captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: a mystery of motive. investigators believe the co- pilot deliberately crashed the germanwings passenger plane into the alps, but are searching for why. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. also ahead this thursday: an intervention in yemen. saudi arabia launches air strikes against rebels who've shaken the balance of power. >> woodruff: plus... >> if you have cash, you are king right now. >> woodruff: investors swoop into florida, eager to buy up foreclosed homes and make big returns. but is history fated to repeat itself only years after the great recession? >> we have large hedge funds in

our area, buying up mass amounts of houses, renting them out, and then they take 'em in big pools and they sell 'em up to the new york stock exchange. >> ifill: and... >> basketball, sports is the hook, but once you get them hooked: family. love. friendship. >> ifill: using basketball to get kids to read. a novel in verse that won this year's highest honor in young adult literature. >> he was active. there was action. that's what i like. i like to inspire and show children that poetry is cool. >> 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:

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>> 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. >> ifill: the recovery of bodies and wreckage from downed germanwings flight 9525 continued today, as investigators announced a startling finding: that the pilot in control of the plane when it crashed into mountainous terrain, did so intentionally. 150 people lost their lives. jonathan rugman of independent television news filed this report from near the crash site. >> reporter: treading their way through alpine pass, these are the relatives of those who died in these alpine passes two

days ago. they want to be close to their loved ones' last living moment, however all those moments are. the countryside here is remote and splendid, though now scarred by disaster. no one here is calling this an accident anymore. this was always going to be really difficult journey for these families to make, made even more difficult by the revelation that the copilot appears to have crashed the plane deliberately, killing himself and 149 other people. it was this mangled cockpit voice recorder which gave up his secret. it seems the copilot locked the captain out of the cabin and then steered the plane into its final descent. the prosecutor handling this investigation talking of deliberate intent to destroy the aircraft. >> ( translated ): the most plausible and possible interpretation for suss the

copilot refused to open the door of the cockpit to the flight captain and activated the button to start the descent. >> reporter: the prosecutor described the flight's final ten minutes. he said the captain left the cockpit, perhaps to use the bathroom, leaving the copilot alone at the controls to start the plane's descent. the captain is heard pleading to be let back in but there is no response. the only cockpit noise, the sound of the copilot breathing normally with passengers heard screaming just before the moment of impact. the copilot was andreas lubitz, a 28-year-old german, relatively junior with over 600 hours of flying experience, not on the police radar and, we are told, with no known link to terrorism. cockpit doors have been strengthened since the september 11th attacks, but this airbus video shows how flight crew should be able to open the door

from the outside on a key pad though crucially that code can be overridden with a lock switch inside the cockpit for up to five minutes, and that's what experts believe happened on tuesday morning. this was as close to the crash site as relatives reached today. the national flags of those killed unfurled in honor of the missing dead. >> ifill: today's revelations have spurred serious concerns over safety and flight protocols, ranging from cockpit access and security, to pilot training. newshour aviation specialist, miles o'brien, joined me a short time ago, via skype. miles, thanks for joining us. it seems the question everyone is asking tonight is: how could this happen? >> yeah. it's probably more in the realm of psychiatry and psychology than aviation in some respects but you have to look at the big picture here, gwen, and the system that is facing tremendous

demand and a lot of cost pressure. a lot of pilots are required to fill these seats and fly these aircraft. there's a pilot shortage most everywhere you look in the world right now. meanwhile, the pay for pilots is low. so there's a lot of pressure on the airlines to get people in these seats quickly, and you have to ask the question: if the whole vetting process which we've relied on for generations in aviation if that has somehow been short circuited and we just don't know the people flying airplanes as well as we used to. >> ifill: describe the rules for cockpit access normally. >> well, since 9/11 everything changed, of course. we reinforced the cockpit door. it's not anything you can easily barge through. that's the design. the way it works is when you go out, the person behind the locked cockpit door really has all the authority. you have to acknowledge somebody

trying to come in and unlock the door. there is a component of this though, that does afford access to the cockpit if there was an incapacitated crew. both crew members or one crew member will pass out and unable to respond, through a series of steps you could gain access to the cockpit, but as long as the person on the other side of the door in the flight deck doesn't want somebody in, you can keep them out. >> you started we talking about this being an almost psychological exercise. what does the age and experience level of this pilot have to do with this investigation? we know he's 28 years old. we know he had a lower-than-normal flying record. but does that mean anything as we begin to get to the bottom of this? >> well, you know there's no black box for the human being and i'm not equipped to psychologically analyze what might or might not have been going on inside this person's mind, but i do know this: the

industry has remained safe over the years through a long, slow apprenticeship, and that has been sped up in recent years and concurrent with that there's been tremendous pressure on the airlines to make a buck. it's a very difficult business. there's a lot of pressure to keep the salaries of pilots low. so you have to wonder you know is the process not selecting the best people for the job and are we, in fact, not training them up to standards we prefer because it's frankly cheaper. >> ifill: and it's a self-policing question about whether a pilot who has responsibilities for so many lives is in the mental state the fly. >> exactly. i mean basically when you get hired by an airline, they do a psychological test. that's the last you get of a psychological test. the first-class medical done by medical examiners every six months does not include a psychological test. they might say, hey, how you doing, that kind of thing, but nothing much more beyond that.

