captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: the department of justice slapped toyota with a hefty, $1.2 billion dollar penalty, settling a lengthy criminal probe into recalls of millions of faulty cars. good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. also ahead this wednesday, in crimea, russian-speaking troops seized a naval base there without firing a shot and ukraine announced plans to evacuate it's military. less than 24 hours after moscow formally claimed control of the peninsula. >> ifill: and we head to the south florida coast where there are worries climate change is driving sea levels higher and higher. >> you're going to see water

coming out of biscayne bay onto the streets until its about a foot deep. people go, "oh, we broke a sewer main, or a water main broke!" that's not what it is, that's sea level rise. >> ifill: 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 by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made

possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: toyota now formally admits it misled consumers and regulators over unintended acceleration problems in its cars that triggered global recalls. the auto maker agreed to pay $1.2 billion the largest such federal penalty ever imposed on an auto company. we'll take a closer look at the case right after the news summary. >> woodruff: in ukraine, the new leaders in kiev announced they're drawing up plans to evacuate ukrainian troops from crimea. this came in the face of russian moves to consolidate their grip on the breakaway province. >> woodruff: pro-russian militiamen pushed their way into part of the ukrainian naval headquarters in sevastopol this

morning. shortly afterward, the russian flag was raised at the entrance as the ukrainian servicemen gave way. >> woodruff: there is nothing we can do against the crowd, nothing. everything happened spontaneously. there were many promises from the russian side and our side that the base will not be stormed, that all issues will be resolved through political means, but as you see now, there was a takeover. no issues had been resolved through political means. >> woodruff: the takeover came a day after russian president vladimir putin signed a treaty aimed at annexing crimea. in response, ukraine's national security minister called today for turning crimea into a demilitarized zone as it tries to withdraw its troops. and he announced joint military exercises with the u.s. and britain. but crimea's new prime minister appeared unfazed. he banned ukrainian officials from entering the region, and called for other parts of ukraine to follow crimea's lead. >> ( translated ): this

patriotic rise that we have in crimea and in russia today that united us all regardless of our political views or political parties, should continue and spread over to south-eastern ukraine >> woodruff: and, indeed, pro- russian militia members took up positions today outside donetsk, in eastern ukraine. they said they were ready to block any western forces from entering. meanwhile, the u.s. and european union again pressed moscow to relent. vice president joe biden was in lithuania where he pledged the u.s. will defend its n.a.t.o. allies, and that russia will pay a price for seizing crimea. >> as long as russia continues on this dark path, they will face increasing political and economic isolation. there are those who say that this action shows the old rules still apply, but russia cannot escape the fact that the world is changing and rejecting outright their behavior.

>> woodruff: in a bid to resolve the crisis, the u.n. secretary general, ban ki-moon, left this afternoon for talks in both moscow and kiev. >> woodruff: we'll talk with margaret warner, on the ground in eastern ukraine, later in the program. >> woodruff: israeli air strikes blasted syrian military posts today, killing one soldier and wounding seven. the raids happened in southwestern syria, near the israeli-occupied part of the golan heights. israel said it was retaliation for a roadside bombing in the golan that wounded four israeli soldiers. suspicion for that attack fell on "hezbollah", the shi-ite militia allied with syria. >> woodruff: the f.b.i. has stepped up its role in the hunt for a missing malaysian airliner. u.s. officials said today the bureau is helping analyze deleted data from the pilot's flight simulator. that word came amid an uproar at the malaysian government's daily briefing. we have a report from lucy watson, of independent television news, in kuala

lumpur. >> reporter: a mother's anguish for the whole world to see. captured just moments before the media briefing. after traveling thousands of miles to beg for answers. this pandemonium is because the relatives have now been taken inside this room behind me by officials. they came here this morning because such is their frustration and distress towards the malaysian government at the lack of information they're getting. some 12 days on now. hidden away because earlier, they dared to voice their anger. >> ( translated ): please help me bring my son back. i just want to see my son. so many days have passed and nobody from the government has come to see me. >> reporter: yet on a day of great drama, the investigation made little progress. the search is now focusing more on the southern indian ocean. the most remote and furthest

point where the aircraft would've run out of fuel. but there are still guards outside the pilot's home. and police continue to analyze data from his flight's simulator. some of which he removed. >> some data has been deleted from the simulator and forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing. i would like to take this opportunity to state that the passengers, the pilot and the crew remain innocent until proven otherwise. >> reporter: it's not what they came to hear. and this was not what they wanted. but this is an unprecedented event. >> woodruff: first lady michelle obama is headed to china, for a six-day visit. white house officials say it is not intended to address any policy issues. instead, mrs. obama is scheduled to spend a day with the chinese president's wife, focusing on education.

