captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: graphic images and grim details have emerged of a massacre in south sudan. the white house called it an abomination, men, women and children slaughtered by rebels last week, leaving "piles and piles" of bodies in their wake. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill, also ahead, president obama arrived in japan, kicking off a four-country swing, part of a long-promised foreign policy pivot to asia, in the shadow of a rising china. >> woodruff: plus, a promising new drug to treat the liver- destroying hepatitis-c, bringing dramatic results so far, but at a hefty price.

>> each pill is a thousand dollars, and at a typical treatment of 120 days, the drug's extraordinary cost has raised concerns. >> woodruff: those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> 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. >> ifill: officials in south korea now say search teams have recovered at least 156 bodies from a sunken ferry. nearly 150 others remained unaccounted for as the search operation ended its eighth day. divers are having to navigate the dark depths and will have to rip through cabin walls to find the remaining victims. another brief glimmer of hope faded today in the search for that missing malaysian plane. investigators found sheet metal with rivets that washed ashore in southwestern australia. but, initial analysis found no connection to the jetliner. meanwhile, malaysia's government announced an international team will investigate the disappearance. >> indeed, it is imperative for the government to form an independent team of investigators which is not only competent and transparent but also highly credible.

as i've consistently said since the beginning, we have nothing to hide. >> ifill: officials in both malaysia and australia also insisted they're not ready to give up the search. rival palestinian groups hamas and fatah have reached a new reconciliation deal. they agreed today to form an interim unity government within five weeks, and then hold elections. hamas rules gaza, and fatah rules the west bank. several previous unity agreements have failed. israel and the u.s. regard hamas as a terror group. both governments criticized the announcement. russia and the u.s. traded new verbal blows today over ukraine, just days after agreeing to try to ease tensions there. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, said washington engineered the upheaval that began last fall. in washington, a state department spokeswoman called the comments "ludicrous." violent clashes erupted overnight in rio de janeiro, just weeks before brazil hosts the soccer world cup.

tensions flared in a slum, known as a favela. we have a report from nick ravenscroft of independent television news. >> reporter: in the heart of rio's tourist slum, mayhem. barricades set on fire in protest at the death of a local man thought to be at the hands of police. this mobile phone footage captured the moment that police moved in with live rounds. local people can be heard screaming as they flee in fear. it was then that another local man was shot dead with police reportedly mistaking him for a drug trafficker. "he came down from the favella," says this man. "the police asked him to stop. he put his hands up to show he had no weapon. even so they shot him." a group of french tourists arrived to stay at a hostel up in the favella, picking their way through the wreckage. we had to explain to them what had happened. are you scared? >> yes. yes, i'm scared. >> we have to go.

>> reporter: down here is the entrance to the favella where it all started earlier. you can still see there's a lot of police activity here. if we just move around you can see that we've got the shock battalion of rio police, that's the elite police battalion waiting in reserve. and over here just one block away is the famous copacabana beach where thousands of fans in a few weeks time be watching the football. 50 days and counting, with tv studios being built on copacabana beach, big screens and countless hotels for fans, this latest outbreak of violence is at the center of rio's world cup. across the city they've been trying to pacify neighborhoods controlled by violent armed gangs. but it is far from job done. in seven weeks these streets should be hosting a world cup party. but right now there is only anger and fear. >> ifill: back in this country, the governor of georgia signed a law allowing people with gun licenses to carry firearms into bars, some government buildings,

and places of worship. it also lets school employees carry guns, if school districts approve. federal prison inmates who've served more than 10 years, and have no history of violence, will be encouraged to seek presidential clemency. the justice department formally announced the new criteria today, as part of an effort to shrink the prison population. deputy attorney general james cole said it's aimed primarily at drug offenders given harsh penalties under old sentencing guidelines. >> we are launching this clemency initiative in order to quickly and effectively identify appropriate candidates, candidates who have a clean prison record, do not present a threat to public safety, and were sentenced under out-of-date laws that have since been changed, and are no longer seen as appropriate. >> ifill: more than 23,000 inmates may be eligible for clemency consideration, under the revised rules. wall street's six-day winning streak came to an end today. the dow jones industrial average

lost 12 points to close at 16,501. the nasdaq fell 34 points to close below 4,127. and the s-and-p 500 slipped four, to finish at 1,875. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: the slaughter of men, women and children in south sudan; president obama's push to re- affirm his pivot to asia; high hopes for a new hepatitis-c drug, but with a hefty price tag; the head of the n.t.s.b. on making tanker trains safer; and the fallout from the supreme court's latest affirmative action ruling. >> woodruff: a massacre in the world's newest nation has prompted condemnation from the white house. this comes as efforts to resolve the political strife in south sudan and ease a looming humanitarian crisis suffered another setback this week, after reconciliation talks were postponed.