so the system took care of itself. back in the days we had three-person crews. we had largely military crews. there was a siv a vetting process which really distilled who ended up in the cockpit and there were fewer cockpit seats to fill after all which took care of this situation. now that this is a different environment, the airlines and the regulators perhaps need to look at psychological components and vetting these people in a different way. >> ifill: now that we have seen this crash site, which is horrific and so many little pieces, how does the investigation proceed going forward? >> well, we have the big pieces. if you had to pick one black box to find the cockpit voice recorder in this case is the one so i think, you know some of the key information that we need is in there. it would be nice to have the flight data recorder just to corroborate what we've heard about control inputs by the remaining flight crew member but this goes back to an ongoing

issue in the industry. we have the capability, the technology, there's no reason why when a plane is non-responsive for as long as ten minutes that we can't somehow get a view inside that cockpit, cameras in the cockpit, and streaming data from the aircraft so we know what's going on. there's no reason not to do this except for money. once again, i think this brings us back to our theme. >> ifill: miles o'brien joining us by skype. thank you so much. >> you're welcome gwen. >> woodruff: closer to home communities across oklahoma and arkansas are cleaning up today after being hit by this season's first round of tornadoes. twisters ripped through both states yesterday, killing at least one person in tulsa. the storms flattened homes and businesses, toppled power lines, and caused multiple injuries. oklahoma governor mary fallin toured the damage in moore a town hit hard in 2013 by a powerful twister that killed 24 people. >> we've been down this road before.

we know what to do and i'm just very grateful that we have so many people that worked so hard over the night to make sure that people were safe, to make sure they weren't injured and then to certainly make sure that we keep our roads and highways blocked off from power lines that were down and make sure that the traveling public was also safe. >> woodruff: fallin declared a state of emergency in 25 oklahoma counties. tens of thousands of residents are still without power. >> ifill: the governor of indiana declared a public health emergency today to help contain an h.i.v. epidemic. rural scott county near the border with kentucky has recorded 79 new h.i.v. cases since january. all were tied to intravenous drug use of the prescription painkiller opana. republican mike pence is against needle-exchange programs, but made an exception and authorized a short-term program. >> this is all hands on deck. this is a very serious situation.

we will not only contain the spread of this virus but we are going to speed relief and medication to people that have been affected by it. and we're going to arrest its exposure and through an aggressive law enforcement effort, we're going to find the people that are responsible. >> ifill: the centers for disease control and prevention recommended needle-exchange to help keep the number of h.i.v. infections at bay. but state health officials still expect the number of cases to increase, as more people are contacted. >> woodruff: department of justice officials have arrested two illinois cousins, both of them national guardsmen, on charges they were joining islamic state fighters. one man was arrested at a chicago airport last night, and was allegedly leaving for egypt to join the militant organization. the cousins allegedly told an undercover f.b.i. agent they had plans to attack an illinois military facility. >> ifill: in iraq, the battle to take back the city of tikrit

from islamic state militants lost the support of shiite militias today. but it comes a day after the u.s. joined airstrikes on the city. in washington, general lloyd austin, the head of u.s. central command, told a senate committee the u.s. demanded the iranian- backed militias leave before the u.s. got involved. >> i'd like to just highlight sir, that three tours in iraq commanding troops who were brutalized by these shia militias-- i will not-- and i hope we never coordinate or cooperate with shia miltias. >> ifill: austin went on to say there are now about 4,000 iraqi forces, commandos and police fighting for the city, with american help. >> woodruff: u.s. and iranian officials went back to the negotiating table in switzerland today, with a nuclear agreement deadline looming. u.s. secretary of state john kerry and his iranian counterpart, mohammed javad zarif have significant gaps to overcome before march 31.

