captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> ifill: coalition forces retake a key islamic state stronghold on the syrian border. the president's special envoy general john allen on u.s. efforts to defeat isis. >> i think the the momentum is growing actually onhe the part of the coalition. as these forces continue to operate, we're going to it continue to make the point with them that they have to protect the pop laipgzs that they're liberating. good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. also ahead this tuesday, the economics of food waste, why

farmers leave as much as 30 percent of produce to rot in the field. >> ifill: say farewell to trans fats, finding healthier alternatives for the artificial ingredient. >> woodruff: plus, as cuba ares to open up to the u.s., preserving havana's character from crumbling into ruin. >> you see decades of deferred maintenance, you see infrastructure that's falling apart, cracked buildings, dirt corrosion. >> ifill: those are some of the stories we're covering on tight's pbs "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and the william and flora hewlett foundat helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: u.s. airstrikes in yemen have killed al-qaeda chief, nasser al-wuhayshi removing the leader of its offshoot in the arabian peninsula. the white house announced that news today. and the militant group confirmed it, in a video statement posted online. wuheeshi was known as al-qaeda's charismatic second-in-comnd, and a close associate of osama bin laden in the years leading up to the 9/11 attacks. earlier today judy spoke with retired marine general john allen, the president's point person for the coalition fighting the islamic state, about the strike on the rival militant group. >> it's a blow to al qaeda as the number two in al qaeda. it just continues to reinforce theoint that al qaeda leadership will be at risk no matter where they are on the planet, that the united states is going to hunt you down and we're going to deal with you.

>> ifill: judy's complete interview with general allen will run later in the broadcast. for more details of the slain al qaeda leader, i spoke earlier with former deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, juan zarate. welcome back, juan zarate. >> thank you gwen. >> ifill: what does the death of nasser al-wuhayshi tell us about al qaeda? >> al qaeda remains under pressure and is having a tough time remaining the vanguard of the global extremist movement. wuhayshi was one of the senior-most and long-standing leaders of al qaeda al qaeda's number two worldwide was leading al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. this is a significant blow. that said al qaeda in the arabian peninsula itself is much stronger than it has been has more manpower, more funds established a safe safen. al qaeda in some ways, still presents a threat. put the removal of wuhayshi who

presents an element of connectivity for the group globally is really a blow to the attempts by al qaeda to remain the vanguard of this global movement. >> ifill: al qaeda iso hydroheadd and we've seen the rise of isis in recent years, does this mean-- and there have been a string of attacks this seem to have taken out people who are number one or two in different areas of the region. does this mean al qaeda is on its way out, on its heels, or is that too much to hope for? >> i think it's too much to hope for. unfortunately, this is a movement that has metastasized around the world so you have had this group in 'em, al qaeda, the iraqiian peninsula, in africa, east africa air, movement that has inspired others to attack. keep mind, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula took credit for the charlie hebdo the paris attacks so in some ways the ideology itself has spawned this glal movement and it's not good enough now at this stage to simply remove a leader, although he has been incredibly important and significant so we're still going to see a threat from this

group as it adapts to the pressure. >> ifill: does success mean we have sources from within helping us to find these leaders? >> that's a agreed question gwen, because the u.s. has had to advocate its presence in yemen. it has had to fight other fights asid the civil war in yemen. but we continue to have eyes and ears allowing us to target these kind of individual. and as the white house has said nay will take strikes unilaterally against those plotting against the u.s. and wuhayshi fit that bill. >> sreenivasan: when osama bin laden was taken out, there were othersothers who rose to replace him. is that the case here as well? >> absolutely. the successor in waiting, the militant commander of a.q.a.p., so a.q.a.p. is not going to really miss a beat and they're going to remain focused not just on establishing a safe haven in yemen but also attacking the west. and i think that's the reality of a movement that has endured

these kinds of decapitations over time. they know that the succession will come. it will be interesting though, gwen, who see who bottoms the al qaeda deputy globally. we haven't heard some al-zawahiri yet. >> ifill: juan zarate, as always, thank you very much. >> thank you gwen. >> ifill: as we just ntioned the killing of the al qaeda leader in yemen comes against the backdrop of heavy fighting in the country since march that has claimed thousands of lives. today, representatives for the houthi rebel delegation finally arrived for u.n. led peace talks in geneva, but rival factions refused to sit in the same room. the u.n. is hoping to at least establish a cease-fire when ramadan begins later this week. journalist jane ferguson is in yemen on assignment for the newshour. she told us earlier today that many on the ground aren't counting on a diplomatic breakthrough. >> reporter: every day and night, the sound of strikes and anti aircraft gunfire can be heard across sanaa.

