>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations.

>> reporter: it is a dark and difficult task. a diver follows a rope through the murky waters to reach the sunken ship. amid a maze of staircases, doorways and windows float blankets and life jackets. but he is interested only in the dead, recovering the bodies of nearly two hundred people trapped inside. he is among more than seven hundred workers and more than 200 vessels involved in this most grim of tasks, where success looks like this. more than 100 bodies have now been brought ashore. the families of those on board study descriptions of the dead pinned on notice boards. others simply study the sea.

please save them, this man cries. the families are urging the government to speed up the search. this man says parents would go into the water themselves if they could. but they know too that hope is all but gone. the divers have been given just two more days before work begins to raise the ship to the surface. anger continues to grow at how this could have happened. it's emerged crew members repeatedly asked their officers about telling passengers to abandon ship, but got no response, and that the ferry may not have turned suddenly before sinking, as first thought. for now, there remain so many questions, and so few answers. >> woodruff: nine of the vessel's surviving crew members, including the captain, have been arrested or detained as part of the investigation. president obama visited the community of oso, washington, today, site of last month's

deadly mudslide. at least 41 people died in the disaster, and dozens of homes were obliterated. the president landed this afternoon and went straight to his helicopter, marine one, to fly over the site of the mudslide. he also met with victims and family members. mr. obama leaves tonight for a four-nation tour of asia. in economic news, sales of existing homes slipped to a 20- month low in march. the national association of realtors blamed the decline on rising prices and mortgage rates, a tightening supply of homes and winter weather. there were some signs of improvement, though. first-time buyers accounted for 30% of sales, the most in a year. wall street moved ahead for the sixth day in a row. the dow jones industrial average gained 65 points to close at 16,514. the nasdaq rose nearly 40 points to close at 4,161. and the s-and-p 500 added 7

points to finish at 1,879. still to come on the newshour: a big day at the supreme court: justices uphold a ban on affirmative action; and hear arguments over one startup's vision for the future of t.v.; plus, the effort to bring extinct species back from the dead; vice president biden visits ukraine; an update on the more than a 200 school girls abducted in nigeria; and is $15 an hour the minimum wage needed to live in an expensive place like seattle? >> ifill: affirmative action made its reappearance at the supreme court today, as the justices weighed in on a michigan ballot initiative that banned public colleges from

using race as a factor in admissions. for more on the court's reasoning, we turn to marcia coyle of "the national law journal," who was at the court today. constitutionality or the merits of race-conscious admissions, but it was really about who should make the determination

about those merits, and he said that there was nothing in the constitution or the court's earlier decisions that allowed the judiciary, give it the authority to take from the voters under their own state laws the right to debate, learn and then act through their political process to resolve that debate. >> ifill: what was justice brier's reasoning to side with what's considered to be the conservative side of the court? >> well, justice brier took a very different tack. the lower court here had relied on a 1982 supreme court decision that basically said that you can't alter the political processes of government to disadvantage minorities. as brier's tack was, well, this really wasn't an altering of the political processes, this was a shifting of the decisionmaking from unelected college officials to the public through their votes. so he took that position. but it was really justices scalia and thomas in an opinion

by justice scalia that went farther than justice kennedy went with the main opinion. first of all, they would just overrule prior decisions talking about altering the political processes, and they would only really see an equal protection violation if voters or states were acting with intentional racial discrimination. >> ifill: justice sotomayor was one of the two, she and justice ginsburg vigorously disagreed. >> it was an impassioned and lengthy summary from the bench and whenever justices read portions of their dissent from the bench it's an indication of how strongly they feel about the case. she was joined by justice ginsburg in her dissent and she said this was not about prodecides to resolve the debate, this was about how you decide, and what michigan had done here was created two different playing fields. she said, for example, parents,

for example who graduated from one of michigan's colleges and wanted their children to go there could lobby the college for a legacy preference. other groups could lobby college officials for maybe sports preferences, but the only preference you can't talk to them about here is race, and the only way that groups interested in race preferences can get this change is to actually amend the state constitution, which she said is a herculean task. >> ifill: but other states which banned affirmative action, basically sends a significance tothoers they can do the same thing. >> i think we'll probably see -- there is a very active anti-affirmative action community in this country and i think we'll see attempts to put initiatives on ballots of states to allow that. >> ifill: i want to ask you about other arguments at the court today. another high profile case, this one they say will determine the future of television and disclosure of pbs was part of it. >> right.

