captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight, donald trump wins bigig and bernie sanders scores an upset, as the presidential candidates look ahead to ohio and florida. >> ifill: also ahead this wednesday, an american student is killed in israel amid a spike in violence, and vice president biden, in a meeting with prime minister netanyahu in tel aviv, sharply condemns the violence. >> woodruff: and a texasex hospital that is bucking the trend as more rural health care centers shut their doors. >> we took the approach that, if we took patients and we treated them better than they'd ever been treated before, that at the end of the day, they would drive the bottom line.ha >> ifill: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world.ed more information at macfound.or >> 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: this was another "day-after" for the presidential hopefuls. tuesday's results focused even more attention on tonight's

latest democratic debate. and republicans issued competing calls to join-- or oppose-- the frontrunner... fresh from another night of triumph, donald trump appealed today for mainstream republicans to unite behind him. >> instead of fighting it, they should embrace it, because if we if everybody came together c instead of spending all of this money on these ridiculous ads that frankly are wrong-- andds they're just false ads. if everybody came together, nobody could beat the republicah party, we would walk into washington. >> woodruff: but ted cruz had a decidedly different take in miami. he was coming off a win last night in idaho's republican primary, as well as second-place finishes to trump in michigan, mississippi and hawaii. all the more reason, cruz said, for republicans dead set against trump, to join him.

>> there is only one campaign that has demonstrated it can>> beat donald trump over and over and over again, and we will beat donald trump over and over and over again. >> woodruff: one former rival--f carly fiorina-- endorsed the texas senator today. and it was widely reported thate jeb bush will meet with the remaining republican hopefuls-- except for trump. but, it's getting harder by the day to stop the new york billionaire. after last night, trump now has 458 delegates in his column. he needs to win almost 55% of the delegates yet to be awarded, to get to 1,237-- the number needed to lock up the nomination. cruz, his closest rival, is at 359. trailing far behind are marco rubio, at 151, and john kasich,i who has 54.

the ohio governor poured time and resources into neighboring michigan, only to come in third there. today he brought his campaign-- and defiantly positive message-- to illinois, where he hopes to do well on march 15. >> because i didn't engage in name calling, you thought my name was "governor of ohio."" ok? ( laughter ) and then about a month ago, you actually started to see who i was a little bit, and now in the last couple weeks, a heck of a lot more. >> woodruff: even so, "the chicago tribune" passed over kasich today and endorsed rubio, who hasn't gotten much of a boost so far out of other endorsements. he failed to score any delegates in michigan or mississippi, and is pressing toward march 15-- when his home state of florida votes. tonight, he'll be making his case in miami, at a town hall

hosted by "msnbc." the democrats, meanwhile, arele pondering the importance of their own results from tuesday. bernie sanders tried today to to parlay his upset win in michigan into momentum elsewhere. >> as the map moves forward, and as we move, for example, into the west-- california, washington, arizona, oregon, wisconsin-- you're going to see there are a lot of states where we think we have an excellentwe chance to win. >> woodruff: even with the michigan loss, hillary clinton extended her delegate lead over sanders last night; she won more than 80% of the vote in mississippi's primary. and she again focused on opponents in republican ranks, instead of those in her own. >> we have our differences, which you can see when we debate, but i'll tell you what,t those differences pale in comparison to what's happening on the republican side.

( cheers and applause ) every time you think it can't get any uglier, they find a way. >> woodruff: the two democrats meet face-to-face again tonight, this time in miami for a debate hosted by the spanish languageag network, "univision." we'll call on two people who've been covering the races closely, after the news summary. >> ifill: in the day's other news, u.s. special forces have captured the islamic state's chemical weapons chief in northern iraq. the associated press reports he was taken in a raid last month. the report also says follow-up air strikes have hit islamic state chemical facilities in recent days. >> woodruff: and in somalia,ma there is word that u.s. and somali forces killed ten al-shabab militants in an overnight raid. somali intelligence officials say the target was a town controlled by the group-- west of mogadishu. this comes three days after u.s. air strikes hit an al-shabab camp.

