captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> wooduff: security lapses at u.s. airports, accusations that t.s.a. screeners are failing to catch banned items at checkpoints. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. gwen ifill is away. also ahead this tuesday, what baghdad needs to defeat islamic state fighters, iraq's ambassador to the u.s. on a path forward to unite his country's fractured security forces. >> it's not an iraqi fight alone, judy. this is a regional fight with global implications. >> wooduff: plus, water for weed, marijuana growers aggravate a historic drought in

california, to feed their thirsty plants. >> we go after people who are illegally growing marijuana and stealing water. >> because the system hasn't provided regulation, there's no way for enforcement to say who is good farmers, and who is bad. >> wooduff: and, the fuzzy math of high school graduation rates. confusing numbers that differ from what schools report. those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: a texas police officer has resigned amid a national furor over his conduct during a neighborhood disturbance. an attorney for eric casebolt says he's quitting the mckinney, texas, police force inch a video that went viral, he was seen throwing a black teenage girl to the ground and pointing his gun at other black youths. >> woodruff: a federal appeals court in new orleans today upheld key provisions of a strict abortion law in texas. the upshot could be that only a handful of abortion clinics will continue operating in the state. they'll have to meet hospital- level standards to do so. abortion rights supporters say they'll appeal to the u.s. supreme court which already put the law on hold once. >> woodruff: president obama touted his "affordable care act" for a second day, as he awaited a supreme court decision that could undermine the law. the president spoke in washington and said the law has

become part of the fabric of the nation, improving lives and proving its critics wrong. >> despite the constant doom and gloom predictions, the unending chicken little warnings, that somehow making health insurance fair and easier to buy would lead to the end of freedom, the end of our american way of life! lo and behold, it did not happen. none of this came to pass. >> woodruff: yesterday, the president said the supreme court never should have accepted the latest challenge to the law. it involves the issue of subsidies and state insurance exchanges. the court is due to rule by month's end. the president won a round today in the legal fight over his push to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. a federal appeals court in washington threw out lawsuits by 15 states and a major coal company. the ruling said the suits are premature because the regulations are not yet final.

general motors could face criminal charges for a long delay in recalling potentially faulty ignition switches. the "wall street journal" reports the justice department is weighing possible wire fraud charges, but also hopes to reach a settlement. g.m. ultimately did recall 2.6 million vehicles. the switches are linked to more than 100 deaths. in egypt a court in cairo sentenced 11 men to death today, for fomenting a deadly riot at a soccer game in 2012. more than 70 people were killed in the incident. in addition to those sentenced to death, 40 others received jail terms today and 21 were acquitted. but relatives of some of the victims said they wanted more. >> ( translated ): there is no justice. the former head of port said security only received a five year jail sentence and he is the main cause of the disaster. there is no justice, this is

unfair. can be appealed. >> woodruff: today's verdicts can be appealed. back in this country, a woman with a rare, drug-resistant form of tuberculosis is now in stable condition at the national institutes of health in maryland. meanwhile, health officials are tracking down all who had prolonged contact with her, but they say the risk is low. the woman arrived in chicago, from india, in april and also visited missouri and tennessee. h.s.b.c.-- europe's largest bank-- will cut 50,000 jobs worldwide. it's moving to reduce costs and sell off operations in turkey and brazil. instead, it will focus more on asia. h.s.b.c. operates in more than 70 countries and has roughly 51 million customers. wall street looked for some motivation today, but didn't find much. the dow jones industrial average lost two points to close near 17,760. the nasdaq fell seven points. and the s-and-p 500 added about

a point. and the daily white house briefing recorded a first today: it was interrupted midway through, by a bomb threat. journalists and camera crews had to leave so guards and dogs could sweep the area. but press secretary josh earnest said it turned out to be a false alarm. >> based on a threat that the secret service received from another law enforcement organization about the press area at the white house, the press area at the white house was evacuated for the safety of all of us and the secret service, using resources that they keep here on the complex was able to quickly search this location and conclude that it was safe. >> woodruff: president obama remained in the white house, and no other parts of the building were affected. there were similar threats at two senate office buildings but there's no evidence they were related. still to come on the newshour: errors and lapses in security at airport checkpoints; former house speaker dennis hastert pleads not guilty to fraud charges;

a strategy to fight back islamic state fighters in iraq; migrants arrested and detained in libya after failing to cross the mediterranean; why marijuana plants are contributing to california's drought; conflicting reports on the numbers of high school graduates; and, a comma queen's mission to enforce clarity and purpose in writing. >> wooduff: the u.s. senate took a hard look at airport safety today, and two new accounts questioning the effectiveness of the transportation security administration. the senate hearing came a week after the leak of a damning report on the t.s.a.'s failures. the federal department of homeland security, t.s.a.'s parent agency, found fake explosives, weapons and other banned items went unnoticed in 67 of 70 tests.

