captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday june 13: in the first major speech of her presidential campaign, hillary clinton lays out her economic message. the ongoing fight in afghanistan. find out who western officials believe is sending cash and weapons to the talan. and in our signature segment, an ambitious plan to find homes for all of the homeless veterans in los angeles. >> we've just come to accept that we manage homelessness. that we try to make is less bad but we never make it better. >> sreenivasan: next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. a day after being rebuked by members of his own party in congress, president obama today used his weekly radio address to urge them to reconsider and support an international trade deal. >> this is about the kind of country we want to build for our kids and our grandkids. and if i did not think that smart new trade deals were the right thing to do for the working families, i wouldn't be fighting for it. this is the right thing to do.

>> sreenivasan: house democratic leader nancy pelosi was among those who broke with the president during a vote yesterday. she and other democrats fear the deal could cost americans jobs. the house could vote again early next week. after two months of quiet campaigning, in new york today, the democratic frontrunner, hillary rodham clinton, held her first official campaign rally in her bid for the presidency. her focus: economic opportunity. >> while many of you are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, you see the top 25 hedge fund managers making more than all of america's kindergarten teachers combined and often paying a lower tax rate. so you have to wonder when does my hard work pay off? when does my family get ahead? well i say now. >> sreenivasan: we'll have in- depth analysis of clinton's

first major speech of the campaign right after the news summary. in dallas today, a police sniper killed a man who launched an attack overnight on police headquarters. the lone suspect, tentatively identified as 35-year-old james boulware, pulled up to the police station in an armored vehicle, placed several bags of explosives around the building, and started shooting. no one was hurt. the suspect then led dozens of squad cars on a chase that ended with a standoff in a restaurant parking lot. police later deployed a robot to inspect the man's van. they said they found at least two explosives inside. he had accused police of taking his child and of calling him "a terrorist." >> we barely survived the intent of this suspect. >> sreenivasan: and the united states has released six men who spent more than a decade imprisoned at guantanamo bay in

cuba. the six arrived in oman this morning. all six were suspected members of al-qaeda, but were never charged. 126 prisoners have been released from guantanamo since president obama took office in 2009. 116 prisoners are still behind bars. a legal victory for consumers. a federal appeals court in denver yesterday upheld a law allowing a utah company to sell contact lenses at deeply discounted prices. in ruling, the court rejected a lawsuit brought by johnson and johnson, bauschnd lomb and other contact lens manufacturers. the companies wanted the court to impose minimum prices on their products. it's estimated that 38 million americans wear contact lenses. it is a fr billion dollar market annually. smart-phone thefts are apparently declining. consumer reports says just more than 2 million phones were stolen last year, compared to more than three million the year before. the magazine says thieves might be less likely to snatch the phones because many are now equipped with what are known as kill switches, removing sensitive information and disabling the phones after they e stolen. the government says it was the

hottest may on record in alaska. the average temperature there was just below 45 degrees. that is more than seven degrees above average, according to the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. it was also one of the driest mays on record there as well. >> sreenivasan: now, more about hillary clinton's major address today, and the state of the 2016 presidential campaign. joining me to help analyze clinton's appearance today is lisa dejardins, the newshour's political director. >> candidates make a lot of speeches. why did this one -- why was this one so important for the clinton folks to have this kind of visibility? >> this was hillary clinton answering the why issue running question. up to now she tried to prove to people i'm accessible, warm, relatable, and has ton small events all over the country with a few people. now she that is to prove there's a reason for her to run.

this is what she's trying to do today. and it was a broad philosophical speech but she also had a lot of specifics. really her campaign threw everything they had i think, into this speech. >> she also talked a by the about her mom, more than we remember about during the last campaign. >> it is interesting. i think she's trying to bring in a human factor and trying to say i'm not the only one that you can look to as a model. i look to my own mother. and she used her mother's story. her mother was forced out of her house. she didn't go into details there, when she was young, 14 years old, made her way as a maid, educated and as secretary clinton said today in her speech, her mom raised her to say someone should believe in you. you get your own chances but it helps when you have someone that believes in you and when hillary clinton was using that as a device today was to say i believe in america and i believe especially in workers, low-paid workers and i believe in women's rights and using it as metaphor for what she thinks a leadership role should be. >> sreenivasan: a couple of new

poles were out and republicans were saying fewer than half of the americans believe hillary clinton to be trustworthy or honest. how does that play into the new chapter her presentation. >> it was interesting. i didn't hear her directly head on address the trust issue. ned instead they tried to play to her strong points which was her decisiveness, and three times she came to her bio and what she has done to prove this is her time. and interestingly enough she did not try to separate herself from president obama, he himself not doing so well in the polls over the last year but two different times she tied herself to president obama. my issue is that she's going for the obama voters, for the core democratic voter who loved her husband, likes her, and also the president. >> there's a lot of core democratic voters who are in sort of bernie sanders elizabeth sanders wing of the party. how much is that influencing what she is saying? >> you could hear it toay for