a warning to viewers, some images in this report may be disturbing. >> woodruff: the u.n. convoy made it's way through the streets of bentiu over the weekend, and bodies quickly came into view. they were strewn in the streets and piled in front of the mosque where people had sought safety. toby lanzer, a u.n. representative in south sudan, witnessed the aftermath of the killings firsthand. >> what i have so far seen in the mosque and other part of town is really been very, very heart wrenching, certainly atrocities have been committed here on very significant scale. >> reporter: south sudan's foreign minister charged that rebels of the "nuer" ethnic group, led by the country's former vice president, were behind last week's violence. >> the rebels of doctor riek machar have violated the cessation of hostilities and have actually, have carried out a massacre in bentiu town where

civilians were targeted at the churches, at the mosques and at the hospitals. it is one of the most disgusting events one has ever seen. >> reporter: machar rejected the accusations, and said his troops could not have been involved. south sudan's 11 million people are made up of about 60 indigenous ethnic groups, the largest being the nuer and the dinka. the country has struggled with ethnic fighting since gaining independence from sudan in 2011. but u.n. officials say that in bentiu, the targets included not only dinka, but traders from darfur and nuer people who refused to cheer the rebels' arrival. president obama condemned the killing. in a statement, he said:

meanwhile, thousands of people headed for protection at the u.n.'s base in bentiu. it now holds 22,000 civilians, but they're limited to just one liter of water per person, per day. >> woodruff: we take a closer look at this continuing crisis with nancy lindborg the assistant administrator for humanitarian assistance at the u.s. agency for international development. she was recently in south sudan. and khalid medani, an associate professor of political science with a focus on africa at mcgill university. he is originally from sudan. we welcome you both. nancy lindborg what is the latest on the situation there? >> well, as you've just seen, this is an absolutely horrifying attack. and it is part of what we are seeing as an escalating series of killings that began last november. and it's becoming a cycle of reprisals. it is targeting what we just

saw, women and children which is-- that's a war crime. the united states is supporting the u.n. commission of inquirery and we're actively looking to identify individuals who might be charged under the recent sanctions. >> woodruff: what is at stake here? are the aid agencies like usaid where you are-- are they able to keep people safe? >> there is a giant mobilization of humanitarian assistant under way in south sudan, both to try to reach those people who have rushed to the u.n. compounds for safety. there is also a huge number of people who are hard to reach in a country that has very few roads. and is even in the best of times teetering on-- security. our concern is if we are not able to get assistance to people in the compounds as well as in the hard to reach parts of south sudan, that this country will tip over

into famine and disease as people are crowded into these compounds with very little ability to have clean water and sanitation. >> woodruff: professor medani, help us understand the or begin of this. we heard-- origin of this. we heard the country's foreign minister say the vice president riek machar is behind this. is that the case? >> i think that it is the case that his militia which is organized around his ethnic group is definitely behind it despite claims to the contrary. but i think that that is clearly evident with respect to the roots of the conflict that began on december 15th it is essentially a political rivalry between machar and the president, dinka, so the origins and violence begins as early as december 15th at least in this latest stage and actually the dinkas were the

ones who initiated a lot of the violence in the capitol and of course it quickly expanded from the capitol into the northern areas, in two primary states where bentiu is and a town in upper nile state. so the fact is that as bad as this particular massacre is, there have been violence on both sides. and at the root of the conflict, of course s this political rivalry between these two political leaders that i lend to these different ethnic groups. >> woodruff: so how much of this is political rivalry as you are describing it, and how much of it is ethnic between these two different groups? >> well, i would say that it is, of course, the consequences have been as we see, have to do with interethnic conflict of a very violent variety. but at the very root i think that the real crux of the problem is political. i mean initially

salva-- dismissed the vice president machar accusing him of trying to do a coup against him and machar denied that and quickly took up arms against him. so the political rivalry is very, very important. and also it's very important to highlight that the great kind of levels of violence that we're seeing or witnessing are essentially centered around the two main oil producing states. the bentiu is the oil hub where a lot of the oil is exportednd after this massacre there was yet another one, a smaller one in-- state also so what we see is that a lot of the violence is centered around the struggle over resources and oil on the part of both the opposition, the gorillas-- guerillas and rebels but also of course on the part of the government that is trying to re-- these oil rich areas. >> from the perspective of the yoobted stitz and other countries who are trying to

calm things down from the outside, is there a concern that this could spiral out of control and become even though the professor said it's not purely an ethnic fight, clearly that's an element here that this could become another version of rwanda where you had ethnic killing on a massive scale? >> well, we're clearly horrified at the massacres that have just occurred. and the hope and the concern is that you have leaders right now who are choosing their own political power struggle over their people. they have the opportunity to pull that back there are peace talks going on. we've just deployed our special envoy to ethiopia, to try to see if the peace talk process can bring these leaders back from the brink. i was in the u.n. compound that had killings last week when i was there just a few

