captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, january 2: hundreds are urged to evacuate from the dangers of midwest flooding; the congressional agenda for 2016, as washington gets back to work; and, why some of the millions of owners of manufactured homes are facing unexpected financial challenges. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. judy and josh weston.wartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the citi foundation. supporting innovation and enabling urban progress. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america--

designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. rare winter flooding continues to threaten the midwest, and hundreds of residents remain evacuated from their homes. after 10 inches of rain fell in three days last week, cities in illinois, missouri, and arkansas along the swollen mississippi and other rivers are in danger. today, illinois governor bruce rauner toured flooded areas and activated national guard soldiers to assist recovery efforts. he's declared 12 counties missing.e are reportedin their

the state of emergency has ended in st. louis, where flood waters are receding, and the cleanup has begun. iraqi officials say a suicide attack by militants from the islamic state in iraq and syria, or isis, killed three iraqi soldiers and wounded 17 at a base near ramadi, iraq, yesterday. after that, seven suicide bombings by isis followed in and around ramadi, according to iraqi officials. the iraqi the iraqi military says it has rescued more than 50 iraqi families isis was using as human shields in ramadi, and moved them to secure locations. the violence comes just after iraqi forces retook ramadi earlier this week. isis had seized the city, 75 miles west of baghdad, in may. saudi arabia's execution today of a prominent shiite cleric and 46 other prisoners on terrorism charges is sparking international outrage. iran's supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei, denounced the execution of sheik nimr al-nimr by comparing saudi arabia to

isis. tonight, protesters have set fire to the saudi embassy in iran's capital of tehran ...and stormed the saudi consulate in iran's second largest city, meshad. earlier, shi'ite muslims in iran, pakistan, other parts of the middle east, and europe protested the sheik's execution. nimr was a vocal critic of saudi arabia's sunni monarchy. the others executed were activists in the shi'ite minority or alleged al qaeda members. 2016 will be the last full year of the obama presidency, and the president's sixth year in a row working with a republican congress. already, republicans say they plan to try again to repeal obamacare. the president's handling of the war on islamic terrorism, the guantanamo prison, and syrian refugees are other expected conflict points. though, there may be more agreement on criminal justice reform and trade treaties. joining me now from washington to look ahead at the agenda on capitol hill is newshour political director lisa desjardins. lisa, just had your story in the

middle of the week about the "do something "congress. we did get some stuff done on highway transportation funding and making some tax cuts permanent. but as we start the new year, it looks like the repeal of obamacare will actually land at the president's desk. >> reporter: so, that's right. they're starting with some contention on one of the biggest political issues but, of course, we expect a veto on that. republicans, probably, hari, will try to pass more repeels. it's good for them in an election year and it's obviously something they feel strongly about. >> sreenivasan: what does it look like in terms of things they do want to get accomplished? >> reporter: here's the good news. there are some major piecees of legislation to watch this year. i think the biggest one by far is criminal justice reform two reasons i think that we will see major reform this year or that it's likely. one is that want way our prison system works right now, hari, about two million prisoners, as you may know are, in american prisons right now. of those, the vast majority are in state prisons. that's red states and blue states. they're paying $20,000 a prisoner, and that's been

crippling state budgets. red states have been trying to look for a way to reform the system. all that at the same time as there's an increasing recognition that all of these americans in prison has a long-term devastating effect on families and ultimately on the economy, on education. so wrapping all that up, what that gets us toa a place where some staunch republicans in congress, like john cornyn of texas, and president obama in the white house, all want to fix the system. they've propose aid bill, hari, that does a lot of things. two big point on it. one, it would roll back that three strikes rule where if you get three strikes drug crimes you'll have a mandatory life sentence. it cancels that. and the other thing it does is review the sentences for most all federal prisoners and allow some of them to spend a quarter of their sentence at home if they're thought to be nonviolence. >> sreenivasan: and this doesn't happen in a vacuum, as you pointed out. this is an election year. how does that affect the legislative agenda? >> reporter: i'm going to shoald up a little show-and-tell here. this is the house calendar and

that is affected by the election year. there are four months the house will be mostly gone, and that's to run for reelection, most of july, august, almost all of october, and november, lawmakers will not be here. their primary job this year, as many of them see it, is probably to be re-elected. i think we will see them raise some issues, especially republicans, that they think help them, and maybe help their presidential chances. because, hari, the senate is a place that republicans are a little bit worried. they're concerned that there's a chance that if things go democrats' way in general, they could lose the senate. so watch house speaker paul ryan, hari. speaking to him and his staff, i know he's going to try to put forth a very serious agenda, perhaps on things like education, health care. i don't know that things will be passed, but he wanted to try and show that republicans have policy ideas which is something he and i think other leaders are now admitting has been a problem in the past few years. >> sreenivasan: what about the prospects for a trade deal that we heard soap about this year? >> reporter: it's going to be fascinating to watch that, hari.

