captioning sponsored by wnet >> thompson: on this edition for saturday march, 26: more suspects are charged with aiding the terrorists who carried out this week's attacks in belgium, including a man seen with suicide bombers at the brussels airport; in our signature segment, workers and businesses struggle to strike a balance between wages and tips. >> there are some days the tips are amazing, but then there's other days that i'm making nothing. >> thompson: next on pbs newshour weekend. >> 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.

the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. 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, megan thompson. >> thompson: good evening, and thanks for joining us. belgium has levied its first criminal charges related to the terrorist attacks on the brussels airport and a subway station earlier this week. today, belgian prosecutors accused three men in custody with "involvement in the activities of a terrorist group." that group-- the islamic state in iraq and syria, better known as "isis" or "isil"-- claimed

responsibility for the attacks. the accused include a man seen in airport security video wearing a hat and light-colored coat, pushing a luggage cart alongside two suicide bombers moments before they blew themselves up. the third man, identified as faysal cheffou by belgian media and a european official, was arrested thursday and is also charged with "terrorist murder." in brussels today, mourners laid wreaths and even bottles of belgian beer at a makeshift memorial for victims. the brussels prosecutor says 24 of the 28 people killed in the attacks have now been identified, and 11 of them were non-belgians. two were american. 93 of the wounded are still being treated in a military hospital, some for serious burns, many for burst eardrums. the brussels subway system has reopened, but the heavily damaged airport will not reopen

even partially before tuesday. president obama today promised belgian investigators all the help they need and to continue the u.s. fight against islamic state militants overseas. >> a relentless air campaign and support for forces in iraq and syria who are fighting isil on the ground has allowed us to take approximately 40% of the populated territory that isil once held in iraq. >> thompson: for more on the security questions raised in the united states by the terrorist attacks in belgium, i am joined by "washington post" national security reporter adam goldman, who is in washington. so, adam, can we just first start out, the how many, how have terrorist attacks in in brussels changed the way security officials in us will do their jobs. >> i think what u.s. terrorism officials take away from brussels is that isis is looking to the west in ways perhaps they hadn't thought before, and i think for u.s. counterterrorism officials they are going to keep digging down and trying to figure out who went to syria

from the united states and from european countries. >> thompson: so when it comes to tracking and monitoring potential terrorists here in the u.s., what are the differences between the situation here in this country and in europe? >> i think we are much more diligent and we have the terrorist watch list and two of the brothers who were implicated in the attack in brussels were actually on this watch list. so that means united states government had information about them. they received from another government, possibly turkey, and put them on the watch list. the difference is, they took them very seriously, the u.s. officials and belgium, admittedly did not. >> can you talk a little bit about the differences between the muslim communities here in the united states and those in europe? >> there are 800,000 muslim americans in new york, these are assimilated communities. you look across, look across the country in iowa and colorado, there are longstanding american

muslim communities there that are completely integrated, they are not isolated like these immigrants in europe who are sort of on the periphery of society. >> thompson: but the u.s. is not immune to the homegrown attacks, we had the san bernardino attack, dozens of prosecutions of people here in the u.s. suspected of being connected to isis. >> yes. that's right. we are certainly not immune and that's what makes us most vulnerable are the so-called lone wolves and fall under the sway of the islamic state propaganda or al qaeda organization and on their own launch their attacks there is a slight difference between what you are seeing in europe is these individuals they had gone to syria and then returned home to mount attacks. that's much more difficult to happen in the u.s. simply because of the controls that are in place to, a, identify people before they travel abroad to syria and those attempting to come back, and also, you know, the numbers aren't that large. i think we are talking, there might be about two dozen people, approximately, americans who are

fighting in syria, i mean you are talking hundreds, thousands of people from europe have gone to syria. >> thompson: today, president obama spoke about enhanced cooperation between american officials and belgian security. can you just talk a little bit about what that might look like and what cooperation has been up until now? >> well, i think they have been working toward better cooperation for the past year or two, trying to get the european intelligence agencies, police departments to provide information about people who have gone to syria and returned home. and from the u.s. perspective is they want that information and they want it quickly, not just the names but possible e-mail accounts, social media accounts, you know, cellphone numbers so they can track that to the u.s., and they continue to push for that now. i mean as we know the fbi is helping belgium authorities, they are working chosely with them, and the fbi also has legal attache there at the embassy, they are trying to work with together and figure this out.