today, nebraska republican senator ben sasse questioned john roth, the inspector general who wrote the report. >> do you think it's possible that t.s.a. really could have not understood how grave their problem was before last week's leaked report? >> you know, it's something that we think about all the time. i mean, do they truly understand the nature of the risk that they face? candidly, i worry about that. >> wooduff: others said they're worried that a push for reduced airport wait times has actually harmed security. rebecca roering is assistant t.s.a. director at the minneapolis-st. paul airport. >> t.s.a. is handing out pre- check status like halloween candy in an effort to expedite passengers as quickly as possible, despite self-admitted security gaps that are being created by the process. >> wooduff: meanwhile, a second inspector general's report finds t.s.a.'s vetting of aviation workers is "generally effective". but, it did fail to identify 73

employees with unspecified links to terrorism. for all that, missouri democrat claire mccaskill offered a partial defense of the security agency, at today's hearing. >> we've gotta remember-- as we all sit and pound the desk about how bad t.s.a. is-- we keep cutting the amount of money they have. and we ask them to do more and do it better. >> wooduff: the hearing was cut short after a telephoned bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax. joining me is jack riley, vice president of the rand corporation's national security division, he focuses on transportation and border security. mr. riley, thank you for being with us. how concerned should the american people be? these lapses sound pretty serious. >> well, i understand why the reports are alarming, but i think the thing people need to keep in mind is that there are a number of other layers that are

in place to help keep planes safe, not the least of which is cockpit doors are locked, passengers and crew know that they have to intervene, and on many flights an unknown percentage, but in flights we have air marshals present. so there are a lot of other layers to security and focusing simply on one segment i think is a disservice. >> woodruff: so when they say 67 out of 70 contraband items got through undetected by tsa, that doesn't sound concerning? >> oh, no question it's an abysmal performance, but the average tsa during the course of a week probably encounters thousands if not tens of thousands of passengers, and they're looking for extremely rare contraband and extremely rare kinds of stuff that most of them probably never see, certainly in the course of a week, maybe in the course of that career so i think one of the things we can do to help narrow down the list and improve

effectiveness is to reduce the set of things that we have them looking for at the checkpoints liquids and some of the other kinds of contraband they're looking for probably don't need to be on the list at this point. >> are you saying that because those don't pose a threat that it was thought they did? >> yeah, i think there's growing consensus that the non-metallic liquid bomb issue probably wasn't as severe as people thought it was back in 2006 or 2007 when the restrictions first started being put in place. there's never really been a credible demonstration of the ability to generate that kind of bomb outside of laboratory conditions, but one of the things that it does is provides a tremendous distraction to tsa personnel as they look for liquids and other kinds of things at the checkpoints. >> woodruff: so what should they be focusing on? >> i think what they should be focusing on are the things that can be used to help bring down

planes very effectively, and that really is a very small set of guns and bombs, the very kinds of things that unfortunately they missed in the testing. >> woodruff: just quickly jack riley, the other report that's come out indicates that i guess out of the large number of people, 900,000 active airport workers, they found 73 of them had unspecified links to terrorism. should people be concerned about that? >> you know, i just had a chance to read that report before i came down for the interview. it's a little tough to say. i would say that tsa has through the airports and its own security force a very large number of people that need to be cleared and have background checks on. what i'm looking for is their reaction to the i.g.'s report, and what i heard today was ownership of the lapses. i'm fairly confident that the new straiter of tsa is going to get on this very quickly, and i

doubt we'll be talking about it the next time there is this kind of investigation. >> woodruff: so if one is to ask you: what's the main thing tsa needs to do differently going forward, what would you say? >> i think the main thing is reducing the set of things they're looking for, making sure that they have a focused mission, looking for the guns and bombs and stepping back from some of the things like knives and other small objects that really don't pose a threat to bringing down the plane. >> jack riley, vice president of the rand corporation, we thank you very much for talking with us. >> thank you. >> wooduff: former speaker of the u.s. house of representatives dennis hastert today pleaded not guilty to charges that he paid out millions of dollars in hush