neither side wants to be seen to have backed down and several months of violence has hardened each side's position. in the meantime, life for yemenis is a constant struggle. a saudi imposed blockade on the country has made essentials scarce: families are living on small supplies of rationed water, people sit in their cars for several days as they wait in line for gas and hospitals say they're running out of essential supplies. yemen has long been the poorest country in the middle east, but this recent crisis is creating a humanitarian disaster worse than ever before. ifill: you can watch jane ferguson's full report from yemen on the newshour later this week. mahmoud abbas announced the government he formed with rifle hamas last year will dissolve. this news comes in the wake of last year's war in gaza and frustrations over political power shairlg there. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the u.s. house gave itself more time to salvage president

obama's trade agenda. republicans pushed through a measure to keep the issue alive through jul last friday, democrats effectively blocked the president's bid for renewed negotiating authority. that outcome jeopardized a proposed asian trade agreement. >> ifill: also today, lawmakers ripped into the federal personnel chief over two major data breaches. the attacks exposed information on millions of current, former and prospective government employees. at a house hearing, katherine archuleta blamed decades of neglect of government computer systems. but utah republican jason chaffetz pointed to an inspector general's warning last year. >> your system were vulnerable, the data was-- was not encrypted. it could be compromised. they were right last year. they recommended it was so bad that you shut it down and you didn't, and i want to know why. >> the recommendation to close down our systems came after the adversaries were already in our network. >> when didthey get in the

network-- >> our security systems systems that we were able to detect this intrusion. >> ifill: it's been widely reported that u.s. officials believe the cyber-attacks are linked to china, a charge beijing denies. >> woodruff: there's word the f.b.i. is investigating pro baseball's st. louis cardinals for allegedly hacking the houston astros' computers. "the new york times" reports the target was information on players, including trades and scouting reports. the cardinals said they're cooperating with the probe. >> ifill: tropical storm "bill" socked texas today, just weeks after floods killedore than 30 people in the state. the storm made landfall at midday near matagorda with winds of 60 miles an hour. as it roared ashore, it also brought heavy downpours, with up to a foot of rain expected. flash flood watches were posted in central texas and the houston area. >> woodruff: the obama administration has unveiled $4 billion in private sector pledges to target climate change. the announcement came at a white

house summit today. major foundations and corporate investors committed to pay for innovative ways of cutting carbon pollution. >> ifill: a man who leaped the white house fence and got inside the executive mansion was sentenced today. a federal judge ordered omar gonzalez to serve 17 months in prison. the iraq war veteran was caught on camera in september, running across the white house lawn. he was eventually tackled inside the building. the incident helped force a shakeup at the secret service. >> woodruff: real estate mogul donald trump made it an even dozen today in the republican presidentiafield. the flamboyant billionaire and t.v. personality announced at his trump tower skyscraper in new york city. he vowed to tackle a litany of issues, from health care to immigration. >> i would repeal and replace the big lie obamacare, i would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me believe me and i'll build them

very inexpensively, i will build a great, great wall on our southern border and i will have mexico pay for that wall mark my words. >> woodruff: so far, trump has placed near the bottom in public inion polls on the republican presidential hopefuls. >> ifill: greece and the european union hardened their positions today in a standoff over preventing financial default. in athens, prime minister alexis tsipras told parliament european creditors want higher taxes, including on medicine and electricity. >> ( translated ): if the goal is to continue with a program that everyone in the world knows has failed, and without any debt restructuring, then there is no leeway for a decision by the greek parliament. we are obliged, to just do our duty, to not give in to pressures and blackmails without any result. >> ifill: the head of the european commission said the prime minister isn't telling the truth. without an agreement, greece could default on a repayment of

$1.8 billion that's due at month's end. >> woodruff: americans are giving more to charities after a long, post-recession slump. the foundation, "giving u.s.a." reports an estimated $358 billion went to u.s. charities last year. that was $47 billion more than the record set in7, before the recession. >> ifill: wall street didn't set any records today, but it did manage to break a losing streak. the dow jones industrial average gained 113 points to close above 17,900. the nasdaq rose 25 points, and the s-and-p 500 added nearly 12 >> woodruff: in a passing of note, las vegas casino billionaire kirk kerkorian died last night in los angeles, after a brief illness. he built some of the biggest hotels in las vegas and bought and sold the m.g.m. movie studio three times. he also tried and failed, twice, to buy chrysler. kirk kerkorian was 98 years old. >> ifill: and the chicago

blackhawks celebrated today after winning the stanley cup last night. the blackhawks beat the tampa bay lightning 2-0 in game 6 of the national hockey leag finals. it's chicago's third title in 6 years. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: general john allen on building a coalition to defeat islamic state militants; what phasing out trans fats means for food producers and consumers; economic incentives to stop food from going to waste; saving cuba's architecture from turning to ruins; and, one student's fight to beat the odds and become the first in her family to graduate high hool. >> woodruff: the islamic state group suffered a major defeat in the last 24 hours, losing a vital supply line to its self- proclaimed capital raqqa. the isis loss happened inside

