captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: europe in mourning. a passenger jet crashes in the french alps en route to germany from spain. all 150 people on board are presumed dead. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. also ahead this tuesday: we talk with afghanistan's president ashraf ghani, as he appeals to president obama for additional u.s. troops, money%3 and assistance, to counter a continuing taliban threat. >> woodruff: plus... >> bam! this letter from the state of california saying you owe us $54,000. i was like "what?!" >> woodruff: the hidden costs of medicaid. why california waits to mail &q!ealth care bills for recipients until after they die.

>> ifill: and... >> the changing light in san francisco is a sea light, an island light, and the light of fog blanketing the hills. >> ifill: a poet's ode to a san francisco that once was. activist, author and publisher lawrence ferlinghetti laments the city's latest boom. >> a new brand of dot com millionaires and general silicon valley money have moved into san francisco with bags full of cash and no manners. >> woodruff: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> it doesn't matter what kind of weather. it doesn't matter what time of day or night. when mother nature's done her worst, the only thing that matters to us, is keeping the lights on for you. we're the men and women of the

international brotherhood of electrical workers. keeping the power on in communities like yours, all across the country. because when bad weather strikes, we'll be there for you. the i.b.e.w. the power professionals. >> at bae systems our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from electronics systems to intelligence analysis and cyber- operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. that's bae systems. that's inspired work. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer.

>> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: search teams and investigators have begun collecting the shattered bits of a german airliner that smashed into the french alps today. the plane went into an eight- minute descent before it was lost near a popular ski resort, 700 miles from paris. there was no distress call, but officials said there's no indication of terrorism. paul davies, of independent television news, reports. >> reporter: their journey should have taken them high over these mountains. instead, for reasons that have yet to be explained, flight 9525

dropped down on to these slopes, killing all those on board. these are first pictures of wreckage scattered across the mountainside. there is very little that is recognizable. thousands of fragments from a plane that was carrying business people holidaymakers and schoolchildren returning to germany from an exchange trip. an emergency worker scrambles down the slope. the size of the task facing the these images. the crash site close to a ski resort is 2,000 meters above sea level and can be reached only by helicopter. recovery teams are on stand-by but it's likely to take days to locate all the bodies. the flight data recorder has already been found< this is the airbus a320 operated by the germanwings budget

airline that left barcelona this morning. 144 passengers and six crew were on board most of them german and spanish nationals. at dusseldorf airport, they had waited in vain for the arrival of flight 4u9525. people who had been expecting to greet family and friends comforted by airline staff. already it was clear there was no hope of survivors. germany's chancellor merkel told of shocking news coming in from france. nowhere more will that shock have been felt more than in this german school in the town of halton. 16 students had been on an exchange trip to barcelona. all are lost.

the local mayor says it's the darkest day in the town's history. the pain is being shared across europe. here relatives of some of the 45 missing spanish nationals comfort each other. they're being flown to france to be closer to the crash scene while the recovery team tries to bring their loved ones down from the mountain. >> woodruff: by this evening, the state department was still trying to determine if any americans were on the plane. we'll get an expert's take on the job facing the crash investigators, after the news summary. >> ifill: president obama today declared the on again, off again israeli-palestinian peace process all but over. that's after israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, in the final days of his reelection campaign, appeared to rule out a palestinian state. netanyahu has since backtracked a bit, but the president sounded unimpressed today. >> what we can't do is pretend

that there's a possibility of something that's not there. and we can't continue to premise our public diplomacy based on something that everybody knows is not going to happen, at least in the next several years. >> ifill: mr. obama also played down reports of personal animosity in his relations with the israel leader. he said, "this can't be reduced to 'let's hold hands and sing kumbaya.'" >> woodruff: on another issue, the president brushed aside a report that israel has spied on u.s. nuclear talks with iran. "the wall street journal" said the israelis acquired confidential information and shared it with u.s. lawmakers, to undercut any agreement. israel denied the report, and the president said israel has been briefed on the negotiations. >> ifill: forces loyal to yemen's pro-american president fought today to turn back advancing shiite rebels. the rebels, allied with iran, have already captured much of