money and lied about it to the f.b.i. this was hastert's first public appearance since news of his indictment nearly two weeks ago. william brangham takes it from there. >> brangham: we get more on today's court appearance from jon seidel, he covers federal courts for the chicago sun-times and was at the hearing this afternoon. jon seidel, i wonder if you would tell me, legally speaking what happened in the courtroom today? >> today's hearing was pretty straightforward. today was a day for dennis hastert to walk into the courtroom and enter a plea. he pleaded not guilty. he acknowledged that he had received the indictment against him and waived the reading. we also had his attorneys thomas green, file an appearance on his behalf. and we also had the judge acknowledge some of the conflicts that had been previously reported when it comes to contributions that theñr judge made while he was a private citizen to mr. hastert's campaign, as well as his work for the same law firm that mr. hastert's son works for.

>> brangham: we'll get to the issue of the judge's conflict in a moment, but for people who have not been following this case closely can you lay out what has dennis hastert been accused of doing? >> mr. hastert faces a very obscure charge of structuring bank withdrawals as well as lying to the f.b.i. they said he agreed to pay $3. 5 million of hush money to a man, a longtime acquaintance from yorkville, to cover up for past misconduct against that acquaintance. he was initially taking out $50,000 from his bank account. when the banks began to question him about those withdrawals he began making withdrawals of less than $10,000. the feds say he did so to avoid reporting requirements on transactions of $10,000 or more. that is what he's actually charged with. and in december of last year, when federal agents asked him about those withdrawals and asked him if he did so because he didn't trust the banks, he said yeah, that's what i was doing, i was keeping the cash some this all revolves around

this alleged prior misconduct with somebody from yorkville that he apparently agreed to pay $3.5 million to, but the actual charge is structuring $952,000 worth of withdrawals out of his bank. >>. >> brangham: you reported today that mr. hastert might be under some kind of pressure to agree to a plea deal of sorts. can you explain that a little bit more? >> well it's really more speculation by local attorneys who are trying to figure out how this case is going to play out. the indictment is very ant when it comes to details. there is some thought that prosecutors could have been much more explicit when you look at some of the leaks about what some of this misconduct could be related to. it could be that mr. hastert wants to avoid a trial because the thought is if he goes to trial, we can expect to see a lot of these details finally come out in a courtroom. that could put pressure on mr. hastert to agree to some kind of plea deal. in fact we've had one local prominent attorney here speculate that mr. hastert cut a

deal. but to the best of my knowledge he has absolutely no insight into that. that's pure speculation among the criminal bar here. >> brangham: you mentioned earlier that this judge has a rather unique relationship with mr. hastert. have people argued that the fact this judge made donations to hastert's campaign and then worked at one point with dennis hastert's son, that he should be removed from this case? >> well nobody has legally argued that. today was the first opportunity for that to happen, but the judge himself was first person to bring it up. judge durkin made two donations while he was if private practice before he became a judge to mr. hastert's campaign. the donations totaled i believe about $1,500. he's also worked for the same law firm where mr. hastert's son is now a parter in. additionally, judge durkin's brother jim durkin is the current republican leader of the illinois house of

representatives. the judge brought all of this to everybody's attention in court today, not that any of it needed to be. i don't think he said anything that hasn't been previously reported since the case was assigned to him. but he's giving each side an opportunity to basically say whether or not they think the case should remain with him. he acknowledged that he could be disqualified from this case. he's giving both sides an opportunity to waiving that disqualification. and we should know by the end of this week whether either side will want to do so. the judge said that he set up a process so that he will not know which party or if either party declined to waive the conflict. >> jon seidel, chicago sun timed, thanks so much for coming in. >> thank you. >> wooduff: tonight, we are launching a series of conversations about the rise of the islamic state, in iraq and

syria, and what should be done about it. we're calling it "no end in sight." earlier today, state department spokesman john kirby said it could take at least three to five years to overcome the group in iraq, and instead that the obama administration does have a strategy for dealing with the extremist organization. kirby was pushing back against characterizations of president obama's statement on monday, when he told journalists that the u.s. was reassessing how to confront i.s. >> we're reviewing a range of plans for how we might do that, essentially accelerating the number of iraqi forces that are properly trained and equipped and have a focused strategy and good leadership. and when a finalized plan is presented to me by the pentagon then i will share it with the american people. we don't yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the iraqis, as well. >> wooduff: joining me to discuss the fight against the