later, she and her mother and two daughters will visit cultural and historical sites. >> woodruff: the governor's race in illinois began in earnest today, one of the year's toughest campaigns, in a state with one of the hardest-hit economies. venture capitalist bruce rauner won tuesday's republican primary, spending $6 million of his own money. this morning, democratic incumbent pat quinn and rauner were already swapping charges over the minimum wage and economic leadership. >> a billionaire with nine mansions calling for a reduction in the minimum wage and taking $2,000 dollars out of the pockets of everyday people who are doing the best they can. >> i'm proud of the businesses we've built, i'm proud of the success we've brought. and i wanna bring that success to springfield. run it more like a business, make it efficient, effective, transparent. >> woodruff: democrats have held the governor's office in illinois for more than a decade. >> woodruff: the federal reserve signaled today it may start

raising short-term interest rates sometime next year. that would follow the end of the f.e.d.'s stimulus program, which it dialed back another notch today. the combination did not go down well on wall street. the dow jones industrial average lost 114 points to close at 16,222. the nasdaq fell more than 25 points to close at 4,307. and the standard and poor's 500 dropped 11 points to finish at 1,860. we'll hear some of what fed chair janet yellen had to say today, later in the program. >> woodruff: also ahead on the newshour: two major auto-makers under fire; russian-speaking troops seize a ukrainian navy base in crimea; worries over rising sea levels along the south florida coast; a new book on "the looming generational showdown" in the u.s.; plus, one of the most renowned painters of the 20th centruy, seen in a new light.

>> ifill: four years after launching a criminal investigation of toyota, the government wrapped up its case today by announcing a major settlement, in which the company admitted criminal wrongdoing for concealing safety concerns. >> today we can say for certain that toyota intentionally concealed information and misled the public about the safety issues behind these recalls. >> reporter: in a toughly worded statement, attorney general eric holder announced the record $1.2 billion settlement this morning. toyota, the federal investigators said, purposely concealed what it knew about the full scope of "unintended acceleration" issues, linking them to faulty brakes, sticking gas pedals and tangled floor mats. >> toyota confronted a public safety emergency as if it were simply a public relations problem. put simply, toyota's conduct was shameful.

it showed a blatant disregard for systems and laws designed to look after the safety of consumers. by the company's own admissions, it protected its brand ahead of its own customers. >> ifill: recalls began in 2009 and ultimately spread to more than 10 million toyota vehicles. company sales plunged, but have since rebounded. in a news release today, toyota u.s.a.'s chief legal officer, christopher reynolds, insisted the auto giant has become "more responsive" since 2009. he said: but holder said the case also serves as a warning to others in the auto industry. >> other car companies should not repeat toyota's mistake: a recall may damage a company's reputation, but deceiving your customers makes that damage far more lasting. >> reporter: that's a not-so- veiled reference to general motors, now facing it's own

federal investigation over its handling of faulty ignition switches. the company finally recalled 1.6 million vehicles last month. amid revelations it had known of the problem since 2004. another 1.7 million additional vehicles were recalled for different problems on monday. g.m. says there've been 13 deaths, but a study for the "center for auto safety" found the real number could total more than 300, a number g.m. disputes. in a video posted to g-m's website monday, new c.e.o. mary barra promised the company is 'completely focused' on the problem. >> we are putting the consumer first and that is guiding every decision we make. >> ifill: yesterday, barra apologized, saying she's very sorry for the loss of life tied to the defects. the g.m. probe could last months. as for toyota, federal prosecutors say they'll dismiss a criminal wire fraud charge in three years, if the company fully complies with the settlement.

>> ifill: some further detail on today's settlement and what it means for the auto industry. david shepardson covers it for "the detroit news." and joan claybrook is a past president of public citizen and served as chief of the national highway traffic safety administration during the carter administration. how does this compare to previous settlements we've heard about? >> this is by far the biggest ever. this was a huge blow to the company. you don't see this type of language used -- i mean, shameful, coverup -- and said that toyota, during the 2009 time frame knew it had problems and not only did it opt not to do anything but it canceled a proposed fix. so this is as strong as company as the government could be and finally extracted an admission of wrongdoing from toyota which it steadfastly refused to do for five years. >> ifill: we invited representatives from toyota and