the major network broadcasters have challenged an internet startup called a.e.r.e.o., claiming its system is violating their exclusive right under the copyright because to have their programs publicly performed. a.e.r.e.o. uses thousands of dime-sized antennas to stream local, over the-air broadcast programs to subscribers for a fee but does not fay networks for the use of that programming and, today, during the arguments, the lawyer for a.e.r.e.o. basically said we're an equipment provider, we're the functional equivalent of what someone can do with home-based equipment. but the broadcast networks argue that they're really kind of thieves, that they have a gimmick here and they are taking programs and not paying for them, they're getting something for nothing.

during the arguments, i thought the justices were really weighing both sides here. the potential damage to the broadcast networks, if they rule for a.e.r.e.o., and then the damage to a.e.r.e.o. if they rule for the neglects. >> ifill: how can you tell when the justices, how they're taking in these things? >> there are questions. for example, chief justice roberts, he said it appeared to him that a.e.r.e.o.'s system was designed in a way simply to get around copyright laws, but on the other hand he could see a comparison to going into radio shack and getting a d.v.r. to record programs to watch later. justice brier concerned about the impact of ruling against a.e.r.e.o. said, you know, what effect is this going to have on cloud computing? we heard a lot about the cloud today. >> reporter: really? that's unusual. >> it was fascinating. the justices have taken the time to try to understand the new

technology, and there's a concern if they rule against a.e.r.e.o. that innovation will be stymied. >> ifill: it's fascinating to listen to. >> a good argument. >> ifill: thanks very much, marcia. >> my pleasure. >> reporter: for more, we turn things to jeffrey brown. >> brown: joining us now, neal katyal, the former acting solicitor general of the united states and legal adviser to the broadcasters. and gary shapiro, the president and c.e.o. of the consumer electronics association. his organization filed a brief with the supreme court in support of aereo. welcome to both of you. thrash out a little bit of what marcia was just saying. why should a.e.r.e.o. be subject? why can't it use antennas over public airways to offer services to consumers? >> as the justices pointed out, everyone else who grabs content has to pay for it and the broadcast companies spend each

year billions of dollars, creating, acquiring and distributing content and if an interlocher can come along like a.e.r.e.o., and a.e.r.e.o.'s business model is essentially grabbing those signals over the air, bundling them together and selling them for a profit, well, then, the entire model and promise of copyright law is going to be disrupted. so i think the debate today in the court really properly focused on the question, it wasn't really is it violating the copyright long, i think there was a lot of agreement about that point, i think it was how broadly or narrowly should the opinion be written. >> brown: the broadcasters paid for the content, why should a.e.r.e.o. take it for free? >> we have different arguments because there is a huge question whether a.e.r.e.o. violated the law and it's what the supreme court said it is. but two courts said they have not violated the law and the statute barely discussed at the case is clear they did not

violate the law. the cablevision case, a 2nd circuit decision, which even the opponents of a.e.r.e.o. confessed today that decision confessed today that decision has to be fundamentally reversed at least in principal if they rule in favor of the broadcasters. so they relied on statute and case law and this guy went out as an entrepreneur, a great american, said this is the law, i'm going to follow it. another case is the sony beta max case but i was involved in a long time ago which says you have the right as a consumer to record over the air television. so there's no one questioning that today, but a lot of people are going to be because that's a fundamental right. >> brown: excuse me. the question is still do you have a right to make money off recording that? >> sony has the right to sell the vcr and a.e.r.e.o. has a right to sell the antenna. as a.e.r.e.o. pointed out, there's nothing different we're going between an antenna law and

installing it in people's house us. the broadcasters get for free on loan public spectrum, out of that they have the obligation to provide a free, over-the-air service. the law changed from 40 years ago when broadcasters had 100% of the market share. now we have smartphones, laptops, tablets, netbooks and different ways of accessing information. less than 8% of the people rely on free over the air television. this is the way people get it. it's the new world of technology. >> reporter: public airways, new world of technology? >> yes, it's a cover argument, unfortunately the argument congress precluded in 1976, they bro the copyright law to cover any device or process that exists or is deemed to exist in the future that retransmits the broadcast signal. that was a fundamental balance congress engaged in at that time. they said we need to incentivize the creation of content, going all the way back to founders in

