captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: stranded on the road, evacuated from home texans wade through another day of crippling floods, with more rain on the horizon. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. also ahead, despite charges of corruption and cloud of scandal the embattled president of soccer's governing body wins re- election. plus, new rules for protecting american waterways. we sit down with the head of the environmental protection agency. >> 117 million people rely on those streams that are now tenuously protected or not and we needed to define a strategy

to protect them because people rely on them for drinking water. >> woodruff: and it's friday, mark shields and david brooks are here, to analyze the week's news. those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> 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.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> 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: more thunderstorms meant even more flooding in central texas today, as the death toll from storms over the last week rose to 27. torrential downpours dumped as much as seven inches of rain in the dallas-fort worth area overnight. drivers were stranded for hours

as water covered highways and submerged cars. rescue crews responded to more than 250 calls for help. for more on this, hari sreenivasan spoke earlier with texas lieutenant governor dan patrick who recently toured the hard-hit community of wimberley. >> sreenivasan: lieutenant governor, you've had a chance in the past 24 hours to see the devastation on the ground and from the airport describe it to the rest of the country who might be seeing this just for the first time. >> well hari, we have been inñixd legislative session for the five months s)z yesterday was the first time i got to the wimberly area andçó theñr pictures didn't describe it. i was standing in front of a cliff about 40 equivalentñrçó to asw6 3-to-4-story building. thei] waters were three feet deep. when the water hit the homes the waterñ2hu(j as highñr as

48 feet. it took out homes on top of 40-foot cliffs. it'sñi unimaginable.çó trees down the entire river trees thatu! stood for 600 years, importantly the loss of life, 12 missing found 34 milesñi downstream. if you can imagine the one home that was taken down, hari, where we lost eight people, they'reçó stilló[ missing a few bodies have been recovered, it was on stilts about 30 feet hrg$ just rushed down like a tsunamixd a 48-foot wallñi of water, after dark, on saturday night in an area that had floodingñr that nothing even close to this in the past.dk disaster and the images that we've seen on tv, is this a federal disaster area? does the state of texas need help? >> we do. we've alreadyçó declared -- governor abbott has deu&ared 70çó counties as disaster counties since the beginning ofñi may,

we've had so much flooding. the focus has been on the beautiful townñi ofñi wimberly, for people around the rest of the country, thisñi islpñ a beautiful area of antique stores and retirement places and vacation places but it's alsoñr known as flood alley, known 3 feet to 12 feet, the highest maybe r0;feet. this wasçó atñi 48 feet at one posnáy yes, i think we need federalxdíhw the state is steppingñhiï1ñ butlp it's going to be millions and millions of dollarsfá toñi reclaim the river and clean up the river. hundreds of homes have been destroyed. we're going to need help on this catastrophe. if you lookçó at it, hari you would say it must have beençó a torocdo or a hurricane, but it was literally a river tsunami that hit these people out of nowhere. weçó had a lot of rain falling good news is hundreds /i lives were sañep because warnings did go out to a number of people down in%qñ camps.ñi about 150ñi people evacuated very close to before the water hit.

the department of public safety along with the military rescued a couple of dozen from the air, and the local on groundçó and fire chief and his teamxd rescued about 115 people from rooftops,ñi hanging on to satellite dishes. it's a tragedy that weht lost 12, and it could have beençó hundreds.ñrñi >> sreenivasan:ñrt( finally, lieutenant governor, i want to ask, the weather "forbegbz is not on your side and still rivers above flood stage and could beñi worse in the next few days. >> it could be. my home is in the houston area. i have been therexdñi since '79, i've seen a lot of flooding. i've never seen it as bad in houston either as it was in theçóxd last couple of days. dallas was hit hard. here inçó the state capital of austinxd buildings have never floodedñi out. san antonio has been hitñrw3 hard. pq south of austin. this isñr the worst flooding maybe

in total anyone can ever remember. whenñrñi you get 10 to 15 inches rain over a few hours, a smallñiñr creek bedñr suddenly becomes a river and a river becomes axd tsunami and that's what happened and the rain continues to pour,çó and we're watching it closely andñr praying. >> sreenivasan: lieutenant governor dsn"patrick ofxdñist texas ánks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: kansas governor sam brownback also warned residents of his state to be prepared for high waters, noting that many of the reservoirs are already at flood stage. president obama made a last- minute appeal to lawmakers today to extend the authorities of key patriot act provisions before they expire at midnight on sunday. he said a "handful of senators" are standing in the way of the u.s. government losing surveillance powers that could

