captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: oil giant british petroleum settles to pay nearly $19 billion in damages caused by the deepwater horizon spill. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. gwen ifill is away. also ahead this thursday: love and marriage, wedding entrepreneurs prepare for a boom in business now that same-sex unions are legal nationwide. >> they don't have to go out of state and marry. a lot of our customers were going to new york or massachusetts to get married so now they can do it here. >> woodruff: then, surviving the next big storm. the tale of two vulnerable cities and urgent efforts to prepare for rising sea levels and severe flooding.

>> a storm comes in, we have a damaging flood, and we say we had a storm, we had a flood, but every flood is deeper, bigger, and more damaging because of the sea level rise we've already had. >> woodruff: and... >> this is what the cosmos sounds like. >> woodruff: when medicine and music collide. grateful dead drummer mickey hart explores the scientific power of "good vibrations." >> mickey's wearing an e.e.g. cap and each of these electrodes are detecting the subtle signals of rhythmic activity being generated by the neurons if his brain. >> woodruff: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> 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: the latest look at the job market shows progress is still coming in fits and starts. the labor department today reported a net gain of 223,000 jobs for june.

in turn, the unemployment rate fell to 5.3%, the lowest in 7 years. that was largely because so many people gave up trying. the proportion of americans working or looking for work is now the smallest in 38 years. we'll focus on why that's the case, later in the program. wall street was unimpressed by the jobs report. the dow jones industrial average lost 28 points to close at 17,730. the nasdaq fell four points, and the s&p 500 slipped a fraction of a point. there was no break today in the financial drama gripping greece. lines remained long as pensioners tried to get funds from designated banks. the finance minister said the cash crunch shows the need to vote against austerity in sunday's referendum. >> ( translated ): the greek people will vote no. we want you to give us some clarification that it is not dignified to stand in lines at a.t.m.'s. something i personally didn't

like was that from day one, the atm in parliament ran out of cash four times. i didn't like that and i am not taking part in that. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the international monetary fund blamed greece for being too slow to enact economic reforms. it said greece needs debt relief and $56 billion in new financing. nigeria was ravaged today by a new atrocity. government and military officials say boko haram extremists gunned down nearly a hundred muslims at several mosques. it happened in the town of kukawa, during prayers that were part of the holy month of ramadan. meanwhile, egypt's military struck back against islamic state elements in the sinai peninsula. security officials said dawn air strikes killed 23 militants. it came a day after they assaulted army checkpoints. the army said 17 soldiers died in those attacks, but other reports said dozens were killed. an appeals court in afghanistan

has overturned the death sentences of four men in the mob killing of a woman. instead, they'll each serve 10 to 20 years in prison. the victim, farkhunda malikzada was falsely accused of burning a koran. her family demanded justice after she was beaten to death and then set on fire last march, in kabul. and, they were outraged by the court's ruling >> ( translated ): we don't accept the decision of the 20 year sentence, it doesn't mean anything, it is pointless. a 20 year sentence ultimately means that the killers will be released. we want the previous decision of the death penalty and we strictly want the death penalty. >> woodruff: activists accuse the court of bowing to pressure from afghanistan's conservative religious establishment. at least 35 people drowned today when a ferry capsized in the central philippines. 20 others remain missing. the wooden outrigger hit strong

waves just after leaving ormoc city and rolled over. more than 130 people swam to safety, or were rescued by fishing boats. victims were rushed ashore and then, to nearby hospitals. back in this country, a freight train carrying a toxic chemical derailed and caught fire in maryville, tennessee. several emergency workers went to a hospital after breathing in fumes, and the train burned through the day. former virginia senator jim webb has entered the democratic presidential race. he announced today on his campaign website, saying the country "needs a fresh approach." webb is 69, and a former secretary of the navy and decorated vietnam veteran. and, the episcopal church will allow same-sex couples to have religious ceremonies at their weddings. some episcopalian priests were already performing civil ceremonies. the new policy won overwhelming

approval last night at the church's national meeting. still to come on the newshour: billions of dollars in payments end a legal fight over damages from the deepwater horizon oil spill. investigating ticket prices and the lack of competition in the airline industry. unemployment falls as more americans depart the work force. an economic boom for wedding organizers after same-sex marriage is legalized nationwide. two cities prepare for rising sea levels and flooding. grateful dead drummer mickey hart's cosmic approach to music. and, a brief, but spectacular take on policing in african- american communities. >> woodruff: it was the nation's worst oil disaster and came to be known as the "b.p. spill." after a long and bitter fight that played out in the courts, a record settlement was finally

announced today. the oil gushed from b.p.'s macondo well for 87 days. now, almost five years since the well was sealed, the company aims to settle with the federal government and five states: alabama, florida, louisiana, mississippi and texas. alabama governor robert bentley: >> with the agreement reached today and the compensation b.p. will pay for their responsibility, we are taking a significant step forward in our state and especially in the gulf coast areas, to move forward with the worst environmental disaster in history. >> woodruff: in all, 134 million gallons of crude fouled the gulf's waters, and coated beaches and barrier islands killing thousands of animals, and decimating local fisheries. the projected deal totals $18.7 billion.