weeks ago. i met with a woman named mary who had a two-day old baby, along with her five other children. she been on this compound since the violence in mid-december. we are looking at some of these places that will be underwater when the rains come. and if we are not able to reach the hard to reach areas through better access, that is to you being blocked by both sides, we are looking at famine. these leaders need to care about their people. >> professor, we reported earlier and we've just referred to it again, the talks have broken down. what needs to happen for the two sides to come together, reach some kind of an agreement? >> well, unfortunately as you could probably surmise from the actions of both on the part of the government and the rebels is that they are trying essentially to establish facts on the ground. machar has formally announced that his strategy is to try to take control of the oil-producing areas.

so what they're trying to do, of course s to establish-- on the ground so they can have the upper hand in negotiation. this is one of the reasons that this conflict has spiralled out of control an and-- but i think in terms of your question what is important is to have a much more vigorous kind of political you know, settlement. and that requires really encouraging regional countries. uganda, kenya, even sudan up north. and of course the african union to energize this political process. >> and is that happening now? >> it's not happening now, unfortunately. there is, of course, the u.s. administration has talked about the possibility of sanctions with respect to particular individuals. but right now we have ugandan troops on the ground, in south sudan, on the side of the president. and so it is very difficult for them to play honest broker so, to speak. so what we need is a much nor energetic regional effort that includes the african union but also these

major players in the region who can really put pressure on these rebel groups. because in many ways they're supporting them directly or indirectly. and that is i think what is very, very important and needs to happen for these peace negotiations to stick. >> professor khalid i had medani, and nancy lindborg, we thank you both very much. >> you're welcome much >> ifill: president obama's trip to reassure allies in asia kicked off with handshakes, smiles, sushi. and angry words from china and north korea. >> ifill: when the president landed in the evening, he was the first u.s. leader to visit japan in nearly two decades. mr. obama was greeted by u.s. ambassador caroline kennedy, who joined him for a sushi dinner with japanese prime minister shinzo abe. >> hello. >> ifill: tokyo is the first stop on a four-nation asian

tour, delayed six months by last fall's government shutdown in washington. >> when i announced our desire to pivot and focus on the asia pacific region. >> ifill: the trip is also the latest step in a stated policy shift toward asia, and away from a decade of war in iraq and afghanistan. mr. obama laid out that goal 18 months ago while visiting thailand. >> i think we had not had the same kind of presence in a region that is growing faster, developing faster than any place else in the world. >> ifill: but that presence and focus has taken a back seat to other international concerns in the middle east, and now in ukraine, as a resurgent russia flexes it's muscle. still, many in japan hope the president's trip will yield results. >> ( translated ): hopefully he can improve japan-china-south korea relations and do something about t.p.p. >> ifill: t.p.p. is the trans-

pacific partnership, a mammoth trade deal being negotiated among the u.s., japan and ten other nations. it would account for 40% of global trade. the president also plans stops in south korea, malaysia and the philippines. but he will not be traveling to china, the emerging dominant power in the region. there've been growing tensions between beijing and tokyo over a disputed chain of islands. the u.s. sides with japan, and chinese officials accused washington today of trying to cage their nation. >> ( translated ): the u.s. should be discreet in words and deeds to play a constructive role to contribute to regional peace and stability. >> ifill: in south korea, president obama will arrive in the shadow of national calamity, the sinking of a ferry with hundreds of school children aboard. the visit has also incurred the wrath of north korea, amid reports it may be preparing for another nuclear test.

>> ( translated ): obama's trip is a reactionary and dangerous one as it is aimed at escalating confrontation and bringing dark clouds of a nuclear arms race to hang over this unstable region. >> ifill: from seoul, the president travels to malaysia, where the government is under pressure over the failure to find a missing airliner after seven weeks. and the president's final stop, the philippines, has seen sometimes-violent protests in recent days over plans for an expanded u.s. military presence. >> ifill: for what's become of the asia pivot, i'm joined by kurt campbell, assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs during president obama's first term. and michael auslin, a resident scholar of asian studies and director of japan studies at the american enterprise institute. >> ifill: so curt campbell what is the stated and the actual purpose of this visit at this point? >> i think it's pretty clear-cut, actually. the president's going to reassure friends and allies in asia to underscore that

