captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> ifill: good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: on the newshour tonight, the election upset in canada, as the liberal party claims a stunning victory, promising higher taxes on the wealthy to boost a sluggish economy. >> woodruff: also ahead this tuesday, what prompted one teacher to tell students they should not take their tests. >> ifill: and rock legend patti smith reveals what inspires her, from poetry to c.s.i. >> i'm interested in the mind of the detective and his process, which to me is a lot like the artist. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ >> and by bnsf railway. >> 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. >> woodruff: canada's 35 million people woke today to a new political era, ushering out nearly a decade of conservative leadership. the liberal party won an outright majority in parliament in monday's election. the results mean justin trudeau will be the country's new prime

minister. president obama called trudeau today to congratulate him. we'll look at how the liberals did it, after the news summary. >> ifill: here at home, the presidential field shrank by one today: former virginia senator jim webb dropped out of the democratic contest. webb failed to gain traction in the polls, and now says he's not sure he'll stay a democrat. >> i fully accept that my views on many issues are not compatible with the power structure and nominating base of the democratic party. that party is filled with millions of dedicated hard working americans, but its hierarchy is not comfortable with many of the policies that i've laid forth, and frankly i'm not that comfortable with many of theirs. >> ifill: webb left the door open for a possible run as an independent. >> woodruff: republicans in the house of representatives convened this evening to mull their choice for speaker. it came amid reports that paul ryan of wisconsin is edging

closer to running. he was the party's vice presidential nominee in 2012. a conservative faction pressured speaker john boehner to resign, then drove kevin mccarthy from the race to succeed him. the party caucus plans to meet again tomorrow night. >> ifill: the united states and russia signed an agreement today to limit the risk of incidents in the skies over syria. warplanes from both countries are carrying out air strikes, and there've been reports of several close encounters. at the pentagon, spokesman peter cook said the agreement does not include sharing target information, but it does lay out safety procedures. these protocols include maintaining professional airmanship at all times, the use of specific communication frequencies, and the establishment of a communication line on the ground. the u.s. and russia will form a working group to discuss any implementation issues that follow. >> ifill: in syria, russian air strikes overnight killed at least 45 people, including a rebel commander.

a monitoring group in london says the strikes hit coastal latakia province, the stronghold of president bashar al-assad. the monitors also reported three russians were killed, fighting alongside syrian army troops. the kremlin denied it. >> woodruff: the top u.s. military officer is playing down chances that iraq will ask for russian air strikes against islamic state fighters. general joseph dunford offered that opinion today, on his first trip there since becoming chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. dunford met first with the head of the kurdish regional government in irbil. later, he conferred with the iraqi defense minister in baghdad. >> ifill: u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon made a surprise visit to jerusalem today, hoping to halt a wave of violence. he arrived as palestinians clashed with israeli soldiers in ramallah, in the west bank. elsewhere, two palestinians were killed following separate attacks on israelis. that brought this appeal from ban:

>> no society should have to live in fear. no society can afford to see its youth suffer in hopelessness. if we do not act fast, the dynamics on the ground may only get worse, with serious repercussions in and beyond israel and palestine. >> ifill: ban is slated to meet with palestinian president mahmoud abbas and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu during his trip. >> woodruff: for the first time, officials in japan have confirmed a case of cancer that may be linked to the fukushima nuclear disaster. the plant was heavily damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in march 2011. the patient announced today had installed covers on damaged reactors there. the man also worked at other nuclear sites, but most of his radiation exposure came at fukushima. >> ifill: and on wall street, weak earnings reports from i.b.m. and others kept stocks

down. the dow jones industrial average lost 13 points to close at 17,217. the nasdaq fell 24 points, and the s&p 500 slipped about 3 points. still to come on the newshour, a political comeback for canada's liberal party; the number of migrants flooding into europe tops a half million; north dakota's oil boom brings back a lost sports tradition, and much more. >> woodruff: and now to that stunning victory for the liberal party in canada, and an incoming prime minister with politics in his blood-- justin trudeau. the liberals won a resounding majority with 184 seats out of 338, increasing their vote share in every province since the last

election in 2011. conservative seats dropped below 100, losing ground in every province except quebec, and the new democrats won 44. 43-year-old justin trudeau, a teacher and the son of the late canadian prime minister pierre trudeau, watched the election results with his young family. later, he addressed his supporters in montreal. >> canadians have spoken, you want a government with a vision and with an agenda for this country that is positive and ambitious and hopeful. well, my friends i promise you tonight that i will lead that government. ( cheers and applause ) i will make that vision the reality, i will be that prime minister. >> woodruff: outgoing conservative prime minister stephen harper conceded his loss in calgary last night.