northern yemen. today, they seized two key towns in the south before being forced to withdraw a few hours later. the rebels also entered a port on the red sea, near a key sea lane for oil shipments. >> woodruff: there's word the islamic state group has recruited at least 400 children as fighters in syria in the last three months. the syrian observatory for human rights reports the young recruits are under 18. one appeared in a video this month, executing an accused spy. >> ifill: in nigeria reports circulated today of another mass kidnapping by boko haram. this time, residents say theç islamist militants took more than 400 women and children from a northern town this month. nigerian officials could not immediately confirm the account. >> woodruff: actress/director angelina jolie revealed today she's had a new round of preventive surgery, to head off cancer. she wrote in "the new york times" that surgeons removed her ovaries and fallopian tubes

after a blood test showed a possible early sign of cancer. jolie had a double mastectomy in 2013 after learning she carries a faulty gene that greatly raises the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. >> ifill: republican senator dan coats of indiana announced he won't run for re-election next year. he's 71, and said in a statement it's time for the next generation of leaders. he gave up the seat once before, in 1999, to keep a term limits pledge. coats has a solidly conservative record, but he was one of the few republicans who would not sign a letter to iran's leaders this month protesting a potential nuclear arms agreement. >> woodruff: and, wall street headed south, on concerns about the strong dollar and weak utility stocks. the dow jones industrial average lost 105 points to close just above 18,000. the nasdaq fell 16 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 13. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: what might have caused the

deadly plane crash in the alps. afghan president ashraf ghaniohú3 comes to washington asking for more help. utah approves the use of firing squads for inmates on death row. why some medicaid beneficiaries are being billed for health care even after they die. a san francisco legend laments life in iran. >> woodruff: there are lots of questions still being asked tonight about the crash of the german plane that crashed in france. we look at some of the factors that investigators may be pursuing. alan diehl is an aviation safety consultant and crash analyst who has worked with the national transportation safety board, the federal aviation adminisrtation and others. he's the author of "air safety investigators: using science to save lives one crash at a time."

alan diehl, we welcome you to the program. it was daylight. the weather was mostly clear. what do you focus on as you try to understand what happened to this airplane? >> well obviously there are three potential areas if you eliminate weather. you have to look at human error, mechanical problems and you can't discount some sort of criminal act, although i know everybody is downplaying that and, of course it is very strange. but this is such a high-speed impact, that's the thing that is so surprising the fact that they descended. well, you could have a minor problem and get busy and not tell the controllers keeping your speeds up over 500mph in the mountains, that is incomprehensible if you're actually in control of your own faculties and the aircraft. >> woodruff: why incomprehensible? >> well, i've had to make a force landing in the mountains, incidentally, judy, in a light plane the first thing you do

when you get down below the level, you want the start slowing down to look for a place to set it down but it appears there was no indication of any kind of maneuvering. i know there have only been a couple eyewitnesses produced so far. the plane was very low, very fast, almost like a military aircraft colliding with the terrain. we haven't seen anything like that since 9/11 when the aircraft, of course, hit the buildings and the field in pennsylvania. >> woodruff: since 9/11. what do you make of the fact that as far as we know, no distress call, no attempt to communicate between the cockpit and the ground, air traffic. >> judy we alwiy& say that pilots aviate navigate and comun kate but in reality, they aviate, trouble shoot navigate and communicate. so they may have been very, very busy with a full-blown emergency, and it's possible that they just became overcome

by pressurization, smoke flame, whatever. we don't know. obviously the recorders will tell the story and i'm convinced they'll find the recorders. they have already found the one. they always lead you to what else you need to examine. >> woodruff: they have found one of the black boxes. does that mean we'll find all the answers there? >> not necessarily, but usually between the two boxes i always say judy, i talk about it in the book the flight data recorder, which has hundreds of channel, it takes several days to download as,as you know. that's reportedly what they found. that tells you what happened typically, but you have to listen to the voice recorder very carefully to understand the whys. >> woodruff: anything about the track record of this airplane the airbus 320 that tells you something? >> well they have had some problems with the airbus family. as you know, they're highly computerized more so than the boeings, but basically this is a