sure. but her main theme, if you had to pick just one was the idea of inequality, especially inequality in wages and to some degree inequality in women's rights but mostly about wages. she mentioned many specific times of workers. talked about nurses working overnight. talk about hoe-paid teachers. talked aboutaitresses. she is hitting these sorts of groups of people that feel they're not getting maybe a fair share. and also went after republicans for, in her words, helping the fatcats in wall street and also specifically mentioned the supreme court. there was a good mention that is a she wants to overturn citizens united and said that's a way the rich are getting richer. >> that's just the struggle in her own party and there's the other party the republicans and i think jeb bush is set to announce on monday. so this is an incredibly crowded field already. so she is really going up against an entire gang of opponents. >> i think that's right. i think what she's trying to do today is cover a lot of bases. she didn't just talk about

inequality. that kind of stuck out to me. but she hit on climate change and a huge number of issues today. i think the danger hillary clinton has super-the speech, inasmuch as there's a broad philosophy is that she tried to do so many things that walking away i asked people what was the main messagehat you heard today and none of the voters could pick one thing. >> where does the republican field stand now? >> i think jeb bush has had a rough couple of weeks with the shake up in his campaign staff. but to be honest i think all of this is in the atmosphere and we don't know right now where the republican voters are. i think scott walker is still rising very strong. marco rubio very strong among the republican voters and there's so much to be shaken out and it's very important for jeb bush to be strong on monday. frankly his appearances and speeches as he has had this roll out vice president been his strong and the fact his campaign is looking to have a big moment

on monday. >> sreenivasan: lisa desjardins thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure to be here in new york with you. >> sreenivasan: and no our signature segment. our focus tonight: the persistent problem of homelessness among america's veterans. the government estimates that nearly 50,000 vets are homeless today. that's actually a major improvement from a decade ago. but getting rid of the problem altogether has proven difficult, in part because veterans suffer mental health problems at a higher rate than those who have not served. the problem is especially acute in los angeles which has more homeless veterans than anywhere else in the nation. tonight, newshour special correspondent john carlos fray reports on that city's ambitious plan to end homelessness among veterans this year. that's the obama administration's goal nationally as well. >> porter: 56-year-old lendell seay proudly shows off his tidy one bedroom apartment, which overlooks the five freeway in east los angeles. the unit's bathroom is so big he

keeps his bike in it, and there's plenty of room for his collection of hats, many of which tout his military service. >> my primary job was in motor t, transportation. >> reporter: seay served in the marines for more than 21 years, including desert storm in iraq, before retiring in 1998. but despite his successful military career, after his fiance passed away from a stroke in 2004, seay found himself in a downward spiral. >> and that's when the drinking and everything really, really kicked in. >> reporter: for you? >> yes, and i just-- just fell apart and lost everything. >> reporter: so you found yourself where? >> i found myself in the-- in the streets around culver city and santa monica. >> reporter: from one day to the next, you were homeless? >> yes. >> reporter: before he moved into this apartment last october, seay had been homeless, off and on, for a decade. >> everything that i made was mostly spent drinking.

>> reporter: famously sunny los angeles has long been known as the homeless capital of america from beachy communities like santa monica and venice to skid row downtown. there are about 45,000 homeless people in l.a. county, about 4,000 of whom are veterans. the number of homeless vets in the city of l.a. has fallen by about one third since 2009. and last year the city joined an ambitious national effort already underway to completely end veteran homelessness by the end of this year. l.a.'s commitment coincided with an event last july attended by first lady michelle obama, who has championed veterans initiatives for the obama administration. >> and make no mistake it is an aggressive goal. but we have seen time and time again that if you break these numbers down then this problem becomes eminently solvable. >> i don't think anybody's had the confidence that we'd ever be able to make a dent in homelessness. we've just come to accept that we manage homelessness, that we try to make it less bad, but we never make it better.