$5.5 billion would go toward restoration efforts, as part of a federal clean water act penalty. another $7 billion would cover natural resource damages. and nearly $6 billion goes to economic and other claims by five states and 400 local government entities. in a statement today, u.s. attorney general loretta lynch called it the largest environmental settlement in u.s. history. for b.p., the settlement will effectively add about $10 billion to the $44 billion it already set aside for cleanup costs and penalties. the oil giant had revenues of $15 billion last year, and will spread the settlement's costs over the next 15 t0 18 years. in a statement today, b.p.'s c.e.o. bob dudley said:

the agreement is still subject to final approval by a federal judge. the settlement was hailed by a number of public officials, but several environmental groups called the final agreement disappointing. joining us is a key figure who was involved in hammering out the deal. u.s. representative garret graves served as louisiana's lead trustee representing the state in the b.p. oil spill negotiations from 2010-2014. he's served as an adviser since. he is a republican and joins us from baton rouge. conditioningman congressman gaves, welcome. is this a fair settlement? >> it is. judy, i think it's very important. you can't just look at this in a vacuum. you have to look at the other options available to settle. this we've been sitting here for five years with one of the biggest environmental crises in our nation's history and we haven't had any type of

settlement or financial settlement for the gulf of mexico. so you accept this deal or get stuck in a judicial process where we could be talking about this for ten or 20 years. >> how was the number $18.7 billion arrived at? >> i can't speak for the other states. in the case of louisiana, the decision on numbers was based entirely upon science, measuring the ecological damages, the natural resource impact to our coastal resources, to the gulf of mexico where the top fishery state in the continental united states and the ecological productivity is very important to our state's economy and our culture here. >> woodruff: how will louisiana use its share? >> the state has committed to use all $5 billion of natural resource damages to advance our overall coastal master plan, investing in and restoring the chestal wetlands, investing in projects that improve the production of fisheries in the gulf of mexico to manage the fisheries, making several

investments in bird projects, as well. this is the largest habitat for migratory waterfowl. so we'll make major investments in ecological rest for ration. that's where virtually all of the natural resource dollars are being committed. of the $8.1 billion in natural resources restoration, well over $5 billion will be spent in the state of louisiana. >> woodruff: are you comfortable with how the other money will be spent? for example the federal government gets $5 billion in penalties that are related to the clean water act? >> under federal law passed in the summer of 2012, 80% of those dollars will be allocated to what's known as a restore council. it's a state and federal council that will be making decisions in the allocations of those funds. i don't think it's the most efficient mechanism to alhe kate the funds, but it is something that will ensure public participation and some transparency in the decisions. >> i'm sure you know, congressman graves, that a number of environmental groups

say this is not nearly enough. they are saying the damage is extensive. it will go on for years, even decades. and b.p. should have been asked to pay much more. >> look if we were in a vacuum, if you made me kings of the day there certainly are some changes i would make to this agreement. it's important the keep in mind that, number one, you can't go out there and go put tens of billions on those companies. this would have crippled or bankrupted most companies around the world. number two, we have seen a decline in gas prices, a decline in profits for the company. those things need to be taken into consideration, as well. i think this was the best deal that was going to be cut cooperatively and there were several previous attempts at negotiations that were rejected by the state of louisiana because of insufficient funds. again, i could make some privates to this in a vacuum, but compared to the other alternative, this is a good deal and this settlement needs to be approved. >> woodruff: do you expect the court will approve this? >> i think they will.