islamic state is iraq's ambassador to the united states lukman faily. mr. ambassador, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: so how is your government doing right now in the fight against the islamic state? did they have the hupper hand? >> we have taken an initiative on a number of fronts. we have been able to retake provinces like diyala which was partially under the control of isis. now we're having the fight in anbar, and we will in the near future focus to retake another province. >> woodruff: so would you say one side or another has the up per hand? >> if you compare it last year, it was important for us to take the niche toif rebuild our infrastructure, army people, politics and as a result a new government was formed. the focus of teamwork approach

by all, making sure that isis, defeating isis is the key theme where everybody has to focus on them. >> we just heard the president, president obama yesterday saying that there is no complete strategy yet for dealing with isis in iraq. it requires commitments on the part of the iraqi, as well. do we agree that commitments on the part of your government are holding this up? >> we will appreciate support from all others, specifically by the united states as being a game changer over the last year, however the fight is for our existence. the fight is against isis as an entity, as an identity and as a threat to our culture, our heritage and certainly for the minorities who have been able to exterminate or try to enslave and others. to us the time line is now. we need to focus now. we need to deal with it.

it has to be a sense of urgency. we appreciate that there has to be international support. we will welcome that. what we're saying is we will not wait for anybody to have this fight. we will do this fight. we want to have help from others, but we can't accommodate any long-term plan. >> woodruff: but you're not saying your government can do it alone? >> nor can anyone do it alone. it's in the a iraqi fight alone, judy. this is a regional fight with a global implication. >> woodruff: what about the responsibility in terms of u.s. military support and u.s. boots on the ground. >> i don't want to call it responsibility. all i will say is the whole world has a threat. the coalition which the united states has led we appreciate, we thank. we think it's important that we're all on the same page but we have... let's say it this way, the international plan for syria is still not.

there in iraq they have a partner. we have to work with each other. >> woodruff: what about the comment by u.s. defense secretary ash carter the other day that iraqi troops lacked the will to fight in ramadi. >> only yesterday a significant portion of the area was retaken. this has been a formidable fight. every day we pay dearly in our young ones' lives and sweat and resources limited resources of the state. i think it's unfair to say that it's an issue of the world. we have that but we need to get better coordination. last year was a setback for us. we had to restructure our military and our politics and so on. we're a new democracy we're a nay sent democracy. so i think people have the look at it in proportion, however let's put hit the way: whoever talks about not having the will united states was in iraq since 2003, so who is responsible? i think we are all responsible for this problem. we have to take ownership of it,

but move away from the policemen and focus moving forward. >> you're saying the u.s. shares part of the blame. >> everybody i think in that sense has a responsibility for it. politics in the region now unfortunately after the arab spring have become more self-centered politics. we need to work with each other. polarization this is not an iraqi problem. let me give you a simple example. if you have a threat in paris, is this a shared paris? no, it's a global phenomenon. isil is an evil manifestation. we need to eradicate it. >> woodruff: let me ask you about the role of iran. many in the u.s. are concerned about the heavier role of iran in your country. the reliance on iran exacerbates, makes worse the sectarian divisions in your country. is your government relying too much on iran in the fight against isis? >> we have a threat here.

a clear and present danger. for that means we need help from others. iran has a national security issue of its own because of the border, because of the religious grounds of iraq, which is concerned important heritage for the shia community and so on, so they have a stake. they've been able to provide unconditional support. if you have a problem, if you have a fire in your house, would you want your neighbor to give you a hand? that's what we have. and whatever politics we need to get in order we need to do that. we certainly... the sovereignty of the country is key issue for us but the threat is common and among other neighbors, as well. does iran have a sense of urgency others don't have? maybe. that's an issue where other countries have to say how urgent do they support iraq? >> >> woodruff: ambassador lukman faily, the ambassador of iraq to the united states, thank you for talking us to. >> thank you for having me here.

>> wooduff: the united nations refugee agency reported today that more than 100,000 migrants have arrived in europe this year after making the deadly voyage across the mediterranean. they are in many ways the lucky ones as more than 1700 have perished during the journey this year. tonight, we take a look at some of the others in the migrant crisis, those who are alive but stopped and imprisoned as they try to flee north africa lindsey hilsum of independent television news has our report. freedom, europe, the land they failed to reach africa and the families they left behind. >> i want the call my parents. >> reporter: now their world is inside the misurata detention center. 560 men, most of them africans,

some intercepted crossing the mediterranean, others arrested for working illegally in libya. >> i can't find freedom in africa. the only chance to have it was to cross the sahara and reach europe. >> reporter: do you regret getting on that boat? >> from the circumstances at the moment, that was the best decision to take. i tried. i couldn't live with myself as a man. i tried. i feel no matter how hard it is, i believe europe is better than africa. when europe is hard, africa would be hell. it would be fire. >> reporter: the eritreans are the largest group. if they stayed at home they would have been forced into indefinite military service. >> i have a brother. he's been there for 20 years. he's 94. i don't want to be a soldier for