the 1787 constitution and said the way we'll do that, yes, broadcasters, you have public duty and spectrum and the right, be uh if someone grabs your signals from over the air be it a cable company or anyone else and tries to make imlon, you have to pay for the underlying content, that's the american kay. an interlocher can't just come along and steal the signals and make money off of it. >it. >> brown: explain it to the general public. >> the broadcasters created the stuff, paid for it, why should a.e.r.e.o. -- >> for the same reason, it's an accepted pbs, it's an advertiser-supported medium. a.e.r.e.o. is expanding the audience. there are people in major cities and apartments that can't get an antenna and have access. this allows them the signal they are entitled to receive. they are watching commercials. we're not skipping commercials. we're not doing something

outside the local area. they're getting simply what they're entitled to receive with the spectrum lent to the broadcasters for the free over the air service. the problem is the broadcasters can't get over the right you have the right to record it and what the cable companies are doing is legal. if the court is going to find for broadcasters, they're going to have to ignore the statute and the second circuit decision and try to reverse it in principal. >> brown: this has been looked at in very brand terms as in the future of television. is that what's at stake? what happens if a.e.r.e.o. wins? >> i think it's a colorfulcated thing. just to respond quickly to the sony beta max case, that was not even mentioned today and wasn't mentioned in a.e.r.e.o.'s brief for good reason because, as you point out, this is about an interlocker making money over the air.

>> i think we think about the future of the copyright laws. the essence is if i spend the money to develop the content and produce it, one of the bundles of right i have is to distribute it in the way i see fit. i can throw it on the internet, pipe it into people's homes over a coaxial cable, but that's a fundamental right, and if a.e.r.e.o. prevails today, then we are going to fundamentally change what copyright law is about. that's an interesting debate, a debate for congress to have, not the court trying to change what congress authorized. >> brown: television and beyond, cloud computing, other technology. >> first the transcript will show sony beta max was mentioned several times. besides that. this will affect future innovation. the reason the sony beta max case was important, there would be no personal d.v.d. recorder, no ipod, and restrictions on a

whole range of things. the concerns the justices impressed is how could we possibly do this and not eliminate cloud computing and not eliminate other technologies come along. parse these definitions. the world changed in 30 years. broadcasters had 100%, now yet than 7% but they have free spectrum and provide free broadcasting. the slaw not on their side as it stands now with the precedent and statute. >> brown: decision to come in a few months. gary shapiro, neal katyal, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and now, a story on this earth day that seems lifted from science fiction. researchers and entrepreneurs, many in california, are trying to bring back extinct species. some scientists believe it's a way to correct past mistakes,

and even help endangered animals. but just because scientists might be able to do this, are they crossing a line they shouldn't? our colleagues at public tv station k.q.e.d. in san francisco explored that question in this story produced by gabriela quirooós and narrated y thuy vu. >> i'll be right back. no, no! >> reporter: the cloned dinosaurs of the "jurassic park" movies captured viewers' imaginations. but 65 million years after their extinction, there's no chance scientists can bring dinosaurs back, says university of california, santa cruz, biologist beth shapiro. >> jurassic park is a fantasy and always will be. dinosaurs are way too old to think that we're going to be able to recover genetic material. >> reporter: instead, scientists are focusing on species that went extinct more recently, for which d.n.a. still exists. >> reporter: researchers have already revived one extinct

animal. the last of a type of mountain goat was cloned in spain in 2003. but the clone only lived a few minutes. here in the u.s., george church, from harvard medical school, is engineering elephant cells with thicker hair and a fatty layer, to make them more like woolly mammoths. his hope is that these new mammoths could help keep the arctic from melting. scientists believe that grazing by herbivores like mammoths strengthened the grass that grew on top of the permafrost and protected it from the sun. >> the mammoths may have had a big role in maintaining the grass that stabilized the ice, which contains more carbon in it, as in global-warming carbon, than all the rainforests put together times two. >> reporter: to turn elephants into woolly mammoths, church is using a new tool that allows him to insert genes into the elephant genome. >> it's like very precise scissors that allow you to cut and splice with unprecedented