right now it is simply an agreement in principle. the department of justice was obviously very heavily involved in negotiations. it's going to have to be translated to a concept decree and submitted to the courts ultimately which will take months, but i do expect the court to approve this settlement proposal. >> excuse me, and as i understand it there are still some private pieces of litigation that are out there individuals and businesses who have sued b.p. and those cases are still outstanding. >> without a doubt, that's a really important point to make. there are billions of dollars in private claims that are still outstanding. there was a large settlement that was reached with a majority of the plaintiffs in this case but many of them opted to not go with that settlement offer that was out there. so those cases will continue proceeding through the judicial process. the settlement that was announced today pertains only to federal, state and local government claims against b.p. >> all right. u.s. representative garrett

graves of louisiana, we thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: the federal government is investigating whether the major airlines have colluded to keep air fares high. the industry is denying the claims but yesterday american united, delta and southwest all confirmed they were cooperating with the probe. hari sreenivasan now talks with a lawmaker who's been pushing for the investigation. >> sreenivasan: last month senator richard blumenthal called on the justice department to look into these issues. and he joins me now from hartford. senator, what made you want to ask the d.o.j. to investigate? >> what made me ask for this investigation is the evidence, and it's the same evidence that caused the department of justice

to make the decision to investigate. by the way, the department of justice doesn't decide on anti-trust investigations out of curiosity or whim. there has to be some factual indication. and here it was pricing pattern, warnings to potential competitors like southwest airlines that it had to continue keeping capacity or numbers of flights down and the fact that there have been increasing prices for consumers as well as reduced numbers of seats on certain routes. >> so you're not trying to specifically constrain what a company should profit from or what would the percentage at the end of the year should be. your target is specifically communication between executives right? >> the nature of an anti-trust violation when collusion is alleged, and that's the subject here, is coordination,

cooperation that is illegal because it tends to stifle competition. and the reason competition is good for consumers is it tends to lower prices and provide more choices. so absolutely right. the target here is not the industry's profit, which are at an all-time high. not necessarily even prices, which should be reduced, but the collusion that may result in those increased prices. >> sreenivasan: so one of the concerns is about con strange capacity, the number of seats, the number of slights that are actually available the assumers. you decrease that supply, the demand stays the same the price goes up, right? but the industry comes back and says capacity is actually at a post-recession high, that we have more seats up in the air and available to people now and that prices are coming down in 2015. >> the fact of the matter is that air fares are at an all-time high. if you look at the pattern over

the last 20 years, which is the time they've been measuring them, the flights last year, average price $391 is higher than at any time over those 20 years. if you look at just fares, they're at a 12-year high. and then add the additional charges for baggage and reservations and access to internet sites and, in fact, the total cost rises even higher some consumers are suffering from higher fare prices, higher costs, and the numbers of seats available to them have been constrained possibly allegedly, by this communication coordination among the airlines. how do they communicate? well, one example at a recent conference, all of the industry executives were talking about capacity discipline. if discipline is a codeword or jargon for what the objective is

and if they are punishing the airlines like southwest that have the nerve to violate that regiment, then there is potentially a violation of anti-trust laws. and the remedies here don't involve breaking up airlines. they involve possibly money back to consumers, penalties for those companies, and also court orderers that prevent this kind of misconduct in the future. >> sreenivasan: is an airline will come back and say listen we decided to take some airplanes out of the sky when there were haver and fewer people flying during the recession. now that it's over we're starting to add seats again. >> and there's nothing wrong with those business decisions as long as they are made independently and competitively. when those decisions result from coordinated conduct that in effect violates the principle markets that there ought to be free and open competition and the principles of law anti-trust statutes that there

should be no collusion then there is a violation of law. and violations of law have yet to be proven. all these arguments made by the airlines are entitled to be made to the department of justice. >> sreenivasan: all right. senator richard blumenthal, thanks so much for you time. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the latest jobs report brought some sighs of relief. the overall number of new jobs showed the economy is not starting to sputter as some had feared earlier this year. but other patterns in the labor market are a source of real trouble for many workers, and for those who been looking for a job for a long time. wages are flat, and the labor participation rate is at a historic low. we're joined by harry holzer, a professor of public policy at the georgetown university public policy institute and former chief economist for the

department of labor. we welcome you back to the program. >> thank you, judy. good to be here. >> woodruff: let's start with the good news. it looks like healthy growth in jobs. >> the number 223,000 new payroll jobs is about what people expected, maybe slightly lower. but it's in line with what we've seen recently. it's consistent with that kind of slow but steady tightening of the labor market. >> and this is across different wage levels, wage group, is that right? >> that's right. most industries at least on the service side of the economy showed some healthy job growth this past month. we didn't see it in manufacturing. we didn't see it in construction. but many other sectors, professional services in the high end, restaurants and retail in the low end, health care jobs in the middle all showed nice job growth. >> woodruff: earlier this year there was worry things might be slowing down, so this tells us things are on a more solid footing. >> we had one disappointing