help prevent terror attacks. there was inaction in the senate. >> woodruff: mitch >> woodruff: senate majority leader mitch mconnell is calling the senate back into session on sunday, just hours before the midnight deadline. >> woodruff: former speaker of the u.s. house of representatives dennis hastert has resigned from his law firm, amid federal charges of "misconduct." multiple media outlets reported today the misconduct involved sexual abuse allegations by an unnamed man. the illinois republican was indicted yesterday and accused of agreeing to pay millions in hush money. the indictment itself did not describe the misconduct, but it did say it involved a person hastert knew from a high school where he taught and coached from 1965 to 1981.

in iraq today, the "islamic state" claimed responsibility for car bombs targeting two prominent hotels in baghdad. the blasts lit up the night sky last night, killing at least 15 people and wounding scores more. hours later, daylight revealed how badly the newly renovated hotels had been hit. windows were shattered and wreckage was everywhere. a third bomb was defused early this morning. >> woodruff: islamic state militants also targeted a mosque in saudi arabia today, killing at least four people. the explosion erupted outside a shiite mosque in an eastern port city. the suicide bomber, who was disguised as a woman, detonated his explosives as worshippers gathered for friday prayers. a week ago, a similar attack killed 21 people. the u.s. has officially removed cuba from its list of states that sponsor terrorism. today's move paves the way for fully restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries after more than five

decades. but in washington, white house spokesman josh earnest said negotiations are still underway to determine when to open embassies in each country >> there continue to be issues that need to be worked out. and in discussions that were convened last week, there was important progress that was made. i don't have a timeframe to give you in terms of any specific announcement. but that obviously is among the next milestones here, which is the opening of a cuban embassy here in the united states and the opening of an american embassy on the island of cuba. >> woodruff: top republicans like house speaker john boehner immediately lashed out after the terror designation was rescinded. boehner charged the obama administration "handed the castro regime a significant political win in return for nothing." u.s. surveillance imagery shows china is putting weapons on one of the islands it is building up in the south china sea. the wall street journal reported

that two motorized artillery pieces are on one of the islands, citing american officials. they said it poses no military threat, but goes against china's public statements the reclaimed islands are for civilian use. >> woodruff: the obama administration released new biofuel usage targets today, scaling back on how much agricultural product must blend with the nation's fuel supply. the environmental protection agency announced ethanol in gasoline would increase, but not by as much as set out in federal law. it was a blow to the ethanol and farming industries, who have lobbied for higher levels. the u.s. economy shrank during the first three months of the year after a harsh winter that kept people at home and businesses closed. that government report had an impact on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average lost 115 points to close at 18,010. the nasdaq fell 28 points. and the s-and-p 500 dropped 13.

for the week, the dow and s-and- p lost around a percent, and the nasdaq lost half a percent. still to come on the newshour: a major soccer scandal doesn't stop fifa from re-electing its embattled president; the head of the u.s. environmental agency on new regulations for america's waterways; an inauguration in nigeria, and an american commitment to fight boko haram; what it means when scientific research is retracted; plus, shields and brooks on the week's news. >> woodruff: a week that saw global soccer's top officials arrested on major corruption charges, today saw its highest official re-elected to run fifa. joseph "sepp" blatter won a fifth term in office as head of the governing body that runs the

world cup and international soccer. this following what happened wednesday, as fifa met in zurich, u.s. authorities brought indictments alleging massive corruption within the organization. the only challenger today jordan's prince ali bin al hussein, conceded defeat after a first ballot left blatter just short of the needed tally for victory the 79-year old, embattled fifa chief spoke shortly after his re-election: >> i take the responsibility to bring back fifa. with you we do it, we do it, we do it. and i'm convinced we can do it. i am faithful man and i said now "god, allah or whoever is this extraordinary spirit there is in this world that we believe, they will help us to bring this fifa where we shall be!" and i promise you at the end of my term i will give this fifa to

my successor in avery very very strong position. a robust fifa and a good fifa. we have to work together. >> woodruff: sepp blatter's re- election to head international soccer may seem counter- intuitive given what's transpired in the past 72 hours. but many countries did support him, and with billions of dollars at stake, geopolitics remain a part of this. for some further answers and perspective, we turn to: roger bennett, a soccer analyst and co-host of a show and podcast called "men in blazers" on nbc sports. and franklin foer, author of "how soccer explains the world." thank you both for being with us. roger bennett, let me start with you. how did sepp blatter pull off this win today? >> because it takes place in fifa land where all he needs is to have a machine like the