accuracy and ease of use. >> reporter: despite the ethical question raised by the use of elephants, which are endangered, scientists are already interested in using the technology to bring back other extinct animals. one of them is the passenger pigeon. >> in the early 1800's, there were five billion of these birds, just in the united states. within the span of about 50 years, they go extinct. >> reporter: at u.c. santa cruz, 27-year-old ben novak is working to "de-extinct" what was once the most abundant bird in the world. >> it opens the door to this brand new future of conservation, in which we can finally shift gears from thinking that we're losing life on this planet to the fact that we are actually gaining it back. >> reporter: not to be confused with domesticated carrier pigeons, passenger pigeons were wild birds that migrated through the eastern and central u.s. and

canada. >> you had these giant flocks of birds so dense that with a single shot you could take down dozens of them. >> reporter: shipped by the trainloads to feed hungry cities, the passenger pigeon went extinct in 1914, when the last one died at the cincinnati zoo. novak plans to genetically engineer its closest relative, the band-tailed pigeon. he would insert genes he obtained from passenger pigeon museum specimens. this is a painstaking process, as dna is degraded and it's hard to identify what genes do what. novak would like to replace band-tailed pigeons' square tails with the long tail and swift wings that allowed passenger pigeons to fly at 60 miles per hour. >> hey ben. >> hey. >> how are you doing? >> reporter: ryan phelan and stewart brand's non-profit, 'revive and restore,' in sausalito, california, is funding novak's work. >> have you seen this cool thing? >> well, according to amazon, it's not published yet.

>> reporter: brand is best known for his whole earth catalog. started in 1968, it encouraged readers to live in tune with nature. today, brand hopes to excite a new generation through de- extinction. >> do you want extinct species back? do you want extinct species back? >> that a huge population could just go to zero, that was the beginning of taking extinction seriously. and so to go back to that original mistake or crime, and try to undo it, there might be some redemption in that. >> that, to me, is the wrong attitude. >> reporter: biologist jim patton, at the university of california, berkeley, doesn't share brand's enthusiasm. >> we're lost unless we realize that we're just a part of this intricate web. and we ought to bring species back if they can help maintain that web.

but not because it makes us feel better and sleep better at night. >> reporter: phelan and brand estimate it'll take five to 50 million dollars to bring back the passenger pigeon. >> where the money tends to be coming in is from people in high tech. they like being on cutting edges, and this is one. >> reporter: brand believes passenger pigeons could help restore the east coast's forests, by spreading seeds around. but the pigeons could end up in conflict with humans once again, especially if they were listed under the endangered species act. >> if it's an endangered species, then all of a sudden, all of the forest habitat where it goes into will be off-limits to hunting and hiking, and biking. >> will the people in the east coast, be willing to put up with flocks of thousands of pigeons defecating all over everything? >> reporter: and brand recognizes that much of the science is still unknown. >> if you turn a band-tailed

pigeon into a passenger pigeon, is it really a passenger pigeon, or is it just some weird kind of chimera or hybrid or what? and the answer is we don't know yet. and you won't really know until you try it. >> reporter: the enterprise of reviving disappeared species is driven, at least in part, by the increasing extinction rate that scientists have observed in the past 500 years. at san francisco's california academy of sciences, biologist jack dumbacher guards the remnants of extinct animals. >> there are actually only two keys to this case. i have one and the collection manager has the other. >> humans are the reason why species are going extinct at a higher rate. human population sizes are so big that we're having a huge impact, destroying habitat and converting habitat from it's natural form into agriculture, to cities, to other things that we use. >> reporter: climate change is

making things worse, by turning the oceans inhospitable to coral reefs, for example. some scientists estimate that if temperatures continue to climb, they could contribute to the disappearance of half the world's species. >> if you've got some ecosystem that we know is collapsing because we've lost some key ecosystem component, and we can de-extinct it, why wouldn't we do that? >> reporter: but many biologists believe that efforts should focus on endangered, rather than extinct, species. >> it comes down hugely to priorities. >> if we have these technologies and these technologies can be brought to bear to help preserve what is already here, that's where i would put my resources. >> reporter: scientists say the need for these tools is great. at the san diego zoo's safari park, in escondido, california, "nola" and "angie" are two of only seven northern white rhinos left in the world. poached for their horns, the rhinos are believed to have disappeared in the wild around 2006.