the pentagon said up to 150 fighters were killed there, but the militants disputed that figure. >> ifill: for the first time, a japanese court has ordered a nuclear reactor shut down over safety concerns. a second one that was already down, will have to stay offline. the ruling came two days before the anniversary of the tsunami disaster at the fukushimat nuclear plant in 2011. the court ruled the two reactors near kyoto have not been adequately upgraded since fukushima. >> ( translated ): ansh independent regulatory committee, including professionals and architects, spent a lot of time to come up with the decision that the takahama reactors three and fou are up to top world level standards. the government backs that decision and has not changed its stance of restarting the reactors. >> ifill: japan shut down all o its nuclear power plants after a tsunami severely damaged the fukushima plant, five years ago this week. the government has now begun slowly restarting some of the plants. >> woodruff: tributes came from

around the music world today for george martin, the legendaryen record producer of "the beatles." he gave the group their first break, in 1962, and guided them through the decade as they revolutionized pop music. "beatles" biographer philipli norman spoke to independent television news today: >> he was a musician as well as a producer. he saw the real talent in john lennon and paul mccartney and he really devoted himself to making it sound as good as it could. he became a celebrity producerod although he didn't want to be a celebrity.di >> woodruff: george martin wass 90 years old. >> ifill: back in this country, a period of official mourning began for former first lady o nancy reagan, who died sunday ah the age of 94. mrs. reagan's casket was brought to her husband's presidential library in simi valley, california, where the publicpu viewing began. she will lie in repose until the funeral, set for friday. >> woodruff: wall street managed modest gains today.od the dow jones industrial average was up 36 points to close at 17,000.

the nasdaq rose 25 points, and the s&p 500 added 10. >> ifill: and, score another breakthrough for artificial intelligence. a computer program designed by google has beaten one of the world's top players in "go," the ancient chinese board game. the computer relayed moves to a human stand-in as it squared off against the 18-time world champion in south korea. afterward, he praised thee program. the game involves roughly 200s possible moves-- per turn-- compared to 20 in chess. i >> ifill: still to come on the newshour, beyond the rhetoric-- the facts about trump university; a rural hospital beats the odds and keeps its doors open; new turmoil in the middle east, and the white house response, and much more.

>> woodruff: from trump's latest triumph, to the surprise win for sanders in michigan, we explore the state of the race for the white house, as the focus heads to the battleground states of ohio and florida. joining us again are reid wilson of the morning consult; and susan page of "u.s.a. today." and we welcome you both back to the program. reid, let me start with you. let's start with the " w republicans. donald trump is blazing ahead despite the onslaught that he faced last week -- the mitt romney news conference, thee money that the "stop trump movement" is spending. how significant is this? >> another round of pundit saying, he has hit the wall and about to start his decline. instead, last night, in four contests around the country, donald trump grew his delegate lead. now, the real onslaught, the real test he faces comes next week in florida where outside groups are spending millions of dollars, multiple millions of dollars attacking him from all

sides. we'll see whether or not he can survive. but at the moment, he remains the republican frontrunner andan for the rest of the anti-trump republican field, their best shot at stopping him remains in some kind of contested convention once we get to cleveland in july. >> woodruff: susan, how do youou size up where trump is now? >> i think trump could end up with enough delegates, 1237 he would need to hold the nomination. i think the only path his opponents have now is to get to go to contested convention, a long shot possible.ss marco rubio is a guy who never ran for office before, trump has dominated the field from the beginning of the contest. one big name in republican politics after another has fallen at his feet the latest being marco rubio. >> woodruff: reid, what did we see in the interviews with voters as they were leaving the polls yesterday as they voted, the so-called exit polls, whatls they did disay about trump, that he should either be happy about