syria near the turkish border in a town called tal abyad. kurdish fighters, and members of the free syrian army took control of the area after days of fighting. they were helped by three u.s. coalition airstrikes on islamic state targets. the development comes on the heels of the obama administration's announcement that it is sending an additional 450 trainers to iraq to fight the sunni militant group. helping coorte efforts with allies against the islamic state is retired marine general john allen, the president's special envoy. i spoke to him earlier today at the state department, as part of our series "no end in sight." general john allen, thank you very much for talking with us. >> it's always a pleasure judy. thank you. >> woodruff: so you've just come back from a trip to iraq and a number of other countries. the news lately about isis has been pretty disappointing-- in

fact discouraging. but there was some good news yesterday out of syria and a bablgths route on the turkish border. what you can tell bus that? >> well, the reporting is still coming together on this, judy. it's a long-term effort that's been under way by some of the resistance elements in that region to ultimately cut off a border crossing called tal abyad. and we believe it is one of the principal sources for supply to isil's capital in raqqa to the south. so we're waiting to get more reporting on it. we'll get more over the next few days and get a better and a clearer picture. but one thing that's very important, i think, as these forces continue to operate, we're going to continue to make the point with them that they have to protect the populations that they're liberating. it's essential, really, to the stabilization of the area. we're going to watch that as

well. >> woodruff: but as we were saying overall the news has been pretty discouraging. the fall of rahm. the last stronghold essentially of the iraqi government in anbar province, and the fact that isis has been able to not just take but hold large swaths of territory in syria. in iraq we're a year out from isis taking over mosul. i mean, what-- who has the upper hand right now in this conflict? >> well,ic i think the momentum is growing, actually, on the part of the coalition, the iraqis. if you look at the battle space across iraq, tikrit was recently liberated, which is not an insignificant city frankly. and very important activity is going on in tikrit today. in the province of salases had addin starting yesterday, families began to return to tikrit after it was liberated. there has been the beginnings of the recovery of the sunni iraqi

police of that province, which will be census to securing and holding that population. it's not just beating dash. it's ultimately moving the populations back into their home villages or in this case the city and doing that in a way where we can secure the population through the recovered police and doing it in a way where we can provide stabilization to the population by the movement of funds created as a result of the coalition. that's a pretty important outcome. and that process is under way in a number of places in iraq. >> woodruff: now the president just announced at the end of last week that 450 more u.s. military advisers trainers, will be going to iraq soon to beef up the u.s. presence there now, to work in anbar province. how much difference is that going to make? >> what you saw with the defeat in ramadi-- and we learned a lot about that-- was that in the end, while those defenders fought hard for a long period of time and ultimately withdrew, if you go up the river just a short

distance to al-assad, an operational platform where we've been for a long period of time, the training of iraqi security forces and the training of tribal forces has rendered a big segment of the euphrates river completely empty of dash. there is the proof of the concept behind the strategy of ultimately empowering the indigenous forces to take control of their areas. whattatuattam gives the the potential to really in one place ultimately to be trained by americans and iraqis to give them the capacity to take back the eastern part of the province province. >> woodruff: one of the views throughout is that the u.s. should be doing much more than this. if it's worth doing anything, it's worth coming in with overwhelming support, that this is taking too long, that isis is get too long lasting and deep a

foothold, and the u.s. shouldn't be making such a baby step, if you will. >> i think the u.s. is doing a great deal. and let's call it the coalition as well. i think we're doing a great deal. beyond the clearance of tikrit which would not have happened frankly without coalition support to the iraqi security forces. without our emphasis on recovery of the police a lining up coalition partners to help to train the police, without going after actively the development of a sustainability or a stabilization fund, without our constant training of iraqi main force units and tribal elements we wouldn't be where we are today. so there's a lot of activity that's going on. woodruff: another view is that this is just turning out to be too hard. it's not going to work. and the u.s. should just basically pull back and let-- leave the fight to the kurds, the iranians, anyone else in the region. >> well that's not going to work. i mean it completely

destabilizes the region if we permit iraq to ultimately come apart, and the chances are very good that week the case without the support we're providing to the prime minister at this particular moment. it's not going to occur in the short term. it's going to take had? time and we need to recognize that. >> woodruff: general allen you have been very focused on the flood of foreign fighters into the region to work with-- fight with isis. you were not only in iraq. you made a trip to the balkan countries -- croatia, boz me aherzegovina, montenegro because of the concern about the source, foreign fighters there. talk a little bit about what your message was there and serious this problem is. >> everyone of those countries is, in fact, a source country. but we're also a source country, and we're looking very hard at how we get at e business of reducing the attractiveness of the caliphate, which is often the so-called-- so-called