chicago politics, and every single nation is 209, even more than the united nations has a single vote, and he did it by pulling together africa, central america and also tiny islands the cook islands made them all stand up and say oceanian nay you're my oceans 11, which is very brazen behavior for a man on wednesday who announced his organization is being investigated by the f.b.i., the department of justice and the i.r.s. but it's a medieval fire fiefdom he's running, not a democracy. >> woodruff: but there was a vote and he won most to have the countries casting ballots. >> the mayor daly of chicago is quite apt because he's running a patriotism system. he has walking money he distributed around the world to the very small countries but

it's more than that he's also exploited geopolitical divisions as you said in the introduction that there is the sense that the global game of soccer was ruled by europeans and he gave the first world cup to africa, one to asia and, so all these -- the politics of colonialism have been superimposed on this. now, it's a vial exploitation of that rhetoric burr but a very effective one. >> it still is. to come back to this roger bennett, it is still a system where votes were cast. people didn't have their arms twisted to vote this way, did they? >> absolutely in no way. fifa is run, in the words of the f.b.i., in the words of the attorney general on wednesday, they said the world cup before they said was based on corruption, racketeering, they found wire fraud, so all the major decisions that geopolitically occur in terms of

where the world cups should happen, who the sponsors should be some have been photographed they literally involve bags of cash. so when we say these individuals, this is not democratic vote by any stretch of the imagination. they make it very hard to dislodge. people have tried to dislodge them in the past, he emerged stronger as he did today. slated opposition stood up to him but he never met opponents like the f.b.i., the department of justice and the iris i.r.s. and they will be the fighty foes and it will be a fascinating fight. >> woodruff: does he really emerge stronger after this vote, or is his rule going forward under a shadow because of what happened? >> under more than a shadow. as roger said, the f.b.i. and the department of justice now launched this major investigation and just like in chicago, the hope is that you

turn the smaller fry and it ends up going to the big kahuna. on top of that, fifa's power depends on money that comes from the sponsorship that goes to the world cup and comes from people participating in the world cup, and there is going to be a lot of noise about major fed ranges withdrawing from fifa withdrawings from the world cup -- >> woodruff: which is what the u.s. and some europeans are talking about -- or not from the world cup, but withdrawing from fifa. >> exactly, which would entail withdrawing from the world cup, which is a major commitment that would remake the global game. >> woodruff: well, let me come back to you, roger bennett. what do we look forward to in this coming term? we know the investigations continue. can international soccer continue in any seem semblance of a normal operation given what's taken place this week? >> the only one in fifa land. the next steps will take place

in the real world. we see what kind of cards the f.b.i. have. i would be fascinated to know what kind of conversations are going on in the board rooms of visa, coca-cola and budweiser and mcdonald's, the big american sponsors of this world cup circle now that they know they have been tarnished in the papers and the deaths in qatar through slave labor setting up for the 2022 world cup. but we don't have to wait. the williams world cup kicks off in canada next month. it will be great to see if blatter turns up or whether he fierce an extradition treaty and will be arrested as soon as he sets foot in canada. >> woodruff: frank. two things.

one is he's been disparaging of the women's game one of his many sins. secondly we shouldn't let these u.s. corporations off the hook. everybody's known about fire fifa's corruption for well over a decade and everybody played along in this corrupt system. the united states soccer federation played along in this corrupt system and that's the way croppings works. that's the way he prevailed even today is that the system continues until it collapsed and our tolerance for it is really kind of an astonishing fact. >> woodruff: there are a lot of people watching who may not pay attention to soccer. why does this matter to everyone else watching? >> first of all, this is corruption on a world his hiss historic level. this is open behavior and

persisted for a long time and to watch it collapse as it is collapsing even if today's election didn't throw out the dictator is an amazing thing to watch, it's important. secondly, there are human consequences. there's the death toll roger described. there are all the stadium build in these countries that sucked money from coffers. there is stadiums in the outreaches of brazil that will never be used again. >> woodruff: roger, why would -- what would you add to those who don't follow soccer to pay attention. >> there's wide bribery taking place on american soil the lead protagonist, chuck blazer that lived in the trump tower and creamed off enough money to have his own floor and $6,000 apartment for his own cats.