month back in march, but the last three months now, the entire second quarter show pretty solid job growth. so those are earlier worries are no longer bothering us anymore. >> this is a month, however, when the wages were stagnant. what does that tell us? >> well the wage numbers have been bouncing around. last month we had a good month for wages. this month they were totally flat. what that is saying is that even with the tightening that's occurred, the job market still isn't tight enough and there's still not enough pressure on employers for consistent wage pressure. if you average out all these different months you're getting wage growth about 2%. that's just slightly ahead of inflation. that's nowhere near what we'd like to see. >> woodruff: what i really this want to focus on, yes, the unemployment rate was down, but what they call the labor force participation rate at its lowest level in 38 years. what's happening here? >> well, a lot of people have been dropping out of the labor force. now, to be in the labor force

you have to do something to look for a new job in the previous month. and a lot of people have stopped doing that. and that rate has been declining now since the great recession started. we knew some of that was going to happen. we knew the baby boomers were reaching retirement years and they were going to start leaving. and that accounts for about half of the overall drop we've seen in the last eight years or so. what's more worrisome what's been more surprising is that even people say below the age of 55 what we call prime age workers, have also been leaving the labor force, and we don't see any signs that in great numbers they're coming back. that's a big problem. that's a problem for them in terms of their own earning capacity, but also for the country, as well. >> woodruff: what are the explanations? >> there are different explanations. some people maybe look at the wages they're going to get and decide it's not good enough. some people have been out of work for a long time, and they get discouraged. they know their skills get rusty their contacts get are rusty.

they don't think employers are going the hire them so they drift away. some people start doing other things. maybe they start working off the books. maybe they go on disability. maybe they become the stay-at-home parent. once you start doing something else, it's a lot harder to turn around and come back into the labor market. it remains a competitive market. >> woodruff: is there a good understanding of what happens? because i know for a long time we were talking about the long-term unemployed, people who kept looking and kept looking. they weren't finding work. now we're talking about people who have just given up. is there... do we understand what happens in between. not completely. we do have some sense that once you're in the category of being long-term unemployed. it's harder to get back. some people do come back inch some people do get a job after being out a year, two years three years. but some people don't. the longer they're out, the less solid their prospects are when they come back. a lot of them just decide to do something else and drift away. >> does history tell us, as you

say, that these people, once they're out, they stay out? >> it's not necessarily permanent, you can imagine a really strong labor market of the kind that we had at the end of the 1990s. it might draw some people back in, but absent that, it will be harder and harder for these people. they'll get more settled in whatever other roles they're in right now. >> woodruff: and that gets baked into the overall employment picture. >> that's right. it's bad for the country because we're losing productive capacity. we simply can't afford to have several million people stop working and stop looking for work. >> woodruff: harry holzer with georgetown university, thank you. >> thank you judy. >> woodruff: in the days since the supreme court made gay marriage legal around the nation, our correspondent paul solman has been looking at the likely financial boost for the wedding industry and the broader

economy. he went to ohio, one of the four states at the center of the case before the supreme court. it's part of our weekly segment, "making sense," which airs every thursday on the newshour. >> reporter: from her home base in columbus, ohio, jan kish helps cater weddings, worldwide. and you're going to slice off... >> i'm going to cut off the top of the bottle. >> reporter: and this is in addition to the cake that you provide? >> it is in addition and then the bride and groom can use this fabulous saber to cut their cake with. >> reporter: okay, so go ahead. >> reporter: kish doesn't just pop the cork... kish dispatches it, decaptitates it. and she has long been been receptive to other innovations in the wedding industry assisting early on in gay marriages. but this isn't a particular gay wedding thing, gay marriage? >> no, it is a celebration thing but i have a gay friend who is getting married and he would like to have five bare-chested

men with five sabers opening five bottles of champagne all at the same time. >> reporter: is it going to happen? >> it is. you betcha. >> reporter: rated one of the country's top 10 cake bakers, jan kish is part of a new group of local wedding specialists called pride perfect, founded by a local photographer, to bring together top talent friendly to the lgbt community. and kish's wedding cakes? the sky's the limit, from van gogh's starry night to a chocolate moose to a steam punk concoction gilded with silver and gold leaf. which should i try first? >> this is a favorite chocolate cake with a mocha buttercream. >> reporter: alright let's try that. this is a particularly enjoyable way to shoot a story. >> reporter: another member of pride perfect weddings the gown shop of the columbus gay marriage consortium: gown-monger lindsay fork, similarly off- beat. suits for lesbian brides, for example, who might or might not want to flaunt their femininity. >> this is a very scandalous