he also quit as leader of the conservative party, and will step down as soon as an interim leader is chosen. for more on the canadian vote i'm joined by john northcott of the canadian broadcasting corporation. john northcott, welcome. so this was a surprise. >> yes, very much so. the polls had it neck and neck for a while, and then in the few days before the election, there was a suggestion there might be a minority one way or the other, either for the conservatives or for the liberals. very few, though, even in the hours up to election day, and the results coming in last night, really thought that justin trudeau could get, if not a majority, then the majority that he got, the risounding majority, effectively, quinn it up ling his results from before. no party has ever gone from what is effectively third-party place to a resounding majority like that in canadian electoral history. >> woodruff: what happened last night? what changed? >> a number of things changed. it was the longest campaign in modern canadian electoral history. it allowed the electorate to get to know the candidates.

in the case of the incumbent prime minister stephen harper, perhaps got to know him a little too well, to the point where dislike became a sharpened point of hate in this cases. as for justin trudeau, the public didn't know him that well. he had been the subject of long, withering attack campaign from the conservatives, even long before the election was called. effectively what they did, arguably, was lower expectations to the point where he had to only exceed them. the joke is made that he only had to show up for the debates wearing pants and he'd make a positive impression. he did show up. he did wear pants. and he had very few missteps. many are saying he ran a very smart campaign. he's young. he's energetic. and over time, over those 11 weeks-- and i know that's short by american standards but it's very long by canadian standards it's public decide he deserve aid chance. >> woodruff: why was harper so unpopular? >> well, it was a variety of things. he'd been in power a long time and the sense of familiarity

breeding contempt there. but at the same time he had a number of policies that just group by group, the opposition added up against him. at various times he has not fared well with veterans. he has not fared well with farmers. he has not fared well with the elderly. this, as you can imagine, is a core constituency for a party on the far right. and over time, people grew sick of him, and in the last days of the campaign, what appeared to be a number of desperation members-- movements, rather, including showing up at an event with rob ford, you'll remember the disgraced former mayor of toronto, admitted crack user and heavy drinker. many saw that as a final desperation move by harper to garner last votes, and there was blood in the water, and people at that point really decided they had had enough right across the country. >> woodruff: i read it was also his positions on climate change, on foreign military intervention, and what is it about this dispute about muslim

women wearing the face vail, what was that all about? >> that, too, sparked a lot of concern in the final days of the campaign. effectively, his party has airinged that women should not be allowed to show up for the citizenship swearing in ceremony wearing the vail. you have to present yourself. you have to reveal yourself to a female officer, and identify yourself with a proper documentation, but for the public swearing in ceremony, there was a raging debate that ended up in the courts with the government of stephen harper saying, no, these women had to show their faces. the women saying no, they didn't feel comfortable showing their faces in a public way in the ceremony. they won in court and one in particular was sworn in and managed to vote on election day. that had a lot of people, some of the hard right, were attracted by that position, but harper went on to say he might mite even consider bringing in the sort of thing in the federal civil service with public

displays of religion and a lot of people thought, for example, the jewish skull cap, the sikh turbin and said this is going too far. it became a battle over values, canadian values what, ewhat do we hold dear, the ability to come to this country and immigrate to this country and be free to be yourself. >> woodruff: let me quickly ask you. what do people expect trudeau to do different? >> the liberals have a long tradition of running from the left and governing from the right. you are going to see some spending on infrastructure. many parts of canada, major cities, need things like increased transit and better roads, so you're going to see some spending and job creation there as well. but as far as the business community, as far as dealing with the largest trading partner across the border in the united states, you will see someone pro trade, pro pipeline, in terms of the controversial keystone pipeline, moving through the

united states and the gulf of mexico. and you'll see someone who wants to do business with the world, despite being called-- quote, unquote-- a liberal. >> woodruff: john northcott, from the canadian broadcasting corporation, getting used to a new prime minister, thank you. >> ifill: there was little relief today from the wave of migrants pouring into eastern europe. as officials on the ground struggled to cope, governments ratched up their war of words. newshour special correspondent malcolm brabant reports. >> reporter: all day, they kept coming in their thousands, as slovenian police on horseback tried to herd them to packed reception centers. slovenia says nearly 20,000 migrants have entered the country from croatia since friday. and today, parliament considered sending additional troops to help prevent illegal crossings. officials talked of more drastic action as well.