>> reporter: los angeles mayor eric garcetti is a former navy reservist himself. he says the city's effort to end homelessness among veterans is different than how things used to be in l.a. >> our policy was very lazy." i just do housing," "i just feed them," "i'm a free health clinic," and it-- and it admirably-- dealt with the crisis of people potentially dyng on our streets, but it never turned their lives around permanently. that's what's changed now. >> reporter: the first step of this new model is a permanent house, funded mostly at government exp with services then added around the resident. it's called permanent supportive housing. and that's what lendell seay found himself in. seay lives in this complex that houses only formerly homeless veterans. while there is no firm program that he has to follow, he has access to support services including onsite case managers, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, and even a community garden. officials in l.a. point to research showing nearly 90

percent of chronically homeless people remained housed after five years using this model. for seay, who has been sober for more than two years, it's more than he had hoped for. >> it feel good. sometimes, i walk around the apartment and no tv or nothing on and jt singing for no reason at all. and then i catch myself doing it and i start to laugh and i say" you must be going crazy now." but i'm just happy, it feel-- >> reporter: a good crazy. >> it feel good. >> reporter: there is no time limit on staying in the apartment. residents generally pay 30% of their income in rent. for seay, that's $470 from his pension. the resis subsidized with a federal voucher specifically for homeless veterans. since 2008, nearly 80,000 of these vouchers for homeless vets have been awarded around the country. >> i'll sign it, thanks. >> reporter: christine margiotta runs home for good for the united way of greater los angeles, which has coordinated the efforts of hundreds of service providers working to help homeless ts. she says housing for the homeless, including veterans, is less expensive than trying to

care for people on the street, which costs nearly $1 billion annually in l.a. >> because that person is using the emergency rooms for their primary health care. they may be cycling in and out of jail or prison. they're really suffering, out on our streets. what we know is that permanent supportive housing is actually 40% cheaper than leaving someone on the streets and, in our minds, doing nothing. >> reporter: but despite the progress made, there's no shortage of homeless people including veterans, on the streets of los angeles. early one morning we went to skid row in downtown l.a. with treach workers from u.s. vets, a non-profit veteran support group. there we met benjamin barraza jr. can i ask you how long you've been on the streets? >> how long? right now, it's-- it's-- since i've been out of prison? two years ago. >> reporter: you've been on the street for two years? >> yeah. >> reporter: barraza is an army veteran who served from 1971 to 1974. but he told us that he'd also

spent time in prison. since he'd been out, he'd been staying in skid row shelters. he showed us the few essential items that he keeps with him. >> i got it all here, man. you know, this is my little kit, you know. you got to keep clean, smell clean, you know. >> reporter: despite qualifying for a federal housing voucher barraza had not been able to find a permanent house. for him and many others on the street, finding an affordable apartment or placement in a facility with services isn't easy. >> reporter: is it frustrating? >> oh man, it's-- it's-- it's-- gives me, right now, i'm getting a headache right no just thinking about it. >> reporter: all the things you have to deal with just to get a place. >> well, because i can't even get around. i mean, i'm obese. i put weight on, you know, when i was in prison my mother died on me. >> reporter: wow, i'm so sorry. >> you know, i caught hepatitis c. >> reporter: even with the focus of the federal government and local officials on veteran homelessness, barraza and thousands of other tough cases are still on l.a. streets. i was on the street this morning.

and we ran into some veterans. >> yeah. >> reporter: from my eyes, it looks like an impossible task. these are people who are in dire straits. how do you deal with that population? >> the more you go into the population, the tougher it is to achieve that goal. because towards the end, it is the people who are the most service-resistant who most deeply experience mental health challenges when people have ptsd, substance abuse iues, which often intermingle with each other. some will take more time, but i'm confident we can make sure that each one of them has a pathway off our streets. >> reporter: some cities, including phoenix, salt lake city, new orleans, and houston have said they've been able to house their entire populations of chronically homeless vets with permanent supportive housing. but for l.a., time is short if the city hopes to meet its year- end goal. and that arbitrary deadline has concerned some advocates. steve peck is the c.e.o. of u.s. vets, which is a partner in the city's efforts and houses more

than 1,000 veterans in the l.a. area. >> my fear is that, you know december 31, someone's going to plant the flag and say, "we've done it." and anyone else then everyone diverts their attention to something else. we're going to be doing this for years because there are going to be veterans falling toward homelessness for years and years to come. >> reporter: pecka marine veteran, also worries that putting so much focus on permanent supportive housing provided with almost no preconditions, an approach known s;housing first, leaves many vets out, cluding those who may simply need some help getting back on their feet. >> i think the trap that people get into is that they hear about something like housing first and say, "that's the answer." they focus on that as the one answer. and it's a very complex problem. all veterans are different. they all have different needs. we've discovered that here. >> reporter: there's also concern that the focus on homeless vets will come at the expense of the broader problem. in fact, overall homelessness in l.a. is up 12% since 2013 according to data released last month. and despite the attention and