very safe aircraft. my daughter asked me the other day, should she getç on an airbus and get to her destination quicker so she doesn't have to rush to her meeting or wait for a boeing flight. i told her take the airbus, the most dangerous part of the trip is going to be the drive to the airport. so airbuses are certainly safe. they have a slightly worse track record than their competitors, the 320 competes with the late-model boeing 737s. the boeings are slightly safer, but these are basically safe aircraft even though we've lost a couple of them recently, this one and the tragic air asia over the java sea early last year. >> alan diehl air safety consultant, we thank you very money. >> thank you judy. >> ifill: president obama announced today the u.s. would scale back the pace of its

promised troop pullout from afghanistan. allowing forces to stay in place this year, and revisiting those numbers again next year. that was at the top of the wish list afghanistan's new leadership brought to town this week. >> we agreed to continue to keep in place our close security cooperation. afghanistan remains a very dangerous place. >> ifill: on his first presidential visit to washington, ashraf ghani qame away with the commitment he wanted most: a promise from the u.s. president. >> i've decided that we will maintain our current posture of 9,800 troops through end of this year. the bottom line is our men and women in uniform make enormous sacrifices. their families do too. they service alongside them. this will mean that there are going to be some of our folks who are in afghanistan under the new schedule who would have been home.

>> ifill: the u.s. and international combat mission in afghanistan formally ended late last year, and the u.s. military has been steadily reducing its footprint aiming to have only a skeleton force in place by the end of next year. the taliban responded by stepping up attacks and seizing territory from often-ineffective afghan forces. and the downsized u.s. presence led to a sharp reduction in air support for the afghans. another key mission: training afghan forces. they now number 330,000, but the size of the force has fallen as casualties have risen, desertions are also on the rise. yesterday, secretary of defense ashton carter announced the u.s. would help out here as well committing billions of dollars in additional support. >> the defense department intends to seek funding for afghan forces to sustain a strength of 352,000 personnel through 2017.

>> ifill: the announcements and warm words highlight a distinct thaw in u.s.-afghan relations since the0dys of ghani's predecessor, hamid karzai. u.s. dealings with him had become poisonous, and he ultimately refused to sign a security agreement to formalize the american presence in afghanistan. but once ghani took office, the deal was signed immediately. in another sign of renewed goodwill, ghani took pains during this visit to honor the sacrifice of more than 2,200 americans killed fighting in afghanistan since 2001, joining vice president biden today to lay a wreath at arlington national cemetery. the new leader is being accompanied by former rival abdullah abdullah, afghanistan's new c.e.o. that post was created after last year's presidential election was marred by allegations of fraud. >> ( translated ): we now have proved that political affairs cannot be solved through the use of guns but can be solved

through talks and negotiations. >> ifill: the two meghcreated a so-called "national unity government", although key positions remain unfilled. ghani faces many other challenges. a recent, disturbing example: the stoning and burning death of a young woman in central kabul by a mob of men. she'd been falsely accused of desecrating the koran. ghani's u.s. visit continues tomorrow when he speaks to a joint meeting of congress before heading to new york and the united nations thursday. >> ifill: shortly after the white house news conference ended, i spoke with president ghani. mr. president, thank you for joining us. you having just come from a pretty successful meeting at the white house. you're at blair house right across the street right now. you asked the president the freeze troop withdrawals, at least for this year. he agreed to that. and to rethink it for 2016. what about that open-ended part

about next year? did you hope that perhaps they would give you a more definitive idea of how many troops would be on the ground this time next year? >> the flexibility that we asked for and the stability has been provideed. with evolving conditioning on the ground, one has to make use of this major opportunity for reforms of our security forces and then assess the conditions. >> ifill: you talk about the evolving situation on the ground. what would you describe as the most urgent threat? >> the military operations by pakistan have brought about a displacement effect where a significant number of foreign terror groups that are a threat to practically every one of our neighbors near and far have been

pushed toward our territory while their leadership and their networks remain in pakistan or elsewhere. a new ecology of terror is forming because the weakening or collapse of the states in the middle east is bringing new opportunities to strengthen these networks. we have to deal with this threat, not just by our own action, but by coordinated action. the beginning of awareness is taking place, but it's important to understand that violence is changing its forms. it's rapidly acquiring new sets of capabilities, and unless weç grasp them, we understand them and then preempt them from forming and acting, we will be in a defensive position.