or worried about as he goes into his big states in. >> the two things that strike me most from the republican exit polls is, one, the amazing amount of support trump gets from people who say they want a candidate who tells it like it is. trump wins something like three-quarters of those voters across states, not just michigan and mississippi, but beginning in iowa and now all the way through until where we are today. the second is that trump has this well of supporters who have been with him from the very beginning. susan mentioned that he's been ahead since the beginning and if you look at the exit polls, the people who have decided how they are going to vote, months ago, weeks ago, have all decided for trump. the people just now deciding are deciding for some other candidate. more and more, by the way, bad news for marco rubio, the people are deciding to vote late are deciding to vote for ted cruz.r >> woodruff: what else do you see, susan, and the reasons people are deciding to go trump or somebody else? s >> these are people who think the country is headed in the

wrong direction, that political leaders from both parties have failed to address it and they're ready to shake things up. that the the reason i think the attacks on trump at the he's not consistently conservative or lying about his business record, it doesn't seem to have much of an effect with his voters. last night as we've seen before his support is mostly male, almost entirely white, strongest among working class voters, but he has broad support. he continues to win white evangelicals over ted cruz andd that is ted cruz's base.ba >> woodruff: reid, outline what the candidates face, the republicans face in florida, ohio, illinois and the other states. >> they face pretty high stakes similar to what ted cruz faced on super tuesday when his homee state of texas was the prize plum on the tree.e this time we've got marco rubio's home state of florida,o john kasich's home state of ohio. both are winner take all states which means there is a big chunk of delegates. no more 25 for trump, 17 for

rubio, 17 for kasich. all 99 of florida's delegates d will go to a person who gets a plurality there. all ofit ohio's delegates will to a person who gets the plurality there. the great news for donald trump is he's leading in both states, leading john kasich in ohioo ohio by a smaller margin than rubio in florida, but is facing an attack he has in the phased yet. >> woodruff: is there something we know about the republican electorate in these states these candidates shouldan be watching out for?or >> there are states that will know some of these candidates well which ought to be good news for them. in florida an endorsement by jeb bush which probably wouldentu matter nationally could matter. he's a popular former governor there. >> woodruff: let's start now on the democrats. t bernie sanders wasn't supposed to win michigan. he did. how big a deal is it? >> you know, this saved bernie sanders because he was just ons the verge of being counted out as a credible nominee and the

only protest candidate with a message. but he's turned that around.ou all the polls show him with a double-digit deficit in michigan. he managed to win there and he turned out a lot of young people. he won eight out of ten voters under 30. that isu a huge advantage for hm and one that hillary has been unable to cut into and he did better among black voters than before and in fact was basically we have been her among black voters under 40.40 that could be important, too. it's a bigger more diverse state than he's won before and not in his neighborhood and that made it especially important. >> woodruff: we noticed sheecce did not do as good with black voters in michigan as in the south. what should be hillary be worried about with the michigan result? >> a couple of things. t the clinton coalition at the moment is democratic voters who want a candidate who is electable and experience. the sanders coalition are people who want a candidate who sharese my values and cares about people

like me. if you get to the general election and the majority of thh democrats or a significantni number of democrats don't believe hillary clinton is i honest or trustworthy, that'sus going to be a big problem down the line for her. i mean, this is the last democratic president before b president obama was the guy who felt your pain and now hillary clinton, not bill clinton, is having trouble connecting with voters. >> woodruff: susan, we talked about what the republicans face in ohio and florida next tuesday. what about the democrats?t >> crucial as well because these big states, they're winner take all states because democratic rules don't allow that. you talk about the problems that hillary clinton saw last night. let's talk about the advantagesd last night.. the momentum was with sanders. the math is the clinton. even though clinton got defeated in the states she hopes to win, she ends up with more delegates last night than sanders becausec she won in mississippi by such a big margin. she got four times more delegates in mississippi than

snders got out of michigan and that's something her campaign manager was trying to make with reporters today. >> woodruff: this is something peculiar to the democraticth party. it's something the democraticoc party worked because they wanted it to work this way.. >> they wanted proportional representation. republicans are less devoted to that idea.th >> hillary clinton is on the path still to the nomination but the path is a marathon. >> woodruff: susan, you're saying it could take her long tore seal this than for donald trump. >> and who would have thought that? it's amazing. >> woodruff: susan page, reid wilson, thank you both.th >> thanks a lot. >> ifill: on the campaign traila donald trump often boasts of hi business record as a credential to be president-- never more than during a victory speechc last night in jupiter, florida, held at one of his hotels.. >> i built a great, great company. i i have very low debt. i have assets like this, this is owned 100% by me with no debt.