this is an american story that's taking place in america, the crimes have taken place here and if america cracks fifa, it will be the greatest gift to the world since the marshall plant. >> woodruff: an extraordinary story. we thank both of you, roger bennett, frank franklin foer. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: this week, the united states changed the way it looks at one our most precious resources, water. the environmental protection agency finalized a new rule about what kinds of waterways it protects, to include things like tributaries. the change has brought both applause and sharp criticism. political editor lisa desjardins reports on what this shift means. >> what can i get you guys? >> reporter: sean o'byrne owns the "great waters" brew pub in downtown st. paul, and the main

ingredient in the beer he crafts is local well water. for the past several years a kind of fear has mounted for him that some of the protections initially offered by the 1972 clean water act have eroded, putting minnesota's "great waters" at risk. >> i'm a little scared at what people are trying to do to it, take some of the teeth out of it. >> reporter: that's why he's cheering the new rule finalized this week by the environmental protection agency, a rule meant to clarify which bodies of water can be regulated by the federal government. e.p.a. administrator gina mccarthy: >> we crafted these rules because we have a statue that's over 40 years old and nobody yet has defined its jurisdiction well. we know we're seeing waters that are extremely important being degraded or polluted while we sit and think about it. >> reporter: mccarthy says some 60% of all streams, tributaries and wetlands in this country were not specifically safeguarded before. under this rule they will be.

>> 117 million people rely on those streams that are now tenuously protected or not and we needed to define a strategy to protect them because people rely on them for drinking water. >> this is an example of a soybean field. >> reporter: but not everyone is cheering the e.p.a.'s action. kevin paap farms soybeans and corn on this fourth generation farm located 90 minutes west of twin cities. he fears the new rule means that some of his irrigation ditches, necessary to drain extra water off his fields, will suddenly be regulated. >> this has water running in it today because we had rain yesterday. so the system is working, it's taking the excess water out. if this ditch gets classified as a "water of the u.s.", will i have to get a permit? as we put on our protection products, as we deal with replacing nutrients, i don't

want to have to get a permit if all of a sudden i find a pest or a weed outbreak. >> reporter: but ask the e.p.a. about current farming and the agency insists it won't be affected. >> it's tributaries only. now there are some ditches that were constructed in a tributary or that have frequent enough flow duration and volume to create these features. they're called tributaries, not ditches. >> but a farmer might call that a ditch. to a farmer that's an irrigation ditch. we are clearly explaining that irrigation ditches are not included. we have clearly said in the rule and beyond: this rule adds absolutely no new regulatory or permitting issue for agriculture whatsoever. >> reporter: farmer paap isn't convinced, and thinks this is nothing more than a power grab by a federal agency. >> we're happy with the clean water act as it was written in 1972 because it gives authority

to the states. navigable waters have to be federally regulated because of commerce and things like that. state waters, whether a wetland or an area that has water only a few days a year, that's really the state's responsibility. we don't want to see another layer on top. we don't need two levels of bureaucracy to do the same thing. >> phosphorus and nitrogen are a big problem in minnesota waterways and a lot of it comes from agricultural pollution and from urban development. >> reporter: environmentalist jill bathke says state laws do not provide enough protection and if anything, the new epa rule doesn't go far enough either. >> there are parts of minnesota where a vast majority of waters are not fishable, swimmable, drinkable. there are a lot of contaminants in our fish. there's problems with sediment in our waterways. there are a lot of issues with pollution in minnesota and

they're not going to be fully solved by this rule's release. but it is a step in the right direction towards more clarity. >> reporter: getting more clarity was what many developers and county officials had hoped for. al forsberg, director of public works for blue earth county in minnesota, said confusion over jurisdiction has led to costly delays in past road construction projects. >> these pink flags delineate where a wetland is located. >> reporter: forsberg is about to embark on a $20 million road construction project which will extend into the ditches and wetlands that currently line both sides of the existing road. >> we need a clear concise rule so that when folks do maintenance work or construction on roads and they encounter low areas, they can determine, is this a water of the u.s. or not? >> reporter: he was sharply

critical of the draft proposal the e.p.a. put forward a year ago. the county official says the version that was released this week is better. still, he worries about a one- size-fits-all plan to govern so many different types of waterways. >> to define a water of the u.s. here is a different chore than defining it in say louisiana with the bayous or the salt marshes out east or water in alaska. that's one of the problems in putting together one definition. i think a map would solve that. have the local folks, state folks and federal folks work together to develop a map. then when we're planning our construction projects, we can go to this map. >> reporter: many in congress have said the e.p.a. did not give enough consideration to farming and construction interests. three weeks ago the house voted to block the rule. democrat tim walz, who represents southeastern minnesota, supported that bill. his district contains the ninth most productive farmland in the nation. he said this week's rule is better than the one initially