caliphate, @which is often the point of legitimatization for the message of dash, so they're bracing that hard and we can learn a lot from what we're trying to do. >> woodruff: there was a story in the "washington post" over the last few days essentially saying the u.s. is losing the battle in social media to win hearts and minds, that isis has been so effective in getting its message out there and making it seem so appealing and that the u.s. and the coalition has had a much tougher time. where does that stand? and do you-- >> that's agreat question. >> woodruff: why is it so hard? >> it's hard for a variety of reasons. first, i don't agree with the broad character estimation that we're losing the conflict in that regard. it's great challenge because dash only has one message, and they only have a single entity, by and large that's putting that meng out. so it's easy to get a unity of and were a unity of effort in that message. but i recall the words of one of

our coalition leaders, and that's king adbullah ii of jordan where he said this is about recovering our faith. and to do this, we must have an arab face and a muslim voice. and i've traveled a lot, judy, across the coalition. i've been to 29 different capitals at this point. i've been to southeast asia. i've been to the middle east. i've been in europe, i've been in north america. so with thatuch diversity across so many regions in the world achieving the unity of purpose and the unity of message is really important and that's what we're working to do. >> woodruff: general john allen, we thank you very much for talking wh us. >> it's great to see you again, judy. thank you very much. >> ifill: in health news today the food and drug administration moved to effectively ban artificial trans fats. declaring that partially hydrogenated oils, known as p.h.o.'s, and the main source of artificial trans fats are unsafe for use in human food. food manufacturers have three

years to get rid of the p.h.o's. a move the f.d.a. said could prevent thousands of fatal heart attacks each year. for more on today's announcement, we turn to dr. walter willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at harvard university's t.h. chan school of public health thank you for joining us, dr. willett. if you could please start by explaining for people who don't understand, where do they find-- where do you see trans fat? >> trans fats have been widely used in the food supply as a substitute for lard and butter. we found them in shortening, margarine, baked goods deep-fried products. about 80% or 85% of trans fats have been removed from the food supply at this time. >> ifill: if the f.d.a. just today said they were band and we already lost 80% of trans fats in the food supply since 2003 what, is the need for this full ban now? >> even the relatively small

amount of trans fats remaining are still likely to be causing around 7000 premature deaths from heart disease per year. that's still a large number and definitely worth the ban taking effect to really get trans fat off the table entirely. >> ifill: why isn't simply labeling the food not sufficient so people can decide if that's something they want to consume or not? >> the problem is that many foods don't have labels on them. when we were able to put trans fat on the food label for those foods that do have a label, the manufacturers quickly removed trans fats from most of those products, but they kept selling trans fats in restaurants where there are no foodabels uproviding quite clear evidence that just labeling alone was very important but it's not a sufficient way of getting trans fats out of the food supply. >> ifill: so prepared foods are a danger zone. but explain to me the health connection.

you said and the f.d.a. said thousands of heart attacks would be prevented because of this kind of ruling. what is the connection? >> there are many kinds of studies that have looked at trans fat. in short-term feeding study we see trans fats increase l.d.l., the bad cholesterol, reduce h.d.l.-- the good cholesterol-- increase inflammatory factors and have many other adverse metabolic effects. in long-term epidemiologic studies we see clear evidence that higher intake of trans fats is associated with higher risk of heart disease disooez. in more recent studies with many other conditions such as diabetes and infertility. trans fats are a metabolic poison. >> ifill: if trans fats have been in our food for most of our lives what substitutes for them? there was a reason why they were there in the first place. i assume to extend shelf life for goodsnd preserve them. what takes their place? >> there is no single substitute

for trans fat. it depends what you're doing with it the trans fats. liquid vegetable oils work perfectly well, and the restaurant industry has very completely switched over to trans fat-free oils for deep frying. for baking and some of other times of cooking, it's a little more complicated but there are many alternatives to trans fats, sometimes still liquid vegetable oils work perfectly fine. sometimes a little bit of palm oil or a little bit of coconut fat will be needed if there's a crispiness that's an important part of that food. >> ifill: finally-- pardon me-- finally the f.d.a. says there's a three-year clock on this, that this is indeed, poison, the word you used ynot make it immediate? >> this was a bit of a compromise. parts of the industry pushed back quite hard against more immediate trans fat ban. hopefully, i think industries,

many industries will take-- see the writing on the wall and get trans fats out of their products well before that three years. >> ifill: dr. walter willett, chair of the of department of nutrition at the harvard school of public health, thank you very much. >> good evening. >> woodruff: next, we launch an occasional series we are calling "food, glorious food," reports about what we eat, how our food is grown, and the economics of putting a meal on the table. tonight, we begin with food waste, much of what is grown on american farms never gets to market. allison aubrey of national public radio has our report. this story is part of the newshour's ongoing collaboration with n.p.r. >> reporter: in salinas valley california it's a symphony of sound, as the growing season gets underway, this fertile