this pivot, this rebalance to asia is significant. it's going to continue and that there is a deep recognition, i would argue a bipartisan recognition that the lion's share of the history of the 21st century going to be written in asia and we want a large part of that overall picture. and i think the trip, it is the first time the president has gone to asia when it's not part of a multilateral summit so in each one of these country, japan, south korea, malaysia, philippines, he has task to build stronger relationships with each of these leaders but overhanging the whole set of challenges in each of the countries is how he manages the relationship with china. he's got to walk a fine line. he's got to send a message of resolve and determination. but he's also got to make clear that we're prepared, in fact, we need to work with china going forward. >> ifill: michael auslin, as you look at it, what is significant about where he is going even of these

places and where he is to the going. >> he has two key allies, first to japan and then south korea. and very importantly these two have had terrible relations over the past years. one of the big things he needs to do is try to get them to work together. so i think that is sending a message that he is did going to them first. he is going to malaysia where he has had an excellent first term working with the prime minister and trying to maintain that and build on it. and of course the philippines where as your report noted, we have a very tense, very long relationship with them, but one we're on the cusp, potentially of moving into a newera, getting new access for our forces and bases. >> ifill: is china such a big deal? curt campbell says why not china on this trip. >> the president goes to china. he has been to china before. there are times you go and talk with allies and partners and friends and times that you don't. i think that what you see among our allies and friends is a real concern about the substance of the pivot. is it being adequately resourced? is it just rhetoric? and the president has said it now for several years. and obviously there's still concerns. >> ifill: let's talk about that, curt campbell. what is significant

about-- you have written that he is reformulating priorities. what is the evidence of that? >> look, this is not something that you can measure immediately, right. it's going to take a significant period of time. the stepping up of our game involves diplomatic engagement. i think michael rightly points out why we are visiting these countries, to give you a sense. this is a first visit of a president of the united states to malaysia since 1967 the streets of kuala lumpur were dirt an there were water buffaloes roaming around. malaysia is like our 10th or 11th largest trading partner, right so there are diplomatic component. an economic component. the president is going to be underscoring the importance of the trans-pacific partnership there are a number of people to people exchanges. we tend to focus on the military which is undeniably important, but frankly we have the resources. part of what is go stock need to take place is a reformulation of some of our

capabilities. we're going have to focus more on naval, air assets and a little bit less on army and ground forces. and that's going to take -- time. >> ifill: to what degree, michael auslin has this been overshadowed by tension elsewhere, especially in the mid el east, afghanistan and iraq and now with ukraine. >> it has. it's one of, i think, the problems with the rhetorical flourishes of the pivot is that regional powers choose to turn away, so to speak from other areas and focus on other area, not a superpower. diplomacy is mentione mentioned-- measured in inches and-- one of the biggest issues, we could all agree that the execution of the pivot hasn't been to the level that we all had hoped. senator menendez released a report on that last week. our top commanders in the region have said the same. but i think the bigger issue is that we never fully articulated what the goal of the pivot was. if we needed it, what was it for? was it to control china or counter china? is it to insurance american political or military dominance? we never quite explained

what it was for and therefore everyone could read into the pivot what they wanted and everyone could be disappointed when it didn't live up to their expectations. >> ifill: curt campbell we keep using the word pivot but you are one of the architects much of this? >> look, all i can say is if you look at the first term, the previous 12 or so years, no strategic statement, no detailed arguments about what the united states was about. several important articles and speeches by secretary clinton. very clear statement of president obama what we were trying to accomplish in asia. i believe that they've laid out a very clear game plan for what we're going to need to do that involves the kind of difficult choices with respect to building a relationship with china. >> ifill: but economic issues, dip lo-- diplomatic issues. >> everything, look, 50% of the world's economy now is focused in asia. we cannot be a prosperous nation unless we step up our game economically. we are going have to export more to the largest growing middle classes in the world. there's going to be more

investment from asia not united states. and i think as michael indicated, there are huge security challenges in asia. and we have kept the peace there for decades. our role is still important. so i think our role is vital. if anything, it's going to go up over time. and i think there's a broad recognition that this will not take, you know, a couple of years t will take a decade or more to step up our game substantially. >> but michael auslin, our partners in this effort, at this point halfway through the second term, almost, do they trust to us execute this pivot in a way that will benefit them as well as the-- the nation's directly involved in. >> i think as curt said it's going to take a long time. but unfortunately the waters are shifting in asia as we are moving more of our focus there. you know, admiral locklear, of pacific command testified before congress last month that the balance of power in asia is shifting against us and towards the chinese that is what our allies are looking at right now it is another issue, i think of form versus function.

