captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, december, 14: late night deal, the senate passes the $1.1 trillion spending bill that keeps the government running. and in our signature segment, two years after the tragedy at sandy hook elementary, we look at connecticut's gun laws which are now some of the most restrictive in the nation. >> i can't let it be a senseless tragedy because it was a preventable tragedy. >> you can change a magazine in literally one second. >> we've seen a dramatic drop in murders in our state. >> the law's not going to catch possible mass murderers? >> that's correct. >> sreenivasan: next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening thanks for joining us. late last night the senate passed a sweeping $1.1 trillion spending bill, heading off a government shutdown for at least the next fiscal year. the president is expected to sign it. despite it's passage, the budget plan has drawn criticism from both democrats and tea party republicans.

besides funding the military and fighting ebola, the bill also relaxes school nutrition standards, clears the way for much larger campaign contributions from wealthy individual donors, and includes a controversial rollback on bank regulations put in place after the financial crisis in 2008. for some more insight we are joined from washington d.c. by niels lesniewski of roll call.çó >> thank you. so last night we were headed home thinking that this was going to drag out for another few days. what happened, how did this get through? >> well, what we had in the senate on the floor of the senate was what we might call saturday night magic. it's the kind of thing that often takes place on thursdays but this time it had to wait until saturday as lawmakers reached an agreement toñr move ahead all the way through to passing the just over trillion dollar spending package, and instead of having procedural votes that extended until 1:00

in the morning and then coming back monday at about 7:30 in the morning they decided to get everything done. and as a result, they are done with that piece of the puzzle and they come back on monday really on monday afternoon for a bunch of president obama's nominations. but the government funding situation is resolved. >> okay as with all compromises it usually leaves some people happy. usually it seems more people from the left are more angry at president obama or the democratic senators. >> yes, the anger this time was somewhat palpable on the left and even actually too there are some on the right who had similar views about the banking provisions that werexd included, seemingly in the last minute, in the compromise agreement, it rolled back of a profession of the dodd frank financial regulatory overhaul related to the treatment of swaps transactions.

and l basically taking down a bit of a fire wall that had been built in banking activities. but the other thing too is, is that the folks who are on the more conservative end of the spectrum were not pleased over the fact that the bill did not do anything substantively to attack the president's executive action on immigration. so there was sort of all comers had something not to like which is probably why there were lots of votes against it on both ends of the spectrum. >> okay. immigration still will be debated just at a later date. there is kind of a cliff at the end of february where the department of homeland security needs more funding, right? >> that's right. and that's what the republican leadership on both sides of the capital have been saying since the beginning was look, let's punt this issue until the republicans are in control of the senate. when there might be some opportunity to actually make a substantive policy change. you knew that with the democrats

in control of the senate, you were going to have difficulty getting anything through it all in the meantime. but at least come february from their point of view, that will be a chance to force something maybe to president obama's desk. >> all right, niels lesiewski of roll call joining us from washington, d.c. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> black men at the hands of police >> sreenivasan: tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in major cities across the country yesterday, protesting the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. the vast majority were peaceful, but there were a few confrontations with police, including an attack on two n.y.p.d. lieutenants from protesters who ventured onto the brooklyn bridge. neither officer suffered life- threatening injuries. their attackers were not arrested. but in california, 45 people were arrested in san francisco and oakland. another 23 were arrested in boston. there were no arrests reported in washington d.c. where an estimated 25,000 people marched to the u.s. capital.

today marks exactly two years since adam lanza killed his mother, then gunned down 20 young children and six adults at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut. local firefighters who were among the first to respond to the shooting, lowered their station's flag to half-staff this morning. city leaders have decided not to hold any public ceremonies today. instead, they're calling for private reflection. since the shooting, the school has been demolished and a handful of the victim's parents are considering plans for a permanent memorial. meanwhile, the city has taken possession of the lanza home, but officials have not decided what to do with it yet. we'll have more from connecticut in a moment. former vice president dick cheney defended the c.i.a.'s post-9/11 interrogation program, despite criticism in the wake of the senate report released earlier this week. on nbc's "meet the press" today, cheney said the program carefully avoided torture. >> and the techniques we did in fact use, which the president authorized, that produced results, that gave us the information we needed to be able to safeguard the nation against further attacks, and to be able to track down those guilty for 9/11, did in fact work.