at 40, the park's two rhinos have ended their baby-making years, and it's also unlikely that the other five will reproduce either, says zoo geneticist oliver ryder. >> without some extraordinary intervention, northern white rhinos are doomed. >> reporter: those extraordinary measures begin with rhino cells stored at minus-250 degrees at the san diego zoo's "frozen zoo." scientists have collected cells from 12 northern white rhinos. using stem cell techniques and in vitro fertilization, they hope to increase the rhino population and its genetic diversity. the frozen zoo holds the cells of 1,000 different species, many of them endangered. with new technologies, these cells could one day become a lifeline. >> woodruff: there's more on our web site, watch k.q.e.d.'s full half-hour documentary

"reawakening extinct species." that's part of newshour's extinction week online. >> ifill: vice president joe biden met with ukraine's leaders today and issued another warning to russia. >> we have heard a lot from russian officials in the past few days, but now it's time for russia to stop talking and start acting. >> ifill: today, it was the vice president talking, on the ground in kiev, leading a u.s. congressional delegation in a show of solidarity with ukraine's embattled, interim government. he said it's past time for russia to live up to the agreement struck in geneva last week to lower tensions. >> these are commitments made, they should be fulfilled. we need to see these kinds of concrete steps, we need to see them without delay. we will not allow this to become an open-ended process.

time is short in which to make progress. >> ifill: ukraine's prime minister, arseniy yatsenyuk, was more pointed in challenging moscow: >> ( translated ): we demand only one thing, fulfil your international obligations. they should not behave as gangsters in the modern century. >> ifill: pro-russian separatists in eastern ukrainian cities continued to defy the geneva accord, calling for an end to their occupation of government buildings. an official of the self- proclaimed "donetsk republic" said negotiations are under way with international mediators. >> at the moment we've come to an agreement to vacate the session hall and two floors of the regional administrative building. i don't know the details, but we're now negotiating with the officials in order to provide conditions for them to renew their work. ifill: but ukraine's acting president announced the resumption of "anti-terrorist" operations against the separatists, as a top security official warned the government may have no choice but to use

force. >> ( translated ): such actions and crimes in eastern ukraine by armed saboteurs in our opinion, cynically undermines the quadrilateral agreements signed in geneva. we retain our right to react adequately to such crimes. >> ifill: tensions were especially high in sloviansk, where three men were shot sunday, under disputed circumstances, at a pro-russian checkpoint. they were laid to rest today. a short time later came reports that a ukrainian military aircraft was fired on while over-flying the city. back in kiev, vice president biden addressed legislators in ukraine's parliament, the rada, and said next month's presidential vote is perhaps the most important election in ukrainian history. he also announced an additional $50 million in u.s. aid, part of which goes to reduce reliance on russian energy sources. >> we can help in stabilizing and strengthening ukraine's economy by helping you withstand the unfair economic pressure being thrust upon you.

>> ifill: the west has ratcheted up the economic pressure on russia after its annexation of crimea. today, russian prime minister dmitry medvedev warned moscow will not let the sanctions go unchallenged. >> ( translated ): we will show our teeth if it is necessary and within the law, we will appeal to courts and other institutions, including the w.t.o. dispute settlement body. the economy is global, but companies have to operate by conditions of competition and not by the politically-motivated economic war. >> ifill: the prime minister added that his country could counter sanctions by shifting its exports to asian markets. meanwhile, in washington, pentagon spokesman john kirby announced 600 u.s. troops are being deployed for exercises in four eastern european and baltic n.a.t.o. states. >> since russia's aggression in ukraine, we've been constantly looking at ways to reassure our allies and partners. >> ifill: and this morning, the guided missile frigate u.s.s. taylor, made its way through the