>> thompson: adam goldman, of the "washington post", thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> thompson: in syria, government troops of president bashar al-assad, backed by russian air strikes, are advancing on the ancient city of palmyra, which was captured last year by isis militants who destroyed temples and monuments in the city dating back 2000 years. syrian state-run media broadcast footage of syrian tanks and soldiers on the attack in what has become a civilian-free city. russia says its warplanes carried out 40 bombing missions in the past 24 hours. the month-long battle to retake palmyra is the syrian government's biggest offensive yet against isis, which is not a party to the truce between the syrian government and rebel groups. the syrian observatory for human rights says syrian soldiers have now retaken a third of palmyra. vermont senator bernie sanders has won today's democratic caucuses in alaska and all nine delegates, according to projections from the associated

press. sanders was far ahead of former secretary of state hillary in early results washington state. that's the bigger prize, with 101 national convention delegates at stake. including alaska, sanders trails clinton by more than 700 delegates toward the 2,383 needed to secure the party's presidential nomination. clinton has won more states and more votes in the primaries than sanders or republican frontrunner donald trump. results are expected later from democratic caucuses in hawaii. >> thompson: in the coming days, new york governor andrew cuomo is expected to announce a deal with the state legislature to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour statewide over the next five years. that would make new york the 12th state projected to go above the $10-an-hour mark. a majority of states already require employers to pay above the federal minimum wage of

$7.25 an hour. the minimum wage debate particularly affects the food service industry, as some restaurants are now shifting servers and bartenders from relying on ts to "no tips" and higher guaranteed wages. the rules, which vary from state to state, not only affect your restaurant bill but more than four million americans who rely on tips to make a living. in tonight's signature segment, newshour special correspondent alison stewart went to minnesota and wisconsin to compare the different systems. this story is part of our ongoing series about poverty and opportunity in america called "chasing the dream." >> hello, gentlemen. how are you today? >> reporter: lesa melby has been a waitress at grandma's restaurant company in duluth, minnesota, for 34 years. how many tables can you handle comfortably? >> kind of a lot. >> reporter: a lot? how many? >> i can comfortably do probably nine. >> reporter: wow. that's impressive.

melby relies on tips as a core part of her income, but she also gets paid minnesota's state minimum wage of $9 an hour. if you have a day when you get completely stiffed on tips, you will still take home your minimum wage. >> right, right. >> reporter: the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but, in 43 states, employers are allowed to pay tipped workers less-- some as little as $2.13 an hour, a federal wage which has not increased in 25 years. the rationale is that customer tips are supposed to make up the difference between $2.13 an hour and the minimum wage. and if the tipped employee doesn't receive the minimum wage through tips, employers are required to pay the difference. in the industry it is called "topping up." in seven states, including minnesota, "topping up" is not an issue because those states require employers to pay tipped workers the full minimum wage. tips are considered additional income. right next door to minnesota,

here in wisconsin, it's a different economic reality. the minimum wage for tipped workers in wisconsin is $2.33 an hour. shannon sorenson lives in eau claire, wisconsin, about an hour's drive from the minnesota border. she's been working as a waitress for about six years, and her current employer pays her a little more-- $3 an hour before tips. she recently switched to working part-time. >> there are some days the tips are amazing. there's days that, you know, i'm making probably compared to someone with a four-year degree. but then there's other days that i'm making nothing. it's so tough. i got the car payment, i got the bill payment. oh, i got the car insurance payment, too. oh, wait, i also need to eat, too. >> reporter: do you think you could survive being a server in wisconsin full-time? >> it would be a very stressful life. very stressful living paycheck toaycheck, never really knowing what i'm going to make.

i just, i don't want that. >> reporter: now, sorenson wants to finish her college degree and pursue a career in interior design. she likes being a waitress and her bosses, but she rarely makes enough to support herself. >> people just don't understand how much work goes into being a waitress. and just the days i don't get a lot of money, it's just so hard. and everything becomes more expensive, so it's harder and harder. >> reporter: david cooper has been studying tipped labor for the economic policy institute, a nonpartisan washington think tank. cooper says almost 15% of tipped servers earn less than the federal poverty line. but in states that pay higher base wages, tipped workers like lisa melby in minnesota are faring better. >> what we see in those states is that the poverty rate among tipped workers is dramatically lower than in the states where they're getting the $2.13 per hour as their base wage. so, what that tells us is that, you know, even though, in theory, these folks in the other

states are supposed to be getting at least the normal minimum wage, something isn't adding up. >> reporter: even though employers are supposed to "top up" and make sure tipped workers earn the full minimum wage, cooper says they don't always do so. >> you have to do this additional calculation of adding up their tips, and counting their hours, and making sure that the base wage plus tips equals the full minimum wage. it's complicated. and it's also complicated for employers, too, because the law isn't entirely clear about how to do this calculation. >> reporter: the federal labor department has looked into this in the past three years, tip credit violations were found in over 1,500 investigations, resulting in nearly $15.5 million in back wages being identified. employers are supposed to match up to the minimum wage if you don't make it. >> i did not know that. over there in minnesota, and you're going to get minimum wage