we can have all the forms of moving 60% of the navy to asia. the question is what for. we haven't fully articulated why we're there. and one of the key issues which we mentioned here in the report, the territorial disputes. that's what our asian friends and allies concern themselves with. that is what they care about. fanned we don't get involved or show that we are getting more involved, then to them the pivot means nothing. now the president had a very strong statement in the japanese newspaper yesterday where he stated that it comes under article 5. and that should begin moving the needle on their concern. but the fact is they have watched this for a while. the philippine, vietnamese, everyone has seen us talk about what we're going do but they're dealing with its daily effects of what china is dogs and waiting for to us get involved. >> can i just -- >> one final, briefly, look, one narrow measurement on military power, absolutely, power shifting more towards china but we have many other assets in asia. a lot of friends. i'll trade, i'll take our friends, our structure of

engagement over the one close friend that china has which is north korea. >> curt campbell, michael auslin, thank you both very much. >> thank you, gwen, it was great. vi >> woodruff: now, who should pay when drugs are very effective, but extremely expensive? that's an important question for the u.s. health care system as new treatments come along, and it's a matter of real concern over a new drug that has a 90% to 100% chance of curing the hepatitis-c virus. its manufacturer announced record sales yesterday of more than two billion dollars in just the first quarter of the year. profits, coverage and costs are all at issue, as hari sreenivasan reports. >> she knows how fragile life can be. in 2005 blowsly was diagnosed with help title is c, a blood-borne virus that

can destroy the body's liver. >> i went from stage 1 to stage 4, decomposed liver very quickly. >> reporter: news of a rapidly declining health was devastating for the 46-year-old mother of two. >> you fall into a depression when you're diagnosed with help c. your own mortality rate hits you. >> that's a pretty good response. >> this fall after nine years of battling the virus kim bosley was accept nod a treatment trial with a new drug called solvadi. >> kim, we'll check your labs here. >> almost immediately after taking solvaldi the hepatitis c virus disappeared. >> to the detect, not detected, to the detected. >> bosley's doctor is an expert on the hepatitis c virus. he says results with solvaldi are remarkable. >> you feel like you can do what you wanted to do on this treatment. >> yes. >> a helptologist at the university of colorado hospital, he has treated some 200 patients with the new drug.

>> kim's response is typical. her viral load was in the millions. within a week or two, undetectable. that is what we're seeing in almost all the patients we're treating today. it's really quite extraordinary. >> reporter: in fact, across the united states hepatitis c patients are experiencing the same dramatic results. so much so that dr. overson cause the new drug manufactured by gilead scientist a game changer. >> we're not talking about chronic disease any more. we're talking about getting rid of the infection completely. we're talking about a complete cure rate. >> reporter: and that is welcome news for the 3 million americans infectioned with the hepatitis virus. 25% of whom are projected to die from it. even better news, in december the food and drug administration approved solvaldi but a spectacular as it appears to be, so too is its price tag. each pill is $1,000. and of typical treatment of 120 day, the drug's extraordinary cost has

raised concerns. >> the new development is simultaneously very exciting in terms of its efficacy. but potentially very, very frightening in terms of its cost. because we're talking about a nexus of a drug that is on the face of it, very expensive. >> matt heads the national association of medicaid directors. he says states are skranling to figure out how to pay for it with government-funded insurance. particularly when existing drugs are 50 to 70% effective. >> medicaid is actually kind of used to dealing with pharmaceutical treatments that are very expensive. but for small numbers of people. with hepatitis c, we know there are at least 3 million people and potentially as many as 5 million people in this country who have hepatitis c so when you multiply those two, you are really looking at a game-change never terms of cost. >> one a day of that one. >> kim bosley's treatments are free because she's part of the study for those with advanced liver disease. and while she agrees the

drug's price tag is high, she says the combination of drugs she used before solvaldi interferon were extremely rough. >> there is no comparison. >> her previous drug treatment, she says, caused exhaustion, depression and hair loss. >> it is a very harsh regimen. very debilitating. >> in fact, dr. overson said the existing drug treatments are so tough on his patient approximates many hepatitis c sufferers avoid them all together. >> most patients don't even want the treatments. people wouldn't even come for treatment. they wouldn't get their hepatitis c addressed. >> and beyond the physical costs, he says there is a price for in the curing the virus. >> it's one of the costliest diseases when you get to the end stages where people start to have complications of cirrhosis. >> that point is echoed by john mchutchinson, executive vice president at gilead sciences. >> the cost of caring for patients with hepatitis c are not all up front.