negotiations have already been extended twice over the past two years. >> ifill: more than 1,000 civilians have been killed by the militant group boko haram this year. human rights watch said they died in attacks from northeast nigeria, to neighboring cameroon, chad, and niger. ahead of this weekend's elections, the nigerian government has brought in mercenaries from south africa and the former soviet union to push the militants back. >> woodruff: back in the u.s. stocks on wall street extended their losses for a fourth day. the dow jones industrial average lost 40 points to close at 17678. the nasdaq fell 13 points, and the s&p 500 slipped nearly five. >> ifill: the 15th century monarch, king richard iii, received a proper burial today in leicester, england. royalty, religious leaders and the archaeologists who discovered richard's remains in a parking lot in 2012, were all in attendance. the long-lost king died in

battle in 1485, and was buried without a coffin in a church that was later destroyed. scientists identified his remains by his distinctively curved spine, radiocarbon dating and d.n.a. tests. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: yemen's descent into chaos, the region reacts. how bad news for florida homeowners has become good news for investors. both parties agree on a way to help medicare doctors get paid. and, the 2015 newberry award winning novel on poetry, race and basketball. >> woodruff: the chaos in yemen has taken another dramatic turn, as neighboring saudi arabia entered the fight against rebels in the country with airstrikes. the operation began overnight as saudi jets flew from the sunni kingdom's southern desert, and bombarded military targets in

the yemeni capital of sanaa. the goal: drive out shiite houthi rebels who've taken over much of the country. the saudi ambassador to the u.s. announced the campaign last night in washington. >> we will do whatever it takes in order to protect the legitimate government of yemen from falling and from facing any dangers from outside militia. >> woodruff: the strikes flattened a number of homes, killing at least 18 civilians. residents were left searching through piles of rubble for survivors. jonathan bartolozzi of mercy corps is in sanaa, and spoke with the newshour via skype. >> people were woken up by explosions. when people found out that it was actually a formal military intervention, people were quite shocked. we had a situation where the military targets that they were aiming for were quite specific

>> woodruff: thousands of houthi supporters took to the streets of sanaa, protesting the saudi air strikes. but at a separate rally in the southern city of taiz, scores of yemenis cheered the action. the saudis are joined in the effort by other persian gulf nations, as well as sudan, jordan, and egypt. those nations back yemeni president abed rabbo mansour hadi, who's been in the port city of aden since fleeing sanaa last month. today hadi left the country under saudi protection and arrived in riyadh. >> ( translated ): it was an obligation to answer the call of president hadi. egypt has announced its political and military support to yemen and also to join the coalition through air, naval forces and land if the matter calls for it. >> woodruff: the head of the arab league added his backing. >> ( translated ): it took place after the failure of all trials to stop the houthi coup d'etat, after their persistence to take escalated steps against the constitutional legitimacy and

the national yemeni will. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the houthis' key supporter, iran denounced the strikes. yemen became the latest flashpoint in a long-simmering conflict between teheran and riyadh for regional dominance. iran's foreign minister: >> ( translated ): military action, especially military action from outside yemen against territorial integrity and against the yemeni people will have no result but bloodshed and slaughter of the people. >> woodruff: the u.s. authorized logistical and intelligence help for the campaign, but at a hearing of the senate armed services committee, the top general overseeing u.s. operations in the middle east had few answers. >> i don't currently know the specific goals and objectives of the saudi campaign and i'd have to know that to be able to assess the likelihood of success. >> woodruff: the chair of the committee, arizona republican john mccain, said the airstrikes

stemmed from a "total absence of u.s. leadership." >> woodruff: joining me now to shed some light on what the new developments mean for the already smoldering sunni/shia split in the region are: david rothkopf, editor and c.e.o. of "foreign policy" magazine. and trita parsi, president of the national iranian-american council and author of "single roll of the dice: obama's diplomacy with iran." welcome to both of you. david rothkopf, what prompted the saudis and their allies to get involved militarily? al qaeda has been causing unrest in yemen for some time. what's different now? >> well, i think what's different now is the rise of the houthis. the fact they're aligned with iran the principle rivals of the saudis in the region, and the fact that yemen has a very

long boarder with saudi arabia, so if, in fact this country became a satellite of the iranians, it would pose a real strategic threat to the saudis. i also think the other thing that's driving it is that the saudis and the gcc countries, the egyptians and the others that are solved don't really feel that the united states or any other foreign power is going to have the ability to help stabilize this. so they had to take some action on their own. >> woodruff: trita parsi, would a houthi takeover in yemen pose a strategic threat to saudi arabia? >> well absolutely. i think the panic you have seen in saudi arabia to some extent understandable in the rivalry with the iranians. 20 years ago the saudis essentially encircled iran. they were funding the taliban and iran was also checked by samanich. 20 years later it's pretty much the opposite. iran has more influence in afghanistan and in iraq and in syria than the saudis do.