drafted, but is still not perfect. >> we can't have poisoned rivers but we also have to be able to feed the population. we must fix this. if we do not fix this and we continue to have water quality issues, we're going to lose. that's going to impact production, it's going to impact health. if we make rules that impede people's ability to grow food, we're going to deal with that side of this issue. and so this is one of those issues that it's not "my side wins, your side loses." we both have to win. >> reporter: the new e.p.a. water rule will go into effect later this summer. for the p.b.s. newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: we turn now to nigeria, the most populous nation in africa. the troubled country, struggling with massive economic problems, corruption and an islamic extremist insurgency made history today as it inaugurated it's new leader, mu

>> woodruff: nigerians celebrated their new president and a strengthened democracy today, as the country's first, democratic transfer of power was finalized. >> woodruff: that honest man: muhammadu buhari a former military dictator who calls himself a "born-again democrat." >> woodruff: the 72-year-old former general vowed to take charge of the fight against boko haram militants, who control portions of northeast nigeria. >> woodruff: just today, at least seven people were killed in borno state, when suspected boko haram militants carried out twin bombings at a wedding party. hundreds of boko haram captives

have been freed by the military in recent weeks. but the fate of the chibok girls, whose capture sparked the global campaign to "bring back our girls," remains unknown the u.s. has assisted in that search, and secretary of state kerry was on hand today, reaffirming strong u.s.-nigerian ties. with the leadership change, the u.s. is reportedly now ready to expand military assistance; that could include sending more advisors to train nigeria's army. in addition to the fight against boko haram, the 72-year-old buhari inherits a host of other problems from outgoing president goodluck jonathan. chief among them: tackling institutionalized corruption and reinvigorating africa's largest economy, which has faltered badly: nigeria faces a $63 billion national debt.

and, even though it is a top global oil producer, it is suffering a months-long fuel crisis. >> woodruff: joining me now for more on all this is peter pham, director of the africa center at the atlantic council. welcome back to the program. >> thank you for having me judy. >> woodruff: so is the u.s. going to be providing more military aid to the nigerian government? >> i think what's under discussion is how to -- and i hate to use the term but i think it's appropriate here -- reset the relationship. certainly in the last few years with allegations of corruption, well-founded questions of human rights abuses on the part of the military, the u.s. pulled back from assisting in the fight with boko haram saying that the government in power at the time and the military were not partners we could work with in the way we would like to work. perhaps that wasverdone but now, with a new administration, one that was elected democratically, and with a

handover power that i think was universally allotted for, credit belongs to the new president the u.s. is set to partner with afternoon's largestries chain and muslim population. >> woodruff: what kind of support are we talking about? >> i think intelligence sharing logistics, training. nigeria is not a poor country despite the recent economic problems. it doesn't need handouts, but it does need capabilities and training and certainly its neighbors require a bit of assistance. its neighbors have been doing a lot of the fighting, chad and nigeria and cameroon in particular. but having a partner in the u.s., the fact that our economic relations with the energy boon at home, the fact our economic relations

are anemic and that hurt our political and diplomatic relations. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about the economic aspect but peter pham does this aid mean that they're more likely to make headway against boko haram or is that possible to project or predict? >> ironically in its last months and weeks in office the jonathan administration, together with the other regional states, made tremendous progress push back boko haram militarily, but now it's no longer a military force it's increasingly insurgent terrorist and that requires a more counterinsurgency terrorist and that's going to require a different set of investments not only military capabilities but economic, political and social programs of inclusion to inculcate our people, support for the government and inoculate them if you will against extremism. >> woodruff: you again mentioned the economic problems. what are the challenges

mr. buhari faces as he takes over. >> i think the biggest challenge president buhari faces he was elected on a great wave of enthusiasm. people invest add great deal of hope he could turn nigeria around, fight boko haram fight corruption, make this tired old man rise up as the african giant it should be. but that's going to take resources and investment, that's what he's short on because to have the economic situation. the government relies on oil for 80 to 90% of the revenues so there are a lot overdemands and fewer resources to meet them. >> woodruff: peter pham with the atlantic council. thank you very much. >> tour as always. -- thank you as always. >> woodruff: next, we explore