>> ( translated ): i don't know what the future will bring. and you know that slovenia had a restrained attitude so far. but we cannot rule out the possibility of using physical barriers to secure border crossings. >> reporter: in addition, slovenia's president traveled to brussels, asking the european union to help police the frontier. the new influx began when hungary closed the last of its southern border posts in recent days. that forced refugees reaching croatia, to take the new route toward slovenia. the slovenians complained again today that croatia is dumping throngs of people on its border "without control". but croatia said in turn, that thousands are stranded in mud- caked fields along its southern border with serbia. the croatian interior minister said slovenia must take at least half of those arriving, in order to keep the line moving.

>> reporter: all of this, as arrivals at the southern end of the refugee route have reached new records. some 8,000 crossed from the eastern aegean sea, from turkey to greece, yesterday alone. the voyage to islands like lesbos is far shorter and relatively safer during the summer than the crossing from north africa to italy, but it is still a perilous undertaking. it's estimated that more than 3,000 people have drowned so far this year. and the u.n. refugee office in greece fears more will die. >> as winter approaches, people are desperate they're still going to keep trying. they might wait for a calm day. but if it's not, the smugglers give them a discount. and they will, as much as 40- 50%, if they'll take a boat in stormy weather. and some people do it. >> reporter: it's been one of those days that really emphasized the fickle nature of

the aegean sea. a boat full of refugees landed in lesbos today and the people on board told volunteers that the boat directly behind them disappeared. their story has been confirmed by greek coast guard tonight who said there have been drownings inside turkish waters. but tonight, the coast guard off the island of lesbos has been in action. they've rescued 60 people. the sea was flat calm. but all of these people were in danger of drowning. the weather is about to change, which creates a real dilemma for those people in turkey who want to rush to europe before more borders close. those who do make it across the aegean, may face an increasingly hostile reception. last night, 15,000-20,000 anti- immigration protesters gathered in dresden, germany. which, up to now, has been one of the most receptive countries to migrants. and in sweden, where more than 150,000 refugees are expected to arrive, a fourth building housing asylum seekers was torched overnight in a suspected arson attack.

for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in athens. >> ifill: stay with us. coming up on the newshour, a teacher's stance against standardized testing; an oil boom becomes a boon for high school football; and a professor's take on why talented girls still aren't becoming scientists. first, let's turn to a pair of health stories getting a lot of attention today. in a moment, we explore why one of the most important voices in cancer, the american cancer society, is changing its guidelines for mammograms. but first, we turn to a landmark study that could change the way schizophrenia is treated. more than two million americans have this chronic and sometimes severe brain disorder. symptoms can include hallucinations, delusions and hearing voices, and problems

with memory, fatigue and depression. for years, this has been treated with high levels of potent anti- psychotic drugs. but a new study finds lower doses, combined with therapy and support, is more effective. doctor robert heinsenn is with the national instiute of mental health which funded the six-year study. >> good evening. >> ifill: first, define for people what schizophrenia actually is. people know what they know from tv and movies. >> so schizophrenia is a condition that affects the way the person interacts with the world. they can experience an altered sense of perception. their thinking can be impaired. it also affects the kind of emotional experiences they have. so people may withdraw from those around them. they may lose opportunities to pursue their education or to get a job. so it's-- it affects the quality of their thinking, the quality of their emotional life, and their relationships in general.

>> ifill: and how has it been treated typically? >> well, in the united states, we've tended to have a treatment system that focuses on the latter stages of the disorder. so sometimes people are ill for several years before they come to the attention of the health care system. and once they do come into the health care system, the focus is on managing the psychotic symptoms that are distressing to the individual, their family, and are often the calls of drawing negative attention to the person. >> ifill: so a big part of this finding is that early treatment is necessary, i assume, since you're saying that so much of this is diagnosed late. but also talk therapy instead of drug therapy. explain the difference. >> so what we know about the needs of people with schizophrenia are that there are multiple areas of impairment-- their psychotic symptoms, their social functioning, cognition in terms of thinking and memory and so forth. and there's also functional

capability-- school and work. medications do a very, very good job with psychotic symptoms. they can give people relief from the psychotic symptoms but they don't necessarily touch the other areas of impairment. for that we need therapies that can engage the person's interests, their motivation, their curiosity, give them a pathway to recovery, and then support them in that process where they can learn and be reinforced, acquire more adaptive stances. >> ifill: it sounds like the support is more than just treatment. it's also family support and support in the workplace as well. >> so want experience of psychosis is very traumatic for the family. very often the people closest to the individual with schizophrenia are at a loss. what is going on? how can we help? so this treatment takes that into account, emphasizing education for family members, support for family members, and really engaging them as active partners in helping the person recover.