gm to join us and they declined. how big deal is this? >> i think it wants huge. it's huge because the national highway traffic safety administration does not have authority so it depends on the justice department to do something they never have before and suggests in the settlement they're going to do something more with general motors and are putting out a warning to all the companies. companies are looking at their defect files, what they have not reported and should have reported. this is going to force them to behave and act in the consumer interest. >> ifill: in these business settlements, the affected company says i'm not admitting wrongdoing but don't want to go to court. toyota admits criminal wrongdoing? >> yes, it's the deferred prosecution agreements. they're not pleading guilty. that's something the justice

department wanted in the negotiations, they wanted toyota to admit they had done wrong. on the other hand, toyota has turned the page like other companies, they're now recalling vehicles a lot faster. the company changed dramatically since then but are still paying the price for what happened then. >> reporter: is it true, joan claybrook, companies are already learning the lessons of the lawsuits and threats and investigations? >> they are because the companies have been able to keep a lot of this information secret and the national highway traffic safety administration has not had lot of transparency, it's something we'd like to see changed. so it's hard for the consumer, but it goes no place. these companies have been unmasked, it's very embarrassing, i hope certainly all of them will be more responsive to consumer complaints and lawsuits because that's a source of information about problems on the road. >> ifill: a billion dollars is a lot of money, $1.2 billion,

but there have been a lot of lawsuits, federal, state, civil lawsuits which i assume are still out there? >> the legal bills for gm total are topping $3 billion. $1.6 billion settlement for owners of toyotas for various reasons, they've settled with state attorney generals, there are individual claims for crashes, so when you'd all the costs up tore toyota, it will be well over $3 billion. but remember, for this year, toyota expects the make about $19 billion in profits, double what they made the year before and 30% of the revenue comes from the u.s. >> ifill: this hasn't affected their bottom line? >> certainly, but one out of 19 billion is still significant, but they're about getting past this because this is a profitable market and the more they can do to show customers they're way beyond this the better since they're making a lot of money here. >> ifill: david, you were here

last week talking about the general motors recall and i wonder if this rings a bell for you, joan claybrook, that you're looking at this and thinking, oh, general motors is definitely next and there's definitely been a coverup of the general motors problem. >> oh, absolutely, the company founded tests in 2004, sent out bulletins to dealers in 2005 and 2006 in which they identified what the fix was. they had a meeting with the department of transportation in 2007 where the department of transportation had an investigation where the investigators said by the way the ignition switch was on accessory which meant it didn't operate the car but you could play the radio and wouldn't inflate the air bag. so it was clear way back then. and i think that the department of transportation has completely failed in its duty here and

general motors has harmed the public serrably and i think there are going to be many more deaths and injuries that are going to show up. now that the public is aware of this, they're calling general motors, they have 50 people answering the phones, and you're going to hear a lot more. >> if it is true that there's handwriting on the wall here, what strategy is general motors using to respond to try to get out ahead of it? >> i think they publicly apologized this week, said they were going to take care of the victims, haven't explained how, but i do think there are a lot of questions left unanswered. yes, the chronology is laid out that they didn't know significant problems over ten years, we don't have the e-mails, the memos, the congress are seeking to know what did they know, when did they know it, did gm really think this was a serious problem or was it as someone suggested a failure to connect the dots? so i think there are still a lot of questions. we don't know if what happened to gm rises to the same level as

toyota but that's what congress is going to get to the bottom of and what gm has to be worried about are they going to take the same hit. >> ifill: that was very strong language from the justice department, not just from the attorney general, but the secretary of transportation, the investigator from the f.b.i. so what does that say about a change in attitude maybe in the federal government towards these kinds of investigations. >> it's interesting that nisa can only impose penalties of $60 million on toyota and the justice department said, no, we'll find you a billion point two for all the vehicles you sold which we believe were fraudulently sold. so that basically means they can fine gm or any other auto company, sky is the limit, if they determine they broke the law and every auto company has to be very nervous and checking their books carefully. >> ifill: do you think it's a change in the federal government approach? >> we need newlation, criminal

peanuts, higher civil penalties, more transparency at the agency. yeah, like don't ask, don't tell, they don't scrks they didn't tell. i think they should have. so there are a number of changes including submission of documents and they need a higher budget, the budget is $134 million for the whole auto safety program, for the entire united states, totally insufficient. >> joan claybrook, public citizen, how are you, and david shepardson of the detroit news. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: despite assurances from russian president vladimir putin yesterday that russia would stop at crimea many are concerned about the fate of eastern ukraine. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner arrived in the city of donetsk this morning. it's been the scene of fierce, sometimes deadly, street battles in the last week between pro- russian and pro-ukrainian demonstrators. i spoke to margaret a short time