>> ifill: we know that part of this ecology of terror you referred to in the past at least, in the present has been the taliban the resurgence of the taliban in afghanistan. but i also wonder whether isis which we spent a lot of time talking about is also getting a foothold in afghanistan. is there any evidence of that? >> its four faces -- organize, orient, decide and act. but because its recruitment is media-based and not just through old personal networks, one has to be both vigilant and cautious in terms of the extent of their presence. we have made sure that it does not go beyond this stage of deciding to act. so we've seen some evidence but

it could also be copycatting or in relation and we need to share information analysis in a coherent way, so that then one is not surprised the way one imagines, the way iraq and syria, both governments and analysts alike were surprised. >> you're referring to what we call isil or isil. i'm also curious about the taliban negotiations. how do you get them back to the table when they won't agree to the basics that they renounce al qaeda that they accept the afghan constitution, that they renounce violence? is it pakistan? is that the key to getting them back to the table? >> it's two things. one is, of course pakistan because pakistan is facing an internal threat. it is going through heavy fighting last year. it's going to have a fighting season of its own unfortunately

this year. so in light of that, in light of the decision of the pakistani army and the pakistani government and parliament to confront the phenomena of terror in direct use of spores in response to the heinous crime against the children that took place in peshawar, we're going to see new forms of activity q!at now will hopefully bring about a policy that will not differentiate between good terrorists and bad terrorists. this could be a significant driver for separating the taliban from these other groups. the second is that isil is also a threat to the taliban and to the religious groups because a krstic -- characteristic of isil is to swallow its competition,

the way it did with the syrian army. so the room for maneuver within these two factors limits their option. the other is that now that the combat role of the international forces has ended they are clearly coming in support. 4,000 of our religious colors about six weeks ago clearly endorsed the afghanistan security forces. the other significant event is that of muslim response, the conference in mecca has condemned terrorism and identified a common platform for action. these are pressures that should hopefully get the taliban to the negotiating table. >> ifill: in addition to those erks ternal pressures, you also have internal pressures. we saw the story about the woman stoned to death in kabul. we have heard many reports about internal corruption in the government. i wonder as you take over now, you've been in office since

september, how do you rank those in terms of major domestic concerns that you have to tackle? >> corruption is clearly the cancer that leads to our society. we've taken decisive action from the second day where we tackled the notorious case. we're focused on all key drivers of corruption, whether it's smuggling, land grabbing or the most difficult which is narcotics. so we are systematically focusing on underlying causes and not just symptoms. our society after 36 years of conf&ct is deeply traumatized. we suffer from the post-conflict distress syndrome as a society so the tragic lynching, totally unacceptable, either according to islamic law or our civil laws

that took place is a manifestation of this. and we need to very clearly come, not just to have the police fight terror, but do their fundamental duty which is enforcement of rights and upholding the rule of law. >> finally, mr. president, how different is your relationship now with the u.s. than president hamid karzai's was. that was tense toward the end. and president obama eluded to that today. how has that changed? >> it has changed fundamentally because we believe in a revitalized partnership. we're not engaging in a blame game. we are engaged in common understanding in common actionment part of this, of course is also that the combat role of the united states has ended, as agreed between our two

governments, and the trade, advise, assist mission that u.s. forces are currently engaged in, that's not involved in combat roles. we have common interests. we're facing common threats and need to engage in an enduring partnership, and that is our key goal. i hope that this trip is consolidated and revitalized this vital relationship for us. >> >> ifill: ashraf ghani, the president of afghanistan, thank you so much for joining us. >> pleasure to be with you. >> woodruff: executions by firing squad are back on the books in utah. governor gary herbert signed a law that authorizes the method if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. the move comes amidst a nation- wide shortage of such drugs. to discuss how the new law would

work, and other states eyeing similar moves, we are joined by jennifer dobner, justice reporter for the "salt lake tribune," and andrew novak. he teaches international criminal justice at george mason university and has authored several books on the death penalty. we welcome you both to the "newshour." jennifer dobner, to you first. why did the utah legislature pass this new law and why has the governor signed it? >> well, like other states utah is recognizing that it's difficult now to get the drugs needed forlethal injection, and also that there have been problems with lethal injection elsewhere. so i think they wanted to put something on the books that would allow them to reinstate the use of the firing squad should it become necessary. it's been a secondary use for capital punishment since 2004 but this sort of adds a new condition under which it could be used.