top. it can be underneath the jacket or by itself. >> reporter: cinderella poufs; crowns of jewels, fork's inventory runs the gamut from traditional to cutting edge. how do you handle the situation of two brides when they don't want the same wedding dress? >> it's quite funny actually, a lot of times they don't want to see each other because they want it to be a surprise as any man and or woman would not want to see each other before the ceremony. so we would take them into different dressing rooms with different stylists and have them go through the entire process as though they were just there alone. >> reporter: so the gay marriage decision is good for the gown- monger, good for the baker, good for ohio, says florist mary ernst, as local couples now stay put. >> they don't have to go out of state and marry. a lot of our customers were going to new york or massachusetts to get married so now they can do it here. >> reporter: but of course even the sweetest rose has its

thorns. jan kish has brandished the rainbow flag on her website since she launched it years ago. but a recent hire apparently didn't realize the business was sexual orientation blind until this weekend. >> because of her religious beliefs, she has decided to step back from la petite fleur. >> reporter: she quit? because you serve gay customers? >> because we support the gay community she feels that she does not want to be part of that because of her religious background. and that's fine, you know that's her moral stance and she has a right to that. >> reporter: you didn't try to talk her out of it? >> i asked her for two weeks notice. >> reporter: even in gay- friendly columbus, ohio, then, religious prejudice can still trump economic self-interest. but there are economic benefits aplenty in legalizing gay marriage, and not just in ohio. >> we have a wedding industry that's about to boom because now you can get married in all 50

states. so there'll be weddings, there'll be honeymoons, there'll be planning. >> reporter: there will also be plenty of new business for the likes of janis cowhey, an accountant and lawyer. >> we've got accountants who need to do tax returns, maybe amended tax returns, maybe review past tax returns, and we've got lawyers who need to review estate planning documents, you know what do you need to do going forward, what do you have in place until now, so there's a lot that's going to change. >> reporter: and of course, there will be more divorces. but locally, says columbus' bill lafayette, who runs the ohio regional development firm, regionomics. >> by far the biggest impact is going to be on the workforce. >> reporter: because of people who will now stay in ohio as opposed to moving out of state, especially those most likely to be economic innovators. >> creative people like open and accepting spaces because they want to know that despite the fact that they may think differently from the typical

person they're not going to be laughed at. so gays and lesbians are really the canary in the coal mine. >> reporter: as it happens, lafayette himself is about to tie the gay knot. he and ron templin have been together 12 years, had a commitment ceremony in church in 2003. but they weren't legally able to be wed in ohio and considered moving to massachusetts, until last week. >> i was at work, the people had gathered around my desk for the decision, and the minute the decision happened, i of course broke down in tears and some other of my teammates did as well. >> reporter: were they gay? >> no, they were straight but very supportive. >> reporter: so they cried as well. >> yes and they congratulated me. they congratulated me and i immediately i.m.'d my supervisor

"may i leave and get my marriage license" and she said "of course, go," so i was the first one in my car and we were at the court house at 11:00 a.m. getting our marriage license. >> i didn't cry, i was just numb, and this i.m. came in from ron saying "i'm coming home, we're going to get our marriage license," and i was "yes, yes, yes." >> reporter: which is what the majority of the supreme court said, though rather more sedately, on friday. this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting for the pbs newshour from columbus, ohio. >> woodruff: tonight the newshour begins a series on the way communities prepare and survive disasters, both natural and man-made.

newshour special correspondent jackie judd brings us a tale of two cities, both on the atlantic seaboard. >> reporter: the crane towering over rockaway beach is a symbol of new york city's urgent almost frantic, effort to prevent a repeat of what happened in 2012, when hurricane sandy nearly brought the city to its knees. >> we have 520 miles of shoreline. we've always been at risk of coastal inundation, but sandy really changed the way we think about that risk and how we engage with the waterfront. >> reporter: the response is not simply about minimizing hurricane damage. the larger issue-- the issue making hurricanes more destructive-- is sea level rise caused by climate change and a warming planet. >> we're not labeling things with sea level rise when we should be. so, a storm comes in, we have a damaging flood, and we say we

had a storm, we had a flood, but every flood is deeper, bigger and more damaging because of the sea level rise we've already had. >> reporter: in the last century the sea rose by eight inches, and the rate has been accelerating since the 1990's. in the rockaways, mayor bill de blasio, with great fanfare, opened the first stretch of a new, concrete boardwalk, built above the flood plain, to replace the wooden one sandy destroyed. >> this is also part of resiliency because all of these measures will protect not just the boardwalk, but protect the community beyond the boardwalk. >> reporter: the boardwalk, so close to homes and businesses damaged by sandy, is designed to hold back storm surge. it is only a piece of a $20 billion blueprint resulting from a collaboration with the state and federal governments and climate change scientists.

