coming out is now, in your mind, confirmed? >> so it's very important to be precise in any kind of investigation like this. what we know for certain is that this aircraft continued to send signals out to satellites for up to five hours after it turned off -- after the transponder stopped communicating with air r traffic control, and that is absolute fact. secondly, we know that the plane stayed in tact because the signals continued. so during that period, it had not crashed and the engines were working and it was flying. i mean, that is fact. the difficulty, i think, is going to become clear.

if this turns into some kind of criminal investigation and the malaysians are in charge, unfortunately, as jim just indicated, they have been less than stellar, with which is a nice way to put it, in terms of how they've conducted their investigation so far, and i think that could be a problem for the u.s. suns the sbi gets involved, we're looking ahead, but it's coming. we're going to have to keep close track of what the malaysiamalaysians are doing, en today. after all the information about the aircraft flying for hours, as you heard, the officials in that country are still suggesting that may not be true. that's not a very helpful sign for a thorough and really careful investigation. >> woodruff: jim hall, if you were involved in this investigation, what kinds of questions would you be seeking answers to right now? >> well, i would be looking to the professional people at the ntsb that are experts in this aircraft and in radar, in

cooperation with boeing, in cooperation with the military and all of the agencies that can support an investigation. but, again, we don't have an independent investigation in malaysia similar to what we've seen with the ntsb or other independent accident investigation authorities around the world. and judy, the thing that really tears at you are the families. they're the last ones, it appears, to be getting any accurate information, and they should be the first ones. so this whole thing from the beginning to end has been an exercise of, you know, a lesson in what not to do in a major aviation accident investigation. >> woodruff: jim hall, staying with you, in terms of how many days have now passed, it will be a week tomorrow night since that happened. what does that mean in terms of

if there was a crash into the water wherever it was, is there likely to be evidence still out there or what? >> well, as andy said, there should be evidence if it's in the water of items from the aircraft floating. my concern is, if the transponder was turned off or, information, this was some form of new cyberwarfare we haven't seen, it's also possible to pull the circuit breakers on the flight and cockpit voice recorders, so even finding wreckage to the aircraft may still leave unanswered what happened in the vital moments in the cockpit. as you know, we didn't have that information in 9/11. that's why i have been such an advocate for deployable recorders and i think we need to question exactly whether the flight crew -- you know, whether a transponder should be able to be turned off on a commercial aircraft in this day and age. >> reporter: quickly, finally, andy pasztor, the scope of the

search at this point is what? >> at this point, you would say it includes tens of thousands of square miles but, more importantly, various parts of the region, so they're not even concentrating in one part. just today, the u.s. navy's starting to really press in the indian ocean, which is the area where the investigators believe the last contact with the satellite occurred. but the aircraft still had, perhaps, an hour's worth of fuel, maybe more. so just because that was the last contact, it's certainly the suspicions are that whoever did this managed to turn off that last signaling system at that point and the plane could have flown many, many hundreds of miles after that in a direction that, of course, we had no idea. >> woodruff: andy pasztor, jim hall, we thank you.

>> woodruff: now that an 11th hour diplomatic effort between the u.s. and russia failed to produce a breakthrough, the fate of the ukrainian region of crimea hangs in the balance of sunday's referendum vote. our chief foreign affairs correspondent, margaret warner, is in crimea and looks at a community split over its future. >> reporter: he's going door to door urging his fellow ukrainians to go out sunday and once again become part of russia. he shows them a sample ballot on how they should vote. their choice appears to be essentially between voting to join russia immediately or to declare independence from ukraine as a pra prelude to tha. he volunteered for the new so-called defense forces after protests in kiev ousted

yanukovich and installed a western-backed government. hoe likens the current political struggle to the bloody battle over ukraine 70 years ago between the soviet union and nazi germany. >> we also remember world war ii, and as soon as i heard about kiev, we guarded the statue downtown. >> reporter:. >> reporter: in crimea, remained part of ukraine after the soviet union collapsed in 1991. the peninsula still hosts russia's black sea fleet and voters and a majority of ukrainian citizens here want to be russian citizens again. >> we have been waiting for this a long time. we followed the press for years.