bosphorus straits on its way into the black sea, which touches the coastlines of ukraine, russia and crimea. >> woodruff: their name means "western education is sin" and in the past week they've sown terror across nigeria. the radical islamic group boko haram' planted a bomb at a bus station in the capital city of abuja on april 14th, killing at least 70 people. that same day, it's believed that they kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school in northern nigeria, taking them deep into a forest. the students' fate and condition are unknown. a short time ago i spoke via skype to freelance reporter heather murdock, who is covering the story for the christian science monitor. she was in lagos, nigeria. some of the images shown during

the interview may be disturbing. heather murdoch, thank you for talking with us. first of all, what is the latest on the whereabouts of these school girls? well, yesterday, the governor visited the town where the girls were abducted from and more information came to light. they discovered it was actually 234 girls kidnapped as opposed to the 129 they originally said. also, they announced 190 of the girls are still missing and none have been freed. the ones that escaped, 43, escaped on their own while they were taken or in the days that followed. >> reporter: so it's taken a week to figure out how many girls were kidnapped. what about the parents and the police in the area? what have they been doing? >> parents say the police and soldiers have been searching for them. vigilante groups have formed. they're searching the bush,

apparently have hunters and farmers searching. but this forest is so large and so dangerous that they say they just haven't found them yet. there have also been rumors of some girls spotted collecting water but the local people told the groups that heard the rumors that they went to try to find the girls in the area, they probably would be killed. >> woodruff: has boko haram said they've done this and why they've taken the school girls? >> no. last week, the guy who says he's the leader of the boko haram put out a video taking credit for the bombing in abuja on the same day the girls were taken. they said nothing about taking the girls. some people still believe it was boko haram that did this because boko haram is a factious group and what is known about its structure, the part of boko haram ruled by the leader who

said he's in the capital did in fact do this bombing in the capital and the other group of people that call themselves boko haram that may or may not be directedly connected stole the girls. >> woodruff: why isn't the government of nigeria able to get them under control and go after them? >> this is the question everyone in nigeria is asking. they've had three states under emergency rule for one year, now, and the violence just keeps getting worse. this year, i've heard that more than 1,500 people were killed in the first three months of this year alone, and the government says they are using tall resources they can and they can't slow down this group. >> woodruff: how well armed is this group, boko haram, supposed to be? >> my understanding is they are increasingly well-armed with heavy artillery, trucks, guns, grenades, bombs, they have put out videos recently showing

militants on trucks in the dozens of militants in each truck with machine guns mounted on the trucks attacking a military base. >> woodruff: finally, heather, we know that nigeria is hosting a world economic forum in abuja, the capital city, in the next few weeks. there must be concern -- or is there concern about security, given what boko haram is able to do? >> yeah, i think that the world economic forum for africa is on the the of the minds of security officials in abuja because there's going to be more than a thousand people coming here and a lotted of heads of state and we just had an attack right there. but, officially, they say they are ready and that they have secured the towns, that they will beef up security even more. they haven't give an lot of details about how they would do that but the government of nigeria has been very clear they plan to go ahead with this conference and they don't expect any more violence.

at least that's what they say. >> woodruff: what did the government say about boko haram? >> well, i mean, it's officially a terrorist group in nigeria as is in the u.s., and they say repeatedly they plan on crushing boko haram within a few months. they have been a little more quiet recently since the violence has gotten worse. they also talk about negotiations, although there doesn't seem to be any movement in the negotiations recently, and they've also talked recently about trying to solve the problem with what they call a softer approach, like prisons, education, and economic reform, but we haven't seen any fruits of that effort yet. >> woodruff: meanwhile, almost 200 school girls still missing. well, heather, we thank you for talking with us. >> thank you. >> ifill: the battle over raising the minimum wage may be

at a stalemate in washington, d.c. right now, but in washington state, the fight is still underway. our economics reporter, paul solman, has the next in his series of stories on that subject, this one on just how much it really costs to live in a city like seattle. it's part of his ongoing reporting: "making sense of financial news." >> reporter: in seattle this spring, rallies to raise the minimum wage but not the $10.10 debated nationally. here, they're talking about $15 an hour city-wide. (chanting) >> reporter: 62% higher than this year's inflation index state minimum wage of 9. $9.32, already highest in the nation. >> wall street and big business crashed the economy. they got bailed out. they're making record profits. the working people are making