so while it might be expensive to treat somebody up front now, by curing somebody, you are preventing the costs of care of that patient later on. so as their disease progresses over time, the cost of liver transplant, the cost of caring for somebody with liver cancer, so if you can treat more people, and spend those dollars up front to cure those people, in the long-term, and over the long-term horizon will you save the costs to the health-care system. >> if you are one of the millions of people with hepatitis c, you haven't been forgotten. >> reporter: but while gilead calls the drug a cure it is not a vaccine. hepatitis c which is transmitted through blood can be contracted more than once. the most common way to get the virus is through iv drug use. >> one of the things to keep in mind with sovaldi is this is not an immunization, this does not make someone hepatitis free forever. and if you got hepatitis c because of certain risky

behaviors and you go and you get, in effect, cured. there is nothing to prevent from you getting again if you relapse back into those same behaviors. >> kim bosley contracted the virus from a blood transfusion at her birth. bosley was the first baby born to a mother who had undergone a kidney transplant. she was featured in good housekeeping magazine as a miracle baby. during the birth kim's mother received a transfusion of blood infected with hepatitis c. but neither knew they had the virus until getting sick later in life. bosley's mother ended up dying from the condition, something that makes kim's own condition even tougher. >> seeing my mom suffer through the latter part of her stages, it really took a lot out of me to the point where i finally had to, you know this is not how mom or i want to live, you know, i want to fight. i want to find a cure. >> as new sophisticated drugs to treat all kinds of

conditions enter the market, matt says the question of costs will likely arise again. >> it's not a sovaldi question per se, because this really is the tip of the iceberg. there are so many other drugs that have the potential of bringing on one hand, you know, incredible improvements in human life and health and well-being, but on the other hand extraordinary costs. >> he would like to see a national dialogue about what insurers should cover. >> i think it is critically important that we start having that conversation about how do we value health. what price health, and what price pharmaceuticals? i think this is an important conversation we need to have. >> for her part kim bosley has started a foundation to help offset drug cost force other hepatitis patients. >> ifill: online, read about how free samples can influence what doctors prescribe to their patients. that's on our health page.

>> woodruff: most of the time when we talk about the boom in oil production in the u.s., we focus on costs and the environment. but the boom has also led to a major rise in how much oil is being moved around the country by rail. in fact, that amount has quadrupled since 2005, and that is leading to growing worries over safety risks. >> woodruff: one of the biggest safety concerns: explosive train derailments in the u.s. and canada. the most deadly came in july of last year, when an unmanned run- away train carrying crude oil barreled off the rails in a small town in quebec. 47 people died in the explosion and fire. the oil on that train was coming from the bakken oil fields in north dakota, a site for much of the oil boom since 2006, facilitated by a form of extraction known as hydrolic fracturing. two-thirds of the oil produced in the bakken formation today is

shipped by rail, as is roughly 10% of all u.s. oil output. last december, a b.n.s.f. train in casselton, north dakota, struck another train, igniting 10 cars and spilling 400,000 gallons of crude oil. ethanol, which is also increasingly carried by rail, was the cargo in a 2009 train derailment in cherry valley, illinois. one person was killed in that accident. now, the national transportation safety board is working with other agencies on new steps to improve the safety of the rail shipments. >> woodruff: for the record, b.n.s.f. railway is a newshour underwriter. >> announced they will phase out older rail cars like the ones involved in the quebec accident by may 2017. between 65 and 80-- 80,000 of them are carrying

flammable liquides in north america. this week the u.s. in addition transportation safety board has been meeting on these very issues. and i'm joined now by its chairman deborah hersman, welcome to the newshour. >> hello. >> woodruff: is there a consensus on why there have been as many accidents as there have been with explosions and the kind of mayhem we've seen? >> so i think the important thing to understand is we can prevent these accidents. so we've got to figure out how to prevent them and that means keeping the trains from derail in the first place or keeping them from having collisions so we've got to work on that. most of these events are caused by either human failure, human factors issues or track defects. so we've got to fix those two issues. and then the second piece of it is the mitigation. the tank cars and making those tank cars more crash-worthy if you do have an accident the final piece of it is the response because no communities is prepared for a worse case

scenario if you lose the entire contents of one of these unit trains. >> woodruff: so in terms of making the cars, making this transport safer, what needs to be done that isn't being done right now? >> i think focusing on the prevention, keeping the trains from derailing in the first place or their collisions from happening, that means the industry has to do a number of things. do better inspections of the track. make sure that those trains don't collide, that your workers aren't fat agoed, that they aren't tired. we've got to make sure that we prevent the didn'ts in the first place. so when it comes to the tank cars. >> let me stop you there. is that happening now? >> well, we do have some voluntary agreements from so railroads about reducing train speeds. that will reduce some of the risk, if there is a collision or an accident. and doing more frequent inspections of the rail. these are good things that people agree to do voluntarily. but more needs to be done because we really need to get to zero accidents, not just fewer accidents but zero accidents. when it comes to the tank cars, there's a lot of

conversation now about improving the crash worthiness and the integrity of the cars that are out there. and you talked about it, tens of thousands of them. >> and so should the u.s. do what the canadian rig laters have just today announced they're going to do, and that is require that the older cars be phased out? >> that's in fact what the ntsb recommended several years ago. you shoulded earlier the cheree valley accident involving the ethanol train. we said they either need to retrofit or phase out these do t-1 11 tank cars contrariee-- carrying crude or ethanol. >> woodruff: so it has already been recommended. has it happened? >> it has not happened. we certainly applaud the canadians for taking swift action. and today we really challenge the u.s. regulators to follow suit, to move forward with safety improvement. >> woodruff: so where is the holdup? the reporting i have been reading today is that the railroad industry is saying these cars, among other things they are saying these cars need to be upgraded.