ago. margaret, hello. first of all, this news that ukraine is announcing plans to pull all of its troops out of crimea, what are you hearing? >> well, judy, this news just broke in the last hour so we called the aid decamp of the colonel commanding the military base which is right near the capitol whom we interviewed in our piece on friday, and this aide decamp said as far as they know, they've received no orders yet, just still hunkered down. however, the orders are not surprising from kiev in that the acting president said something like a week or ten days ago they do not have forces to send down to crimea to rescue or fight back for crimea because they will not be able to defend the region where i am now which is southeastern ukraine along the russian border. >> woodruff: you've now moved

into a different part of ukraine. how different does it feel, margaret, from crimea? >> you know, really different, usedy, and i'm kind of surprised because i've read so much about the pro russia demonstration, more violence than they've ever had in crimea, a pro-ukrainian common administrator killed last thursday in a face-off between the two camps. but the difference in crimea, 75% to 80 russian, the pro russian was palpable. people walked around with russian flags, wearing the orange and black symbol of russian strength and symbolism, and there was an election going on. here, it is much more subtle. there is prorussian sentiment here, it fully has been aroused. information, i met with the governor today at some length, this millionaire businessman who

is the governor here who says that, off camera, really, it's generated by the 100 or 200 russian specialists, he called them, who come in here, they've got the whole play book, they know what to do, but they also can get 4,000 or 5,000 people out in a square to demonstrate in favor of closer tries or even union with russia. so there is going on here, but you do not have, for instance, russia or russian military forces on every corner like the way you did in crimea. so there's a more subtle story but one kiev is worried about. >> so are you picking up reaction margaret to putin's -- the russians taking crimea? >> well, yes, judy. at a shopping center tonight, i would say the number one reaction was one of grief. you know, crimea is a place that ukrainians like to vacation -- fabulous hiking, great beaches -- and people told us they were actually very sad about this. one man said i'm feeling more ukrainian now that part of my

country has been taken away. there was a gent when who said he lived in bela russia and he said he thought it was marvelous some ukrainians can go back to the mother country. so there's a split. again, the thing kiev has to be worried about is a couple of people we talked to said, you know, i don't want to be part of russia, i have relatives there. i don't want really to live in russia, but i'm not going to go out and fight for this ukrainian governor either. let them go out and fight. and this is really the problem at the kiev government faces which is to make people feel they have a stake in ukraine as an independent country. >> woodruff: so given that, what do you think the channels s are eastern ukraine can be the next flashpoint. >> there's no doubt that the sort of putin playbook has been followed here. since s.a.t. day, they have demonstrations in 11 different cities almost at the same time,

now that is not an accident. so there is some kind of operation going on here. we haven't seen it ourselves because it's only been here less than 24 hours. we haven't seen a demonstration yet and what the kiev government is worried about is that, ace said, they do tap into some pro-russian sentiment here. in crimea there's people that say, well, we watch russian television, hear about how much better conditions there are there, people get higher pensions and benefits and wages. whether or not that's true remains to be seen. but i think their central government in kiev does have a legitimacy problem. they have not won all the hearts and minds of the people here in this part of ukraine, and, so, they have appointed the oligarchs, businessmen, one or two we met with at length today, who really have been brought in to try to sort of rally the troops and also restore order, doing some of the management

they have to do with what has been an unmanageable situation. >> woodruff: margaret warner, great reporting from ukraine. thank you. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: it's often difficult to see how climate change is altering the environment in our daily lives. to counter that and draw attention to the issue, the white house today launched a new website to visualize scientific data on droughts, wildfires and the rise in sea levels. as you'll see in this report, the residents of south florida are already noticing how higher water is changing their local landscape. special correspondent kwame holman narrates our story, it was done in collaboration with the south florida public media station w.p.b.t., and begins with longtime fishing boat captain dan kipnis.