the president needs a majority vote in both the house and senate but already senate leader mitch mcconnell said he doesn't think the vote will come before the election. it's going to be touch and go but we're going to watch it closely all year. >> sreenivasan: all right, the newshour's lisa desjardins joining us from washington. thank you so much. >> my pleasure, happy new year. >> sreenivasan: manufactured homes, often called trailers or mobile homes, account for 6% of all american residences, and they're twice as common outside of major cities. people who own manufactured homes are typically older and less affluent than conventional homeowners, and they're often forced to pay higher interest rates on their home loans. in tonight's signature segment, as part of our "chasing the dream" series on poverty in america, the newshour's stephen fee looks at the manufactured housing market-- and growing calls for reform.

>> reporter: in 2006, carla burr was looking for a new home. at the time, she owned a condominium in manassas, virginia, just southwest of washington, d.c. initially, she didn't consider a mobile, or manufactured home, but on a friend's recommendation, she looked at one in nearby chantilly, virginia. the price and convenience won her over. what made you move from a condo to a manufactured? >> being on one level. my condominium was fifteen stairs to my front door and fifteen stairs inside my house to get to the second level. i had a two-level condo, and with my back as bad as it was, i couldn't go up and down the stairs anymore. >> reporter: she bought this three-bedroom manufactured home for $113,000, in a town where the median home value is $500,000. >> i chose to move here because it was a beautiful house. and i thought, man i could retire here. >> reporter: now 61 years old, burr- and her home- may need to move.

while she owns the home-- she made the purchase in cash-- she doesn't own the land underneath. every month, burr pays rent to a property manager. over the past ten years, that lot rent has gone up 30%, from $740 a month to $1,022 a month. >> i had no clue that the rent was going to go up the way it did. i mean, it's to the point now where it's more than half my social security. i would love to stay. and i would love to keep it right where it is. because everything i have is here. all my church is here, my family's here, everybody's here. >> reporter: burr is one of about 20 million americans who live in manufactured homes-- buildings made in factories and then towed to communities or private land. while they're "mobile," most never move once they're placed on a property. wheels and trailer hitches are removed. driving by, a manufactured home community can look just like a conventional neighborhood.

the average price of a new manufactured home: $64,000, a fifth of the $325,000 average price of a new conventional home. >> manufactured homes are not trailers-- they're actually meant to stay in one place. >> reporter: julia gordon is executive vice president of the national community stabilization trust, which advocates for affordable housing. >> manufactured housing is a very important source of affordable housing for many people, especially those who live in more rural areas. >> reporter: in fact, in 112 rural counties in the south and west, more than a third of houses are manufactured. but only 48% of households who live in manufactured homes own both the house and the land; 30% own the house and rent the land; and 18% rent both. >> this is a unique problem of manufactured housing-- that the ownership of the actual dwelling is separate from the ownership of the land under it. >> reporter: it's a problem for 80-year-old bob thompson.

he and his wife bought this manufactured home in winchester, virginia, for $90,000 in 2003. >> no more mowing lawns, no more having to take care of the snow and those kind of things that as you get older, you're wanting to downsize your house size. >> reporter: like carla burr, they own the home but not the land underneath. >> when we come here in 2003, the lot rent was $260 a month. and now it will be $508 or $509 a month. >> reporter: has your income changed over that period of time? >> no, not very much, because we're on fixed income, and on social security, and you know, they might get a 1- or 2% raise per year, but that's about it. >> reporter: thompson says that if the lot rent continues to rise, he, his wife, and their teenage grandson who lives with them will have to sell-- or pay to have the house lifted up, placed back on wheels, and moved to a new location, which can cost up to $15,000.