and they're looking to the oil industry, the oil companies to do that upgrading. the oil companies are pushing back saying wait a minute where is the evidence. how do you read all of this? >> well, i think clearly there are a lot of different interests here. we heard from the petroleum industry. we also heard from the rail industry, and we heard from the people who manufacture and own the tank cars. everybody has got to work together to try to solve this problem. it's to the going to go away if we don't invest in better tank cars and make sure we invest in preventing those accidents in the first place. >> woodruff: does the ntsb your agency have the cloud to make the things happen that need to happen? >> we investigate the accidents and we make recommendations. it's up to other people to implement our recommendations. these recommendations have been on the books for several years. i think we're very disappointed that they haven't moved faster. but i will tell you this issue is getting a lot of attention now that we have had some accidents here on this side of the border. we've seen what happened in

quebec. i think a lot of politicians and others are paying attention. an there's pressure on the industry and the regulators to make a change. >> woodruff: i assume that's part of the reason you're here tonight to talk about. >> that's right. >> woodruff: but i was also reading today, deborah hersman that among other things the oil industry is being criticized for not being transparent enough about the cargo it carries, how it carries it, it's own safety, rules and regulations, help us understand that a little better. >> i think the important thing to understand here is this boom say really good thing when we talk about energy innocence for the united states it a good thing for u.s. jobs, there is a lot of good here but you have to do the work that needs to be done to protect the safety of the people who are working a the line, people who live along the lines and the environment. and unfortunately they got way ahead with the business case and the safety regulations were not there keeping track. >> you mean the oil industry

got way ahead. >> the oil industry, they found this oil and they were extracting it. the rail industry, these unit trains, 100 car trains of crude oil or ethanol, they are really essentially moving pipelines. >> and do you see productive conversations under way now? do you believe that this discussion is moving in a positive direction or is it stuck at this point? >> well, i think we heard today, we had those industries representing. and i will tell you they had very different perspective. but i think at some point you're going have to have some adult supervision and that is going to need to come from the regulate tore step in and say we've had enough accidents, we've had enough work on trying to get to a conscientious-- consensus this is what the standard needs to be. and that is what the canadians are beginning to do right now. and i think we have got on this side of the board tore step up to the plate or we're going have two levels of safety. you are geeing have on one side of the border certain provisions and then on the u.s. side it won't be the

same. >> deborah hersman is the chairman of the national transportation safety board, we thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: yesterday's supreme court decision to uphold a michigan state ban on affirmative action was only the latest setback for those who argue racial preferences are the best way to increase diversity on college campuses. at least seven other states have enacted similar bans. the new york times, using information compiled in part by the national center for education statistics, looked at five of those states and found enrollment at flagship schools immediately fell overall for african-american and latino students. some campuses have found other ways to achieve the same goals, but will these trends continue? for that, we turn to two experts on the matter: dennis parker, director of the american civil liberties union's racial justice program. and roger clegg, president and general counsel of the center for equal opportunity.

welcome to you both. does this issue that we saw yesterday at the stream court, dennis parker mean that the use of affirmative action is the means to achieve diversity in college campuses is done, over? >> no, the supreme court is clearly said that race can be taken into account in a measured way. and that it can be perfectly constitutional. so those cases upholding the affirmative action programs in michigan, for example, still stand. it really only deals with those states that have passed these types of initiativeside don't the floodgates open after yesterday's ruling for states that dot same. >> we're hopeful the states won't do that, that they will look at the experiences in the states that have these initiatives, recognize that the effects are harmful effects, hurt whole classes of people in the states. and won't choose to go down the same path that michigan and the other states went down. >> ifill: roger clegg sdrk its supreme court shut a door or open another one. >> the supreme court did the right thing. the supreme court said that

it's okay for people to pass laws that say that the government can't discrimination-- discriminate on the basis of race, that's a good thing. and i hope that more states will do that. i don't think we should lose sight of the fact with all the talk about diversities and educational benefits and all that, what is at issue here is whether the government should be treating americans differently on the basis of skin color and what country their ancestors came from. >> ifill: let me ask you your question that justice so it isomayer raised in her dissent, a sharp descent yesterday, that we didn't rich race a wakes, that if will always be central to these kinds of conversations. what is your response to that? >> well, i don't disagree with that at all but i don't think that the right way to address race is through more racial discrimination. i am all in favor of the government stopping racial discrimination of the old-fashioned politically incorrect kind. but i don't think that the solution is to substitute