dan zarrelli, who leads the city's efforts, says first came an assessment of the city's risks and vulnerabilities. and from that, the more granular questions, dealing with hardening old infrastructure and building new infrastructure to make it withstand a storm surge. >> about 80% of the shoreline could be flooded on a daily basis, just due to high tide not even a storm event. so thinking through the implications on neighborhoods, the investments we need the make to reduce risk and to handle that level of inundation is something that's driving our policies around our entire coastal protection plan. >> reporter: new york city's aggressive efforts to prevent future catastrophe is not the approach all cities in danger of rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change- are following. take charleston, south carolina which is called low country for a reason. this spot near the center of the city is just several feet above

sea level. sandy bridges owns a small boutique nearby, in charleston's vibrant tourist district. >> high tide, rainy day, we just always experienced flooding here. >> reporter: guaranteed? >> it comes right up to my doorstep on a really heavy downpour. >> reporter: this is what it looked like near her store in 2012 after hurricane isaac brushed by the city. the metropolitan area of 700,000 people, and growing fast, is one of the most vulnerable along the east coast. charleston is not only low- lying, waterways snake through the city and neighborhoods have been built on landfill. flooding has plagued the city for generations, but it's getting worse. >> at a particularly high tide, flood water already comes in through the sea wall and through the sidewalk and it fills the street right here in this intersection. >> reporter: sometimes an unusually high tide, without any rain at all, will trigger what locals like environmentalist chris carnevale call nuisance flooding.

>> we used to see about four and a half days of nuisance flooding per year in the mid-20th century. now, we're up to about 23 days per year. when we project that into the future as seas continue to rise, that's going to look-- that's going to be many more days per year. >> reporter: even so, critics say the city and state response lacks the urgency new york has brought to the issue. >> they are taking some effort but those efforts are simply very inadequate. frank knapp organized small business owners to agitate for a swifter action and they've posted blue patches on door fronts to remind tourists of the flood line in a storm surge. >> when the public actually takes the time to learn about the inundation threats under very small levels of sea level rise, one or two feet, i think they're going to be very shocked and they're going to be demanding that the city start doing some planning. >> reporter: it's been more than a quarter century since charleston had its sandy: hurricane hugo in '89.

so that sense of urgency is absent. and in a politically conservative state such as south carolina, just discussing climate change is often spoken about in code. >> reporter: political columnist brian hicks says in 2011, scientists at the department of natural resources produced a report intended to sound the alarm about climate change impact, but political appointees shelved it. >> when they did finally release it, they changed the executive summary, and there were all these things about some scientists think this, and some scientists think that. it was very much a denial factor here, and they deep-sixed it. >> reporter: predictions for sea level rise in the next 100 years range from one foot to five feet. in charleston, the creeping blue in this map shows flooding that would occur at high tide with one, two, three, four and five feet. the higher end would wreck havoc.

liz fly is part of a team of scientists overseeing coastal conservation in south carolina. >> there is the risk and likelihood of some communities going under water with increased sea level rise. >> climate change is not going to remove charleston from the landscape. >> reporter: but, joe riley, mayor for a remarkable 40 years, is bullish on charleston's ability to maintain the city's current footprint. >> it's low-lying and so it's all incremental improvements that will protect this beautiful historic city. >> reporter: the major improvements, to date, are fortifications to the battery at the point of the charleston peninsula. and this extensive, new drainage system, designed to pull floodwater out of the city as fast as it comes in. but there is not a grand plan in place. are you planning on a one-foot rise? is that the working assumption? >> we're planning on a range. it's incremental, and each year

or decade you further calibrate that. >> reporter: what is the range? >> well, the range-you'll need to ask our resiliency people, but we're-we see some a foot some less than a foot, some more than a foot. >> reporter: mayor riley later clarified that he was not suggesting one foot was adequate for planning and described the drainage project as a "serious beginning" to charleston's preparations. still, the administration has significant catching up to do. >> it's important for a community to look at that range of scenarios and think about their risk management, and think about what decisions are high risk, and so maybe you should plan for a more extreme case of sea level rise, while some other decisions it might be okay to plan for. >> reporter: but that has not been decided in charleston, right?