20 years. so i need a better life. >> reporter: his friends tried to get out via egypt's sinai to israel. he was chained and tortured by people smugglers. they burned not only his hands but also his mind. >> you have a small bag there. >> reporter: he showed me the things he carried on his odyssey through five african countries. "you can touch my bible," he said, "but then let the gods see it." for many the nightmare was at sea. the libyan coast guard has released video of boats they recently intercepted on the way to sicily. several in the detention center will never forget may 3rd, the night their dreams died. >> before they intercept us, we all had the dream. you know we thought it would be

better. it was so unfortunate when we see the libyan people. and we all know that we are going back to hell. nobody prayed for that. >> reporter: nobody prayed to end up at the misurata morgue either. unclaimed, unnamed bodies, who washed up on the libyan shore when their boats capsized, anonymous men women and children who took the risk. for what? this man told me he has diplomas in information technology and marketing. surely he could find a job in gambia. you could stay and build your own country, not to come to europe. >> yeah, yeah that's true. we want to go to europe to have something. so if you are strong financially, you can come back the africa and invest something in africa. >> reporter: playing cards cut from juice cartons that wiles away the hours as they try to escape, they say, the guards

beat them. there's plenty of time to think about their lives. as the flow of migrants increases, europe's reserves of sympathy has dwindled. women and children may get a little but african men get none. 37 new graves have been dug in the dunes. migrants who perished at sea. the misurata cemetery looks over the mediterranean toward europe but some scorn death and dream of traveling even further. >> maybe to america. until i get what i need. >> reporter: which is? >> freedom. >> reporter: would you try again? >> you know if i still find

what chased me out of my house i'll try again. >> reporter: a diet of pasta and chicken, there's never quite enough to eat. caught between dreams and despair, they think of their lives stretching ahead, escape, deportation, indefinite imprisonment. 100 men share each bathroom. they have the same fears and ambitions as young men anywhere. they tell themselves no condition is permanent, but an accident of geography rules their fate. >> wooduff: california's drought has forced water use cutbucks in urban and agricultural areas. according to state scientists the situation has been exacerbated by medical marijuana growers. newshour special correspondent spencer michels reports on how some pot growers are using water

that isn't theirs. >> reporter: there shouldn't be any problems with threats. if we have a hostage situation yell out "don't shoot me" and fall or roll in the ground. >> reporter: it's 7:00 a.m. in fortuna, on california's north coast, and teams of law enforcement officers are preparing for what they call an "inspection" of cannabis farms deep in the wooded hills of humboldt county. >> it's a crappy road. >> does that road go all the way through? >> no it did not. >> reporter: despite the way it looks, these are not police or sheriff's deputies, or federal agents. they are employees of the state water board and the california department of fish and wildlife, and their aim is to protect the environment. a special program provides funds for these game wardens, biologists and engineers to find and inspect marijuana plantings on privately-owned lands, not with an eye to eradicating them but to see if the growers are stealing water and ruining streams with pesticide runoff.

>> we're pretty focused on this key watershed. this one we're going to is very important for coho salmon. >> reporter: adult marijuana plants use five to ten gallons of water a day. what the scientists have found and recently published in the scientific journal plus one, is that thousands of marijuana farms like this one are depleting streams at the height of the drought. scott bauer is a senior environmental scientist with fish and wildlife. for the watersheds that we studied, three of four watersheds, we estimate marijuana cultivation can consume all of the stream flow. it's aggravating the low flow conditions of the stream. you already have a stream that's suffering through lack of rainfall or snowmelt. >> reporter: this farm is owned by an absentee landlord and manned by several workers, one of whom took off when we arrived. >> this little one here is 305

gallons. >> reporter: officers found a vast and complicated array of pipes and pumps and tanks and fertilizers, drawing water, without permits, from small creeks that run through the property. they have a cistern down in the creek, that goes to a 500 gallon tank, and that goes to 20,000 gallon bladder and they pump it up the hill. >> reporter: bauer and others count the cannabis plants-- >> it's pretty average. >> reporter: --measure the size of the fields, and figure out the water supply. >> it requires permits you know and that's our job is to issue those permits. and condition them so that yes, you can use water, but it needs to be within reason. >> reporter: estimates are that there are 53,000 cannabis growers in california. many, though not all, claim to be growing medical marijuana, which, with some restrictions can be legal under state but not federal law.