>> sreenivasan: and, for the first time in history, climate change negotiators have come up with a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions in every single nation. the agreement requires all 196 countries to create a detailed plan within the next six months to limit emissions from burning coal, gas, and oil. negotiators in peru hailed the deal as a victory, but environmental groups say it falls far short of staving off global warming because there are no means to verify a nation does what it says it will do. >> sreenivasan: the parents of some of the victims of the shooting at sandy hook elementary are expected to announce tomorrow that they are suing bushmaster, the manufacturer of the assault rifle used by adam lanza two years ago today. some of those parents have also lobbied congress to pass tougher federal gun laws. but according to a new poll released by the pew research center this week, 52% of americans say it's more important to protect the right of americans to own guns. while 46% say it's more

important to control gun ownership. yet, connecticut legislators have bucked national sentiment, enacting some of the strictest gun regulations in the country. newshour special correspondent john carlos fray traveled there to see if the new restrictions are having any effect. >> it started like any other normal day. got the kids ready for school. got dylan to take his vitamins, which he fought me on every morning, and we went up the driveway to the bus. and that was last time i saw him alive. >> reporter: nicole hockley's six year-old son, dylan, whose bright blue eyes and laugh filled a room, whose favorite foods were hershey's chocolate bars, red delicious apples, and garlic bread, was one of 20 children and six adults who died in a hail of gun fire at sandy hook elementary school two years-ago today. dylan who was autistic, was found in the arms of his school aid, anne marie murphy, who died

trying to shield him. >> in some respects, that makes so much sense, cause she wouldn't have left him. so-- so they died together. there's a lot nicole doesn't remember from that horrible day, but she clearly recalls the man who gave her the news no parent wants to hear, connecticut governor dan malloy. malloy spoke in a back room of the firehouse where parents had gathered. >> i did say the-- to the parents. that if they had not been united with their family already, then they were not going to be united with their family. >> and the room just erupted. and i'll be honest, at that moment in time i-- i-- i hated him.

( laughs ) because that was who had told me. >> reporter: but since that terrible day the two have become allies in the fight for new gun restrictions and regulations that would keep weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill. as the communications director for sandy hook promise, an organization founded in the aftermath of the tragedy, hockley advocated in washington, d.c. for new legislation. >> i'm one of those people that i have to do something to stop it. i can't let it be a senseless tragedy because it was a preventable tragedy. >> reporter: while federal legislation stalled in partisan gridlock, in april of 2013 governor malloy signed into connecticut law some of the most restrictive gun policies in the country. and while gun violence experts say it's far too early to tell how effective the new law is, governor malloy points to the fact that there were 32% fewer murders in 2013 than 2011. >> we've seen a dramatic drop in murders in our state.

we've denied people the ability to purchase weapons because they fell into a category such as a felony conviction or mental treatment. >> reporter: the new connecticut law strengthened gun laws that were already on the books, making background checks universal for all gun and ammunition purchases and limiting the ability of the mentally ill to purchase guns. the new legislation outlawed more than 100 additional assault weapons, including the ar-15 semi-automatic rifle that adam lanza used to kill so many at sandy hook. large capacity magazines holding more than ten rounds were banned as well. >> this is a weapon that's been banned in your state. it's been determined to be an assault weapon. and obviously it was used in sandy hook. so we know that it killed quite a few people. >> it didn't kill 20 school children in sandy hook. adam lanza killed 20 school children in sandy hook. >> reporter: 53 year-old dom basile, an employee for the u.s. postal service and a firearms

instructor is a gun collector and owns many weapons that are now outlawed in the state. basile legally purchased these guns before the ban went into effect, so is allowed to keep them. >> punishing me, and those like me, solely because we lawfully and responsibly possess the same type of property that he-- that a criminal had, makes about as much logical sense as punishing you for owning the same type of car that a drunk driver had. >> reporter: basile is so frustrated about the new state law that he plans to move to maine, where he owns property and plans to build his own gun range. and basile is not alone. a state-wide poll taken last may found that 38% of voters do not support the stricter gun regulations while 56% were in favor. >> banning semi-automatic weapons, assault weapons, the size of the magazine would help to diminish mass shootings? >> it would certainly help to

diminish the number of individuals shot in those shootings, yes. >> reporter: dr. daniel webster is the director of the johns hopkins center for gun policy and research, a group dedicated to reducing gun-related injuries and deaths. webster says that the most important aspect of connecticut's new gun law, when it comes to mass shootings, is magazine capacity. adam lanza used a magazine with a capacity of 30 bullets. >> if you look at data from other mass shooting scenarios, there is a direct correlation between the ammunition capacity, how much ammunition an assailant has, and how many people get shot. >> reporter: state representative rob sampson, a republican, has been one of the governor's most vocal opponents in the state house on this issue. he was named a defender of freedom by the national rifle association and believes that magazine capacity had nothing to do with how many children were killed at sandy hook elementary school. >> arming yourself with a 30- bullet magazine would make it a lot easier to mow people down then a ten bullet magazine. >> well...