poverty wages, low wages, student debt. what's our future? >> reporter: phillip locker helped run the surprise election to the seattle city council last fall on a $15 an hour minimum wage platform. the mayor and 7 council members support the proposal of their unapologetically socialist colleague, an economist who donates two-thirds of her $120,000 a year salary to what she calls social justice causes. >> this will energize and empower workers, raise their confidence and morale. >> socialism, after the fall of the associate union, china becoming a purely capitalist country, hugo having not succeeded. socialism, really? >> the only reason you're talking to me is because an out-and-out socialist got

elected in a major city in the united states. time for working people to remove the shackles off and march ahead. (chanting) >> reporter: but why exactly 15? well, that's what the university of washington researchers found is the self-sufficiency wage in seattle for an adult with one child. the bare minimum, that is, for survival without public or private help. union leader david rolf co-chairs the minimum wage community. >> there is a lot ofeninger in our community about what's happened to wages, not just recently, but over 40 years in america, that we've seen essentially economic growth since the late 1970s, unaccompanied by wage growth for the bottom 90% of wage earners. >> reporter: in stark contrast of wage growth all americans saw from the 1940s to the 1970s.

if paychecks had kept pace with economic growth, says researcher lorie -- >> the minimum wage would be from $15 to $22 an hour depending on how you measure it. >> reporter: after college, i drove a cab, 1970, at $3 an hour including tips. that's somewhere between $18 and $45 an hour today, according to the authoritative web site "measuring worth," more than many college grads make now. >> some of us work full time but get paid $10 an hour, some of us get paid more than $10 but only get to work 25 hours a week. either way, it's hard to make ends meet. >> reporter: kayla nicholson, b.a. from the university of washington, works in childcare, serving the kids of low-wage workers. >> i have a third grader who makes dinner for younger brothers every night because his mom is at work. these are people receiving all the federal benefits they're eligible for and the parents are

still working two jobs and just never getting ahead, never getting ahead. and what really breaks my heart is, you know, i'm trying to motivate the kids to work hard and do well in school and get good grades, promising them that there's a better life waiting for them if they do that, but i don't know that there is. >> this ibusinesses are outraged workers demand $15. >> reporter: this being progressive seattle, we found little outrage among business owners but at a city council hearing, plenty of concern. >> we will have to reduce our hours. there will be 20 to 30% fewer entry-level jobs. >> many people that own their businesses are going to have to shut down. >> yes, i'm for paying people more! >> reporter: even some of the workers were skeptics. >> but if it's going to cost me my job, hell, no. >> reporter: again, lorie -- overwhelmingly of the hundreds of studies done on real-world examples from around

the country, there's no impact on employment when you modestly increase the minimum wage. >> reporter: but this is a significant increase. >> that's right. what we don't know from the literature, because this hasn't been tried before, is what happens when you do that. >> reporter: but we do know, as econ 101 teaches that, if the cost of labor rises and, therefore, so do prices, some customers will bolt. >> i'm having a hard time competing and getting work here if i have to pay $15 an hour. >> reporter: especially when the competition is in low-wage climbs like mexico or china, says julie hyatt, who owns global fulfillment, a company that assembles printed material, much by hand. >> we're already not the cheapest. being in seattle makes us more expensive just to start. >> i'm in the manufacturing business. i understand the sort of visceral fear that some of them feel about this change. >> reporter: seattle multi-millionaire investor and entrepreneur hanauer is a leader

of the $15 wage movement, still helps his family one the pillow company -- >> we have factories that do not pay $15. if my competitors pay $10 and we pay $15, we'll surely go out of business. a great challenge we face in the city of raising the minimum wage $15 is precisely that dynamic. >> reporter: but look, he says, every economic decision involves thawedoffs. boils down -- tradeoffs. boils down the weighing cost against benefits. >> in this case the benefits overwhelm the cost. when worker compensation goes up, everyone benefits because those workers both buy more stuff and need less services from taxpayers. >> reporter: or as seattle writer david goldstein puts it -- >> some people are winners, some are losers. what you want is a policy that raises as many people up as possible. >> reporter: but what about the losers, asks julie hyatt?