strip produces 70% of our leafy greens, it's been dubbed the salad bowl of america. but not everything grown here makes it to our plates. in fact, some of it never leaves salinas. at a local solid waste dump operations manager, cesar zuniga watches, as trucks roll in every day to dump produce destined for a nearby landfill. >> we got a whole load of loose organic lettuce we've got some spinach towards the back. looks like it's perfectly fine nothing wrong with it. see we got some kale here we've got broccoli in the back as well. we got plenty of produce to make a salad here. >> reporter: the greens in this landfill are from local farms and sometimes they end up here because something goes wrong during the packaging process. another reason why perfectly good food gets wasted, peter lehner from the natural resources defense council explains. >> right now, food that isn't sold to the best buyers is often dumped in the landfill.

the prices for fresh fruits and vegetables can go up and down quite a bit, farmers may plant thinking they'll get one price, but by the time harvest comes around, there's another price and it's not even worth transporting. >> reporter: a report by the natural resources defense council says that as much as 40% of all the food produced in the united states never gets eaten. >> the idea that almost half of our food is wasted is crazy. >> reporter: that waste occurs at every point along the food chain. some is lost in transport and during food processing. supermarkets we the consumers end up tossing out a lot too. but what about what's lost on the farm: the n.r.d.c.'s report found that anywhere from one to 30% of farmers crops don't make to market. we toured ocean mist farms with art barrientos to find out why. >> this cauliflower here. you see how it just has that

yellow tinge to it this is not marketable. >> reporter: just because the color is a bit off? >> because it's yellow. this will not be packed. >> reporter: it's got to be ery bit as nutritious as the white cauliflower down here in the field. what's wrong with-- >> there isn't anything wrong with it. let me cut, grab that. >> does it taste sweet? >> reporter: it's crunchy, it's tasty. tastes like any other cauliflower i've ever had. as consumers are we just shopping with our eyeballs and forgetting about our taste buds? >> absolutely! as consumers, we want white cauliflower that's what we expect from our grocer. >> reporter: and as a result it gets wasted? >> as a result it gets incorpored back into the ground we won't harvest it. >> reporter: what's another issue that might ding something out of the market place? >> size. size is critical. >> this head of cauliflower here is too big. >> reporter: too big? so you have to meet these very specific size stipulations? >> yes and this is too big. >> reporter: it's really kind of shocking to me. >> well, yes it can be.

>> reporter: size matters because retailers demand uniformity, when everything is stacked up nicely it makes for better eye candy. like this perfectly sized cauliflower that is being wrapped up destined for the produce aisle. the yellow rejects and heads deemed too big or too small are left behind in the field to be plowed under. and if you think broccoli and cauliflower have a tough time making the grade. check out these peaches. >> if you look at this peach all the way around it's got no blemishes to it, it's got a red color with a yellow blush background. that's going to go to our premium box the high end retailer. this one right here has got a littreen on it so it's definitely a number two, we wouldn't pack put this in a premium box. >> reporter: back that up. premium grade. would you buy these seconds? >> reporter: and the ones that don't even rate as a one or two. dumped into this truck.

>> this truck here is our final throwing out going to the cattle feed. >> reporter: so think of everything that went into growing these crops: the water, the fertilizer, the fuel to run the tractor, but ultimately if these crops don't measure up to standards they're just plowed under right here in the field and all that energy is wasted. >> 80% of our water, 10% of our energy, 40% of our land is used to grow our food. >> reporter: and when it ends up in a landfill. lehner says there's another problem. >> now food is the largest material in our landfills. of all the things that are in our dumps. the biggest portion is food. when it rots it emits methane, which is a very potent green house gas, maybe 30 or 100 times more potent than carbon dioxide. >> reporter: but there are some solutions on e horizon, ocean mist and h.m.c. farms donate some of their less than perfect produce to the california food banks. last year ocean mist sent nearly

400,000 pounds of broccoli and cauliflower and some of it ends up here at this warehouse in san francisco, it can store seven square miles of produce. paul ash oversees the operation. he says in the last decade the california association of food banks has doubled the amount of produce it distributes. >> this year, we hope to grow the california farm to family program by over 70 million pounds. and part of that will mean more produce for california food banks. but we hope part of it also means we'll be able to push this eastward to other food banks. >> reporter: the food banks farm to family program has tried to recruit more growers, who pack in the field, to do what ocean mist does, they separate out the seconds and pack it in these black crates headed for the food bank. the premium heads get packed in the ocean mist boxes headed for retaile. it's a simple process but only three out of 25 broccoli and cauliflower growers in the state participate.