( cheers and applause ) you've seen mar-a-lago. you look at doral, where we just had the major championship-- i mean, i have a lot of things ing florida, partners with related or numerous jobs on the beach, very successful, partners withar gil and michael dezer on the beach, massive buildings. nobody ever talks about this stuff.ve and you know, many, many jobs in new york, including the city on the west side from 72nd to 59th street, or on the hudson river, one of the most successfulof projects ever built in real estate. >> ifill: but one of mr. trump's ventures has come under especially harsh scrutiny in recent years. john yang explores. >> reporter: trump university was promoted as a way for aspiring real estate developers to learn the business from top instructors. as many as 7,000 people signed up, paying an estimated $40 million in fees. the now-defunct, for-profit seminars are the subject of three lawsuits, one brought by the state of new york, and two class action suits in california brought by former students. they say they were defrauded,

because the high-priced classes didn't deliver on the promises. investigative reporter michael isikoff has been looking into this for yahoo news, and joins us now, from new york. michael, welcome. >> good to be with you, john. michael, we talk about the promises. they offered hand-picked instructors and access to trump secrets. you talked to students who took the classes. what do they say actually happened? >> well, they sayly they didn't' get their money's worth. you know, in the promotional literature, there was language from trump about how he would teach them to make a living -- make a killing, i'm sorry, in the real estate market, he would teach his secrets to them, they would learn from the best of the best, and what trump universitys turned out to be was a series of ballroom seminars where people got sort of basics from these

instructors, and then they were encouraged to put more money down, to max out their credit cards to the tune of $35,000, to pay for mentoring from these hand-picked experts of donald trump. many of those who have filed complaints with the betterla business bureau, with the state of new york and other attorneys generals say they got very little for that. the hand-picked experts seemed to know very little about thee real estate business, gave them bum advice and in many cases seemed to fade away and they were unable to get in touch with them. so you had a lot of angry consumers out there whowf brought these lawsuits. >> were you able to talk to any students that were satisfied ina donald trump said there were course evaluations. people said they were very satisfied, his attorney said thd same thing. were you able to talk to any students who said that? >> i didn't personally talk to student who fit into that category. the evaluation forms basically

were based -- came off the seminars which were just a couple of hours and sort of routine forms that were handed out at the time. the real complaints came afterwards from those who went through the process of this mentoring, and that's where they say they didn't get their money's worth. now, i'm sure we will hear in the upcoming trial, and it is important to note that there is a trial scheduled for this year on h this matter from people who will testify that they did have good experiences with trump university. but trump's lawyers have tried to make that point in a number of motions in these cases and those motions for summary judgment to have these suits thrown out have so far being unsuccessful. >> on the campaign trail, marco rubio and ted cruz are trying to make this a political issue, a

campaign issue, but the trial, the court cases moving forward, what's the status of that case? >> well, actually, i happened to stumble across the filings just a couple of weeks ago that kind of put this in play. >> these lawsuits have been going l on for several years, n. they were originally filed back in 2010, and after the -- trump's lawyers lost their motion onusummary judgment,d there suddenly popped up just a couple of weeks ago references to, first, a deposition that trump had been given in a case just last december and then also references to pre-trial conference, getting ready for trial, witness lists exchanged and, on those witness lists,t donald trump stands front and center. the last pre-trial conference is may 6, and then the expectatione are that the case will move to trial in august, which,

curiously enough, is just a feww weeks after the republican convention. >> and he's fighting the judge in this case, is he not? >> well, yeah, as i mentioned before, his lawyers have lost their attempts to have the cases thrown out and donald trump in one of his recent interviews an in a campaign appearance saidnc this is because the judge is biased against him. why does he believe the judge is biased against him? because the judge, the federal judge, been on the bench a number of years, is hispanic, and trump believes because of his stands about building a wall in mexico, this has caused the judge to be biased against him in the trump university lawsuitt and he indicated he may file a motion to have the judge recused. i don't know that having a judge recused based on his or her ethnicity is going to carry muster, though. >> well, michael, i'm sure this won't be the last we talk or