and the iranians have a foothold in saudi arabia's backyard in yemen. it's not difficult to understand that they're panicking, but the question is whether what they're doing right now is going to be able to advance their interests. >> woodruff: what do you think? >> i think the problem you have in the middle east now is you have this significant diplomacy deficit. we're not going to be able to see any stabilization in syria or in yemen unless the saudis and the iranians find a way to be able to talk to each other rather than to fight each other through proxies. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about that, david rothkopf. you did mention that the saudis worried that the u.s. and others wouldn't be willing to stand up to iran. the u.s. is supporting the saudi effort, though, aren't they? >> well in theory they're supporting them. your clip a minute ago noted that the senior u.s. general didn't really know what the saudis were up. to meanwhile yesterday, despite the straight's statements to the contrary, the u.s. actually was flying air support missions for the iraqis and the iraqis, of

course, in their fight against isis are very close relying to the iranians. in switzerland we're negotiating with the iranians on a nuclear deal that many, including the saudis, see as a potential rapprochement with the iranians some we seem to be on both sides of this, and that, of course, is one of the reason the saudis are extremely uncomfortable right now, as are essentially all of our other traditional allies in the region. >> and that's what makes this hard to understand, trita parsi. let's look at it from the other perspective, from the iranian perspective. how committed are they to the houthi rebels? how involved are they in yes, ma'amen? >> it's not clear how committed they are. is this something they're doing to punish the saudis? because there is a feeling in iran the saudis have been going after iran for some time. the sanctions against iranian oil would not have been successful without the saudis. the saudi support for the sunni

insurgency in iraq that started the sectarian fight. all these things the iranians believe the saudis have been done against iran without carrying much cost. if this is something to punish the saudis the commitment may not be that extensive. it's f it's part of a larger strategic move by the iranians or an effort to be able to further come across as a protectorate of all shiite populations in the region, then the commitment will probably be a bit stronger. >> how do you see iranian intention, david rothkopf? >> well, i think it's clearly part of a strategy, you know. the past couple years of chaos in the middle east have benefited the iranians more than any other country, as trita noted in yemen new york iraq in syria, with hezbollah in lebanon with hamas in israel. they are standing to gain. right now if they end up with a deal that relieves sanction allows them to get a little bit more cash in their pockets, they can strengthen their hold on the region and end up considerably stronger at the end of this. and the saudis and the others do

not see the same kind of opportunities for them. >> woodruff: what about that? do you see this, trita parsi, do you see what's going on right now in yemen affecting those iranian nuclear talks? >> i don't think it's going to have a significant impact on those negotiations. if anything it may make it more clear that there is a need for a nuclear deal there. the united states and iran actually can start talking about regional developments because so far that's been off the table. i would also caution against a view that the iranians some way somehow are taking over the region. yes, the iranians have been able to take advantage of chaos that has existed, which is rooted frankly in the invasion of iraq much better than others have. but the idea that this is turning into some sort of iranian hegemony is a view held in saudi arabia, but i don't think it's an accurate view. it is driven by the sense of pan thank the saudis are having because so much has gone against saudi interests in the last 20 years, which have very little to do with iran and have much more to do with general geopolitical

trends. >> finally, american interests in all of this both of you have referred to this. how much should the u.s. be worried at this point about what has developed in yemen? >> well i think we should be worried about what's developed in yemen as a symptom of what's going on in the region. for the first time in history, effectively every single country in the middle east with the exception perhaps of oman is involved in a war. and that, of course creates the conditions where wars can spread, where conflicts can get escalated, where our interests can really suffer. right now there is no sign that we or any of our allys have any ability to influence these outcomes in any significant way. this is a very, very dangerous moment for the u.s. interest in the region as it is for the countries in the region themselves. >> very quickly, trita parsi? >> i think david is right. i think it's also important to note that the true leadership that is needed here is to drive a new diplomatic initiative and

bring all of the different parties to the table. in the past the united states has had difficulty doing this because the saudis refuse to come to the table if the iranians were there. i think it's become increasingly clear. all major powers have to be at the table in order to be able to find a new equilibrium in the region through diplomatic means rather than thinking it can be achieved through military means. >> parsi more and david rothkopf, we thank you both. >> thank you. >> ifill: home prices continued their climb back during the past year, even in some of the cities that took the hardest hits during the housing crash. but as economics correspondent paul solman found, there's a much more complicated picture behind the numbers. here's his story, part of our ongoing reporting, "making sense," which airs every thursday on the newshour. >> reporter: in fort myers, florida, realtor marc joseph's

welcome bus tour, an overview of the local housing market every wednesday morning. and, shades of the last real estate boom here, things are heating up. >> the time to buy is now because inventory is tightening up. >> reporter: of course in real- estate speak, now is always the time to buy. >> if you're questioning if it's the right time to buy, it is definitely the right time to buy. >> reporter: that was marc joseph five years ago, when we first met him, on what he then called "foreclosure tours r us," taking rubbernecking retirees for a ride around the wreckage of southwest florida's spectacular real estate crash. >> december of 2005, up here, we hit $322,000 as the average median sales price. since december '05, it came straight down. for the entire last year, we have been hovering at a leveling off of between $85,000 and $90,000 over the entire last year. >> reporter: that was spring