>> reporter: many parts of crimea are impoverished with high unemployment and low levels of government services and benefits. >> there are no jobs, nothing here. >> reporter: 29-year-old alexander dromashko has only found work as a courier. he wants to join russia for economic reasons. >> salary pensions are bigger in russia while prices are lower. that's why i think the majority will vote to join russia to get any kind of safety net, any kind of stability. (shouting) >> reporter: but others loathe the idea. ukrainian rallied in the capital today against the referendum to join russia. the 44-year-old computer technician feels deeply ukrainian and looks to the west, not moscow, for his future.

the russian model, he says, represents the past. >> you will do what the party has ordered and receive compensation. this passive style thrived for thousands of years in a socialist state. modern youth wants choice, the freedom to open up and develop themselves. >> reporter: and you consider yourself part of that generation? >> of course, yes. >> reporter: he will stay home sunday in protest of a vote he calls a farce. he says the ballot doesn't even allow no as an option and doubts the votes will even be counted. what's more, he believes russian president vladimir putin has designs on more than crimea. >> i don't believe he will stop. i think this is just the beginning of his plan to unite all slavic people, bringing back power to the soviet countries. he won't stop with ukraine. >> reporter: also opposed to the referendum are residents of

this small village on the outskirts of the capital, home to muslim tartars, whose ancestors were deported by sowfed leader stalin in 1944. like virtually every tartar here, this 86-year-old lives in fear of falling under russian rule again. he remembers 20 days of forced travel in a box car with his family, taken to a collective farm in us uzbekistan called stn where three of his siblings died. >> i am afraid. i'm so upset in watching all of this and crying. i have this fear from my childhood and right now i'm afraid, too. >> reporter: a more immediate fear drove his younger tartar neighbors as in many such communities to muster in the cold late last night and guard against any attempt to attack or intimidate their village at this

charged political moment. meanwhile, in the capital today, some ukrainians and tartars have a last-ditch anti-referendum rally, a company of russian stalwarts drove by as if they weren't there. hari sreenivasan spoke to margaret a short time ago. >> sreenivasan: hoer is the vote expected to go. >> reporter: it's hard that this won't be interpreted as moving crimea closer to russia. first of all, you have major blocks of people opposed to it like the whole leadership of the tartar community, say they're going to boycott it, so it's not the legitimacy. secondly the wording of the ballot by i tried to explain in the senate piece which essentially says they want to join russia right away or go back to the '92 constitution which declares crimea essentially independent. third, i've heard from a lot of young people who are pro

ukrainian, a great sense of futility. a couple we met on the train said we're just going to move to western ukraine. the woman said, you know, we don't feel the decision will be made by us, and the man said whatever rust wants, russia just takes. the decision has been made. in terms of motivation, i would say the energy is on the side off the pro-russian supporters. >> are there signs of a campaign? what does it look like on the streets? >> well, hari, not like an american campaign. you don't see russian soldiers in uniform here. they have this military unit and local self-defense forces and the russian troops are out encircling ukrainian bases but, still, it is not a free atmosphere. secondly there's no real debate. for instance, you haven't had televised debates. most to have the tv is blatantly

pro-russian. there are a couple of ukrainian channels. third, there is this intimidation going on, some tartars in a nearby city report having xs put on their doors by thugs, that's exactly how the stalin forces marked the doors of tartars who were going to get deported. and you've had prominent activist leaders on the pro-ukrainian side, non-tartar, who have gone missing and no one knows where they are. >> sreenivasan: what does this mean for ordinary crimeans caught in the middle of this? >> reporter: the ordinary crimeans say it's disheartening. one woman said all my friends have been so optimistic about the future but they're not and their lives have been put on hold. shelves ukrainian. it's been an independent country for 23 years. she said my boyfriend are going to get married and we don't know what country we'll belong to.

so i would say there is disunity or discord or distrust among the groups. dimitri, the 44-year-old in our piece, said we never used to argue about politics and now we do. the tartars are very nervous and as one woman said, we don't know what putin is putting in their heads. there's a lot of unease even by pro-russian people as to what the future holds. >> sreenivasan: certain nations have been threatening sanctions. how do the crimeans perceive these efforts? >> hari, i have to say they fall woefully short. crimeans who are pro-ukraine fear the trade. what they are talking about is in 1994 is when ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons which it had as part of the soviet union, there was the

budapest agreement signed where the u.s. and russia agreed with ukraine to act to protect ukraine's sovereignty and security. so when i went to the american embassy the other day, there was a commo demonstration out frontn with a bullhorn saying you promised to protect us and now it's time for you to deliver. now, american and other european diplomats say a budapes booed pa budapest memorandum is not binding. that answer does not sit well with the pro-ukrainian voters we talked to and one tartar said to me today, well, america they say it's not binding, but i hope they know if putin hasn't stopped with crimea, he's going to keep going and be moving their way and toward other countries. >> sreenivasan: margaret warner, thanks for joining us. >> look forward to talking to you this weekend, hari.