hear about this. michael isikoff, thanks for joining us.in >> thank you. >> woodruff: last week, we brought you a story about the many rural communities in the country affected by a recent wave of hospital closures. tonight, special correspondent sarah varney takes us to fredricksburg, texas, populatioi 10,000, where a hospital is bucking the trend. it's turnaround is seen as a model for other rural hospitals struggling to keep their doorsli open. this story was produced in collaboration with our partner kaiser health news. >> reporter: brad and sheryl kott didn't think much of it seven years ago, when their 13-year-old son quinn-- a friendly, energetic athlete-- complained he wasn't feeling well. but soon after, quinn collapsed on the bathroom floor, and his speech was garbled. >> we loaded him in the back of

our pickup in the second seat, and we start heading to town to the emergency room right away. and on my way, my wife said, "i think he's had a stroke." >> reporter: after the familyr arrived at hill country memorial hospital in fredricksburg, the kotts say quinn's medical care went terribly wrong. they waited in the e.r. for hours.s. and the kotts say the nurses and e.r. doctor were unattentive and callous, at one point decidingin to send quinn home. his mother refused. >> i met the doctor coming down the hall, and i said, "something is wrong with quinn." and he shushed me. and i said, "no, don't you tell me to shush. you're the doctor. i'm the mom. there's something wrong with my son and i need to know what's wrong with my son, and we are not taking him home." >> reporter: it wasn't until the next morning that a pediatrician finally examined quinn. he was rushed to a hospital in san antonio and died soon aftera he had had a massive stroke.

for dr. michael williams, then hill country memorial's c.e.o., quinn's death in 2009 was a crucible moment.9 >> we had a clear opportunity to do either do what most hospitals do, and what we had done previously, which was get our attorneys involved, be prepared for a lawsuit-- or we could take a different approach and work directly, reach out to the family and ask them to partner with us in really transforming the hospital. >> reporter: in truth, says dr. williams, who is now president of the university of north texas health science center in fort worth, the hospital's problems went well beyond the e.r. >> the hospital was in the red on an annual basis. the patient satisfaction was very low, the employee satisfaction was very low. and across the board, what we w heard from people was that this used to be the community's hospital, and now people are leaving the community to go get

their care elsewhere. >> reporter: the troubled t hospital in fredricksburg wasri caught up in larger forces. since 2010, more than 50 rural50 hospitals have closed across the country and hundreds more are ao risk. rural populations have declined. and in many places, those that remain are largely elderly or uninsured. at the same time, congressional budget agreements and the affordable care act reduceded medicare reimbursement and subsidies for the uninsured; revenue losses that many rural hospitals have been unable to withstand. deep in the texas hill country, the hospital in fredricksburg was poised to face a similar a fate. despite the area's live musice scene and strong tourist economy, the hospital was the town's largest employer, and cherished for much of its history. when it opened in 1971, 93% of the county's households contributed money and thousands of people lined up to have a first look. years later, as the hospital

faced the crisis of quinn kott's death, dr. williams was determined to bring back thatin spirit. he studied the toyota plant in san antonio, and hired former toyota employee jeff darnaby to help bring the car company's revered assembly line principles to hill country memorial. >> the toyota production system basically allows you to identify waste, and remove that waste, from your processes, anything that doesn't add value to the customer, to the process, is considered waste. >> reporter: today at hill country memorial, each department candidly displaysan specific goals for everyone to see: reduce e.r. wait times, t eliminate falls, and improve customer satisfaction. >> this is based off a top five board that we brought here from toyota-- we didn't meet this goal yesterday, here's where we're going today, so i know i really need to get in this role. >> reporter: and this isn'tte something that's just measuredme once a year, or every quarter. these are sort of real time feedback? >> yes, it could be down to daily tracking and reporting.