>> ifill: two of the things that leap to mind as you think about schizophrenia, or any disease like this, is the side effects of drug therapy and whether that also caused you to search for an alternative. and also the cost of drug therapy, or talk therapy, which is more expensive. >> so in terms of the side effects, you know, we know that people in the early stages of psychosis are very responsive to antipsychotic medications. they actually get a much more robust response than people who have been ill for years. but they're also more vulnerable to side effects. so it's a very-- it's a balancing act to find a therapeutic window where you're getting good benefit but men myselfing the side effects, because some of the side effects include things like weight gain that actually then put the person at risk for medical conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and so forth. so in this treatment, there's very, very careful attention to the dose of the medications, how the person is experiencing that dose in terms of relief, what

kinds of side effects they may be developing, and then a careful integration of medical and psychiatric care to make sure that we're not compounding the problems of psychosis with medical problems that have their own burden. >> ifill: and as far as expense? >> well, you know, there will be a cost-effectiveness analysis that will follow the study that was reported today. but our initial sense of this is, that, yes, there are more upfront costs in terms of outpatient treatment-- the individual therapy, the family treatment, the supported employment and education, which is key to getting the person back on the path to meaningful work. but we really think that these upfront costs will be offset, both by reduced reliance on emergency and crisis care, in-patient hospitalizations and emergency room visits, but also dawz because people have a much greater opportunity to become

employed, become citizens who are fully engaged in the workforce, making contributions, that those factors will be included in the cost-effectiveness and probably will show us in the long run, this is well worth the investment, the investment in these young people's future. >> ifill: so there's a payback in other ways, is what you're saying? >> i think there's a payback to our society, that we get fully functioning citizens who are-- yes. >> ifill: who are full lie functioning. >> who are fully functioning and fully contributing, which is what they want as a society, what we should want. >> ifill: robert heinsenn of the national institute of mental health, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now to the details of the news about breast cancer. the american cancer society's revised mammogram guidelines recommend women with average risk of cancer start annual screenings at age 45. that's five years later than the society's prior guidelines that recommended starting at 40.

there have been years of debate and many studies looking at the value of the screenings and the age at which they should begin, and how often. here to explain the new guidelines, and the shift in thinking they represent, is dr. richard wender, chief cancer control officer with the american cancer society. with us. why is 45 now the magic number, not 40, not 50, which some organizations still recommend? >> well, there actually is no magic number. what our guideline group found is that the risk of breast cancer increases as a woman ages. and that's really what determines the balance of benefits and harm. so we actually recommend that all women start the discussion about mamography at 40, and we

absolutely endorse women having the choice to begin screening at age 40, but we state that by age 45, the benefits substantially outweigh the harms for the entire population. and that's the age where all women should be starting regular, annual mamography, assuming they have not started before age 45. >> woodruff: so what is the new information that has come in, in the last six years, since the american cancer society said it was most comfortable telling women to start at age 40? what makes you now comfortable to say that it's 45? >> well, actually, our last full guideline for average risk was written way back if 2003. so back then, there was no expectation that guideline groups would balance the benefits and the drawbacks of screening. that now is a standard. we also have some new data about the interval for screening before menopause, and after menopause, and there are also some new observational trials that actually tell us just how

valuable mamography is. the goal of this new guideline is to highlight the populations who are at most likely to benefit, most likely to have the greatest benefit, but at the same time, giving women a choice to begin screening earlier and to continue screening more regularly beyond menopause based on her personal values and her preferences. it's important to understand that the risk of developing breast cancer at age 40 is actually still quite small, and that's why there's a greater likelihood that a woman will experience a false positive and a lower likelihood that she'll get actual benefit. but many women place great value on the opportunity to prevent a breast cancer death and we expect many women will want to continue starting at 40. but our message is very clear that if you haven't already started, please start regular mamography at 45 because this guideline really proves that the

most effective thing that a woman can do to reduce her chances of dying of breast cancer are to have regular mammograms. >> woodruff: at the same time, it is a striking shift in the eyes of those who read what the american cancer society was saying some years ago. we found an opinion column that dr. otis brawley, the chief medical officer for the cancer society, he wrote this in 2009. he said, "not only should women start having mammograms, most women, at age 40. he said "not doing so could be fatal for many women." he said, turning the clock back will add up to too many lives lost." >> well, i think you said it well. this will be seen as a dramatic shift. i think it's actually a nuanced shift. this new guideline is more than personalized, more tailored. it helps a woman with a roadmap in making screening decisions.