>> i lived in florida my whole life. i'm actually a native and more importantly i've been on miami beach for like 55 years, and i'm a captain. captains are used to looking at the ocean, if you look at it long enough and i've had enough time to look at it, you can see small changes turn into big changes over a period of time, you're going to see water coming out of biscayne bay, up the storm sewers and onto the streets until its about a foot deep. and that's not fresh water, that's salt water. there's no rain, not a cloud in the sky. everyone can see that. people go oh, we broke a sewer main, or a water main broke. that's not what it is, that's sea level rise. >> reporter: miami beach is a barrier island that is mostly only a few feet above water level. high tides are higher than they were in the past, and the risk of torrential rainstorms has worsened with climate change. in recent years, increased flooding from high tide and weather events has been a stark wake up call for people living

on south beach. >> i remember people taking pictures and laughing when we saw people canoeing down west avenue, but then a lot of people started asking questions. it's scary in a lot of ways that what could actually happen here. >> reporter: dr. hal wanless, professor and chair of the department of geologic sciences at the university of miami has been studying sea level rise for decades. >> the two big things that have been and will affect sea level are the expanding ocean as it warms. the second big factor affecting sea level rise now, is ice melt, and the ice melt's a totally different game. ice can melt at rapidly accelerating rates. i videoed this time lapse footage in greenland in august

of 2013 as these icebergs melt, they add to sea level rise >> reporter: south florida political leaders have adopted a unified sea level rise projection, calculated by the u.s. army corps of engineers. these projections indicate sea levels will rise three to seven inches by 2030 and nine to 24 inches by 2060. pete harlem knows these projections all too well. he is the g.i.'s coordinator at florida international university, and pioneered the precise mapping of sea level rise for south florida. >> two feet of sea level rise is projected from roughly from 2040-2060 some time and when we get to that point, this is the miami beach of that near future. now taking that water level to four feet, it's just not gonna be a place you wanna live in a house. >> reporter: and it's not just people living on barrier islands who need to be concerned about sea level rise.

most of south florida is susceptible to flooding, as infrastructure becomes overwhelmed by rising seas or heavy rainfall. dr. jayantha obeysekerais is the chief modeler and an expert in south florida's complicated hydrologic system. >> we have regional flood control system that was designed and built by the u.s. army core of engineers jointly with the state about 50 years ago, and at that time, sea level rise was not a major factor that they worried about, but now, some of the infrastructure we have on the coastal belt are basically not working as they were designed. >> reporter: when we have heavy rainfall, the canals receive and move the excess water. that water is released into the bays and estuaries and eventually into the ocean. the system was designed for the

water to flow by gravity, with the water flowing from the higher canal levels into the lower ocean levels. as the sea rises however, gravity will no longer do the job and so there could be more flooding on the land as the water has nowhere to go. richard grosso is the director of the environmental and land use law clinic and a professor of law at nova southeastern university. >> its been the local utility directors, people who run water treatment plants, people who run sewage treatment plants, people who maintain roads, who have been required to institute very expensive retrofits. >> reporter: the miami beach public works department is working on improvements now. >> we've done our storm water management master plan that was adopted in 2012 and that had identified approximately $200 million worth of improvements that we needed to do over the next 20 years in order to keep pace with sea level rise and

addressing flooding concerns within the city of miami beach. >> reporter: some of this infrastructure includes pumps. >> everything collects in the inlets on the streets then runs through those white pipes down there. they're p.v.c. pipes. they then all drain via gravity to the storm water pump station and then pumped out of the storm water pump station and injected into the ground 80-100 feet down. we're sizing these pumps to provide the proper level of service 20 years from now and at the sea level 20 years from now. >> reporter: miami beach is not alone in addressing sea level rise. south florida has become a model for regional cooperation on this issue. a four county climate change compacts projections were turned into an action plan with more than 100 recommendations, these are now being reviewed. some have been adopted by county governments. broward county mayor kristin jacobs has been at the forefront of south florida climate change

discussions and has earned national recognition for her work. >> i see the biggest obstacles for us in going forward are term limits. when you consider the leaders that are necessary, the cheerleaders that are necessary to continue pulling this very heavy train forward. and without that leadership, the one that casts the vote, the one that decides the budget, the one that directs their staff resources to any given priority, if you don't have that at any given time this could all fall apart. >> reporter: but these plans come at a high price, something always politically difficult. as a member of the compact, former county commissioner katy sorenson has been an advocate for planning for the coming changes. >> no one wants to pay increased taxes or fees but if people want to live here, we have to make these investments to do the infrastructure planning, the pump systems, all the stuff that needs to be done so that we can stay habitable. >> one of the biggest challenges we have in south florida and across the country is this

disconnect between the best long-term investment and economic strategies for a community versus a political process that is short term in terms of it's rewards. for most local elected officials, they're not going to be around to reap the rewards of those smart thoughtful decisions that they made 10-20 years ago. and so that system still puts pressure on the folks who do have the power, who do have the votes to continue to make short- term gain kinds of decisions, that is our biggest challenge presented by sea level rise right now. >> reporter: recently, commissioners for the city of miami beach voted on measures that are expected to double to $400 million the cost of keeping