>> no. >> reporter: new york city's robust approach is more the exception than the rule along the east coast, especially among small and medium sized cities like charleston. >> this is a hard issue to really digest and tackle. we have no legal precedent, we have no institutional precedent for the idea that land will be disappearing. and we're ultimately going to need to take a very deep look at it to preserve the heritage of our city-- of our cities and >> 100 years ago they started planning and preserving and conserving charleston. and 100 years from now i want another little local business owner to be able to stand here and say the same thing. so, that's what honestly concerns me is that 100 years from now this could be lost. >> reporter: charleston mayor riley compares the threat of rising sea to an enemy invasion, which is just how new york city

is behaving as it builds new defenses. for both cities, there is no doubt the enemy is approaching. for the newshour, this is jackie judd in charleston. >> woodruff: tonight we begin a two part look at the grateful dead. first up, we focus on drummer mickey hart and his effort to replicate the sounds of the universe on his drums.... special correspondent mike cerre takes us on a trip to learn more. >> this is really the sounds of the universe. this is what the cosmos sounds like. pythagoras founded the secrets

of the universe, the rhythm of the universe, the mathematics with just a long string which vibrated. if i had any guru it would have to be pythagoras, and rhythm is the god. >> reporter: in the pantheon of rock and roll gods, the grateful dead have always been known for their somewhat cosmic approach to music. as one of its founding drummers, mickey hart has spent the better part of his professional life outside of the grateful dead. exploring the cultural and scientific basis of "good vibrations." >> the universe is made of vibrations. i have been very interested in sonifying the universe, the cosmos, the sun, the big bang, taking those radiations from telescopes-- radio telescopes and turning that radiation into sound which i make music out of and compose with, in the macro and now in the micro with the brain waves, heart rhythms d.n.a., stem cells.

all of these have a sound so we take these sounds in and we embed them in the music. >> reporter: mickey's search for the universal source of rhythm has gone intergalactic and all the way back to the beginning of the cosmos. >> you know, the moment of creation, beginning of time and space when the blank page of the universe exploded and created the stars, the planets, black holes, pulse or supernovas, this was the beginning of time and space, and then us, and then we are still now toying with this rhythmic stimuli that was created 13.7 billion years ago. >> what is needed is someone who is artistic to hear these sounds and be inspired by them and turn them into something pleasing for people to hear. >> reporter: astrophysicist dr. george smoot earned a nobel prize for his work in charting the origins of what many believe

to be the beginning of creation, with the big bang. he's also a longtime deadhead. >> i say, look at these wave form, jack kevorkian, and let's see what they sound like and let's dance to those things. let's see what they sound like, and let's see. let's dance to those things and let's-- and george said, yeah. >> reporter: with the help of the university of california at berkeley's supercomputer dr. smoot's team converted light wave traces from the big bang into sound waves for mickey to work with. >> it's very dense, there's a lot of collisions up there, and there's a lot of bumps and grinds and pulses and stuff, and noise, which you wouldn't call music, but i take it and i make it into what we would call, the human ear would call music so we can enjoy it.

>> reporter: the golden gate bridge was one of mickey's first laboratories for his scientific experiments. he and the grateful dead's jerry garcia used to sneak onto the bridge at night when it was closed to the public. sometimes with rubber mallets to record the sounds of the bridge's vibrations to include them in grateful dead performances in the '60's and '70's during the bands heyday. year's later he worked with the san francisco's exploratorium and the national science foundation on creating this replica of the bridge with sensors to make it an instrument he could actually play. and he did for golden gate bridge's 75th anniversary celebration. >> now i'd like to do something with it as-it is as important as playing grateful dead music. see the thing about music is that you take the feeling that you get from music and you take it out in the world, you do some good with it. it can be used for other things than dancing, uh and pleasure.

it can be used as medicine. when i played a drum for my grandmother who had alzheimer's, she spoke my name. she hadn't spoken in a year. that was power. where did it come? how did this do that. >> reporter: dr. adam gazzaley a research neurologist at the university of california san francisco is working with mickey on identifying rhythms that can stimulate different parts of diseased and damaged brains. >> mickey's wearing an e.e.g. cap and each of these electrodes are detecting the subtle signals of rhythmic activity being generated by the neurons if his brain. >> it's quite a nice looking brain. >> i like it. >> so this a live recording of mickey's brain.

>> the only way to find the code on how music works is through science and that's my relationship with adam gazzaley, and other scientists. to find how does it work on the brain. >> so if you can prescribe a certain rhythmic treatment and actually validate that there is an outcome that is reproducible it would be a very powerful way of looking at modern medicine. >> and it seems like a very natural thing from my research and medicine, the shaman use drums in all their forms of healing. so it's not something that we're inventing, but we're progressing because of science. >> reporter: a team of stem cell researchers at the gladstone institute at the university of california, san francisco are working with mickey on identifying impulses generated by brain and heart cells.