>> reporter: in addition toon toyota, dr. williams turned to a former executive with southwest airlines to remake the hospital's values and culture, and he hired a former trainer from ritz carlton, known for its legendary customer service, toer change how patients and families were treated. >> we took the approach that, if we took patients and we treated them better than they'd ever been treated before, that at the end of the day, they would drive the bottom line. >> reporter: seven years after quinn's death, hill country memorial now ranks among the top 100 hospitals in the country, and recently won the nation'sly highest presidential honor for excellence through innovation and leadership. the sweeping changes can be seen everywhere-- from smallersm efforts, like reducing foodd waste in the kitchen, to helping local workers like domingo gallegos get healthier with free nutrition counseling and access to the hospital's wellness center, to more far-reachinghi initiatives planned out in the

hospital's so-called "war room," where new ventures are hatcheded to improve care and grow the business. >> a lot of patients come to class thinking they're going to cut out this much of my leg-- >> reporter: to capitalize on the abundance of medicare- insured retirees in texas hilln country, the hospital developed a well-regarded hip and knee replacement program that has attracted patients like george brannies. at 72, brannies is a fifth generation texan from nearby mason. he's a rancher and chairman of the local bank. after a riding accident a few years ago, brannies sought care from a renowned surgeon in san antonio. when the hip surgery failed, he decided to try hill country memorial. brannies says his surgeon and nurses were so exceptional that he was back on his horse in four weeks. >> they take such good care of you, it's like doing business at in a small-town bank. they give you their cellu numbers. they say, "now if you have a problem, you call us."

try this with one of those big- city hospitals. it doesn't happen.. >> reporter: the hospital nowpi performs some 400 hip and knee surgeries a year, and markets its nationally recognized program well beyond texas hill country. jayne pope became c.e.o. of hill country memorial in 2013. she attributes much of the hospital's success to its fervent and never ending focusve on improving patient care. efforts, pope says, that don't need to cost a lot of money. >> we know as a rural center, we can't do everything. but what we do, we determine what those core competencies are, and invest in those skills so that our patients have the best of care. >> reporter: but not every rural hospital can replicate hill country memorial's success. len nichols, a health economist at george mason university, says many small towns simply can't sustain an acute care hospital. >> we probably have roughly

20-30% more hospitals beds than we actually need. and so who's going to lose inan the long run? well, it's going to be those hospitals that are the least efficient, those who cannot deliver good, quality services for the lowest possible cost. >> reporter: instead, says nichols, the dozens of rural hospitals that have closed-- and hundreds more at risk-- should consider converting to urgenton care centers and partnering with larger regional hospitals. that would allow rural residents to be stabilized and moved quickly to hospitals where doctors often have more expertise. brad and sheryl kott say the changes at hill country memorial came too late for their family. they're still haunted by the treatment their son quinn received and the hospital's ad campaign that trumpets its care as "remarkable." >> at first, it makes me sick to my stomach, because the hospital was not remarkable at all. and it just, it tears at you when you see a billboard that says that. however, i know that it has

transformed into-- into that. and it makes me proud that people in my community took a bad situation, took our tragedy and worked to turn it around. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour and kaiser health newsn i'm sarah varney in fredricksburg, texas. >> woodruff: and you can watch the first part of this series that explores the struggles hospitals in rural georgia are facing, on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: vice president bidende met with israeli and palestinian leaders today amid a deadly spike in attacks in israel. yesterday, an american waran veteran and student, taylor force, was killed in jaffa during a series of stabbings. today, after meeting with prime

minister benjamin netanyahu,ny biden condemned the attacks and the apparent celebration of the tactic by palestinian president mahmoud abbas's political party. e kind of violence we saw yesterday, failure to con kem it, the rhetoric that incites that violence, the retribution keib that it generates has to stop. there can't be -- there cannot be unilateral steps to undermine trust that only takes us further away from an outcome. >> ifill: the vice president also responded to iran's test launch of ballistic missiles capable of reaching israel. the israeli government strongly opposed the u.s. brokered nuclear deal reached with iran last summer. biden today said if iran were to break the deal, "we will act." i'm joined now by daniel estrin in jersualem, who's covering the story for the associated press. daniel, we've seen months and months of the stabbing attacks, especially horrific. what's behind them? >> that's a good question.