water out of its city streets. >> ifill: you can read more about the white house's new climate data initiative, and find a link to a full documentary on rising sea levels. that's from south florida's w.p.b.t., and it's on our website. >> ifill: janet yellen held her first news conference today as the new chair of the federal reserve and she immediately weighed in on a few key questions. among them: when will interest rates rise? back in december 2012, fed officials said they would keep short-term interest rates near zero until unemployment dipped to 6.5%. but even as that rate has dropped, the job market doesn't seem all that strong. today, yellen explained why the fed will use other data beyond the jobless rate.

that seems like the one that is likely to be breached. the question is, markets want to know, the public wants to understand beyond that threshold how we decide what to do. but in assessing the real estate of slack in the market and ultimately its inflationary pressures -- or deflationiary pressures that could result from that, it's appropriate to look at many more things. >> ifill: yellen, the fed's vice chair under ben bernanke, was also asked how her roll was changed. >> in many ways i feel the buck stops with me in terms of management of the focm and responsibility to assure that the federal reserve makes progress on its goals of getting the economy back on track and making progress on our financial stability and regulation objectives.

>> ifill: to help us assess the day's developments at the fed. i am joined by david wessel. director of the hutchins center on fiscal and monetary policy at the brookings institution, and a columnist for the wall street journal. welcome back so. the news today is this support that it's been providing to the economy is going to continue. >> she said, as is expected, the fed will continue to reduce the size of it's monthly bond buying, but i think the more focus on what she said about what will happen when in terms of raising interest rates. >> ifill: what did she say? well, the fed said, as she pointed out, they would keep rates low well beyond to where unemployment gets to 6.5%. we're almost there so they had to change their premises. she had a long list of things they will look at and the bottom line is we're going to keep interest rates low for a very long time, probably well into

2015, and raise them when we raise them very, very slowly because the economy has been so weak. >> ifill: there was some disagreement about when that would actually be. >> yeah, i think what happened was she was trying to be vague. >> ifill: that never happens (laughter) >> but she made a mistake and got a little specific. she said they would keep rates near zero for a considerable period after they stopped buying bonds, that's what the statement said, and i think that was meant to be vague. some reporter said, what do you mean "criminal period"? she said, oh, six months or something like that, at which point the market did the arithmetic and said, oh, my god, they're going to raise rates in march 2015 and the stock market plunged. if you look at the the forecast of the individual members of the f1c, she called dock plot in the quarterly statement, you can see most expect rates to go up sometime in 2015. >> but she wasn't supposed to say that? >> i think she was meant to be

very careful to be contingent to say we are in a plan to keep rates low for a long time, providing the economy behaves as we expect. the charts showed about 2013. i think the six months a little more specific. >> ifill: why is unemployment not an effective yar yardstick t deciding when the feds should act? >> because the unemployment rate looks better than the job market because so many dropped out of the workforce. if you're not looking for work you're not counted as officially unemployed. she noted 5% of the people in the workforce are working part time but wished for full time. so they're employed but not full time and she said that was a high concern of hers. >> ifill: when we think of the fed and the kinds of actions they take, we think about numbers, how much, where, how many months, what the interest rate is, but seems like it also more about nuance than numbers.

>> right, and the markets do numbers not nuance. so she has a difficult time. she's trying to communicate to the markets, we're going to keep rates low for a long time. we think that if the economy behaves as we expect that we'll probably begin raising them in 2015. we have a lot of disagreement about how fast we're going to raise them and everything could change if the economy does poorly or, as she pointed out, if inflation continues to be surprisingly low, which she mentioned several times. >> ifill: as you know, we watch very carefully these changes in command over at the fed. she was ben bernanke's deputy. the question is whether there's going to be any change. schau she different from him? >> i don't think there will be any big change in policy. i think what happened, it's like we had a broadway show and a leading man who was the actor on a successfu successful broadwayr eight years, he left production, and this was the debut of his replacement. >> ifill: the understudy. yeah, and we never quite know how she's going to do with the