harold mcclarty of h.m.c. farms says he'd like to date more of his peaches to the food banks but-- >> getting it into the hands of someone to eat isn't free. there'got to be an economic incentive to move more of this into an avenue, that food banks could take advantage of. it's a lot easier and cheaper just to basically throw it away. >> reporter: the state of california does offer farmers tax credits to donate produce, but ash says the food banks are lobbying for bigger deductions. there are only six other states besides california, that give tax breaks to growers for donating food. >> fifty million americans don't know where their next meal is coming from. we meanwhile are wasting all this food. if we cut food waste even by one third there would be enough food for all those people who don't know where their next meal is coming from to be fully fed. >> reporter: as food banks work to expand their programs some entrepreneurs say there are so many seconds to go around they see a whole new business model. much like what a french

supermarket did last year. >> we launched les fruit et legumes moche, starring the grotesque apple the ridiculous potato. >> reporter: and it worked. >> our new kind of fruits and vegetables were an immediate success, we faced only one problem, being sold out. >> reporter: here in the u.s. entrepreneur ben simon and two other americans are betting they can turn americans on to less- than-perfect produce. >> we're working hard to launch a venture called imperfect. you get a box of seasonal ugly produce delivered to your door every week and because this produce looks a little funky on the outside you get it for 30 to 50% less. >> reporter: imperfect plans to start delivery in the san francisco area sometime this summer and they've just signed a deal with a high-end grocery chain called raley's, which has more than 100 stores in california and nevada. here's raley's megan burritt. >> when their picking up that apple we need to tell them that

story. whether it's you know these are the underdog apples. who doesn't love an underdog story or something like that. >> reporter: will americans embrace these misfits as easily as the europeans have? raley's is betting they will. and back in salinas, cesar zuniga is anticipating traffic will pick up as the growing season hits full swing. for the pbs newshour, i'm allison aubrey of npr news in salinas valley. >> ifill: and now to the latest installment in our series on the cuban evolution. tonight jeffrey brown explores havana's aging, and in many cases, crumbling infrastructure that puts cuba's culture character and charm at risk. >> brow it is a city of rare visual depth. layers of history told in its buildings a melding of styles

through hundreds of years, spanish colonial to mid-20th century modernism. today, after decades of neglect and a severe lack of resources, so much of it is crumbling. >> it's often said that havana is frozen in time, and being here, that feels right. i've never seen anything quite like it before. but everyone agrees that changes are now coming to the city and that mean big challenges and decisions ahead. >> brown: the man credited with preserving large chunks of havana and saving hundreds of its buildings is eusebio leal. >> so, what do you see when you walk these streets? >> ( translated ): i remember what i saw bore renovation. everything was ruined it was abandoned. >> brown: the official "city historian," leal is a man who thinks big. >> ( translated ): havana is a

city like paris that has an identity of its own. they've done it in paris where they've preserved the character of the city and havana is more than just a city, it's a kind of state of mind. >> brown: leal hatched a plan decades ago, and then got cuban leaders to sign on, to fix up and restore a handful of hotels in "old havana" and funnel part of the proceeds, more than $100 million a year, back into other buildings. using tourism, in effect, to beautify and maintain the city. part of the citys still ruined? >> yes, but it's there, it's still there and that's what is important. >> reporter: only in the last five years have cubans been legally allowed to buy a property, and few can afford such a luxury. that's meant little incentive or resources for updating homes. many people live in buildings without plumbing or electricity. >> i live in bad conditions, i live in a building that is almost crushed, and it's very dangerous. >> brown: nestor machado lives in one of havana's grand

buildings in serious decline. >> it has seven architectural styles, tourists pass all the time, and they want to take good pictures, you know, because it caught their attention, but the problem is it is almost crushing. >> this is building my father designed. >> brown: rosa lowinger was born in cuba but came to the u.s. with her family as a young girl. an art conservator, she returns these days to tours of havana's historic architecture. >> if developers had come in here in the early 60's, something that is this low, in this neighborhood, would have been gone-- it was an accident of history that it all still stands. >> what the revolution did is stop development, and when you stop development you stop destruction that is deliberate. >> brown: now, says lowinger, with cuba poised to open its doors more to u.s. tourism and industry, development is likely to come. but, what kind, and with what

impact? >> the issues now, is what you see around you, you see decades of deferred maintenance, you see infrastructure that's falling apart, cracked buildings dirt corrosion, but to me that is not nearly as potentially destructive as what can happen if developers come in here, and they don't protect the city. >> brown: american tourists we met here offered a common refrain. >> i wanted to see it untouched and i just heard so much about the beautiful architecture, and the wonderful people, and the art, and the music. i hope it doesn't get overrun by americans. you know you don't want to see a starbucks and mcdonalds on every corner. >> brown: but cubans like dario figueroa wouldn't mind, say, a home depot. we found ht work making repairs to a neighbor's house. and he echoed a common complaint about life here, where supplies are so limited, stores so poorly stocked.