helping her understand when they reach 40 the likelihood of benefit is lower and it gradually goes up because the risk of breast cancer goes up and makes that clear statement at 45. we looked at this issue of 50, and found that actually, the balance of benefits and harms of screening for women 45-49 is actually quite similar for women 50-54. and we felt it was important that we give a clear message that all women should start by age 45. so our last guideline was in 2003. the whole approach to thinking about screening has changed. there is a higher expectation that women be informed, be empowered to take into account their own personal values. and i think this guideline does just that. >> woodruff: dr. wender what do you say to women, though, who may still be confused? as you know, there are other respected groups out there recommending different times. how do women make sense of all this? what should they do?

>> our ode guideline annual screening starting at 40 sounded very simple but it wasn't eliminating the confusion because it was forcing women and clinicians to make a choice-- am i going to follow this guideline or the other guideline? this guideline takes a person through her lifespan and helps a woman make decision at each point along the journey. though it is more complicated it will create greater clarity. it does mean three things. a woman will have to work hard to gather greater information to be more informed. two, it creates an obligation for clinicians to really help women get this information and help them conduct a shared decision with their patients. and, three, it creates an obligation for oh,s like the hwang pyong so, to make sure we have the information available for clinicians and patients and we produce decision aids to help people make decisions.

it's more nuanced, personalized, a bit more complicated but we think it's going to create greater clarity, not greater confusion. >> woodruff: dr. richard wender with the american cancer society, thank you. >> ifill: not long ago, i traveled to seattle to talk with bill and melinda gates, the microsoft billionaires who have become leading philanthropists for a school reform movement that champions testing for students and teachers. but not everyone agrees with that approach, not even in the gates foundation's home town. while in seattle, i talked with one of the teachers leading the opposition. the report is part of our american graduate series, a public media initiative funded by the corporation for public broadcasting. >> think about how this history relates to your life and we'll come back to the classroom and have a discussion. >> ifill: jesse is a teacher

on a mission. >> you can go at your own pace. >> ifill: he wants his garfield high school students to know their history, that jimi hendrix and quincy jones walked these halls before the students were even born. >> take a second to read some of the history. >> ifill: and he wants them to know their choices, among them, the right to opt out of the standardized tests washington state schools use toauge student performance. >> studies have shown that kids will take some 113 standardized tests now in their k-12 career. it's just become completely over the top. it's become a military billion-dollar industry to sell exams to children in order to rank and sort them. and it's become really a test-and-punish model. >> ifill: the tests are part of the common core standards, adopted by 24 states and the district of columbia to improve student achievement and teacher performance. the program has become a

flashpoint for advocates on both ends of the political spectrum. >> so who has the most rushing yards? >> reporter: 36-year-old hagoppian, a married father of two, who cut his teeth as a teach for america instructor, returned to his alma mater in 2010 to teach history. >> today is going to be all about trying to connect your life to history. what does history have to do with me? >> ifill: by 2013 he was leading a boycott of one of the major tests mandated by the seattle public schools. >> i want you to look at it through a whole different lens. >> ifill: the school superintendent still supports the tests but they're not trierd graduate. and last month, seattle school teachers took that protest a step further, walking off their jobs for the first time in 30 years. the fight against what he calls excessive testing pits hagoppian against not only the us department of education-- >> are you going to speak some spanish today? >> ifill: but also against

deep-pocketed school reformers who for the tests to measure progress. >> the corporate education reformers, they have one view of assessment, and that view of assessment is informed by this-- if you see a kid with hypothermia, and he's shaking uncontrollably, what you need to do is go take his temperature. and then once you've taken his temperature, you take his temperature again, and then you take it again and again. and then the really sophisticated thought is that you actually should then use a digital thermometer if you're in the 21st century. our philosophy of assessment is a lot different. if you see a kid shaking uncontrollably because they're cold, you wrap them in a blanket. and you nurture them and you give them the resources that they would need to recover. >> ifill: garfield high school is not new to social protest. stokely carmike expel martin luther king jr. both drew