2010, 24,000 foreclosure cases then backlogged in the county court. too bad we didn't buy because five years later, the median sales price has more than doubled, to nearly $200,000. but joseph's job is to move the product, like this bank-owned foreclosure, last sold for $218,000 in 2005, still 50% off today. >> this is concrete block. i cannot reproduce this for $109,000. >> reporter: or this one, last sold for $246,000 in 2005. >> it's 32 cents on the last sales price because i'm only asking $77,000. so when somebody says are there deals still out there, this is a deal, they're paying $85,000 for vacant lots in this neighborhood to put up homes. >> reporter: small wonder, says joseph, that investors large and small are now jumping in, buying

houses to rent out or renovate for re-sale. >> people are taking money out of their retirement plans, and they're making a move. i'm seeing it every day. >> reporter: jim gandhi, down from toronto, was primed to pounce. >> we're used to $300 a square foot and we look at something below $100 a square foot. i mean, it's mind-boggling. >> reporter: debbie abdale hails from buffalo, new york. >> you're going to make a lot more money doing this than leaving your money in stocks or bonds or annuities. >> if you have cash, you are king right now. >> reporter: in fact, cash bidding wars are erupting. >> cash! everybody's on the same page now. please watch your step getting off. >> so guys, what you have is a two-bedroom, one-bath, $101,000. >> reporter: how much can you rent this out for? >> this is 900, 950 to 1,000 you might even get 1,200 because of the desirability of where you're at. >> reporter: this is gonna seem like i'm your straight man or something, but why wouldn't anybody do that? >> that's what i ask myself every day. >> because it comes with the couch.

>> reporter: younger gen x'ers and older millenials may recognize the one celebrity on the bus, chris tamburello, "c.t." of mtv's "real world" and other reality shows. what was he doing here? >> i'm interested in buying a few of those rentals on the lower end and finding me a fixer upper to live in, and just making my little castle, you know, my little piece of paradise. >> reporter: there were fixed-up fixer uppers on the bus tour, two former foreclosures already being flipped. this one's now on the market for $279,000. this one for $399,000, higher prices that demand higher rents to justify as investments. but, says foreclosure expert daren blomquist, the renters are plentiful. >> these are displaced homeowners who still often need a place to live, but they can't qualify to buy, and so for now they are renters. >> people like myself that are still trying to get their credit back in shape.

>> reporter: we met laura negron in 2010, translating for marc joseph in a cash-for-keys transaction, a sort of voluntary eviction. >> it's kind of intimidating and scary that someone just would offer you $1,500 to get out of your house. it hits home. >> reporter: it hit home because negron herself was in default on her mortgage, hadn't made a payment in nearly a year. >> my husband was out of work for eight months. >> no. it's been hard. i'm sorry. (crying) >> reporter: today negron still works for marc joseph, has been promoted to real estate agent. >> we had to short sale our house. we did a bankruptcy. >> reporter: and are you going to buy in the next year or two? >> absolutely. can't wait. >> reporter: boomerang buyers like laura negron are further stoking the market, says daren blomquist. >> we're really seeing our first wave of buyers who lost their homes to foreclosure now qualifying and being able to purchase again. but the irony is in some markets

they may have been priced out because of the big investors who've come into those markets and propped up prices. >> reporter: very big investors. >> we have large hedge funds in our area, buying up mass amounts of houses, renting them out, and then they take 'em in big pools and they sell 'em up to the new york stock exchange, to the r.e.i.t.s, the real estate investment trusts. >> reporter: what joseph senses is to put it bluntly, another bubble in the making. >> to go from $85,000 to $200,000 in five years? my fear is the people that are in those homes, if it takes one they're paying rent, they're not paying mortgages, if they don't make their rent payments... >> reporter: see you later. >> we have a lot of see you laters. >> reporter: and a lot of investors losing a lot money. daren blomquist isn't worried... yet. >> but if the momentum can't be stopped in terms of that home price appreciation of 10, 20, 30% a year, that's where we're going to very quickly get into

that danger zone for a housing bubble. and unfortunately, human nature is such that a lot of times that momentum carries farther than it should. >> show of hands. how many are investors here, please? >> reporter: and even if momentum isn't a problem, there could be another glut if florida's so-called "shadow inventory" suddenly hits the market. >> you have to go out and check the property to see if its vacant or occupied. >> reporter: florida leads the nation in "zombie" foreclosures where the owner can't be found may even have died. it leads in actual foreclosures: 300,000 cases pending; 20,000 new cases a month. another 500,000 florida homeowners are at least three months behind in their payments, technically delinquent. and hundreds of thousands of modified mortgages and home equity loans are about to balloon in payments. is marc joseph predicting another crash?