previously we were at a default to lethal injection, unless that had been declared unconstitutional by the supreme court. >> woodruff: so in this instance, as i understand it, if the drugs are not available for 30 days, then the state would redort to the use of a firing squad. >> that's correct. currently the state does not have any drugs in its possession, so if an execution was imminent and we couldn't obtain them then we would default to the firing squad. >> woodruff:, jennifer dobner, tell us briefly how this works, how it's worked in the past in utah? >> well i witnessed the execution of ronnie lee gardner in 2010. it's carried out by a team of five marksmen. they use a matched set of .30-caliber winchester rifles. and the condemned sits in a black metal chair about 25 feet from a

in it. the rifles are handed out randomly to the team of shooters. and those folks, i should say, are by statute anonymous. and then there's a cadence countdown to a moment when they all fire. the condemned is strapped into a chair. a hood is placed over their head if they choose. >> woodruff: we understand it's only law enforcement officers who can be part of the firing squad. >> that's correct. >> woodruff: it is the case they're all given bullets but one of them is give an blank is that right in. >> yes, there are four live rounds and one blank. the rifles are handed out sort of in random order, so no one knows who is getting the live round and who is getting the blank. >> woodruff: andrew novak, we know there are 32 states where the death penalty is legal. we know that utah would become the only state along with okeechobee where the -- along

with oklahoma, where the back-up would be the firing scad. two other states have hanging. and five more states use the electric chair, in addition to oak hoe ma, where it's either/or. >> why is there so much concern about these lethal injections? >> sure. i think the lethal injection has shown itself to be for a lot of reasons the most commonly used form of execution in the united states, but with the shortage of drugs from the pharmaceuticals and their distributors, we're seeing some states take a second look at their method of execution. that also includes the gas chamber. there's a gas chamber bill proceeding in oklahoma. all of these methods of execution have their concerns. they're not 100% liable. >> woodruff: the firing squad and... >> lethal injection, we've seen some cases botched in the last year or two as states experiment with new cocktails to make up for the drugs they can't find.

>> the firing squad and the electric chair, these have risks too. the f the target is off a little bit. you could have an execution that's not instantaneous. >> woodruff: why do you dhi more states haven't resorted to the firing squad, which i think many people didn't realize it's a possibility. >> there is some concern. i think as a cultural matter we in the united states perceive of our methods of execution as being humane as being sort of medical procedures as being the sanitized process like you would do with assisted suicide or ö pet that needs to be euthanized. the firing squad is fundamentally violent. it uses force to kill. and even if it's not necessarily more painful as an objective matter, it is more violent. and it strikes us as kind of a

reversal or back ward trend from this process. >> woodruff: jennifer dobner one other question. what do the people in the state of utah think about the death penalty, about the firing squad? >> well, this is a very conservative place. and we've us a been very pro death penalty. so i don't know that there is great surprise that this is become on the books so to speak. i was sort of struck though by the votes in both the house and the senate. they were not as close in favor of reinstating this method. so that shows perhaps some shift in public opinion. i mean, certainly there are those in t@e community who are opposed to the death penalty at all, and we heard from those people as this process moved through the legislature. but i'm not surprised that it was reinstated. >> woodruff: jennifer dobner with the "salt lake tribune" and professor andrew novak with

george mason university, thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: our next story is about medicaid, the government health insurance program recently expanded to millions of americans. although often considered free health insurance for the poor, federal law requires medicaid to charge recipients for certain services, and they are sometimes billed after they die. medicaid then charges the expenses to their leftover assets. it's called "estate recovery," and it's making many people think twice. sally schilling, a student at the university of california - berkeley journalism school brings us the story. >> reporter: the rollout of the affordable care act and the expansion of medicaid brought hope to people like ruth and rod morgan, who had gone without health insurance for ten years. >> when i heard about the affordable care act, we were very excited. we were finally going to have health coverage. >> reporter: the morgans live in stockton, california.