>> there are people now making minimum wage who may have a criminal background, may not have a g.e.d. where are they going to go? >> reporter: worst case, they wind up even more dependent on government services or non-profits like the downtown emergency services center. a third of whose 520 employees make near the current minimum wage. a $15 minimum wage would cost the center well over $1 million, as director bill hobson says. >> an organization such as this one would invariably be translated into reductions in service. there will be more disabled, homeless people on the street, in and out of jails, out of hospital emergency departments (chanting) >> reporter: and, yet, in the end, hobson supports $15 an hour because the benefits outweigh the costs, he thinks. >> big business, oil industries, make no exceptions, will face

the $15 an hour on january 1, 2015, to all its workers! (cheers and applause) >> reporter: well, not so fast. even socialist seems willing to offer small businesses and non-profits a three-year phase-in. so will the $15 minimum wage happen here? that's not . >> that's not a number you can back down from anymore. (chanting) >> whether it survives at the ballot after the business community spends a few million dollars to try to defeat it, that's another question. >> reporter: we will keep you posted. >> woodruff: finally tonight, a rare and gripping look at life in solitary confinement. more than 40 states use it for tens of thousands of inmates around the country, where they can spend up to 23 hours a day in a tiny, single-bed cell. but a number of states are beginning to take a second look

at the practice, and whether it's too punitive or even effective. tonight's episode of frontline, the first of a two-part series, titled "locked up in america," spends the entire hour inside the state prison in maine, and looks at the significant challenges trying to make a change. here's an excerpt. a note: it, like the documentary, contains some disturbing images that start with a friday night in solitary. (pounding and yelling) >> keep that down!

>> narrator: friday night in the segregation unit at the maine state prison. all the inmates here are in solitary confinement. almost every day, the prisoners act out against the officers who work the unit. they flood their cells. they pour bodily fluids under their doors. and they cut themselves with razor blades. >> kidd! (knocking) kidd, you need to cuff up. you might as well talk to me now because you're going to talk to me sooner than later. i have three windows covered right now, and one of them appears to be self-abusive. attempted to look through the tray slot to see if i could get a visual on him, and he's got it covered with a mattress.

if i can't see him from the back window, i'm gonna have to go in and take him out for his own safety. >> narrator: inmates are forbidden from covering their windows in the solitary unit. they could be bleeding to death, or it could be a trick to lure the officers in. >> he's got it all covered. so now we have to pull him out. >> okay gents, whenever you're ready to rock and roll. >> 6/11, a2, do you have a large box? >> if i say "go," rip that door open so these men can go in. if i say "hold," just hold it with a crack. >> any questions at this time? >> i think we're ready to go in and do a cell extraction. (banging) (shouting) >> narrator: the officers sometimes have to use mace on inmates who won't comply.

( banging ) >> monsters! this is what they create in here: monsters. and then they drop you into society and tell you, "go ahead, be a good boy." you can't conduct yourself like a human being when they treat you like an animal. >> woodruff: you can watch the full program tonight on pbs. next week, frontline will air the second part of its series. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. the supreme court upheld michigan's voter-approved ban on affirmative action in college admissions. the court also heard arguments in a major copyright fight between television networks and an internet firm that re-sells signals to subscribers. and u.n. human rights investigators reported mass killings in south sudan, with scores of victims. on the newshour online right

now, to mark earth day, we compiled a list of some lesser- known species that are threatened around the globe. see stunning photos of the amazon river dolphin, the horned parakeet and others, on our rundown. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. >> allow us a privilege of saluting joe camp who today celebrates 40 years of service to public television and wtta -a in washington. congratulations, joe. >> woodruff: see you again online and tomorrow evening from all of us here at the pbs hour. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and 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. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org 

this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by. >> thestreet.com featuring stephanie link who shares her links and actions plus. you can learn more at thestreet.com/nbr. pharma frenzy, more than $60 billion worth of deals, what is driving them and is the industry entering a new era? changing the channel, the supreme court is hearing a case that could shake up the television business and change the way people watch and pay for their favorite shows. where is the beef? mcdonald's reports another disappointing quarter. what is