politically correct racial discrimination for it. i'm also all in favor the government doing things to help disadvantaged people but it should be disadvantaged people of all racial an ethnic groups. race should not be used as a proxy for disadvantage. >> ifill: dennis. >> and a agree that there should be equality. but the problem with this proposition is it takes equality off the table it says if you are an applicant to a school in michigan you can urge them to accept you for any reason such as your grandparent gave money to the school, your father went to the school, you played oboe. the one thing you can't say is that i believe that my race is significant and reflects something about my personality. perhaps it shows issues that i've overcome that are race related. it could mean a white student who lives in a black neighborhood but got a leadership position in their high school said that he learned something as a result of that. >> ifill: why wouldn't a

race-- neutral approach work to accomplish the same goal? >> because it presents from you ever making that argument. and in order to make it would you have to change the michigan constitution. it places a burden on you that other people don't have. >> i don't think that is true. i think that a situation where somebody had a story to tell like dennis just outlined could be told. what is prevented is the state saying that we're going to give people preferences because of their skin color or because of what country their ancestors came from. that's what is going on, unfortunately, at a lot of schools throughout the country. and i hope that more states will pass laws like the law that michigan has. >> ifill: but is there value in the goal, the goal which is to create a different social mix, to create a different level of ago dem ache chievement for disadvantaged individuals? is there-- is this the way the goal was being achieved is the problem? >> i think that any goal

stated in terms of diverse sit not worth the price of racial discrimination. and i think that the kind of diversity that matters is not die virts of superficial characteristics like skin color, it's diversity, backgrounds and experiences and perspectives. and you can get that kind of die versusity without using race as a proxy for how people think and what kind of backgrounds they come from. most of the african-americans who are given preferences to the more selective schools, 86%, in fact, come from middle class or upper-class backgrounds. so you're not really accomplishing any kind of real socioeconomic diversity by using race as a proxy for -- >> let's make the argument dennis parker y not socioeconomic diversity which might also capture racial diversity? >> it might as almost an accident or as a proxy but it doesn't go to the problem. mr. clegg talks about skin

color as if it were not a significant factor in american society. and i think that's why justice sotomayor's opinion is so important. because she says we can't ignore history. we can't ignore where we are now. the significance of race goes far beyond just the color of your skin. it deals with opportunities you have. it deals with barriers you faced. and it's unstrooebltion to say that you can deal with discrimination by pretending that it doesn't exist. >> yesterday's ruling was narrow in the sense that at least in vus 'tis kennedy's words t was about who gets to decide, not taking on the whole issue as dennis parker pointed out. other times they upheld other portion of it. is this dow suggest an avenue through ballot initiatives to achieve your aim? >> yeah, i think that ballot initiatives are a good approach where that approach is available. but not all states have that. in states where they don't

have a ballot initiative approach, i would hope that the state legislature was pass simple legislation. and i hope congress acts in this area too. i think that congress really intended to ban this kind of discrimination when it passed the 1964 civil rights act which we're celebrating the anniversary of this year. but unfortunately the supreme court ignored the-- of the 1964 civil rights act so i think congress needs to go back and clarify that. >> ifill: is there a role in this. >> first of all i done think that it is at all clear that our congress never intended for affirmative action to be permitted. and again clearly the supreme court permits that. but i think one of the things you have to keep in mind is that part of the purpose of the constitution is to protect minority groups who may not have the ability to get enough votes to pass or to defeat an i nes difficult like that, but are still subject to burdens and to disvacs.

and that's part of the problem of this case. is that you had people, you have people who are suffering, who are not permitted to assert this important thing and as a result you have, you know, in michigan the number of black students decreased 33% after the passage. >> dennis parker of the aclu and roger collection from the center of equal opportunity, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. south sudan blamed rebel fighters for the massacre of hundreds of people last week. the rebels' leader denied it. the confirmed body count in the south korean ferry disaster topped 150. and president obama began a four-nation asia trip, with a stop in japan. >> ifill: on the newshour online right now, another long list of endangered species we should

worry about. but they're not in the amazon or the arctic, they're in our bodies. scientists are discovering that the diversity of micro-organisms in our gut is shrinking, which could affect how we fight infections. that's part of our "extinction week" series, which you can find on our science page. and tomorrow, chat with one of the greatest extinct creatures of all time. the nation's t-rex is joining us on twitter from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. eastern. because he's basically nothing but bones, a member of the smithsonian's national museum of natural history will be there to answer your questions. details are on the rundown. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we'll look at the fight over politics and money in new york city's "charter school war." i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill, we'll see you on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs

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