they are in their early 60's and are retired, aside from rod's occasional construction jobs. >> we were pretty much forced into retirement because of the economic downturn. there just wasn't any work. >> and i mean we don't have much. but i would love to give our kids something. i'd like to leave them a little something when we're gone. >> reporter: in states that have opted to expand medicaid, like california, anyone making $16,000 or less per year now qualifies for medicaid. but the morgans were hesitant to sign up for california's medicaid program, medi-cal. they had heard that medi-cal would bill their estate after they die. >> the first person i asked when we went to sign up said, "oh, we can't possibly charge you like that on an insurance policy that we are forcing you to have." >> reporter: with that reassurance, the morgans signed up. >> and then weeks later we got a letter in the mail saying "congratulations, congratulations! you qualified for medi-cal."

and then on the back page this little paragraph says, "you are subject to estate reso(ery and do not contact your social worker about this." >> reporter: in 1993, congress passed a law requiring states to recover the costs of long-term care services spent on medicaid recipients over age 55 after they die. the exact burden the couple was hoping to avoid. >> if you have the resources to pay for your own care, to pay for your own nursing home care, to pay for your own home health care, you should. >> reporter: matt salo is executive director of the national association of medicaid directors. medicaid recovery helps pay back a little for the massive amount spent on nursing homes and long- term care services. >> medicaid is the largest payer of long term care in this country. medicaid should not and cannot sustain itself if it continues

to provide all long term care to all people, especially those who have the means of paying for some of it on their own. >> reporter: medi-cal's managed care premiums are typically hundreds of dollars per month. but recipients aren't notified of how much money is being spent on them. rod says he asked a medi-cal representative how much money he was accruing. >> she said, "oh we don't have any idea, we don't figure that out until after you die." >> reporter: heirs can apply for a hardship waiver if they can show that their parents' medicaid bill would cause an undue hardship or that they were a caretaker for their parents in the family home. jo ann bell lyvm in oakland, california, in the home her grandparents purchased in the 1940s. she cared for her mother with alzheimer's in the home. >> where i went, she went. we had a wonderful time. >> reporter: bell put her mother in adult daycare while she went to work.

her mother's care was covered by medi-cal. her mother passed away in 2012. >> then i got, bam!, this letter in the mail from the state of california saying i owe $54,000. i was like, "what?!" >> reporter: bell applied for a hardship waiver. but because the family home was entrusted to her and her three brothers, the state only waived her quarter of the recovery fees. the state now has a lien on the house for $43,000 at 7% interest. she worries she might have to sell the family home to pay off medi-cal. >> and i would never be able to come down adeline street again because, the memories, it would be too hard, it would really be too hard. >> having a home is one of the key factors in being able to escape poverty.

>> reporter: pat mcginnis, the executive director of california advocates for nursing home reform, says estate recovery hurts the people who need inheritance the most. >> what you're doing is destabilizing low-income communities and creating a cycle of poverty that people will never get out. >> in many cases what we see across this country is people who are trying to have it both ways, trying to say the family home and the family estate are super important to me and i need to pass them on untouched to my children. but when the time comes to pay for long-term care, that should be government's responsibility. and that's just not a sustainable policy for medicaid. >> reporter: last august, health advocates put forward a bill that would have limited estate recovery in calyf federal minimum requirement,

recovering only for long-term care. it also would have eliminated the rule that allows only portions of a claim to be waived-the problem that bell ran into. both houses passed the bill unanimously, but at the advice of his budget staff, governor jerry brown vetoed it. brown's office declined an interview request. but in a veto message he said: "allowing more estate protection for the next generation may be a reasonable policy goal. the cost of this change, however, needs to be considered in the budget process next year." >> the money we collect from the medi-cal recovery program is a drop in the bucket. it's absolutely nothing compared to the misery and the burdens that are caused on the economy. somehow we can't seem to get that through to the finance people for the governor. >> reporter: so far, three states have scaled back their recovery programs. washington, oregon and connecticut made these changes citing concerns over estate

recovery being a barrier to enrollment. >> reporter: california will hear a new bill aimed at scaling back estate recovery tomorrow. for the pbs newshour, i'm sally schilling in oakland, california. >> woodruff: everywhere we look these days, there's evidence of the tech boom-- supposedly exciting, thrilling, wonderful for us all. well, maybe not for all of us. one of san francisco's legendary figures, who celebrates a birthday today, laments what it's done to his city. jeffrey brown explains. >> brown: at 96, lawrence ferlinghetti, poet, painter and publisher, is still revered as a cultural treasure in the san francisco bay area. >> how are you? i brought you some flowers. >> brown: a recent opening for a retrospective exhibition of his artwork at the marine museum of contemporary art drew a large