spotlight on her. so i think there will be differences in style, but i don't think there will be differences in policy, and i think she handled the debut pretty well, except for that one slip, i think it was well done. >> ifill: i was going to ask, you've covered the fed -- i don't think there were press conferences before bernanke took over -- but you've watched the rollout before. how did she handle that and what kind of first impressions did she leave? >> i think she was comfortable answering questions. she seemed nervous reading her statement. she fielded the questions well. she gave very long answers. i don't know whether that was a tactic because you give longer answers, you get fewer questions. i've seen president obama do that to you. >> ifill: right. think she used a little more economic jargon than mr. bernanke did and i suspect she'll work on that but all in all i give her a high mark for a debut for which there was a lot of pressure. >> ifill: david wessel, thanks

for helping us. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: next, there's the so-called silent generation, the boomers, generation-x, and most recently the millennials. each has left, and is leaving, an imprint unique to their names. but now we know about the ways the youngest adults differ from and clash with their parents and grandparents. that's the focus of the new book, "the next america: boomers millennials and the looming generational showdown" by paul taylor, the executive vice president of the non-partisan research center. i talked to him recently. paul taylor, great to have you back on the program. >> what a pleasure. >> woodruff: so let's talk about this. the looming showdown. what do you mean by that? as you talk, i want our audience to look at how rebreak down the age groups. what do you mean by looming

generational showdown? >> there is a book about demographic change and generational equity. the country has gone through two massive demographic changes simultaneously. we're becoming a majority of non-white nation. we're working toward 22% white. at the same time, 10,000 baby boomers a day turned 65. another 10,000 tomorrow turns 65. this continues every single day until 2030 at which point we have doubled the number of people on social security and medicare and the systems don't work anymore. so what this book does is look at those changes and looks at the potential generational conflicts that are set up because young adults today because of these changes don't look alike, don't think alike and don't vote alike and we'll have to figure out how to rebalance our social safety net to make it work in the 21s 21st century with a lot of

political differences between young and old. >> woodruff: and big challenges. the age groups, the millennials 18-33 years old today, gen x 34-39 today. the boomers 50 to 68. and the silent 69 to 86. let's talk about the politics. you mentioned they have very different views. you found -- and again i did reporting on this a number of years ago and it's interesting how many of the things we saw then remained true for this millennial generation, they think of themselves more that is independents than any generation at their age. >> one of the things we found fascinating is they are not anchored to some of the traditional institutions of society. they're politically independent at the highest levels we've ever measured. 50% say i'm independent. they're unaffiliated with religions at the highest levels

and they're not getting married. one in four today of the 18 to 32-year-olds are married, about half the number of their parents' generation when they were the same age. the fact they're politically independent doesn't mean that they don't have strong political views, they do. they've now been in the electorate for two or three national election cycles and they have come in as the most strong and democratic voting cohort in the 40 or 50 years they have been measuring these things. so they're socially liberal and politically liberal. they believe in an active government. they just don't like the idea of attaching themselves to bigger organizations. they attach themselves to their friends in their networking sites. >> woodruff: it is interesting because, as you say, when you add the millennials who identify themselves as democrats, you get about 50% of this age. >> that's right. there's no mistaking them as a distinctive cohort, just not

affiliated to parties and other institutions. >> woodruff: one other thing and there is so much to talk about from the book, paul taylor, but a little bit of a contradiction here. you start out talking about how this may be the first generation in our memory, younger generation, who may grow up to be not as well off as their parents. on the other hand, this is an optimistic generation. >> very optimistic. maybe that's just a timeless optimism of youth, but the economic circumstances are very striking for this generation and there are other reasons why so few are getting married even though they're well into their 20s and early 30s. we asked them, do you value marriage? and most millennials say yes. well, why haven't you gotten married yet? the most common response is i don't have the economic foundation to be a good provider. >> woodruff: a lot of them are living at home. >> a lot of them are living with mom and dad because that turns out to be a good place to go and you can't find a job or make ends meet. of all the economic indicators

whether poverty rates, employment, unemployment, today's millennials are doing worse than the xeres or the boomers were doing at the same stage in their life cycle and this is new. >> woodruff: so how do you explain the view that 49% or half of them are upbeat about america's future? >> they're upbeat about their own future. we ask the question of all adults saying do you have enough money now to lead the life you want to lead? 80% of millennials say it will work out fine. when we ask about the country's future, minimummials are upbeat. the boomers, who had their complaints about america in the '50s and '60s, they're much less upbeat than the youth about the feature of the country. i think this is something distinctive about this generation. they may have been dealt a lousy hand in terms of the economy, but the 32-year-olds today,