>> but if you can't afford the lot rent, how are you going to spend that kind of money to move it off site? >> reporter: if you had to sell tomorrow, would you be able to recoup the investment you made in this house? >> no. these houses were brand new, so it was three years old when we bought it and paid that kind of money for it. and some of the, on here, i would say that normally $35,000 to $40,000 would be a high end for this house at this point. >> reporter: so that would mean basically a drop in 50% from your purchase price. >> yes. >> reporter: like cars, manufactured homes often depreciate, losing value the longer they're owned. carla burr believes the value of her manufactured home has plummeted since she purchased a decade ago. she thinks if she sold it today, she'd get $40,000 less than she paid. >> if you're in an apartment, you can move. at the end of your lease you can say, i'm outta here, it's too high.

i can't. i don't have that luxury. this house can't move. i mean unless you go through major hoops to do it. >> reporter: dick ernst chairs the financial services division of the manufactured housing institute, which represents builders, community owners, and lenders. i asked him about the dilemma bob thompson and carla burr are facing. >> reporter: they feel locked in. is that a common problem? >> well i mean, it's a customer's choice. if they choose a lifestyle in a land-lease community, for example, versus on a piece of property that they can buy or purchase someplace in rural america or wherever, that's a choice that consumer is making. on rented land are often considered personal property- not real estate- and as a result, banks sometimes won't grant buyers typical mortgages, which leads to higher interest rates.

the best financing carla burr could get for her manufactured home was twice as expensive as her old condominium, so she paid cash. >> i had a 4.875 mortgage in 2006 on my condo. and the best i could get was 10%. >> reporter: according to the latest figures, manufactured home loans have interest rates nearly three percent higher than conventional mortgages. one reason rates are higher: limited choice. some manufactured home lenders are owned by the same companies that make manufactured homes. >> often you have very few financing options. there are only a handful of lenders who work in this space, and because there's a lot of vertical integration in the industry often when you purchase the home, the manufacturer of the home is going to refer you to a lender. >> reporter: another factor driving up borrowing costs for manufactured homes- the default rate is much higher than on conventional mortgages.

industry analysts say it's as high as 25%, a figure manufactured home lenders dispute. >> the reason for the very high default rates in manufactured housing, frankly, is because many of the loans are so predatory. and a very high-rate loan actually carries with it extra risk of default than the same loan to the same person that's a lower rate, because of course it's more expensive, and it's taking up more of their income. >> reporter: what does that say to you when people are out there calling your industry, saying that you're preying on people who are low-income and vulnerable? >> it's not a good feeling to hear that, because we think that they're misguided. >> reporter: ernst says his industry's loan rates are higher than conventional home loans, in part, because the buyers do have worse credit and because there is no market for lenders to package the debt as wall street securities. >> you're also going to have to build something in there for the credit risk. you have to cover your cost for

origination, cover your cost of servicing. so if you, if you were to break an interest rate down, you would absolutely see very clearly that they're doing it because they have to. >> reporter: the dodd-frank financial reform law passed by congress and signed by president obama in 2010 provided consumer protections for borrowers of high-cost loans, barring things like balloon payments- oversized payments due at the end of a loan- and requiring credit counseling. but the manufactured housing institute is lobbying for new legislation to change the definition of a high-cost loan, boosting the interest rate threshold so that fewer manufactured home loans will be classified that way. isn't that what got us into trouble in the first place with the site built market? that we were extending loans that weren't underwritten very well. that the securitization was out of control. and that drove us into the largest housing crisis in decades. >> sure, but make no mistake, what we're asking for retains all of those protections for the

consumers so that more, so the consumers can stay in their homes. we're not asking that any of those consumer protections be taken away. we're just asking that we have the opportunity to make loans and customers living in manufactured homes that want to sell them have financing available. >> reporter: ernst says the legislative change he advocates would free up credit for borrowers, and it's already passed the house of representatives. but housing advocates like julia gordon say changing the law would be a mistake. >> what concerns me is that people who buy manufactured homes often are lower income, perhaps less financially sophisticated, maybe have fewer options available to them. these are the very vulnerable consumers who need those protections the most. >> reporter: president obama has vowed to veto any bill that would weaken the homeowner protections in dodd frank. meanwhile, manufactured homes are re-gaining popularity. as of october 2015, new

manufactured home shipments are up nearly 8% from the previous year. >> sreenivasan: oregon's crater lake is the deepest in country and the centerpiece of a national park. in recent years, the lake's water temperature has been on the rise, and those warmer waters attract crayfish that are now putting the lake's native creatures and clarity at risk. correspondent jes burns of oregon public broadcasting and the environmental public media partnership "earthfix" has this report. >> reporter: biologist mark buktenica is scouring the shoreline of crater lake. flying ants, lizards, and small toads are everywhere. >> aren't they cute? >> reporter: but the critter he's looking for is much more elusive. then his persistence pays off. this is the mazama newt. >> the mazama newt found no