he wouldn't dare. and neither would we. but, loans requiring only three percent down are now back, he says, and... >> it's a big scary thing, because we are getting to almost where we were in 2005 at 317,000. and if we get there, how does that school teacher, how does that fireman, how does that police officer, how do they buy a house when it's 317,000? oh we're going to get creative. we're going to zero down, no income verification loans. here we go again. no, we can't do that. >> reporter: this is pbs newshour economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from one of the disaster areas of the last crash, fort myers, florida. >> ifill: in congress today, a rare and significant bipartisan agreement. the house of representatives overwhelmingly agreed to repair medicare. for over a decade, doctors have

faced repeated threats of pay cuts. but this new deal would permanently end the uncertainity. plus, it put house speaker john boehner and democratic leader nancy pelosi in the rare position of being on the same side. >> this will be the first real entitlement reform that we've seen in nearly two decades. and that's a big win for the american people. >> i just have confidence that the quality of what we've done what has been crafted in the house is really a good bipartisan initiative. >> ifill: here to explain the deal and how it would work, is mary agnes carey of kaiser health news. there have been 17 patches, fix, temporary fixes for this over the years. it's not a new problem. what changed this time? >> a couple years ago members of the house and the senate bipartisan member of the relevant committees came together and decided a policy on how to move forward the pay medicare physicians.

they could never find the money to fix it. now what's happened is there has been bipartisan agreement in the house to simply say we're not going to finance some of this repeal of the medicare payment formula, about $141 billion to the deficit. there are some things they are financing, but they decided this is a hole that's never createed it's not one we have to fill and we agree to just not finance it. >> ifill: part of the fix is paying doctors for quality of care rather than quantity. >> the current program incentivized pi -- physicians to do more services. the repeal takes a five-year path to paying physicians on the quality of care rather than the quantity. >> ifill: not only that, there is a financial piece. the temporary fix was more expensive than the permanent fix. >> those came in at $170 billion, for example, the fixes you talk about that have happened for the last 12 years. the actual repeal this time is $141 billion.

>> ifill: that's how they ended up on the same side? >> yes and there are other provisions that attracted boats in that bill two years of additional funding for children's health insurance program, more money for community health centers that enjoy bipartisan appeal and an extension of medicare policy, including one that permanently extends a program the help low-income beneficiaries pay for the premiums. >> ifill: were doctors the primary force in getting this done? they did not like the uncertainty from year to year. >> they didn't. most doctors do take medicare patients. every year you sit down trying to figure out how congress is going to pay you. are they going to cut you? will you get a three-month fix? so this created a full-court press from the physicians' community and other patient communities and providers as well to, say to congress fix this once and for all. >> does this have any effect on the affordable care act? >> in the sense of moving medicare to being a provider of more quality care, it certainly

does. there are programs in the affordable care act that look at things called accountable care organizations where providers work together to improve care or bundle payment or try to reduce preventable hospital readmissions to make medicare a more efficient provider of medical care. >> ifill: of course with passage in the house, the president has signalled he will sign it. today he actually praised john boehner and nancy pelosi which also never happened. but the senate still looms. some senate democrats have been unhappy with just the compromise you are talking about which is for the children's health program. they are saying they want it to be extended longer. >> they would like four years of additional funding and there is also some concern about other ways to finance the package, including asking wealthier medicare beneficiaries to pay more for than coverage and starting in 2020 putting limits on very... they call them the first dollar supplemental med gap policies. they're questioning why should seniors pay so much for medicare physician payment fix. so you might hear some of those concerns on the senate floor. >> what is the timing? this thing is through april

5th? it's supposed to expire april 1st? >> that's right. so in theory if a final fix isn't passed, a replacement formula isn't passed by april 1st. doctors can see a 21% payment cut. here's something the centers for medicare and medicaid services which oversees medicare services could do. they could hold those claims for two weeks. the house has already left on a two-week break. the senate is in the middle of fighting over their budget resolution for the next fiscal year. they're expected to go tomorrow. while they may not take action on it now, they could take action on it when they return. >> it's closer to a deal now than they have ever been. >> closer to ever before. >> ifill: mary agnes carey, thank you, as always. >> sure. thank you. >> woodruff: the brutal murder by a mob last week of a 27-year- old woman in afghanistan, named farkhunda, has sparked worldwide outrage and concern for the plight of all afghan woman.