questions about how scientific findings are published, vetted and whether allegations of fraud involving a top science journal are damaging credibility with the wider public. yesterday science magazine retracted a study published in december that found people's attitudes toward same-sex marriage were more likely to be changed by face-to-face conversations with gay canvassers over straight ones. it was a study that got quite a bit of pickup in the media. now that it's been retracted by a leading journal, it poses questions for the scientific establishment. again, to hari, who has more on the story. >> sreenivasan: the study's lead author asked for the retraction after the original findings could not be duplicated, and his co-author, a graduate student, was accused of misrepresenting how the work was done. this is the latest retraction in a major journal. in recent years, there have been others involving cloning and stem cell research. ivan oransky is a journalist as

well as a medical doctor, who broke this story. he is co-founder of the blog "retraction-watch" and global editorial director of "medpage today," an online medical news service for physicians and medical professions. so first of all, this particular case, how did we get here? what went wrong? >> what seems to have gone wrong is only some of this study or at least we can only see some of this study actually happened. lots of pressure on researchers. we don't exactly know what happened here in the sort of early days but part of the study which was that gay people went to people's houses and tried to convince them that gay marriage was a good thing, they should agree with it that part seems to have happened. what's unclear is whether surveying them afterwards to see if they changed their minds, which is an important part of the study, whether that happened. so the paper gets published. we have a major science journal and that happens in december and then a couple of month

later some grad students in berkeley decide, we want to do the next set of experiments, we think this is cool. >> sreenivasan: that's supposed to be how science work. >> it is. something doesn't look right, they start asking questions asking the author, hey, what's actually happening here, and no one can find the data. some admissions were made about what happened, what hadn't happened and how it had been misrepresented. very quickly, which i think is an important point here, very quickly one of the authors said we should retract this. the journal said we're going to put a big stamp on this saying expression of concern. within a week, just happened this week, the paper's gone from the record it's retracted. >> sreenivasan: but people are going to say there is supposed to be checks and balances before it gets to the journal, at the journal, a peer review process from esteemed colleagues, a lot of smart people could have poked a hole in it before you got to it.

>> a lot of smart people can poke a hole in it if they take the opportunity. scientists and journalists are under a lot of pressure. we know what this is like. quite frankly, peer review, it's something you do, i wouldn't say exactly spare time, but you're not paid for it. in order to have found what was wrong, you would have had to have looked at the originalda at that. what most people don't realize is this sort of good housekeeping seal of approval journalists would like you to think the peer review system, is it's not a good housekeeping seal of approval. there are a lot of holes. you have to look at the originalda at that. that speaks to how science is supposed to work because you shouldn't take any particular study, in this case a study that actually showed something that was really very prizing and new and different from what other studies had shoarntion you shouldn't take it if it turns out to be true as the answer. >> sreenivasan: so there are different causes for why certain studies over the years have

fallen through cracks. sometimes malicious intent. sometimes someone doctoring the data, careless error. are these fabrications more common or are we in this internet era able to detect them faster? >> it's clear we're able to detect whether it's fraud or sloppiness or honest error much more quickly. here we are we're able to look at all the papers online. we have plagiarism as a reason for retraction in science as well as in journal i'm as well. about two-thirds of the time they're due to fraud, something that we would consider misconduct, but it's clear in the last 15 years the number of retractions has gone up by ten. so there were ten times as many retractions in 2010 as in 2001 and it's because we're better at finding it. whether there's also more pressure on scientists and therefore more fraud is a bit overan open question, but it's also important to keep in mind

these 400 and maybe now 500 or 600 retractions a year, that's out of 2 million or 3 million papers. so let's not say everything is fraudulent because this is on the rise. >> this is something that scientists have to become more vigilant about. who gets hurt by this? in this specific study there is a social science experiment but ethical lines have been crossed. so in this particular case, i think one sort of person not a person but a group that might take a hit is science itself. here we're talking about this study, what went wrong why did this get into such a major journal. my understanding is that some of the findings here, at least the idea was used as part of the sort of canvassing and the referendum that just happened. so this had ramification, maybe not a cancer trial or something like that, but these studies do involve people who have diseases like cancer and they are -- i

shouldn't say all but many involve federal funding. so you and i are paying for these studies and they turn out to be fraudulent. ivan oransky, editor of "retraction-watch," thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: now to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and new york times columnist david brooks. welcome gentlemen. so let's begin mark, with what we learned yesterday former house speaker dennis hastert indicted for paying $3.5 million, they said, in hush money to someone because of something that happened a long time ago, apparently a news report today says it involves sexual misconduct. what are your thoughts? >> people say they knew about it here in washington.