>> ( translated ): you've got to do a lot of work to get the materials, because we don't have a central market where we can get everything that's required for construction. i think there should be one big store. >> brown: rosa lowinger says those needs must be taken into account. >> it's not fair to the people who live here to think of it as a collapsed splendor, because they deserve plumbing that works, and air conditioning, and elevators that don't freeze that kind of ing, so i'm not a romantic about that at all. >> brown: one key, says mary jablonski, a conservator on the tour who aches at columbia university, is fitting new building, even chain stores, into the character of the place, using appropriate materials. >> it's very easy to make mistakes, and if you're too aggressive in what you repair you can actually make it worse. >> brown: mistakes meaning what? the wrong material, the wrong style? >> yes, if you are doing a repair with the wrong material it'll actually accelerate the

deterioration, and that's a huge concern. not every building can be saved. that's a dream. that's not going to haen. but let's say you've got seventy percent saved, there's room to put in things like home depots. >> brown: city historian eusebio leal told me he welcomes the new opening between cuba and the u.s. he thinks, done properly, development of his beloved city can be done in a way that works for everyone. but there's a long road ahead. >> if i come here in five years, ten years, 20 years, will i see starbucks, will i see mcdonalds will i see brands from, as i would in any other city? >> ( translated ): they will have to be fit into what exists. we will have to make these fit into the beauty of havana. >> reporter: but will some >> brown: but will some neighborhoods of the city have

to be torn down and new development, new buildings brought in? >> ( translated ): for sure there are places that need a complete renovation, a total change. but we'll need to keep the character of vahannah. people say to me "you've saved havana." and i have not i've done a little bit of what needs to be done. and people say to me, "what would you need to make itappen?" and i would need another life perhaps a third life, to get done what needs to happen. >> brown: from havana, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> ifill: tomorrow in part three of the cuban evolution, a look at technology and access to the internet. >> the cuban government says 25% of its citizens he internet access. watchdog groups like freedom house put the number able to link to a free ask open internet far lower, at around 5%. either way, it' one of the lowest rates in the western hemisphere. >> ifill: online, we have many more images of the beauty, and decay, of havana.

newshour producer frank carlson also traveled to cuba to report this series, and you can see a photo gallery of his work, at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: today we continue with the story of the oyler school in cincinnati, ohio. it's part of a growing national effort to surround kids at school. with the kind of support they may not be getting at home. at oyler, that includes free food, clothing, and health ce. oyler serves kids from preschool through the 12th grade. it has hundreds of volunteer tutors and mentors, and college advisers. and all of this is aimed at ending a dropout epidemic in its traditionally urban appalachian neighborhood. today, amy scott, education correspondent for american public media's marketplace brings us the story of one oyler student aiming to be the first in her family to graduate.

>> reporter: raven gribbins grew up in lower price hill, one of cincinnati's poorest neighborhoods. now in her senior year, she's been at oyler school since kindergarten. >> it's been rough, but it's been okay, too. everybody used to tell me you're not going to make it through high school. you're going to have a baby by 16. so i'm glad to prove all them wrong. i ain't planning on getting a job after graduation. i plan on going to college. >> okay. >> reporter: raven's grandparents and her father all went to oyler. none of them graduated from high school. >> how was your day at school? >> it was good. >> do you have any homework? >> um, no, yes. i do. >> so you gotta do your homework. >> i want to make something with my life. if my mom and dad would have had a high school diploma, their life would be way different now. my mom, she was in and out of jail a lot. she had a drug problem.

she used to prostitute also. i talk to her every once in a while. i don't know what's going on now. y father, he could not read or write, so that's what messed him up. >> i'm a maintenance man. i do construction. not having an education sometimes work's hard to find. you know, you struggle. >> i had moved in with my dad because a lot of problems that been going on. >> she wanted to come up and stay because it was getting a little rough, a little violent. i lived up here, and it's a little quieter. >> this is mine and my little sister's room, we share. >> we kind of had, growing up, a rocky relationship, and i got hooked on cocaine pretty bad, and alcohol. and they took raven away from me. my mother and father raised her for me. but now today that i'm clean and sober, i got a second chance, an opportunity to spend this last year with her. she's going to graduate from

high school. hopefully she'll go to college. i mean i'm really hoping. she says she is, but i hope she at least gives it a chance. >> reporter: why'd you make that face? >> because i'm going to go to college. so i can have a better life than they had. >> reporter: raven has a lot of support. her school is known as a community learning center, with resources like health care and free food and clothes. >> in theory there should be no kid not getting full services here. and if they're not, then we're going to address it pretty quickly. >> okay, now watch this here. do you see that animal? can you tell what it is? >> a cat? >> mm-hmm. you're a senior this year right? and are you planning to go to school next year? where are you looking at going to school? >> i want to go to mount st. seph. >> oh nice. >> and be a math teacher. >> wow, that's awesome! >> i've known raven her entire life. she is hard-headed.