crowd. >> you really true are a legend of the bay area. >> brown: ferlinghetti once wrote, "all i ever wanted to do is paint light on the walls of life." that he's done, here in poetry. >> the changing light in san francisco is a sea light, an island light, and the light of fog blanketing the hills, drifting in at night, through the golden gate to lie on the city at dawn. >> brown: when ferlinghetti first arrived in san francisco from new york in 1951, he celtled into a $65 a month apartment in the italian working-class neighborhood of north beach. >> it was still the last frontier when i arrived in 1951. you could come here and start anything you wanted because in new york city it would have been impossible to start a bookstore unless you had lots of money. >> brown: ferlinghetti opened city lights book shop and

publishing house in 1953. the beginning of his journey to help put san francisco on the map's counter-cultural map. he published the works of beat writers such as allen ginsburg and jack kerouac. for decades on a range of causes he served as an anti-establishment conscious. >> women's liberation means men's liberation. >> brown: but these days the establishment has changed, along with the city. today san francisco is better known as the central hub of the tech boom ark city of entrepreneurs and companies like twit they're have become international giants. and while that boom is credited with driving unemployment to an all-time low, it's also blamed for rapid gentrification, making the city unaffordable for many. and that rankles ferlinghetti. >> a new blend of dot com millionaires and silicon valley money have moved into san

francisco with bags full of cash and no manners. >> brown: the pace of change ferlinghetti says, has quickened beyond control, but it's not a new issue for him. he read for us a passage from a 2001 piece titled "the poetic city that was." >> 50 years later, he awoke one fine morning, looking for anywhere he could live and work. the new owners of his old flat now wandered $4,500 a month. many of his friends were also evicted. >> brown: one example close to home, the george dress i can gallery in downtown san francisco, which had shown ferlinghetti's work for two decades, was forced out of its building to make way for a cloud computing start-up. kresky now sells most of his artwork online. of course ferlinghetti's is not

the only view of san francisco these days. a version of this story drew support online, but there were a few blasts, as well. "what a crank," wrote one person. "the city is still as vibrant and creative as it ever was except now young ambitious people are in tech." another wrote, "in 60 years i'll be complaining about the new crop of san franciscans. fogies going to foag." still ferlinghetti finds his way forward through poetry. >> there's always help in love. love and hate are viruses. love can make a civilization bloom and hate can kill a civilization. this is a little poem with hope. one grand boulevard with trees. one grand cafeeé in sun with very black coffee in very small cups.

one not necessarily very beautiful man or woman who loves you one fine day. >> brown: i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs "newshour." >> ifill: tonight, the first in a series of short films we will bring you by thomas erdbrink, the tehran bureau chief of the "new york times." the dutch born journalist has lived in iran since 2002. personal rather than political his portraits show a side of life in the country that few get to see. tonight an introduction to our series, "dispatch iran." >> reporter: this is where it all started, here in the desert in the middle of iran. i was a young journalist and came here the write about the student uprising. i fell in love with an iranian photographer and decided to move

to tehran. it was so different for me to be here and i think nousha in many ways symbolized that. of course i could have married a girl from the dutch countryside and it maybe would have been different and maybe in many ways easier but i'm happy i choose you. >> of course you should be. >> reporter: this is the mysterious and isolated country where i arrived as a young man and where i have been working as a correspondent for the past 12 years. first, for some dutch newspapers and television channels and since a couple years for "the new york times." >> thomas erdbrink, welcome to the program and thank you for joining me. >> you mustn't forget these people have been living under incredible pressure. >> tell us how iranians are viewing the islamic state as a deliberate. >> reporter: isis is an american invention.