>> woodruff: and to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and new york times columnist david brooks. gentlemen, well, margaret sounded fairly ominous. david, what are we headed for? >> i think that ominousness is fully merited. the russians are amassing troops on the border, whipped up fervor, talking about the russians killed and harassed within ukraine. if putin decides to escalate, what else is there? i wouldn't want to bet on it but i think there's a possibility of something cataclysmic happening in the next couple of weeks or whatever. it's important to remember, for putin, if you're an autocrat in the world, what's the essential conflict? between you and the square, and it's important to show you can beat the square and the square is not the future, by that i mean the popular uprising. two ways putin can do that.

first, take over part of ukraine. the second is to trash the country and sow chaos throughout ukraine so the country begins to fall apart, and that is something i know administration officials are also thinking. >> woodruff: you see something cataclysmic coming? >> i hope not, judy. i think one of the mistakes we made in the analysis of this is we assume it's sort of a cold war hangover, that the russians had i.q.s of 300 and stood 12 feet tall. i think this is very ad hoc. i don't think putin expected his pup et to fall -- puppet to fall as completely and quickly as he did in a popular uprising in ukraine, and i think he's been playing iter ar it very much by. i think sanctions are absolutely imperative, and sanctions that

stick and sanctions that stick most of all upon putin and his outliers -- those are the kleptocapitallists, crony capitalists or whatever you want to call them. the private schools, boarding schools of england and some to have the united states are being sustained by the full tuitions paid by these russian oligarchs and i think perhaps time has come for that to end. their flirtation with downton abby, their fixation with it, and their own guilded living in the west has to come to an end and i think this is playing into that, as well as the united states, and she has shown both measure and resolve. >> woodruff: but is that likely to change putin's course? >> one area i disagree with mark on, my understanding is he at least has thought through some things and he's thought through the economic pain.

i think the russian market was down 17% last time i checked, and i think he's thought through the sanctions and thought we've lived through stalingrad and can live through this. he's steeled the country through the campaign and is making hay out of all of this. nonetheless, i agree with mark about what's coming. i think the obama administration as done a great job, a steady ratcheting up of the costs both to economically and some of the oligarchs. i think they have been a little timid on who the sanctions are going to, some legal restrictions they have to deal with, but are applying sanctions. the visa, the seizing of the assets, they're ramping up steadily and slowly and at the same time beginning to gather a an international coalition to support ukraine through the

i.n.s. and elsewhere. i think they're being very aggressive and clear and responding in a way which is earning bipartisan support. >> woodruff: but if russia goes ahead and takes crimea, where's the administration then? where's the west? >> i think that's when the sanctions really have to bite. i do think the e.u. has been just molasses on this. they have been very slow in engaging and helping ukraine and supporting them. i think, beyond that, judy, what we have in this country is a political reality that, while there's been loud republican criticism from john mccain and lindsey graham, at the most important conservative gathering of the year, the national political action -- conservative political action committee, the winner going away for president in 2016 with a man who is against chest thumping, rand

paul of kentucky, and finishing way back in the back of the pack, mar mark arubio. >> i would say generally the country does not want to be active abroad and that's not just republican, that's nationally. first time in measured history from the pew research center, more americans think we're doing too much to solve the world's problems and they want to turn around. it's not they're against global economics, they don't believe in the efficacy of american diplomatic power, they just don't want us involved. and a polling of ukraine specifically, they say don't get involved. s>> woodruff: meantime, here and in the u.s., there is a surprising split between one of the senators who was most supportive of the intelligence