thousands when they spoke here. decades later, senator barack obama paid a visit as well. and when it comes to common core testing, both teachers and students have joined the boycott. senior cedric johnson has ever intention of heading off to college next year without taking the measures of academic progress tests, known as map. >> i think it's a waste of time. we already have the s.a.t.s, the a.c.t.s. we have to have a certain grade point average to even get into college and we don't need another hindrance in front of us. >> ifill: did your mother say, wait a second. they said you had to take a test, you have to take a test? >> she sure did. i really had to explain it to her and explain it's not a graduation requirement and when i broke down the process to her she said, okay, that's fine, let me sign the slip and you go on back to class." >> ifill: there are strange bedfellows in this fight-- >> sometimes i get accused of not liking tests but i find authentic assessment important. >> ifill: many conservatives, including most republican presidential candidates, condemn

the common corstandards as government overreach, while liberals like hagoppian say they promote inequality. >> i think we are in the midst of the largest uprising against high-stakes testin testing in u. history. never before have there been more parents, students, and teachers resisting these exams and the standards that they come shrinkwrapped with, and it's been breath taking to watch. in new york state, there were 200,000 families alone that opted their kids out of the test. have a good afternoon, you guys. right here in washington, we had approaching 60,000 families opt their kids out of the common core test this past year, including over half of all juniors in the state, an incredible uprising of parents that want a much bigger vision for the purpose of education and for understanding what their kids know. both brothers became active in the black student union. >> ifill: the protest is

catching on. at least in seattle. last year, fewer than 60 of the 3,000 tenth graders who sat for the test opted out. this year, the number shot up to five up, including half the students at garfield. >> woodruff >> woodruff: and an editors note about a story that aired on the newshour last week, from longtime education reporter john merrow. the story focused on school policies for suspending very young children. eva moskowitz, c.e.o. of the new york city-based charter school, success academy, has since raised concerns that during her interview she was asked questions only about suspension policy in general and not given an opportunity to respond to a family also interviewed in the report. while the newshour stands by the report, we regret that decision. you can read ms. moskowitz' response to the report and more, at www.pbs.org/newshour.

>> woodruff: high school football is the center of life for many small towns in rural america. due to the oil and gas boom in western north dakota, one town is celebrating the return of that tradition for the first time in over a quarter century. emily guerin of inside energy, a public media reporting project, brings us the story from alexander, north dakota. >> reporter: it's the day before the first game of the season for the alexander comets. the players are really excited. >> i can't wait for tomorrow to come. my head's gonna explode right now if tomorrow doesn't hurry up and get here. >> reporter: for 28 years, alexander didn't have a football team. now it does, thanks to new kids like jay morgan, number 34. last year, morgan's mom moved from bakersfield, california, to north dakota. she came for a job at a truck stop in the bakan oil field.

>> now we can see where we're at here. >> reporter: football coach kevin claussen says about half of the kids on the team are here because of the oil fields. >> i feel like because of the oil boom, we now have a football team. you know, it brought many families to this school, which increased the enrollment, and, you know, gave the school the capability to actually do this. >> reporter: before the oil boom took off in 2008, alexander's single k-12 school only had 55 kids, and there were no varsity sports. like so many small towns on the great plains, alexander was shrinking as young people moved away and farms grew larger and more mechanized. >> breen, do you identify which muscle you injured? >> reporter: superintendent leslie bieber remembers what that felt like. >> i don't want to say that it was bad, it wasn't. because you still had that small community coming together, and helping each other out.

but it was sad to see a community dee. >> reporter: the bakanole boom has changed all that. the town has ground by 60% sense 200ate and now there are more than 200 cedz in the school, and the kids are still coming despite low oil preeses and thousands of leaves. there are phenylly enough students to breng back vars etsports, including football, sex-man football. the school is stell too small for 11 man and yet bieber said people could not be more competed. >> when we laid the sod for the football field, it was 19-some degrees. community members campaign in the middle of the afternoon to help lay the sod when it was 19-some degrees. that doesn't happen unless you are competed about bringing something back. >> the comet's first football game took plaes during the

town's cell braegz of farming and ranching her team coveragey before the game working the meat-cuttingitably is jerry hadder, the mayor of alexander. he also works for a drilling company. hadder has a pretty complicated relationship with the oil fields like many peopley met here. on the one hand, he greatful for all the new families moving into town. on the other hand, it's overwhelming. >> everything grew so fast and there were so many people, and western north dakota never had a lot of people, andening just the influx of all the people is what really did it for a lot of people. >> reporter: alexander may have been slowly deeg before theole boom, but some people likes it that way. hadder is one of them. >> i hate the fact that i can drive down plaeses that there was never anything, and it's

nothing but solid pumping units and road and traffic. it's changed the landescape, but it's geffen me a lot. >> reporter: theole boom is really love-hate for people in alexander, that's why the rirn of football is so important, something everyone can be competed about, no mawrt how thaefl about the oil field. after the barbecue, it was teem for the big game. the plaes was packed. people drove their peck-ups reet up to the edge of the field, locals lie mayor jerry hadder. people who lived here long before the boom got started. and newcomers, people drawn here for work. everyone was hoping the comets would wen, put as the game went on that seemed like a long shot.