as your base salary plus your tips"? >> i would love that. i actually know some people who used to work in minnesota as a server, and then they came over here and they realized that they're only making $2.33. and they're like, "i'm literally losing thousands of dollars by coming over here in wisconsin." >> reporter: at the butter bakery cafeé in minneapolis, minnesota, waiter andrew dunn says being paid the state's required $9-an-hour minimum wage before tips is a crucial safety net. >> the amount i'm working is the maximum that i can work right now. and i pay all my bills, but not a lot more. so, it would be very hard to have my base wage slip below the minimum wage. we have those slow mornings where hardly anybody comes in, and your tips are really low. >> reporter: in terms of the percentage you take home, on your best day, what percentage is base wage and what percent is tip? >> on the best day, i would say that my base wage is about half and my tips are about half; and

on the worst day, my base wage is about three-quarters of what i take home and my tips are about a quarter. >> reporter: butter bakery cafe is not a full service restaurant, so there is less opportunity for tipping servers. owner dan swenson klatt says paying his workers a living wage has always been a priority. >> currently, i have to pay a little more because they don't see the same level of tips. if i knew they were getting a lot more tips, i might look at dropping my base wage a bit more because ideally it's about what they make total, the total compensation. >> reporter: at grandma's restaurant company in duluth, where servers can make a higher amount of tips, lesa melby is afraid that her customers will tip her less if they learn of her minimum wage increases. >> i make more money off of my tips than i do my paycheck, and if people are going to think that i'm getting a higher minimum wage, they're going to

start tipping less or not at all. >> reporter: and grandma's regional manager, tony boen, says that the requirement to pay servers minimum wage has had unintended consequences at their six restaurants. for one, it has increased the wage disparity between the serving and kitchen staff. >> the mandated minimum wage increase was giving an increase to our most highly compensated employees at the peril of our cooks and the guys in the back of the house, who don't make tips. so, we needed to find a way-- and we still need to find a way-- to bridge that wage disparity. so, that's a huge challenge for us. how can we do that? >> reporter: they've raised prices to cover the higher labor costs for their 400 to 600 employees-- the number fluctuates depending on the season-- but boen says that's not enough to keep up with ongoing mandatory minimum wage jumps. the next one will be in august from $9 to $9.50 an hour. have you ever had a customer say, "hey, why are your prices going up?"

>> no. they don't say that. >> reporter: what do they say? >> they just don't come. we've cut jobs, we've cut hours. we closed three restaurants that became unprofitable due to minimum wage, plus some other factors but that was a huge factor. >> reporter: on the other hand, employment in the hospitality industry in states that pay full minimum wage to tipped workers actually saw stronger growth from 1995 to 2014 than in states that pay less. when we talk about raising the minimum wage, what can we do to help the restaurant owner? >> i think, as long as you phase in those increases over time, it gives businesses time to adjust. when you raise the minimum wage, all of the competitors are also facing that additional labor cost. so, presumably, they should be able to pass that additional cost on through higher prices and no one's going to be at a competitive disadvantage. i think that the tipping system creates some unique challenges there because at a higher-end restaurant, they know that the clientele probably has a little

more money to spend; they can absorb those price increases a little more easily. at a, you know, more family dining restaurant, it might be a little harder to absorb those increases. >> reporter: some restaurants are addressing the wage issue by paying servers like other employees; waitstaff receive a higher hourly rate, but the restaurant has a no tipping policy. >> rib-eye, seat 9. >> reporter: that's how chef and restaurant owner erick harcey runs his two minneapolis restaurants. customers at his victory 44 and upton 43 are told they should not leave a tip. >> a lot of it was just sort of trying to get in front of some of the change, the policy. the minimum wage is going up. >> reporter: servers at his restaurants are paid a starting base salary of $17 an hour. to cover the cost, he raised his prices 18%, about the equivalent of a tip at his restaurant. the no tipping policy also helps him pay the kitchen staff higher wages. >> for the servers, it may have averaged out slightly. some are making more, some maybe