>> reporter: it just seems logical to me. >> unfortunately, it's not. you can change a magazine in literally one second. if i was to shoot you and say, "i'm about to shoot you, and i have to change magazines first, boom, i'm done," you'd never get to me in time. you wouldn't even try. i do not believe it is enough time to rush an attacker, and certainly not in the case when you're talking about second graders. >> dylan was shot five times. so if we had a ten magazine, ten bullet limit, you know, instead of a 30, for all i know dylan could be alive today. it's just-- it's absurd for him to say that it wouldn't have made a difference. of course it would have made a difference. and there have been far too many other shootings where a jam or a reload has given an opportunity for someone to intervene. >> reporter: in dylan's class five children were killed and 11 escaped. while the events of the day may never be fully clear, some say that the children fled when lanza's gun either jammed or had to be reloaded. we do know, however, that jared

lee loughner, the shooter who badly injured congresswoman gabrielle giffords and killed six others near tucson, arizona was subdued while he was reloading his gun. state rep. sampson, however, is not persuaded by this argument and points out that a study on the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 found that the ban did not lower the number of gun deaths in the u.s. dr. daniel webster agrees that the ban did little to stem broader gun violence, but says that the study did not focus on mass shootings. >> it's worth noting that when the ban expired in 2004, that following that, we experienced a great increase in mass shootings and in particular the number of individuals who are shot in such shootings. >> reporter: in september the f.b.i. released a study that supports webster's analysis. the f.b.i. found that active shooter incidents, defined as an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined area, have gone up in the last seven years.

from 2000 to 2007 there were an average of 6.4 incidents annually. from 2007 to 2013 that average jumped to 16.4 incidents a year. guns right's advocates are not the only critics of the new connecticut law. dr. sigurd ackerman is the director of silver hill hospital, a psychiatric facility in connecticut. he's concerned about a requirement in the law that says most patients who admit themselves for psychiatric treatment must be reported to the state. if i come in because i'm bulimic or because i may be severely depressed from a breakup, i will have my gun rights taken away? >> that's correct. >> reporter: do you find that to be prudent? >> well, i find that to be potentially harmful. it will have the effect of discouraging many people from seeking treatment because they'll be reported. >> reporter: dr. ackerman says that the law was passed in a hurry and he believes that the

law focuses on too broad a group, when it should be focused on those who actually pose a threat. like those with a history of violent behavior. >> what i'm saying is that the people who are voluntarily admitted to a psychiatric facility are not those people. so they've got the wrong group. >> reporter: the law's not going to catch possible mass murderers? >> that's correct. >> reporter: dr. ackerman points out that adam lanza was not seeking treatment for mental illness, as a recently released report about lanza's life revealed, so he would not have ended up in a state database of those banned from owning a gun. but governor malloy says that the legislation has already worked. >> we actually were able to stop someone from buying a gun who advocated or said that they wanted to use that to shoot up another school. >> reporter: its the case of an 18-year-old woman with mental health issues who admitted herself to a group home for treatment. she attempted to purchase a gun, but the governor's office told newshour that she was prevented

from doing so because her name was in the state database. upon investigation police found a manifesto about her plans to shoot students at two high schools. nicole hockley, mother of dylan, believes the steps connecticut took have made her state safer but she continues to advocate for other states and the federal government to follow suit. it's too easy, she says to simply drive across state lines and buy a gun in state with less strict gun regulations. >> it hurts me in my heart every day when there's another mass shooting. seeing scenes of helicopter footage of children running from schools, it's just-- it's becoming far to familiar a sight. that isn't the country that we're meant to be. we're better than this. >> sreenivasan: connecticut's gun laws are now some of the most restrictive in the country. would you support similar laws where you live?