the other team was beggar and more experienced than the comets. they interpreted a lot of comet's passes and scored a lot of touchdowns. but unless you look at the scoreboard, you would have no way of knowing the comets were losing by a lot. the crowd cheered at every tackle. people were just happy to be there. this is' sense of community that was missing, those 28 years that alexander didn't have football. and brenging it back is especially meaningful for people like leanna. >> in this community, farmers, rampers, i get caught up in your lives. >> reporter: gist having football back is' wen per alexander. for the pbs newshour, i'm emily giewren in alexander, north dakota.

>> ifill: 40 years ago, a poet and performer named patti smith crashed onto the rock scene with her debut album, "horses." five years ago, she made another kind of splash, winning the national book award for a memoir titled "just kids," about her early years in new york, and her friendship with the photographer, robert mapplethorpe. now she's back with another book, titled "m train". the "m" is for memory-- a trip through time to writers and artists who influenced her, and to her own loved ones now gone. patti smith talked with jeffrey brown recently at the george washington university library for our newshour bookshelf. >> patti smith, welcome to you. >> thank you. >> brown: one thing i saw is where art comes from and how it's transmitted because of so much what you're writing about is going to authors who have inspired you, artists who have influenced you, and it sounds

like you were thinking about that transmission. >> i'm always thinking about that. i thought about that my while life. i thought about that when we recorded "horses" 40 years ago, when we wrote songs in memory of morrison and hendrix. but i didn't have any particular design. it just happened i was ruminating on one of these things and it was the natural course of my life. and i think a lot of it is about process. >> brown: a lot of it unfolds literally in a cafe, right? >> yes. >> sitting in a cafe. it's interesting because there's a point where you write about how there were no cafes in your childhood. >> i was raised in south jersey. i i had read about them in a book about french poets, seen lots of photographs about mostly french or morokan writers in cafes and i was beguiled by them. but i didn't see them in person until i went to new york city.

>> brown: many of the vignettes here are about people who have influenced you. >> well, yes, i mean, it's a way of identification, but also showing gratitude, i think. >> brown: gratitude for their work. >> yeah. i'm grateful all the time that louisa may alcott wrote "little women." i'm grateful the new testament was written. i love books, and i love what the hand of mankind produces whether painting or music, opera. i just think it's wonderful that we have that in our life. >> brown: well, there's the high there's the low. there's television. you love to watch "c.s.i." and pbs mystery shows. >> i love "masterpiece theater." when i was a kid i loved sherlock holmes. i'm not interested in crimes. i'm interested in the mind of the detective and his process, which to me is a lot like the artist. >> announcer: the other thing that comes out in the book and in your life photography.

, photographs of a table, a chair of a writer that you love. or the bed of an art artist. what are they, these objects? >> they're like relics, really. because i travel so much, i might one day see the grave of james joyce, and the other day see the type writer of herman hessa, just day after day, seeing such wondrous things, that i want to remember, blut i also want to share with others. >> brown: you refer in the book to these influences as portals, windows, to what? >> well, you know, i can hold my father's favorite coff i cup, and i'm transported to the atmosphere of my father. the other dow at the new york public library you saw the very humble dupg pen of charles

duckens. and i coiled almost sense the scratching of the pen across the portsmouth. it was a moment of clarity, or a moment feeling awe sense of the owner of these things. >> brown: for those of us who grew up listening to you and thinking of you as rock and royaller, this love of books was there first, i guess. >> absolutely. when i was a little girl, my parents read voraciously, and there was always books everywhere, and i was very curious about them, so i learned to read cute early and i just loved books. >> brown: and you wanted to write. >> i didn't think of it until i read "little women" and jo was such a great role model. she was sort of tomboyish, like i was. and what they used to call a bookworm, and she wrote, and then i thought, ah, i can write just like jo. and i was quite young, but i

took that in my heart as my vocation. >> brown: you know, there is also in this book an air of solitude. there's loss, some 20-plus years since your husband, fred, died. is it in some way a response to that sense of loss? >> really, it just threaded its way through the book. truthfully, i didn't want to write about loss at all. i wanted to write something where i was unfettered by any destination, any responsibility. yet, we are who we are. and i often my husband, fred, is always with me and? my thoughts, as my mother and my father. so the people they love and lost found thur way in this book. i didn't expect them to fiewnd their way, but they did. so i welcomed them. >> brown: and now you find