community, senator dianne feinstein, came out with a blistering criticism of the c.i.a., saying it was spying on the computers used by the intelligence committee. what does this say about the support -- frankly, the entire intelligence community has had from the political leadership? >> 9/11, the intelligence community had a blank check in this country and it was cashed over and over again. the n.s.a., now the c.i.a. disclosurers or allegations. the presumption was anything that's necessary to be done to preserve national security to avoid another 9/11, okay, we kind of look the other way and maybe suspend civil liberties. i think that has run its course. i think there is a growing concern about privacy in this country, and when die nan dianne feinstein, who has been a

staunch supporter, defender of the n.s.a., c.i.a., comes to the floor with a speech about whose wires are being tapped and it's her committee and she's outratched and the n.s.a. is barred from domestic intelligence gathering, so this is a real run comiewr between supporters of the secrecy and the intelligence agencies and one of its strongest democrats. >> woodruff: we should say the c.i.a. is denying what senator feinstein said. >> i was on the floor in the senate and people were amazed that you had this kind of public confrontation and anger especially from her, so a dramatic escalation. the substance gets murky and i was struck by something marco

rubio said and said what dianne feinstein is saying is oversimplification and said none of us have clean hands. that seems true to me. nonetheless, we have sort of a shooting war, not literally, but a rhetorical shooting war between the agency and the committee and that's just weird. that is just -- it reminds me of the rhetorical way the state department had with the agency after benghazi. there's a lot of things fracturing. people who should be working together are in cold war footing. doesn't bode well for the future of cooperation but especially raises the the possibility that we're one big scandal away from hearings, a big reahumidity of the whole national security structure. >> woodruff: two other things i want to ask you about but one is, mark, the president, just in the last 24 hours announced he wants a review of deportation policy in this country.

we know the president is having a hard time getting a comprehensive immigration reform through the president has been adamant about saying there's nothing he can do, he has to deport americans here illegally have to be deport or have been deported but now he's saying we're going to take another look. what's happened? >> first of all, any chances of legislation on immigration are officially over. i think that can be signaled by this move on the president's part. secondly, the president was taking criticism from his own supporters in the latino community. they deported more undocumented immigrants than any administration in the nation's history, and add to that, judy, the reality of the 2014 political campaign. i mean, the democrats are going to need every vote they have, and the president got no payoff, no credit on the republican side from critics of immigration by the fact that he had been the

deporter in chief, so i think the decision is has been made. >> i don't know how informed you are on the merits of reviewing or reforming the deportations policies, but it's so innately political. the democrats just lost this big election in florida. they're in a bad political spot. they need hispanic turnout. he's getting -- you know, just the weak, he's getting ramped up criticism from the caucus. it's so political, you hate to see policy done in this way. whether good or i don't know. >> woodruff: speaking of congressional loss, a special election in florida, mark, message for the democrats? they by all accounts expected to win. they lost. healthcare was a big issue. in a minute, what does this mean for 2014 for the democrats? >> judy, house elections are fascinating because the only way you can get to the house is get

i electricked, can't get appointed. this was an example, the democrats had the candidate they wanted in alex sink. she ran statewide, had money, pro-choice, pro-same-sex marriage, running against a candidate who was anti-abortion rights, anti-same-sex marriage, a washington lobbyist, and in a district that president obama carried twice and the democrats lost. i mean, it is -- >> woodruff: healthcare reform. >> healthcare reform was the club that the republicans hit her over the head with. i don't think there's any question that this is a blow to the democrats and their hopes and prospects of winning back the house in 2014. a lot more bleak than before last tuesday. >> i would even say keeping the senate looks glimmer now. healthcare reform, it's a symbol for big government, the republican ground game seems to be vastly improved more than two years ago and obama's unpopular.

it has the feel of something that's real. >> woodruff: you're both so popular with us. we have to say goodbye, david brooks mark shields. >> woodruff: edward snowden helped push the n.s.a. from the shadows into the spotlight. we'll be right back with an inside look at his revelations and the newspaper that first published his story. but first this is pledge week on pbs. this break allows your public television station to ask for your support. and that support helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: for those stations not taking a pledge break, we look at a program offering a second chance to get a high school degree. april brown reports for our american graduate project. >> reporter: it's a name that bargain hunters across the country know well. the charity sells donated clothes and used goods at its retail stores to fund career training and social programs for