this comes as a real shock. at the same time beyond the allegations and reports, the indictment, the charges, it's an incredible blow to the congress, and congress is just behind loan sharks and public esteem. it's a blow to politics in general. it's an indictment of washington. washington is a city of money, a flood of money. this is a a man who came to congress with a net worth of $270 million pay out $3.5 million basically three years after he left congress. that's the kind of money we're talking about. but at the personal level, it's amazing to me, most of all, when the republican, newt gingrich was the first speaker in the history of the house to be reprimanded and punished for

ethics violations, succeeded by bob livingston who has to resign because of sexual infidelity he revealed. and dennis with his knowledge and background, how he could have done it with the record the scrutiny out there, it must have been an incredibly difficult or -- i don't know what -- self-delusional time for him. >> woodruff: there's so much we don't know, david. >> yeah first the allegations about the contact with the boys are true, well we've seen that with the catholic church. we've seen a disturbing undercurrent in american life. >> ifill: guess maybe in world life of this sort of thing. i am struck as much as is mentioned the whole litany of people, especially that era involved in the scandal, whether sexual, some was more financial like tom delay's and speaker wright. it's concentrated. a lot of people all at once. does politics track attract such

people, prevalent in society? we're certainly remind of original sin. i wanted to say there are people in american life to whom this has not happened. i might say with president obama, but president obama has run an amazingly scandal-free administration, not only him but the people around him. so there are people in washington who do set a standard of integrity and seem to attract people of quality and i think that's probably true of the current group i hope it's true of the current leadership group in congress. but they're not all involved in scandal. >> no. david makes a good point and i agree with him. on this administration, in particular. but judy i just think you can't look at this and not say money. people, i know, who run for office, there is something they want to do bigger than themselves and something in this process of raising all that money, of being around all that money, having access to it i

think, you know i just think it's correcting and corrosive. >> i think i disagree in these sorts of cases. to me it's loneliness. people are rising, super ambitious, they have relationships with people above them hierarchical relationships below them. a lot of people do not have relationships horizontally and there are a lot of people who reach high political office who is are lonely and lacking in intimacy skills and sometimes reach for it in the most desperate and most disgraceful ways, and i find they're socially awkward in a way we know some politicians are socially adept. >> woodruff: this happened decades ago to dennis hastert. well, let's talk about the administration and i.s.i.s. and iraq. david we saw a bit of a back and forth this week. you had the secretary of defense on sunday saying that the iraqi

army had fallen down on the job in defending defending the country against i.s.i.s., the islamic state. you had the vice presidents quickly calling the prime minister saying, no, the iraqi army is doing a great job, the president saying we're not doing badly. what's going on? >> there have been cases where a few hundred i.s.i.s. fighters were defeating 30,000 iraqi soldiers so they're not fighting. and the reason they're not fighting fundamentally is because they don't believe in the country anymore. we tried -- and i give joe biden credit. he'll renounce it but years and years ago, probably 2006, 2007 he had an idea for a loose federal iraq and that in retrospect looks like a smarter and smarter idea. we tried to keep this country together, but the shias are not sharing power with the sunnis. they're not willing to give the sunni forces the weapons and other things they need to defeat i.s.i.s. the political system is

fractured. the soldiers clearly do not believe in the country. the polling do you feel like an iraqi is collapsing. we have to accept it's too late for us to have any influence and it's no longer a country is willing to die for, whereas the islamic state those people are willing to die for whatever cause they believe in. >> woodruff: does the strategy need to be completely reworked? >> i think so, judy. i'm not sure what the strategy is beyond at this point beyond some limited containment and the alternative advocated of sending sending -- sending 3,000, 10,000 troops is beyond foolish, too few to fight and too many to die. ash carter says he who speaks the trot must keep one food in the spirit land. h he spread the eggly truth of what happened in ramadi and joe biden was trying to restore a sense of relationship involved

here. after the experience with chuck hagel and the embarrassing teammate of him, mistreatment of my colleague by the white house and the president ash carter is bullet proof and not going to try to sabotage and discredit him in anyway. he's known as a level direct-talking and this is the case. but i just don't -- i do not see -- what the most probably moths disturbing report this week is in palmyra where i.s.i.s. took over in syria they're now providing social services that the syrian government hadn't with hamas and all of a sudden these brutal people are starting to win over popular support among the citizenry. so i look anywhere for good news