palestinians say it's the israeli military occupation ono the palestinian territories, a desperation that there seems to be no solution and no end if sight and no hope for a future for them. israeli officials say this is a palestinian campaign of incitement and lies fueled by social media, and you see a lot, especially today on twitter, the fattah party, the political party of palestinian presidentes mahmoud abbas posted a photo of a cartoon basically extolling thet stabber that stabbed the americanab student. >> ifill: was there any concern that the latest attacks were coordinated to happen at the same time as vice president biden's arrival? >> there's no sense of that here in israel and israeli defense officials have said this is just a part of the months of vibes

that we've seen -- of violence we've seen here almost every day. >> ifill: we've watched carefully in the u.s. the strained relations often between the u.s. administration and the israeli government. does vice president biden's strong words today condemning the palestinians for failing to respond, does that go -- was that designed, or can we tell, to heal that rift? >> well, it's interesting. w joe biden mentioned today on the cameras that he has had a very long relationship with primeth minister netanyahu going back decades. he said he wasn't here in israel with a certain peace plan, but het was here to speak with his good friend netanyahu.ne his relationship is a lot better with netanyahu than president obama's relationship is and, soi i think the idea here is he is trying to see if there's any chance, any opening on both sides to move forward.r

>> ifill: is that complicated by this iranian missile test? obviously, israel has no love lost for iran and the u.s. to israel's point of view has accommodated them too much.at does that make for greater attention? >> yes, this is one of the main issues looming over the vice president's visit in israel. the iranian deal and specifically what america is going to do for israel now. america promised israel after it brokered the nuclear deal with iran that it would give it somem kind of compensation, some kind of boost in military aid, and now there are negotiations between the two countries. the u.s. is offering a lower number than -- a lower amount than the israelis want. currently, america gives israel about $3 billion a year in military aid. a aid to the prime minister, prime

minister benjamin netanyahu -- aides to prime minister benjamin netanyahu insinuated, thanks but no thanks, we'll wait for the next administration. today, the vice president said take the deal, you won't get a better one. >> ifill: the reaction to the irony missile test is what. >> it took the israelis a long time after they put -- before they put out a statement. the israeli foreign minister said it's dangerous the testing of the missiles in iran. they cannot only reach israell but have the capability of carrying a nuclear warhead. they said it's another sign iran is not serious about curbing its nuclear program.ea >> ifill: there is had been a palestinian teacher strike and children have not been in school for some time does that also add

to the complications that we're seeing? >> it's interesting. these strikes that have been happening over the last month are some of the biggest strikes that we've seen in the west bank in years. they're about teachers' wages, but they're more than that. they're about challenging abbas' rule and frustration about abbas' leadership, that there's just a general malaise and frustration about where thingsre are going in the west bank. abbas, the president, is not very popular at all in the west bank, and this definitely adds i lot of complications when israel and the u.s. are asking the palestinian leadership to step up and to condemn certain attacks. the violence that we've seen over the past six months almost has a lot of support on the palestinian street, according to polls here.. so abbas is really in a tough spot. he's against violence but it's hard for him to speak out

against it.ag >> ifill: daniel estrin in jerusalem for the associated press, thank you so much.u >> you're welcome. >> ifill: we'll be back to speak with the former head of the american academy of pediatrics about why doctors w should be screening children for poverty; but first, take thisg moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your

>> ifill: finally, new guidelines are out today fromm the american academy ofd pediatrics. they recommend that, during routine checkups, physicians also screen children for poverty. hari sreenivasan has that. >> sreenivasan: census figures show, one in five children in the country lives in poverty, which can contribute to higher rates of asthma and obesity, poor language development, and increased infant mortality. the new guidelines encourage doctors to ask patients about basic needs, such as food, heat and housing, during well-child visits, and to help them connect with community resources that might be of help.