>> so the idea is that we might be able to with mickey hart's approach convert that electrical energy into sound and be able to map differences between diseased cells versus normal cells. >> we'll know what rhythms have been cut or broken and be able to replace that with a healthier rhythm a healthier sound and frequency perhaps that will make this a therapy, a legitimate science. >> reporter: mickey hart is pulling out all the science stops and digging deep into his research of the origins of rhythm and good vibrations, to create one of the band's signature rhythm devils sequences with drummer bill kreutzmann for the grateful dead's final performance together.

>> pythagoras is the owner of this. he's the guy. >> reporter: and what are people going to hear for the 50th anniversary that maybe no one has heard before. >> oh they're going to hear the lowest note sounded in a concert which is 19 cycles. >> reporter: and will you feel that in your chest? >> you'll feel it all over. it will vibrate your whole body. it won't scare you, it will just make you feel really good, just like a bath. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour this is mike cerre reporting from san francisco. >> woodruff: we will have more on the grateful dead and the band's final concert on monday. >> woodruff: tonight we close with another brief but spectacular, our series of

interviews featuring insights from artists, authors, leaders and thinkers, telling us about their passions. tonight producer steve goldbloom speaks briefly to "atlantic magazine" national correspondent ta-nehisi coates about the role of police in african american communities. >> i was been december 30, 1975 in west baltimore. i grew up in the 1980s and the early '90s in a very, very violent time. and i love journalism because, you know, it gives you a license to answer, you know, all the questions that you have, you know, in the become of your mind. people perceive you as an expert, but, in fact if you're doing journalism right, you're an actual student. we write about the impact of diplomacy on this country. there's a great deal of energy spent on making sure that people who are different than you understand what you're saying. and i think that actually corrupts language because you

end up softening things. you end up insulting people's intelligence. i'm really not thinking about how to get the average white reader to see my perspective. i'm trying to comun kate as directly and forcefully and honestly as possible. all of these cases we're seeing black lives matter, this movement come up, this has been a great deal of focus what's called police reform i believe a much, much deeper problem, and this is that we are asking the police to do certain things that maybe they shouldn't do. take out that horrible video see with walter scott is shot in the back by an officer. one of the reasons why walter scott was running is because he had been brought up before on child support cases, but what should we be doing about child support? is jail the answer? should we be jailing people for this? freddie gray is another case. say you have a situation where a gentleman is in an area that we designate as high crime. he makes a mistake of making eye contact with the police officer and then he returns.

the reason freddie gray was arrested, he made a decision, we're going to pursue our drug policy in a certain way in that area. why did he have police there in the first place? why do we have a situation in which we decide the police should be able to arrest people and stop and search somebody effectively because they look suspicious? mental health mental health is the biggest one. we have a situation in which if you have any sort of mental health issue in this country and you have an interaction with a police officer, you know, you might well end up dead. police officers walk around with guns. do we want our mental health workers walking around with guns. there are other ways we can think about doing this but we decided not to. the expectation that, you know catching things on tape is going to save us is, you know, i would say deeply flawed. even sometimes when things are wrong like eric garner's killing in new york, that doesn't mean anything is going to happen. you can't be an african american in this country and see the walter scott video and be

completely amazed. you don't have that luxury of living that way. you've had intersections with police. you know people who bad things have happened to. just being who they are. my name is ta-nehisi coates, this is my brief but spectacular take on the legacy of white supremacy and its continuing function in our society today. >> woodruff: get a first look at our series "brief but spectacular," every thursday on the pbs newshour page on facebook. and some late-breaking news tonight, washington state health officials report the first death from measles in the united states in 12 years. the woman whose name has not been released was taking medication that reduced her immune system when she was apparently exposed during an outbreak last spring. on the "newshour" online the internet is in a on the newshour online: the internet is in a tizzy today after a new york times food columnist suggested we add peas to our guacamole. not to outdo the columnist, we asked a

philadelphia restaurant for some ideas on other ways to garnish the dish, and so we bring you: guacamole with crab and mango. find that recipe on our home page. all that and more is at pbs.org/newshour. tonight on charlie rose, a tour of russia's hermitage museum. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us 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.

>> 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 busine" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. >> not as good as it looks. the unemployment rate drops to the lowest level in seven years but for all the wrong reasons. historic settlement. bp tries to put the gulf oil spill behind i by agreeing to the largest environmental settlement ever. crucial vote. the greeks head to the polls to decide tcountry. but what exactly are they voting on? all of that and more for "nightly for this thursday july 2nd. >> good evening, everyone. welcome. okay but not great. that's how the june employment report is being described. the u.s. economy created 223,000 jobs in june a decent number but less economists had been