a key tool for those looking for marijuana growing in these hills, for whatever reason, is the airplane. california fish and wildlife has using satellite pictures for some time. >> you can see sites plain as day on google. then we also do aerial flights to confirm it, that yes, there is cultivation taking place. >> reporter: what do you see from the air or from google earth? >> typically greenhouses, outdoor plants it's pretty obvious what the cultivation sites are. >> reporter: although most growers are not violent, many are defying the law. the sheriff of nearby mendocino county, where the drought has lowered lakes like this, says the problem is worse on large private holdings. >> there's thousands of acres in our county of land that's owned by timber companies and other large investors, that is

unpatrolled land. and marijuana growers trespass onto this land and that's where they divert water from streams into the marijuana groves. not many juries in this county will convict someone of growing marijuana. but we go after people who are illegally growing marijuana and stealing water. our local citizens who are the jurors understand this. >> reporter: wine grape farmers like george lee, attending a winegrowers meeting, complain that marijuana producers sometimes actually steal their water. >> they took my water. makes me angry. i there are neighbors i have that don't have great access to water. they store water in their ponds during the winter. some of those people do have a problem with people coming in and siphoning their water. >> reporter: lee and others are concerned that water levels in streams like the eel river are low throughout the state, and will get worse during what is expected to be a dry summer. and that is a huge concern for environmentalists like scott greacen, the executive director of friends of the eel river.

>> in the eel river watershed we have three runs of salmon and steelhead trout that are really in very serious trouble; they're listed as threatened on the federal endangered species list. if there isn't water in the creek here, then we lose the young salmon and the young steelhead trout that have to >> reporter: in addition, greacen says, growers often use pesticides and rat poisons, substances that get into the water supply or are ingested directly by animals. >> when a bird of prey, or a snake, kill that rat and take it back to their nest, they're not only ingesting that poison, they're passing it on to their babies. it's something nobody ever considered was going to be an effect of pot growing in the national forests and the wilderness areas. >> reporter: but whether marijuana growers are responsible for aggravating the drought through illegal water

use is disputed by some growers like patrick murphy, who leads california cannabis voice. >> right now, it's pure speculation. with the introduction of better irrigation styles and also different plant types, we'll be able to know what the actual water usage is. but i don't think that in the middle of a drought is a correct time to study the cumulative impacts of the cannabis industry. >> reporter: what murphy, and many others want to see is cannabis legalized so that it and its water supply can be regulated. they point to an operation like happydays farms belonging to casey o'neill and his family as a model. o'neill sells his organic vegetables at farmers markets, and his very healthy marijuana crop to what he calls "patients." >> reporter: we consume it for ourselves, and so we put the love, and the energy and the time and the effort into it, to produce a connoisseur product. >> reporter: o'neill gets his water from rain runoff, which he

stores in ponds he has constructed on the property and in tanks. >> so if we store the winter rainwater then we're able to use it as farmers without taking water away from the fish. i fundamentally believe that all cannabis grown in california could be grown on stored rainwater with a concerted government effort to support tank programs and catchment ponds. >> reporter: despite his good practices, o'neill, who once was jailed for possession and cultivation, fears that without regulation, he remains vulnerable. >> because the system hasn't provided regulation, there's no way for enforcement to say who's good farmers, and who's bad, and so as farmers we live under this constant shadow of fear. you never know. the dogs bark and you think it's the police. >> people are no longer talking about whether this is legal behavior or not. they know that this industry is the fastest growing industry in the united states. we're craving regulations; we're also craving the incentives that come with those regulations. so if you're a compliant farmer and you're doing a good job as

an environmental steward, then you are rewarded with an above ground marketplace, maybe crop insurance and that stability that this region hasn't seen for a long time. >> reporter: meanwhile, wardens and scientists continue look for evidence of water violations, at what they admit is a slow pace. in ten months, they've inspected just 70 grows, and have told 20 to 30 landowners they are in violation of state environmental laws. they call that making a small dent in a big problem. for the pbs newshour, i'm spencer michels in humboldt county, california. >> wooduff: online spencer has more from marijuana growers who want better regulation of water. read his blog on our home page pbs.org/newshour. >> wooduff: high school seniors are graduating across the country this month.