and i don't find it. >> what the president has to say, he called them a cancer. he said he vowed to eradicate them. does he really think that's necessary or does he think well, we're not going to do anything too significant. we are having bombing sorties against them but not anything too damaging, a few minor victories but not anything clearly setting them on their back foot. so i wish the president would clarify his policy that we really think they're a threat and will eliminate them or just don't care enough to do anything about them. he's sort of stuck in the middle, i think. >> i think ash carter was speaking to the military thed with of 3,000 or 10,000 going in on some sort of a land enterprise as we did before. >> woodruff: you mentioned, mark, this is becoming an issue in the campaign and let's talk for a few minutes about 2016.

three more candidates jumping into the race this week. mark, the first one, two republicans mr. santorum, mr. pataki. senator san torum served state of pennsylvania, governor pataki in new york how do they change the landscape for the republican contenders? >> well, rick santorum finished second in 2012. he won 11 primaries and caucuses from states as diverse as colorado to minnesota to mississippi and alabama. but he did represent a little different view of republicans and that's sort of the blue collar increasing the marriage, which most republicans are but most republicans aren't and that sort of makes him distinct with his cultural and religious conservatism and he's a national

security heart. finishing second means nothing now. so he's fighting to even be on the stage, it strikes me. he's trying to assemble a coalition that looks an awful lot like the new deal of franklin roosevelt, cultural blue collar, conservative and economic populist and i'm not sure that is assemblable, if that's a word. >> woodruff: we'll let bit a word. >> okay. >> woodruff: what about rick santorum. >> he was a good campaigner a and a little john the baptist style in that he was the first recent real working class as much as working class republican. but if you want a working class republican now you have scott walkerrer and marco rubio. so bigger fish are filling that spot. that's been the story with him. he was second in the really weak field now field got stronger, even the people working for him in places like iowa have other

people and it will be hard to recapture the magic he had. the other interesting case to me is pataki. if ever there was a moderate republican running it would be nice to have a moderate republican running just to see what would happen. maybe pick up some votes here. how many moderate republicans are out there? i suspect there are more than we think. petacky unfortunately like huntsman last time is not the right messenger for that. he's just not inspiring. when he was finishing his term as new york governor, he was not that popular. so he's not going to be a strong candidate. it would be nice to have a strong moderate candidate as a testing proposition. >> woodruff: 20 section on pataki. >> there's a tie-in with this. a man in his time if there was one was 2008, and his bite was 2008, coming off of having been governor of new york for three terms after 2001 9/11 having

beaten mario cuomo. i mean, that was it and i'm sorry, george, but that position is no longer available. >> woodruff: we'll talk about martin o'malley next week. mark shields, david brooks, thank you. >> woodruff: on the newshour online, in the latest installment of our podcast "shortwave," new york times reporter carlotta gall takes us down the trail that led to the death of osama bin laden, plus how an encounter with an elephant changed the life of guns and roses guitarist, slash. find out how to listen, on our home page. that's at pbs.org/newshour. and a reminder about some upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. gwen ifill is preparing for "washington week," which airs later this evening. here's a preview: >> ifill: the justice department is a busy place this week; we explore the deepening mystery surrounding the dennis hastert indictment;

and the deal investigators cut with the city of cleveland over use of force in its police department; plus, add pataki and santorum to the republican presidential campaign mix, as democrats bernie sanders and martin o'malley prepare to do battle with hillary clinton. that's later tonight on "washington week." judy? >> woodruff: on tomorrow's edition of pbs newshour weekend an update on a report from mexico, how one economic success story might become a model for the whole country. and we'll be back, right here on monday. that's the newshour for tonight, i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer.

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this is "nightly business with tyler mathisen and sue herera. no growth. the economy shrank y in the first quarter. is it cause for concern and what does it mean for the federal reserve and interest rate. >> curing cancer. the names to watch drug and biotech companies attempt to change the way the degrees is treated. back in business. an iconic u.s. airline takes flight wednesday again nearly 25 years after its shut down. all of that and more tonight on "nightly busin" for friday may 29th. good evening, everyone and welcome. i'm tyler mathisen. sue herera is off tonight. well it is a triple-digit decline for the blue chip dowin tex to end the month. more on that in a moment. but