it has taken me four years to finally get permission to produce this series. we're given permits to film on the streets. of course there are some suspicious officials who refuse to believe us and tell us we're not allowed to film. but usually, after a bit of waiting, some discussion and many phone calls we part the best of friends and are free to carry on. in this country working as a western reporter is complicated. sometimes i'm unpleasantly reminded of this fact. like that morning in july when my friend and colleague jason of the "washington post" was arrested. nobody knows why he's being held. >> i will be able to file. of course. what else can we do? >> reporter: working here is like walking a tightrope, but0e reporter can do much more than one might expect. there is no problem for me and a colleague to visit the friday prayer session. if you want to know what's going on in the minds of the religious

leaders, you should come here and listen carefully. >> ( translated ): first of all the imam has said that as long as the american house -- hostilities continue and the u.s. government and congress keep using hostile language any interaction with america is completely pointless. >> reporter: simultaneously, the iranian president is favoring negotiations. he is convinced such talks will end the sanctions against iran. reporting here means covering all sides of a story and finding out the impact of, for instance those sanctions. we cannot locate the bank that your card belongs to. of course, you can't use atms because our banks are in the allowed to do business with iran. you end up with stacks of cash.

try stuffing this in your wallet or pocket. politicians are talking for months to end the sanctions, my shopkeepers tell me he has more foreign products for sale than ever. >> ( translated ): the sanctions mean nothing. the boarders not closed. products still make their way into the country. it doesn't affect us. >> reporter: in iran, nothing is what it seems. that is one of the reasons why being a journalist here is not always easy, but don't feel sorry for me. i like being amongst iranians. every now and then i buy a card from the man with a little bird. it will give yaw poem that will predict your future and has an answer to all your questions, even the political ones. >> ( translated ): what's the biggest question for you as far as the future is concerned? >> ( translated ): what will be the outcome of the nuclear negotiations. >> ( translated ): okay. let's draw a prediction. what will be the outcome of the nuclear negotiations? it's fine.

don't worry. read it. i can't read farsi. >> ( translated ): i see support. what happened to our friends? where are those who support you now? everything will be fine. really? why all those conflicts? we used to be friends. why are we enemies now? [singing] >> reporter: after 12 years of reporting here and slowly starting to understand this place. join óe in the coming weeks for some random stories from a country that is both confusing and surprising at the same time. >> ifill: a different >> woodruff: a different view, "dispatch: iran." thomas's reporting and more of his films can be found at nytimes.com/video. we hope to have the next installment and a conversation with thomas very soon.

>> ifill: finally, to our "newshour shares" of the day. something that caught our eye that might be of interest to you, too. australian james mort survived being buried in an avalanche while skiing in the swiss alps earlier this year. several friends came to his rescue, and one captured the frantic search on a camera mounted to his helmet. the video was viewed widely online. james mort spoke with us about that experience, and what he hopes others will learn from it. >> avalanche! [bleeped] >> are you okay? >> where's jameses? >> the first thing i thought is, you're dead. you're an idiot. you shouldn't have stayed here. >> he's over there. >> oxygen was pretty limited. i was starting to feel a little light-headed by the time the guys got to me.

if my pole hadn't had been sticking out, they wouldn't have found me at all. because the snow was so dense, i didn't see anything or realize they were nearby until the shovel slammed into my face. >> we got him. >> it was four minutes of not knowing at all which is horrifying. [bleeped] i hope that people will see this video and decide to do an avalanche awareness course and buy all the correct gear before they go out, because it means they may well save a life if they have to and prevent further accidents in the future. >> ifill: some good advice, if you happen to find yourself in an avalanche. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: search teams found the shattered fragments of a german airliner that crashed in the french alps. all 150 people on board were killed. and president obama announced the u.s. will slow its military pull-out from afghanistan. nearly 10,000 troops will stay

into next year, about twice as many as originally planned. >> ifill: on the newshour online, it's a scourge as old as humanity itself. tuberculosis, or "the white death," has afflicted humans for centuries. but on this day 133 years ago, a german physician discovered that it was caused by a bacteria, not heredity, as experts had insisted. read the full story, from medical historian howard markel on our home page. that's at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll look at using robots on the front line in the fight agianst ebola. 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 newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen sue herera. building a foundation is probably the biggest purchase you'll ever make and a lot of americans bought new homes last month. but there's more to the data meet it is eye. >> payout at risk? mack macklamor dividends, will others follow? don't leave home without it. american express ceo addresses investors tomorrow. and the pressure is on for him to outline a fix. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report," for tuesday, march 23 24. good evening, and welcome. the federal reserve today didn't exactly get the definitive economic signals it might like to have. the fed say it will be