federal officials laud the fact that graduation rates have climbed steadily through the last decade. but new reporting calls into question whether those numbers are rising for all the right reasons. william brangham brings us the details. >> brangham: high school graduation rates are at an all- time high federal data show 81% of students finish, and finish on time. but a new investigation by n.p.r. finds reasons to question that number. their reporting found that the value of a high school diploma can vary widely between, and even within, states. in just nine states and the district of columbia, students must complete required classes to be considered "college-ready" and to earn a diploma. twenty-three states allow students to opt in, or out, of a more rigorous path to graduation. that leaves 18 states with requirements below what experts say students need for their next step in life. npr's anya kamenetz has been working on the series and joins me now.

anya, let's talk initially about this 81% graduation rate number. you say in your reporting we should take that number with a big grain of salt. why? >> well that's exactly what researchers are saying, too. the reason is other indicators such as the nation's report card remediation rate at colleges and even sat and act scores, those are all fat. so the fact we've seen a 10-point gain in the high school graduation rate should be giving us pause. >> brangham: you said one thing you reported on is districts are doing what's calling moving kids off the books. what is that and why are they doing it? >> right. so the graduation rate if you think about it the numerator of that number is simply the number of kids that get a diploma in a given year. but the denominator you're tracking kids from ninth grade through 12th grade and you're tracking those who the drop out along the way. there are many ways that a district, a school or even a state can play a few games with

that number. some examples we found, you know, in texas there are many, many different lever codes that a school can use to say a kid, for example is getting home schooled or that they left the country go back to mexico, and many of these codes do not require a lot of documentation. so we find that texas, in fact, is backing out thousands and thousands of students out of the denominator and not really accounting for where they go. >> brangham: why would school districts wants to do this? why are they trying to tweak the numbers here? >> well, you know, there are a couple of different reasons for that. no child left behind, of course put federal accountability measures behind the graduation rates. states have to set targets and they're liable to lose some funding if they don't. at the same time, you know we simply have better data ability some states got together in 2005 and agreed on a common measure of the graduation rate. so the ability to track students has gotten much more advanced because of database technologies. so for all of these reasons,

technical reasons as well as policy reasons there's so much more pressure to deliver those numbers. unfortunately you know the hard work of raising graduation rates really takes time. so that's why you see states attempting to go over some of these quick fixes. >> you're reporting also details some very innovative and long-term strategies that different school districts have used. can you explain some of those? tell me about them. >> right. so i want the highlight that we worked in collaboration with 14 member stations across the country and had them bring us what was happening in their cities and states. some strategies we looked at involved intervening early on. we're seeing across the country that states are expanding access to universal pre-k because of the research that shows that can impact high school graduation down the line. and then you have state like georgia which created a statewide graduation coach system. they're no longer funding that statewide, but some cities are still keeping it up. some states and cities are identifying, you know, people in

third or fourth grade, in d.c. which is has been working hard to raise graduation rates. they have the worst graduation rate in the country when you look at states. one of the schools that one of our reporters visited about one one-third of the students are homeless, so they're working on offering wrap-around services to help those kids escape statistics. >> you mentioned in your reporting that some districts are making it easier for kids to get a diploma. so on the face of that that sounds like a good thing. we want kids to get a diploma, but your reporting seems to indicate that kids might be getting shortchanged in that. >> that's right. we talk about the good, the bad and the ambiguous. obviously when you have states offering second chances to kids, offering the ability like in north carolina to get a basic skills diploma or in camden new jersey, half of the kids are graduating on an appeals process because they can't pass the required exams, we want to offer kids second chances. america is the land of second

acts, but the concern from researchers says if you don't really complete required courses and do so at a relative level of achievement, then you haven't mastered the skills you need to go on. so that's why we're seeing perhaps so many students who come into community college and they need the take high school courses over again. of course, they're paying college tuition for that privilege. >> anya kamenetz from national public radio, thank you so much. >> thank you so much. >> wooduff: next: mary norris has spent more than three decades at the "new yorker," copy-editing the work of some of the world's most vaunted writers. for our newshour bookshelf jeffrey brown sat down with norris, whose job title is "okay-er" and whose mission is clarity and purpose. >> brown: consider the comma when to use it, when to avoid it.

is it "i" at the door or "me"? "who" are you, anyway and from "whom" did you learn to write proper english? did you learn? do you care? well, mary norris cares a lot, as a copy editor for the "new yorker" magazine, famous for its high, or perhaps, highly idiosyncratic, standards. norris recounts a life of grammatical grief and glory in her book, "between you & me: confessions of a comma queen." we spoke recently at the shirlington library in northern virginia. >> brown: is this that a crown that you wear with pride? >> well yes i do. this is a crown that a friend made for me on publication on the book. comma queen is the title they came up with for me for the book, it's not something we toss around at the office, it's aluminum and these commas are individually cut. they're from unique historical fonts.