take our poll and weigh in at newshour.pbs.org. >> sreenivasan: it's both the darling of wall street and the bain of local regulators across the country and around the world. uber is the on-demand car sharing service which faces legal challenges in portland, oregon, while it is banned from operating in some cities entirely. acknowledging the competition, new york, chicago, and washington d.c. are trying to fight back with their own cab apps. at the same time, uber is valued at $41.2 billion-- easily outpacing every other private startup. its worth more than publicly traded companies like delta airlines, charles schwab, and kraft foods. joining us now to discuss the uber boom is liz gannes, a senior editor at re/code from san francisco. thanks foster joining us. >> sure. >> the recent problem and perhaps worst problem uber has faced is a situation in india, where a passenger said the

driver turned off the meter and took her someplace else and raped her. really the core of it is a level of trust and security that a user has to have that they're safe when they're in the car. how does this company deal with this challenge? >> uber in addition to step up its background checks. in india doesn't look like the local statements were that great to authorize this situation for the driver. as you say this is an app on your phone but it's an app that connects you as a passenger, putting yourself in a car in the real world. so you really need to trust that that is a situation that you will be safe in. compared to traditional taxis though, there is a level above and beyond once you're in the car and once someone is in the system. i think the issue leading up to this is the background checks. once you're driver or passenger on uber at the end of every ride you rate the other one on a scale of 1 to 5 stars.

if you don't get four or five stars you're not welcome in the system anymore. that is a traditional taxis, doesn't get the bad guys out from the beginning. >> while we've said it is banned in some cities it is working in 250 cities and the company's modus operandi asks for permission, that's why they go into the market. that's why they have legal tussles. >> we've never seen anything like uber come out like this. the company is five years old and they're 250 cities and there's no way that they would be that big if they'd gone around and asked reergts and red cumentincumbents. >> the fact that this company is worth more than an entire airline, what do investors see in it beyond just the car sharing that we're talking about today? >> investors are hopeful that

uber because it is so good about connecting someone who has a need to get around town and somebody who is already nearby, would bwould be logistics for lf experiments around that but that idea of kind of instant gratification that is powered by smart funds, both by consumers and more importantly drivers is this big technological opportunity. especially internet companies, uber has a significant amount of revenue. they're private so they don't disclose it. but it's up in the billions for sure. wouldn't be going out to wall street if it ever does go public which we expect it would do. they wouldn't go out and say figure out the business model later. the business model is already encoded into what we do. >> liz gannes, of san francisco,

thanks so much for this. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: for some insight into the climate agreement that was reached sunday in lima peru, earlier i spoke with william mauldin of "the wall street journal." here's an excerpt of our conversation. >> at the end of these talks we saw this tension, this familiar tension, reemerge between rich and poor countries. what was the argument about? >> yes, it exproaded in the early hours of saturday after they were already supposed to have finished and that was just about who was responsible for doing the heavy lifting fort( climate change. who has to make the painful emissions cuts. unfortunately in the kyoto protocol it's been the u.s., the european union or other countries. who is to finance these changes and who is to pay for poorer countries to get ready for

climate events in the future? that exploded out in the open. we had venezuela and china opposing the issues out there. it took some last minute edits to get to the point where they were ready to let this go forward to negotiations next year that are supposed to finish up in paris. >> what happens in paris now? it seems like if you kick the can down the road somewhere, you have to have meetings before paris. >> they'll have meetings before paris, they hope to hammer out a deal that will cut emissions after 2020 and beyond. but before that there's a lot of wok to be done, figuring out exactly how it's going to work who's going to pay for it, how much countries are going to cut. they have to voluntarily have to say how much carbon diesmed to cut in the future -- cash bon dioxide to cut in the future. name and shame, although people

involved don't like to call it that. >> visit pbs.org for more. >> finally tonight a drone flyover in gaza, during the palestinian group hamas, marking the group's founding in 1987. the drone did not cross into israeli territory. reuters is reporting there is a possible end to the feds free money pledge, keeping interest rates close to zero. and flooded spots of southern california are bracing for another bout of storms. the l.a. area could get another inch of rain tomorrow on top of the five that fell last week. that's it for this edition of pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan, thanks for

watching. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

and by... the handel group strives to empower individuals to change their lives through individual coaching and educational programs. handelgroup.com. >> hello and welcome to "on meditation." i'm elena brower. how do you document an inner journey? we chose to explore this question for this special about extraordinary people and their meditation practices. our goal was to demystify meditation and make it more accessible. you're about to see a few of the portraits from "on meditation" and gain intimate access into the lives and practices of these remarkable people. we'll also share some guided meditations so that you can