place else in the world. >> reporter: crater lake formed nearly 8,000 years ago, after mt. mazama erupted and the caldera began filling with rainwater. >> we don't know when newts entered the caldera but some time thousands of years ago. >> reporter: there were no fish or other predators in the newly- formed lake, and the mazama newt expanded and thrived. it was the undisputed top of the food chain. but not anymore. because crawling beneath the surface of the lake, a new champion has emerged. the signal crayfish. their story begins more than 100 years ago. to attract visitors early conservationists began stocking the lake with game fish like trout and salmon. craig ackerman is park superintendent. >> in the past, the national parks have done many things which people thought were good ideas at the time, that turned out to be not so great ideas. >> reporter: in 1915, park managers introduced the signal

crayfish to feed those fish. >> and that turned out to be a worse decision than stocking the fish in the first place, because the crayfish have become out of control. >> reporter: and this is obvious out in the lake. scientists at the park are finding that crayfish and mazama newts don't really get along. >> we have a stand-off. what's going to happen? >> reporter: not only do they compete for the same food, but studies done by park biologists show crayfish chase and harass the newts, causing them to flee. and in some cases, much worse. >> they're virtually the perfect invader. the mazama newt on the other hand, is an ideal prey. >> reporter: after thousands of years evolving without predators, the newt lost it's best weapon-- a potent neurotoxin that can kill. >> with the loss of its toxicity, it's left virtually defenseless.

>> reporter: but actually, crayfish in crater lake weren't thought to be such a problem until relatively recently. surveying started in 2008, and scientists found newts had the advantage, occupying about half the shoreline. the crayfish had most of the rest. by 2014, the crayfish had taken over 75% of the shallows. >> i got it! >> reporter: and that's not all, says biologist john umek. >> crayfish are impacting all the organisms in the near shore, not only newts. for instance, in crayfish areas we don't find snails. you have to go outside the crayfish dominated areas to even find a snail or two. instead of this great bio-diversity area, it's down to one or two organisms and that's it, besides crayfish. >> reporter: without these tiny organisms eating the algae, the crystal blue clarity of crater lake could be at risk. crater lake biologist scott girdner suspects that climate change is playing a role.

the surface temperature of the lake has increased about three degrees in the past 10-15 years. >> and it may just allow the crayfish to move faster. they're just more active at warmer waters. and it may allow them to have more successful reproduction, they're numbers have increased faster now. >> reporter: at this point no one knows exactly what to do. trapping-- even intensive trapping-- hasn't made a dent. yet there are a few glimmers of hope for the mazama newt. there's the possibility of building underwater barriers or fences to slow crayfish expansion. controlling the signal crayfish and protecting this unique ecosystem will be labor intensive and expensive. the sobering reality is,

crayfish will likely never be eliminated from crater lake. and maybe the best the national park can hope to do, is carve out a few safe havens for the mazama newt. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: israeli police remain on "heightened alert" searching for a gunman who killed two people outside a tel aviv bar yesterday. the gunman, identified as a 31-year-old israeli arab, also wounded three people before he fled. since october, 21 israelis and at least 132 palestinians have died in a wave of street violence. funerals were held today in the west bank city of hebron for 17 palestinians. they were killed by israeli police or soldiers, after carrying out attacks on israeli civilians. the new year has already ushered in a new low in relations between the united states and russia. for the first time, the kremlin names the u.s. as a threat to russia's national security in a decree signed by russian president vladimir putin. russia also named the expansion of western military alliance nato as a threat. the decree asserts russia's growing global role has triggered a "counter-action"

by the u.s. and its allies in trying to dominate world affairs. russia also accuses the u.s. and european union of supporting what it calls," an anti-constitutional coup in ukraine" where russia has annexed the crimean peninsula and is accused of backing anti-government rebels. the islamic militant group ing a clip of republican, is presidential candidate donald trump in a new recruiting video. al-shabab released the 51-minute long video on twitter yesterday. aimed at american muslims, the video features trump calling for a ban on muslims entering the u.s., which he did after the mass shooting in san bernardino, california, last month. democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton said in a debate two weeks ago that isis was using trump's statement as a recruiting tool-- which was unproven at the time. >> we have tens of thousands of jobs in very traditional

manufacturing areas. there's no way that we're going to fill that throughour traditional needs. >> finally, former arkansas governor and four-term u.s. senator dale bumpers has died. he was a mentor to form are president bill clinton who said in a statement today, "i loved him." during clinton's impeachment trial in 1999, bumpers made an impassioned speech on the senate floor defending the president. bumpers died last night in little rock. he was 90 years old. that's all for this pbs newshour weekend. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the citi foundation. supporting innovation and enabling urban progress. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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