this week a delegation of female afghan leaders accompanied president ashraf ghani on his official visit to washington. among them, kamila sidiqi, whose story reached the united states in the 2011 bestselling book "the dressmaker of khair khana." it chronicles her bold efforts to create a dressmaking business that supported her neighborhood during years of taliban rule. newshour special correspondent gayle tzemach lemmon happens to be the author of that book. she brings us an update now on her remarkable subject. >> reporter: the last time i saw kamila sidiqi she was a successful businesswoman in kabul with more than a dozen employees. then she started a dried fruit business and launched a taxi company. yet here she is today on the streets of washington, d.c. having risen to even greater heights: she's now deputy chief of staff to the president of afghanistan, handling technology, finance, admin and hiring in the office of the president.

her journey has taken her from a teenager trying to survive during the taliban years to the presidential palace today. you always believed that your hard work would pay off, even in those times when there were real regulations and rules against women being out in the public sphere. >> yes, i'm very grateful the recognition that i have received from my work today, and work with the office of the president. it's only-- and also if someone work very hard and have belief and confidence, i'm sure they can work in the office of president, and they can work any place they wants. >> reporter: sidiqi's journey began in the days of taliban rule, when women weren't permitted to work or go to school or even to leave the house without a male chaperone. determined to support her family and with few options left given the taliban's rules, sidiqi turned to business. she learned to make dresses. and from one dress she sewed to

help her family survive, she built a living room business that provided jobs and an income to girls and women around her neighborhood. what did those times teach you? >> to be more confident that we can, if we want to work and have commitment, we can bring some change. >> reporter: that change is not easy in a country where violence against women remains rampant, child marriage is entrenched and female literacy rates remain well below fifty percent. the past decade has brought progress; more than three million girls in school and women as police officers, teachers and lawmakers. alongside that progress however, is the looming uncertainty of insecurity. do you ever get worn down by security situation or by when a big attack happens or when the headlines are tough or when you see what's happening right now with protests on the street?

do you ever question your commitment? >> sure, i have a good feeling for my country. i always concern about all this accident and it happen in my country every day. all afghan people are concerned and i'm also very concerned about these things that happen, but... i love my country. i have commitment. >> reporter: sidiqi remains committed to her country in part because she never really left. even during the civil war she stayed in school despite rockets falling from the sky and street- by-street trench warfare around her. like so many other afghans, she stayed behind to build the best life she could despite growing up amid three decades of war at a dinner this week for president ghani, secretary of state john kerry paid tribute to sidiqi's achievements. >> i met her on my first trip to kabul when i was secretary of state, and she is a very brave entrepreneur who started her own business in her home at a time when the taliban kept all women off the street.

and i would like to honor her also if everybody would-- where is she? (applause) >> reporter: sidiqi had in fact skipped the dinner in order to attend a street vigil in washington for farkhunda, the young afghan woman murdered by the mob in kabul last week. sidiqi's visit to washington has been a whirlwind of interviews white house meetings, and conferences, including this one at georgetown university featuring afghan women leaders. >> today we have a lot of opportunity. if someone wants to establish a business it's very easy to go and register a company and do a business. >> reporter: your father had nine girls and two boys and made sure that every one of them was educated. is education a personal issue for you because of that? >> sure. as you know, that today, i am working in the office of the president. that's all because of my father and my mother that they gave us a chance and in such a difficult

times in afghanistan, and they always focus for the education of their children. in this case, it's not only important in my family, it's important in my country. >> reporter: is there anything that gives you concern or things that keep you up at night worrying about the future? >> security. security of my country, especially those people that they are living in the very remote area and very different provinces, that there is no good life for woman. security is important for us and i'm concerned about. >> reporter: well, we talked years ago. you went on a bus down south to do a presentation wearing a burka, and you were talking to a mullah, i think, who said if i knew my daughter would turn out like you... >> yes, you remember that. it was in kandahar when i provided a training and in kandahar it was a gender training and business, and that

was his comment about me, and he said, he promised me that i will give my support for my girl to be like you in the future. >> reporter: do you think about yourself as a role model? >> i hope. let people judge. >> reporter: for the newshour i'm gayle tzemach lemmon in washington. >> ifill: finally, march madness continues this evening with the next round of the ncaa playoffs known as the sweet sixteen. with so many eyes following the excitement on the court, we turn to story of how one writer used basketball, to inspire children to read. jeffrey brown has more, our latest conversation from "the newshour bookshelf." >> brown: up and down the

court, a drive to the hoop, a fast break in the other direction. middle school boys and basketball, and, well, why not poetry? they come together in "the crossover," a novel in verse about twin brothers obsessed with basketball. it's won this year's newbery medal. >> josh bell is my name but mr. mcnasty is my claim to fame, folks call me that because my game is so downright dirty it will put you to shame. >> brown: its author is 46-year-old poet writer and literary activist kwame alexander. at the st. stephens and st. agnes school near his home in northern virginia, he told us of his own obsession, introducing boys to the joys of reading. >> we want to reach all kids, librarians and teachers. but we often hear that boys are reluctant readers. i don't believe they have anything that's relatable.