everyone from the disabled to ex-convicts. but for some indianapolis residents like nicole thomas, goodwill has come to represent something else: a chance to confront a lingering regret. >> i think the biggest thing to overcome is just swallowing your pride. >> reporter: since 2010, goodwill of central indiana has offered thomas and other dropouts the opportunity to earn a high school diploma at its network of charter schools known as the excel center. in 1995, thomas became pregnant with her daughter ashley. she was just 15 and dropped out of high school before earning a single credit. but despite her lack of education, the young mother was able to find work for nearly 20 years. >> i will admit that there is plenty of times i lied on applications and said i had my high school diploma and even some college education and it was never even looked into, so i was able to get some really good jobs. within i was able to get

some really good jobs and get in and stay there without that education. >> reporter: but a few years ago, as the recession tightened its grip on cities like indianapolis, she was laid off. without a diploma, she found it hard to even get an interview where she could sell herself to future employers and finally realized that she needed to go back to school. >> i wanted to do it right and i wanted to further my education beyond that and i felt i'd have an easier time getting into colleges with a high school diploma. >> reporter: today, thomas is among more than 3,000 adults enrolled at the excel center's nine sites. the move into education marked an evolution for a non-profit known for reselling donations. jim mcclelland, c.e.o. and president of goodwill of central indiana says his organization thought carefully before deciding to offer them a diploma over a g.e.d. >> some of the data that we saw as we started looking into this, showed that g.e.d. is the highest level of

education you attain, you don't make any more money than a high school dropout. and your rate of unemployment is no greater than that of a high school dropout. >> reporter: the indianapolis they didn't decide to reach out all on it's own. >> reporter: the indianapolis mayors office has the unusual ability to sponsor charter schools in the state. jason kloth, the deputy mayor of education for indianapolis says there are about 150,000 dropouts in the city's metro area, and that offering them educational opportunities is an economic imperative. >> there is a clear need with existing high school dropouts, people who may have made a mistake at one point or another in their life and this is an opportunity for them to re-enter and earn their high school diploma and then go on to enter employment. >> reporter: mcclelland says goodwill has been working with and employing dropouts for decades. so the organization tailored a school that met their needs. free childcare is provided and

weekend and night classes are offered year-round. like any other public high school, the students education is paid for by the state. but at the excel center, students also have the chance to earn college credits and move toward technical certifications, steps that could improve their chances of finding employment in indianapolis' new economy says jason kloth. >> today as our economy has shifted from an industrial economy to an information economy, having the high school diploma is the bare minimum that's going to be required to enter into that middle class lifestyle that we aspire. >> reporter: because it's a relatively new and untraditional model, both goodwill and the mayor's office are studying the excel center's success, which will determine future state funding. the school's students are judged by the same standards as all other high schoolers in indiana, which is a good thing according to algebra teacher kandas

boozer. she says it forces teachers to have high expectations for students in spite of difficult circumstances. >> i expect them to always give 100% no matter what that looks like. everybody is at a different level, so i just want to make sure they give me everything they have. >> reporter: montaque quentrel koonce is one recent graduate who had his fair share of challenges. a former dropout, koonce came to the excel center after being laid off from his job on a assembly line and struggling to find a place to live. >> there was two things i'm terrified of, you know being homeless, i've never been homeless in my life, and having to do math. so i had to confront both of those fears at the same time >> reporter: koonce studied hard, graduated with a 3.2 g.p.a, and later found a job at a packaging warehouse for amazon. for a man who hadn't been in a classroom in more than 30 years, he found the teachers to be patient and encouraging and felt he succeeded, in part, because

he could pick up where he left off when he dropped out of high school at 16. >> i didn't have to go through high school from the beginning to end it's just from exactly from when i walked out the door as to where i walked back in and they test you, they figure out where you are at and tell you what you need and they help you get there. >> reporter: president and c.e.o jim mcclelland says his organization's educational effort is not only helping people like koonce today, but >> we have a lot of students who tell us that they are doing this for their kids or so that their kids won't have any excuse not to. that's pretty neat. while we know that by earning that diploma it's going to have a positive impact on the mom or the dad, we are think the greater impact is going to be with their children. >> reporter: as for nicole thomas, she'll graduate from the excel center in may and has already begun earning college credit. she says she is anxious to rejoin the workforce, but has

only one specific job in mind so i want to come back as an instructor. >> reporter: teachers will likely be in high demand for goodwill of central indiana going forward. more than 2 2100 students on waiting list to enroll. american graduate is a public media initiative funded by the corporation for public broadcasting. >> woodruff: finally tonight, he's a wanted man in the u.s. but this week national security agency leaker edward snowden spoke, via video from russia, to the annual gathering called south by southwest. he argued to the crowd gathered in austin, texas, the tech industry needs to do more to protect the privacy of americans in the digital age. a new book examines what snowden revealed and pulls together the threads of one of the biggest security breaches in american history. jeffrey brown has our conversation.