think about when they got out of school and the economy they've faced over the last six or seven years, the ones who didn't go beyond high school have had a terrible time, the ones who did it right and went to college are saddled with enormous student debt that's an albatross to them getting started. yet, i don't know whether it's debatable or nurturing parental enormous that brought them up, i don't know whether it's a sense of empowerment from being digital natives, around technology where you place yourself at the center of the network you've created, but they believe in the future that i think will work that out right. >> woodruff: they have a lot of years for us to try to figure it out. they are a fascinating generation. paul taylor, pew research center, thank you. >> thank you very much. >> ifill: finally tonight, the

spanish artist joan miro was one of the most renowned painters of the 20th century. jeffrey brown takes us to an exhibition that offers the chance to see the artist in a new light. >> reporter: a recent evening at the seattle art museum and visitors are puzzling over an assortment of cast-off items. a bent garden rake a headless doll. a flattened straw basket. >> reporter: all assembled into sculptural creatures by the spanish artist joan miro, who once said, "he wanted to create a phantasmagoric world of living monsters." curator, catharina manchanda, says if they are monsters, they are at least playful ones. >> this sculpture really resonates with me.

it captures both something so light-hearted, but also it has a certain gravitas, which is, of course, reflected in its title. its called "the warrior king." >> reporter: "the warrior king," but with a spoon in its hand. >> yes, he is brandishing a cooking spoon instead of a sword. >> reporter: what is that, do you know? >> it might be an embroidery hoop. so an object that comes from the home, perhaps more feminine. there is something both very strong but also fragile there. >> reporter: the 60 works here, from the last two decades of miro's long life, after he was already famous, are from the collection of the reina sofia museum in madrid and none have ever been shown in the u.s. paintings feature symbols and figures, as in the large-scale "women" and "bird in the night." >> this may look completely abstract to you when you first look at it. all these primary colors on this white background. but what we actually have is a bird perched in some kind of landscape and a crescent moon,

that blue shape right above. they all stand for an imaginary universe. >> reporter: a new element of late, miro is the interplay between painting and sculpture. in "woman," "bird" and "star," manchanda says, you can see miro's use of shapes and collage. and then compare how similar techniques show up in the nearby sculpture titled "figure." >> reporter: so walk me through this. fondue forks, some kind of gourd-like vegetable, what else? >> we have a whole tree trunk here. also you can see over here these little arms. you can really see each and every object in it's various colors and materials, but then, and this is the important second step, he casts them in bronze and what you get as a result, is that these disparate elements become unified.

it's almost like the memory of these objects. >> reporter: the memory of the objects. you think that is the way he thought about it? >> that's how i think about it, yes. >> reporter: miro collected the objects from a variety of sources, often finding things washed up on the beaches near his home in mallorca. biographer jacques dupin wrote that miro would come back from walks laden down like a pack horse with all sorts of things, valueless, obsolete, but capable in his eyes, of metamorphoses. all the works in this exhibition, in fact, were created when miro was in his 70's and 80's. this is a portrait of the artist as an older man. >> he was internationally celebrated. he had respect, awards, and recognition. he could have just been content with what he had accomplished. but he kept saying, "i have to keep moving forward." >> reporter: did he slow down? were there any signs of diminishing? >> you would think that work like this would have been physically quite demanding.

i mean, here you are at age 88 and he is still building all these different objects, some of them larger in scale. i don't see any indication that he was slowing down. and what's even more amazing, it's not like he was going back and repeating things. he really keeps pushing on, all the way to the end. >> reporter: miro died in 1983 at the age of 90. this exhibition of his final works will remain in seattle through may. and then travel to the nasher art museum in north carolina. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. toyota agreed to a record settlement of $1.2 billion for misleading the public on safety issues that triggered global recalls. and ukraine's leaders made plans to withdraw troops from crimea, as russian forces seized another key military site in the region. >> woodruff: on the newshour

online right now, a new plan would allow michigan students to attend college for free, but there's a catch, they have to then pay it forward by contributing a fixed-percentage of their future income into a fund so that other students may benefit. it's a new idea that has other states curious to see how well it might work. we have the details on the rundown. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we'll have the latest from ukraine, and how the u.s. has handled the crisis. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. 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:

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report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by -- thestreet.com. featuring stephanie link who shares her investment strategies, stock picks and market insights with action alerts plus, the multimillion dollar portfolio she manages with jim cramer. learn more at thestreet.com/nbr. once you do wind down the bond-buying program, could you tell us how long of a gap we might expect before the rate hikes to begin? >> so the language that we used in the statement was "considerable period." so this is the kind of term it's hard to define,