she is also highly intelligent, highly motivated. i worry about her. i worry about all of them. she's the epitome of what our young ladies go through down here. one day she might have her drug- addicted aunts' kids. taking care of them. the next day she'll be here playing basketball just like a normal high school student in anytown, usa. what scares me ithat, if she gets an opportunity to go away to college, will she take it? because you always feel like you're being pulled back into your family's drama. > staying out of trouble. that's going to be the biggest one. >> i'm used to speaking my mind. but when you speak your mind, sometimes that gets you in trouble. >> trouble like this fight with another student from her school. >> i've always been feisty. i always had an attitude at some point in time. >> growing up 8th anstate was a really rough neighborhood. one of the roughest in cincinnati. we was raised to fight. >> this girl, she kept calling me all types of bad names and

stuff. i told her, i said look, you're going to either have to stop talking about me, or we're going to have to fight. and somebody ended up recording it and put it on youtube. >> i only got to play like two minutes, because he was so mad. >> when you're mad, you can't just start yelling. >> i am raven's mentor here from oyler. >> i mean, just think, if you were to yell like that at your boss, and you lose your job. i see her about two to three times a month and we talk or text on a regular basis. try and take a deep breath and remove yourself from the situation. my major focus with her so far, is i just don't want to let her down. because of her mother being out of her life for so much, when i tell her i'm going to do something, i'm gonna do it. >> hi raven, i'm abby. it's so good to meet you. >> nice to meet you too. >> hi, i'm caitlin, i'm her

former college access adviser. >> okay, very nice to meet you. >> she submitted an application, right? >> mm-hmm. >> and with an act score from last year, right? >> mmm-hmm. >> so she's wondering, what did you get on it last year? >> 16. >> our average act score is a 22. but by no means does that mean that everybody in that range, above that range gets in. there's people below that that also get in. can you tell me a little bit about your g.p.a. and where you're at in school right now? >> my gpa's a 2.3. but i g, like, it's going up though, cause i got straight a's and b's right now. >> you do? that's good. >> yeah, so it's going up. >> reporter: raven studies to take the act for the third time, hoping to bring up her score. >> whenever you have a question and they talk about describing, go back to that section and just start circling words that describe stuff and see which ones match. that way you can save some time and make it more like a direct answer. so how are you feeling about it?

you're ready? yeah. you're gonna be awesome, okay. >> i think i did better on this one than any other one. i mean, i just tried my best. if it don't work out, then it don't work out. >> penn state sent me an email saying they're looking for new players. that they really hope that i come out on their recruit day and try out. it's good, but i'm scared i'm going to get out there and like freeze up or something. >> i really like raven. she's very positive, i think she knows what she wants. >> i actually used a recruiting website and saw that she was a setter. she had high school experience, and just reached out to her to see what her interest level might be. see if there's any chance that we would be a good fit for her. >> i really in my heart believe

that raven will be one of the students who breaks away from this neighborhood a little bit gets herself an education. i don't see any reason why she can't. >> i like this place. >> to me, this place fits you. >> i think it would be good for me. >> and it's all right here raven. you're ot going anywhere. you're not going to get lost. it's all right here. >> reporter: even before she gets her test score back, raven gets some news. >> dear raven, on behalf of the college of mount saint joe's i'm pleased to inform you that you have been accepted as a student beginning 2013 fall. all right, now we've gotta open the big, big one. >> okay, congratulations. i am pleased to offer you administration to the college of education for fall 2013 at penn state greater allegheny. >> four years ago, if i would have told myself that i was going to penn state for volleyball, and stuff like that,

i would have been like, "you're crazy." i would never have believed it because i was being bad, i was always getting suspended, i wasn't doing my work. i was always skipping school. so i never would have believed it in a million years. >> raven olivia gribbins. >> yeah! >> i'm proud that she made it, and i can't wait to go see her graduate from college. >> it's very special. she's the first one to graduate from high school. >> happy day. >> woodruff: raven gribbins has just finished her sophomore year at penn state greater allegheny outside pittsburgh. her story is part of amy scott's

documentary, "oyler," produced in association with american public media's "marketplace." you can find more about it at www.oylerdocumentary.com >> ifill: on the newshour online, the artificial sweetener aspartame has a bad rap, but the american chemical society sets the record straight in a four- aspartame the average person would have to consume 97 packetes of equal within 24 hours to come close to a level deemed unacceptable by the food and drug administration. learn more facts about the sweet substance, on our home page. that's pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wedneaythe women's world cup. the first round ends on the field, but the controversy continues off it. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and 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 engagement and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

this is "nightly bu get investors ready for a rate hike without rattling the market? cutting the fat. the fda bans the use of trans fats but is the agency just already doing? paying out of pocket. insurers want to merge and hospitals are getting bigger. but ines all that and me good evening. i'm sue herera. >> i'm bill river in for tyler mathis once again