brown it began with an email, i am a senior member to have the intelligence community, the beginning of revelations leaked by edward snowden, the vast surveillance of data by the national security agency and the beginning of a new book entitled "the snowden files the inside story of the world's most wanted man." luke harding broke the story. i am a senior member of the intelligence committee, snowden wrote to glen greenwald. what's the impression you drew of the jung snowden? >> he was someone who had incredible access to top secret information, and he was unhappy about what he saw and thought he would lift the lid on unconstitutional mass surveillance. >> brown: you find insight into the mind of especially the

younger snowden through anonymous postings on a tech web site and used this name, the true huha. >> yes, he made a posting, a slightly weird name, but these postings give us some insight into how he was as a young man. some not of the left or right, very patriotic, pretty obnoxious in places, deeply into computers. >> brown: his strongest leaning seems to be libertarian, he supported ron paul. >> yes, the guiding principle was the american constitution he even wanted to join the military. >> brown: at one point, leakers of information. >> in 2009 when he's workings as

a junior analyst in switzerland, he blasted "the new york times," operations in iran and denounces wikileaks. but he changes like most young people. he goes on a journey. the more he saw the more disillusioned he game. >> brown: that's part of the story in the book. isn't there a few moments where he changes over time? >> it was over a period of years. two things upset him. first, he saw more stuff. he was a systems administrator so he could roam around secret places of the n.s.a. he saw documents which troubled him. secondly, he became disillusioned with a barack obama who would roll back from these programs and when he didn't, he decided to act and 'do this extraordinary leak. >> brown: what's your impression of snowden, his own level of certainty about what he was doing, seeing and what he

should do about it? >> he has this enormous sense of inner calm. my colleagues who met him in hong kong said he reached this place of inner tranquility where he decided he would do the leak even though he knew full well it would have enormous consequences and his life would never be the same but he felt morally compelled to act. of course, it was a big price. he's now an exile with no prospect of coming back to the u.s. >> brown: the first meeting that you describe here, you know, a lot of this is in the i.t. world, it's the tech world, but that first meeting has a lot of cloak and dagger and old-fashioned spy world. >> it's a cross of a magical mystery tour. he sends these instructions saying meet me at the hotel in hong kong next to the plastic alligator and i will be the guy carrying a scrambled rubrics

cube. and then glen, the filmmaker who met him, were expected to see a grisled cia veteran in a blazer and they get this young student-like geek and their first reaction is it's impossible, it can't be him. over a period of several days, they debrief him and get a story and he took them to the documents and they discovered he is indeed real. >> brown: so much has come out and we on this program have all looked at this, so much about the various surveillance programs. where are we in this story? is there more to come? what do you think? >> there is more to come, fantastic revelations in the last nine months. we know so much than a year ago. we know iphones are great spying devices, the n.s.a. can hack your webcam. all about the telephone records collected. there's a huge debate going on in the u.s. and brazil where everyone is saying, you know, what should the boundaries be of surveillance in this kind of

electronic age. >> brown: we'll continue this conversation online and i'll invite later on. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. new evidence in the missing malaysian jetliner suggests the plane flew west, for hours, after it's last contact. and russia sent more troops and armor into crimea, where residents vote this weekend on seceding from ukraine. on the newshour online right now, it's "pi day," the holiday where math geeks across the globe pause to celebrate the first three digits of the irrational number pi, or 3.14. it's also an excuse to enjoy your favorite edible pie. so have a slice and test your math skills with an interactive quiz. plus, play a game to find your birthday digits in pi. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org.

later tonight on "washington week," more on the stalled diplomacy over ukraine, plus the probe into charges the cia spied on the u.s. senate. and the news doesn't stop on fridays. tune in to the pbs newshour weekend for the latest on the malaysian airliner and the key vote in crimea. and we'll be back, right here, on monday, with a look at a poetry program in seattle designed for juvenile offenders. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff, have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪

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