basketball gets them hooked. once you get them hooked, family, love, friendship brotherhood, you know, jealousy, all the things that girls are interested in, all the things that we're interested in. we're all interested in the same things but i think sometimes with boys you have to reach them a different way. >> brown: a novel in verse. you are trying to reach boys especially, particularly, and you're giving them poetry. >> yeah. right. no, you're dead on. that's why the book got rejected 20-plus times. >> brown: really? >> you have this sports book and you're writing in poetry? there's a disconnect. so how do we hook kids who are reluctant read centers poetry is a vehicle. i believe it can be the bridge, jeffrey, to take our kids to a more higher level of appreciation for language and literature. >> brown: "the crossover"

tells in the year of a life of a close-knit african american families, the traumas of adolescence and sibling rivalry the illness of a loving father. it also shows the sometimes subtle ways that race plays a role in the boys' lives. the mother tells her son about being careful about how young black men should not show their actor in public. are you conscious of the message in a sense or just showing us, how do we look? >> that's interesting because when i wrote it, i often hear that question. there's a strong race element as it relates to the way they're trying to raise their boys or when the father gets stopped by the police. i never thought about that when i was writing it. it didn't come to mind that the mother was talking to her young black boy and saying you know you're going to... if you're angry, you're going to end up like this. it was just, you know a mother trying to tell her child that you need to have a little bit of

joy in this world. you need to find a little bit of peace. if that story can relate the a young black boy as it should, then great. if it can relate to a young asian boy, then great. but i think the idea is we want our children to be interested in positivity and not necessarily negativity. having great physical beauty and appeal as in every guy in the lunchroom is trying to flirt with the new girl because she's so punkatoodlish. as in never had a girlfriend, but if i did, why is the punkatoodlish new girl talking to my brother. >> brown: you're a poet. there's rhyme, stuff that sounds like rap, free verse. >> there's hue cue, there are list poems and vocabulary poems.

i'm in love with poetry. there are so many different forms of poetry. i believe i wanted to have that variety, that sort of diversity of verse so that kids can sort of figure out what they are interested in and what they can latch on to and perhaps mimic some of these poems themselves. >> brown: that message isn't lost on teachers and librarians across the country who have seen children drawn to the crossover such as this seventh grader in wellesley, massachusetts. ♪ breaking, breaking. take him to the left ♪ >> this is the next thing i do when i'm writing a poem. >> brown: kwame alexander himself gets into classrooms frequently, working with students through his "book in a day" program. he's also taken those efforts overseas, reading a -- leading a delegation to ghana in 2013 to distribute books build a library and train teachers. >> i don't believe that writing is just pen to paper or finger

to laptop. writing is active. writing is action. writing is activism. writing is being part of the world. that's what i like to do. i like to inspire and show teachers that poetry on one level is cool. and i like... i think i've learned how to do that to a certain degree. >> wow. >> you say it's cool. what do you do? >> what am i doing? i got up this morning feeling good and black thinking black thoughts. i did black things like played all my black records and minded my own black business. i put on my best black clothes walked out my back door and lord haver in si white snow. i show them. i don't need to tell you that it's funny, that it's cool. that was a poem by jackie early called 1,968 winters. so i model what poetry can do. three lines of the haiku. the last line always has to be the ah-hah. >> brown: kwame alexander,

congratulations and thank you for talking to us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. investigators in france concluded the 27-year-old co- pilot of a germanwings flight deliberately slammed the plane with 150 people onboard into the alps. and, yemen fell further into chaos as saudi arabia and its arab allies hit houthi rebel targets. the yemeni president left his refuge there, to go to saudi arabia. >> ifill: on the newshour online, china is racing to save the last mammals of the yangtze river by transporting eight of them to a new home, far away from humans. industrial and agricultural pollution have diminishhed the yangtze finless porpoise, and now there are only 1,000 of them left. you can read about the plight of these fresh water mammals, and see a photo gallery on our home page. that's at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on friday, we'll look at one of the most acclaimed works of

modern dance by famed choreographer mark morris. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you on-line, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer.

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financial partnerships are best cultivated for the years to come, giving your company the resources and stability to thrive. mufg -- we build relationships that build the world. >> and now "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i'm laura trevelyan. shock and disbelief reveals the co-pilots of the german plane which crashed into the alofs downed it deliberately. >> for a reason that we don't know yet but we can analyze it that the intention was to destroy this plane. laura: saudi arabia says strikes against the shiia rebels who drove them out will continue. and six months after 43 students went missing in mexico a