slightly less, but it's guaranteed. but for the cooks, the dishwashers, the hosts, they're making substantially more than they have in the past. >> we are gratuity-free, so the number here is your total for the evening. >> reporter: how are you going to know when this has been a success? >> i feel it's a success already. >> reporter: really? why? >> the success i'm gauging is the feedback from the guests. they're just... they love the experience. and when they leave and say, "you know what, this was phenomenal service," they're not, "oh, it was better because there was no tips." they're just stating "this was great service." and then, at the end of the night, i, you know, i count my cash in the register. that's the success. >> thompson: learn more about the science behind why we tip. read our q&a with cornell university professor michael lynn on our web site at www.pbs.org/newshour. this week in michigan, the state legislature approved almost $50

million in emergency aid to keep detroit's public schools open and operating through the end of this school year, and a spokesman for governor rick snyder says he will sign the bill early next week. the move comes as detroit's school district has slipped toward bankruptcy even as the city itself has emerged from bankruptcy. joining me to discuss the challenges ahead is "new york times" reporter kate zernike. so, kate, can you start off by painting a picture for us, just how bad is it for detroit's public schools and what has caused this. >> detroit like michigan as a whole, their recession has lost population so you have a school district that once had 150,000 children, public school district and now has about 45,000 children so the size of it has gone down, as ildren have left the city the money that goes with those children from the state and from the local tax revenues goes with the children to charter schools, suburban districts so you just have much less money coming in the district because there are so many fewer students. >> and has a similar thing happened in other districts

across the country? >> well, i think in many ways detroit is emblematic of what is happening in struggling urban districts. detroit helped the charter school and a lot of charter schools, there was a state takeover, bottom 45 percent of performing schools are putt in a state controlled authority, but as across the country we haven't seen state takeovers necessarily make that much of a difference, presence in newark, schools heavily controlled by the state provement there at all, same thing with cameron, new jersey, you know, los angeles there is a big bet on charter schools there, so truly detroit has all of the problems. >> thompson: other cities that have a lot of kids going to charter schools that aren't seen this type of problem. you look at a state like massachusetts or boths, boston, boston public schools are doing well, you look at their national rankings, dv, washington, d.c. has made enormous improvements in their charter schools and the public schools, so it is not as though charter schools are

necessarily a bad thing when they are done right, i just think in detroit there has not been much of an effort to sort of figure out what schools do we need, what schools are performing well, so you have a lot of empty seats and there is no answer in looking at the city and what schools do we need? where do we need schools? where should the money be going. >> thompson: so we saw this infusion of $50 million that the legislature approved this week, but that is really just a short-term solution in detroit. >> right. >> thompson: i mean what has to happen long-term to make sure the schools will be solvent? >> part of the proposal was that the governor who is a republican and the mayor who are democrat are supporting something called detroit education commission. this commission would look and say where do we need schools, with where there is demand, where should we put the limited resource wes have? this proposal face as steep hurdle in the michigan house so i am not sure what will happen but that in michigan that is the next discussion they will be having. >> thompson: great, kate zernike from "the new york times", thanks so much for being here. >> thank you. >> this is pbs newshour weekend

saturday. >> thompson: the u.s. navy held a memorial service this week for 56 sailors who died when their world war i era tugboat sank in a pacific ocean storm almost a century ago. among those in attendance was the granddaughter of the tug's commanding officer. the newshour's ivette feliciano has more. >> reporter: the mystery of the u.s.s. "conestoga" has been solved. on march 25, 1921, the navy tugboat and its crew of 56 set sail from san francisco for hawaii and its final destination, american samoa. when the "conestoga" failed to arrive at honolulu's pearl harbor, the navy launched a massive search mainly around the hawaiian islands. after three months, the navy declared the tug and crew lost. 88 years later, in 2009, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, or "noaa," detected an uncharted shipwreck in shark-infested waters 30

miles west of san francisco. with sonar imaging and video footage recorded almost 200 feet underwater, noaa found the" conestoga" largely intact with marine life growing on its exterior. but no human remains were found. for nearly a century, the tugboat was never far from where its fatal journey began. >> thompson: president obama's historic trip to cuba this week was a hard act to follow, but the rolling stones gave it a shot with their first visit to the communist-ruled island. ♪ the legendary british rock n' roll band-- formed only three years after fidel castro seized power in 1959-- gave a free concert last night in havana before a crowd estimated at 500,000 fans. the stones played a two-hour set featuring 18 of their greatest hits. one 57-year-old concertgoer said: "i've waited my whole life for this.

>> thompson: returning to the democratic caucuses held in three states today, bernie sanders won alaska and was far ahead of hillary clinton in early returns from washington state. telling supporters tonight his campaign has momentum. results from hawaii are expected later tonight. the next big dominating contest for both parties is the wisconsin primary on april 5th, 10 days from now. you can follow all of the vote 2016 results on pbs.org/knew hours. and that's it for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i am megan thompson. 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. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. 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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