there's futura and bodoni and the great bembo. >> brown: now you've written a book that is part memoir, part i guess a grammar kind of guide. what were you after, what were you doing? >> i was just trying to help people who are insecure. >> brown: which is most of us, probably. >> it turns out that a lot of people are insecure. they learned about commas, they learned about grammar, some of them learned how to diagram sentences coming up. and they, i don't know if these things are taught at all anymore, there's something called language arts in schools i think, but they're still important, and they certainly should still be taught. >> brown: why are they important? why is it important to know about when to use a comma or when a dangling participle is wrong? >> well the main thing is to be clear in what you're saying. the comma, if it's left out, sometimes can be a problem.

there's a slogan on a t-shirt going around that "let's eat grandma," and "let's eat grandma." so it is kind of a matter of life and death. >> brown: life and death, cosmic if you happen to work at a place like the new yorker, these things are incredibly important, right? >> they are important. >> brown: so give me an example. >> oh, well i'm going to jump into fiction, thinking of the writer george saunders, who writes in the voice of somebody who's not very educated, and he would write, i think there's a dangler in one of his sentences, "while picking kids up at school, mother fell off park avenue." and that means, while i was picking up the kids at school, the mother fell off, or while picking up kids at school, i noticed that mother fell off. it's a dangler.

but it's also possible to see that in the mind of the narrator, it's exactly what he wants to say. so you don't change that. we use the serial comma because it's important sometimes to prevent ambiguity. i have a few examples in the book, like the big one is, "we invited the strippers, jfk and stalin." and without a comma after jfk it reads as if jfk and stalin are the strippers. i also like to make the point because people ask me about the serial comma so often, that it's not, it's not a moral decision. you can decide whether to use the serial comma or not use the serial comma, and as long as you're consistent. the new yorker puts all the extras in that it can, the diaeresis, the two dots over the

second o in cooperate. we like that kind of thing, it keeps us off the street. >> brown: is it hard for you to be alive when you know the rules so well? >> no, it's not that bad. for one thing, i'm only on duty when i'm on duty. there are songs, though, like that famous doors song, "when the stars fall from the sky-" >> brown: "for you and i." >> --i kind of want to put my hands over my ears when i hear that. >> really, i see you, you're cringing. >> there are a few things that but i live through them. >> brown: what about in the age of spell check and autocorrect, are you worried about what's going to happen to our language and our writing? >> i worry a little with spell check that kids won't ever bother to look words up in the dictionary. you learn a lot just by poking around in the dictionary. and everybody is a writer now. everybody uses email and has

facebook pages and tweets. the apostrophe is on its way out, i think, because you have to switch screens when you're texting to use an apostrophe. it's a lot of trouble for impatient young people to go extra screens just to put in an apostrophe in order to write "won't." >> so it's okay in twitter, but it's still not going to get by at the "new yorker." >> on the printed page, it's best to have everything, you know, still mind your "p's" and "q's." dot your "i's" and cross your t's." >> brown: between you and me confessions of a comma queen with her crown. mary norris, thanks so much. >> thank you.

>> ifill: finally our "newshour" news of the day. tonight it's newly discover footage of amila earhart, film believed to be the final film recorded of her before her plane disappeared and likely crashed into the south pacific. in the spring of 1937, this film was taken of earhart at a in the spring of 1937, this film was taken of earhart at a small airport in southern california. shot with a 16 milimeter camera, the film shows a casually dressed and relaxed earhart walking around and climbing aboard her plane. that day, her personal photographer, albert bresnick, snapped these famous photos. at the same time, bresnick's brother shot the grainy film and the bresnicks kept the film privately at their home for nearly eight decades. now, the three-minute-long film is being released along with a new book called "amelia earhart's last photo shoot." the first woman to fly solo across the atlantic, earhart attempted to fly around the world with her navigator, fred noonan. but their plane disappeared on

july 2, 1947 without a trace. sorry, the plane disappeared in 1937. >> wooduff: on the newshour online, 225 cameras set up across four hundred-square miles of eastern africa have captured more than a million animal photos, it's part of a project to catalog the species of the serengeti. we collected a handful of these images, from monkey "selfies" to gazelle "family portraits," and you can see them on our home page. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. tonight on charlie rose, late night television's james corden, and triple crown-winning jockey victor espinoz. and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we continue our iraq series, "no end in sight."

i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic

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