yourself, i think, a well-established wriewrt, as well as musician. does that feel right to jew i always hesitate when people call me a musician, and musical training. i can't play anything. i really think of myself as a performer. it's always been writing for me. i evolved with my band in rock 'n' roll through poetry, not through music. i file at this pownt i've spent at least 60 years writing. i guess i can at last call myself awe writer. >> announcer: all right the new book is "m train." patti smith, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now time for a newshour essay. women earn just over 57% of bachelor's degrees in all fields, yet they receive less than 20% of degrees conferred in computer science, engineering

and physics. a recent study by the american association of university women found that in 2013, 26% of all computing jobs were held by women-- a drop from 35% in 1990. we asked eileen pollack, one of the first two women to receive a bachelor's of science degree in physics at yale and who now teaches creative writing at the university of michigan, to share an idea from her latest book: "the only woman in the room: why science is still a boys' club." >> when i was growing up, i wanted passionately to be a physicist. but in seventh grade, the principal wouldn't let me enter the accelerated track in science and math. girls never go on to careers in those subjects, he told my mother. besides, he said, getting skipped ahead in science and math would ruin my social life. as a result, i arrived at yale in 1974 far behind my male classmates.

i failed my first physics midterm, and my parents urged me to switch majors. but i worked incredibly hard and didn't give up. four years later, i graduated with a nearly perfect g.p.a., an "a" in a graduate course in gravitational theory, and two original research papers. even so, i didn't go on. as ridiculous as it seems now, i assumed that if i were talented enough to apply to graduate school, one of my professors would have let me know. since then, i've done a lot of research on gender bias in the sciences, and i'm sorry to report not much has changed. when parents ask why there are still so few girls in advanced science and math classes in high school, i tell them: because girls still need way more encouragement than boys to take those courses. we still raise girls to look to other people for assurance they are attractive and smart, while boys are raised to determine their own value.

many girls are still made to feel it's not feminine to be good at science or math. and if a girl complains about how hard her a.p. calculus class is, her parents are more likely to let her drop than if her brother voices the same complaint. as a result, by the time they get to college, most girls won't, or can't, sign up for rigorous courses in science or math. those who do often find themselves unprepared or lacking in confidence. what delivers the one-two punch that knocks so many women and minorities out of stem fields is that scientists have this strange belief that if you need to be encouraged, you aren't talented or dedicated enough to be one of them. if you flunk your first physics or calculus midterm, you deserve to be weeded out. what they don't realize is that young women and students of color grow up in a society that fails to encourage-- and often actively discourages-- them from

thinking of themselves as scientists. ask most people to picture a physicist and they will imagine albert einstein or sheldon from "the big bang theory." my parents didn't know how to provide me with the encouragement i needed to achieve my dreams. but the solution isn't rocket science. if your daughter finds herself in a course designed to weed her out, you can cheer her on, urge her to seek extra help, and give her a giant pat on the back for having made it so far, despite all the discouragement she already has overcome. >> ifill: finally tonight: happy anniversary, to us. 40 years ago today, we premiered as the robert macneil report. we've changed a lot since then, but our core journalistic standards remain. here's a quick look back at how we've evolved since then. you may or may not remember some

of it. ♪ ♪ >> ifill: i cannot tell you how much of an honor it is to be part of that tradition and especially to sit across from you as we continue it. >> woodruff: and i feel the same way. we haven't been here the whole time but we've been here a chunk of that time, and, boy, do we feel lucky to be right where we are, thanks to our founders, jim and robin. >> thanks, jim and robin. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, bounce houses

can be lots of fun for kids, but how safe are they? our data team finds that injuries are on the rise. read about the risks on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. 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.

>> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> support also comes from >> 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 and foundations. 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org.

this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herara. >> pressure mounts. yahoo! misses arngs estimate and now some say the ceo marissa mayer has only two options left. >> wall street's worry. companies have just started reporting their results, but already one big concern emerging. >> the race to get ready for the flu season. why it's a six-month mad dash to get the vaccine made. a look how it's done in the second part of our series tonight on "nightly business report" for tuesday, october 20th. good evening, everyone. welcome, thanks for joining us from yahoo! to boo who. the pressure is building on yahoo!'s ceo marissa mayer. the company reported earnings and revenue after the bell missing