massive effort, the city of l.a. even saw a small increase in homeless vets. los angeles hhad a reputation for having a very large homeless population. for decades. this is nothing new. so, it seems-- i gue i'm being a skeptic here, that you're going to be able to get to functional zero by the end of the year but this has never happened before. >> it's never happened. but when i was campaigning for mayor i said, "i don't want to just manage homelessness." we needed to take a discrte population to give people the confidence that if we can end veterans' homelessness, we can attack chronic homelessness, families and other populations like foster youth, who each have distinct needs. >> reporter: for vets, the city will need systems in place. in the next three years, l.a. will have about 10,000 new veterans returning home and if the trend continues, hundreds will at some point be homeless. >> sreenivasan: learn how architects are rethinking the design of some of los angeles' housing for the city's homeless. watch our video online at

pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: in afghanistan today, the talibaned police in the southern province of helmand, killing at least 20 officers and wounding two others. it's the latest in a series of deadly taliban attacks there. now we're learning the taliban may bgetting an influx of outside support for these attacks. the alleged source? iran. joining me now via skype from istanbul is the wall street journal's margherita stancati. >> what sort of support is iran delivering to the taliban in afghanistan? >> many different types of support. it started gradual, mostly just through financing but over the years it has expanded to include equipment such as weapons and ammunition. and now more recently also ting and recruitment of the taliban fighters. >> sreenivasan: so what is iran's interest in supporting the taliban in afghanistan? >> well, iran wants to be

relevant in afghanistan in general and afghanistan's future looking more uncertain now than it has for a long time it wouldn't be able to have the influence of all key actors and that now includes the taliban. >> and they're involved in several other parts in this fight against sear gra. i mean they're supporting all kinds actors in different places. yeah. they pursue a very activist foreign policy in the region. you know, it's not the fires time they have recruited afghan fighters. they have also recruited afghans fighting syriaith the region but this is a different focus because here they're siding with the taliban and that's not an obvious alliance. iran is aheocracy and in the past they nearly went to war with iran but over the past 13 years they began reaching out to the taliban as well because they have an enemy in common and that

was the united states. then more recently what brought iran close to the taliban has been the emergence of the islam state within the afghan territory as well. >> sreenivasan: none of this happens in a vacuum. does this information have an impact on the ongoing nuclear negotiations? >> it's too early to say. but it could definitely add future to credit incompetence who say a possible deal would give more freedom to iran to pursue its policy and that's definitely how -- some of the responses that we have been getting from the u.s. >> sreenivasan: so if the economic sanctions were lifted and allows iran to pursue this policy of their more freely. >> that's the fear and that's what critics have put up and many of the crits have looked at this example of iran supporting the taliban in afghanistan as an example of that. >> margherita stancati of "the wall street journal" joining us

live from istanbul, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: and now to viewers like you, your chance to comment on some of our recent work. many of you wrote us about last weekend's updated signature story from ohio on the controversial use of traffic cameras to ticket motorists for traffic violations. some of the viewers we heard from defended the practice. patrick devine said: "love them. reduces the number of police officers needed for traffic control so they can enforce other area. red light cameras have been proven to save lives." thomas langr added: "i'll be in the minority here, but after seeing all the accidents caused by motorists breaking the rules, and so many close calls myself, i see a place for them." martin wrote: "we've had them in south australia for years. these cameras will always be regarded as revenue-raisers until the money from fines is used for road safety not general revenue." there was also this from nathan engle:

"i definitely see t argument that it's toxic to turn municipal fines into a for- profit venture, but i'm not at all comfortable standing on the side of people trying to argue that it was nbig deal that they blew through a red light." but others felt there was no need for traffic cameras, and that they do nothing stop traffic violations. mike millan said: "these are just revenue generating machines that do nothing to decrease traffic problems. they should be taken down and outlawed." mikemann mcmahon wrote: "our experience withhem in minneapolis was dubious, and was determined unconstitutional by the state supreme court." sean burns had this to say: "just another way to turn 'law enforcement' into a cash machine for the city." and finally there was this from hkrieger: "i once worked as a photographer, but this seems like a more profitable way to make money with a camera." as always we welcome your comments. visit us at pbs.org/newshour on our facebook page, or tweet us @newshour.

sreenivasan: more news before we leave you, the pentagon is poised to move heavy military equipment into several baltic and eastern european countries near russia, this according to the "new york times." the move would be the most significant military response since russia annexed crimea last year. more on that tomorrow. and 27 personal letters written by albert einstein sold for $427,000 this week in los angeles. in the letters einstein shared his thoughts about god, mccarthyism and naziism. see you here tomorrow. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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

>> i don't know if i could forgive somebody the way he's been able to forgive me. >> i knew the only way i was going to get past it was to forgive him. and that is a huge undertaking.