dr. renee jenkins is a former president of the american academy of pediatrics, who currently teaches at howardt university medical school, and joins me now. doctor, what does it mean to screen for poverty? m >> so there are now tools that help us in the office when we do well checks to really ask parents about food insecurity, housing insecurity, whether their young children are in childhood educational situationn like head start or early head start, because we recognize that if we can intervene early on, very often we can make a difference. >> sreenivasan: i know people are very comfortable sharing confidential information with their doctors but how do you start this conversation and doti people open up to you about it? >> generally we start with something very broad like do yo have a problem making ends meet and does it happen often or just

sometimes? and then that opens up a conversation about what some of the issues might be. and i think we are trying to -- what we're recommending is we screen everyone. we ask a very open-ended question like that and then we see where that takes us. i'm sure some people are going to be uncomfortable to start to do that, but i think once patients understand that each time i come, they're going to ask me something like that because it's a common problem. as you mentioned, you know, one in five children is living if poverty -- living in povertyiv and, if it weren't for the safety net programs that we have, it would be even more children. so we're just trying to connect parents to the safety net programs.ra >> sreenivasan: so how solid are the links between poverty and adverse health outcomes?o what does the research show? >> the research shows there really are. we've known for quite a long time about the relationship, foh example, with asthma and poor housing, okay.

we've also known about nutrition and how, when you're poor, you tend to buy cheaper foods. healthy foods are pretty expensive. so in order to make the foodak last for the entire month, you've got to dot that. so we've always known that. but there is new information now about the stressors that children go through when they'r' in poverty and how these stressors do handicap them in terms of their developmentalnt milestones. >> sreenivasan: you're alsoiv talking about lodger-term issues -- gene expression, brain function, language development and possible seeds threads psychiatric disorder -- all of - that comes from childhood poverty? >> well,oo poverty certainly contributes to it, but when you take the big picture and you look at what's happening within the neighborhood that these poor children may live in and those kind of unsafe issues as well as the stressor on parents. parents, you know, want to

provide the bestnt for their children, a and when they can't, that's stressful for them, also. very often, they are not the same sort of ways that we relax when you are someone who has resources. people who are poor can't do that. so they don't have ways to necessarily relief the -- relieve the stresses associated with their living conditions. so we've got stressed parents and, obviously, it impact the child.d. >> sreenivasan: what you'ree describing is a much greater role for a pediatrician to play now. it's almost like they're doing some of the things a social worker traditionally does in connecting needs with resources. >> that's true, but i think now there are -- there is more availability. we have the internet where there are lots of resources. we have web sites. there are (800) phone numbers, so the recommendations are not to try to tackle all of it. what we want people to do is where is your comfort level?

is your comfort level the nutrition so you can get your patients connected with the wic program -- women, infant and children -- or the food stamp program? or is your comfort level housing so you can refer someone to a resource for that. we're not asking people to do it all, but we're saying, you know, we can make a difference, we can start small and, you know, here are some guidelines and here are some screening tools that yout can use to do that. >> sreenivasan: all right, dr. renee jenkins, thank you so much. >> you're quite welcome., 'r thank you. >> woodruff: on the newshour online: today marks 121 years since the death of doctor rebecca lee crumpler, the first african-american woman doctor. medical historian doctor howard markel writes about her remarkable story of courage and

perseverance. and an 87-year-old world war ii survivor shares her story ofhe being a young refugee with a 16-year-old syrian girl who has also left her homeland. read about the program that connected the two, on our home page.he all that and more is on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: and that's thean newshour for tonight. on thursday: when will the lid come off? making sense of how the fed will handle interest rates. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy w woodruff. join us on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. p >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and theirne

solutions to the world's mostld pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.pr 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 herera. turning 7. stocks have tripled since the 2009 lows, but is the tide starting to turn for one of history's greatest bull market runs? wage rage? are stagnant paychecks fueling the frustration of americans this election cycle? what are the proposals to fix it? attention shoppers. amazon is going old school for the youtube generation. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for wednesday, march. good evening, everyone, i'm sue herera. tyler mathisen is on assignment this evening. well, happy anniversary. seven years ago today the stock market bottomed in the depths of the great recession. seven years later investors have witnessed the thirdon