captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc ho >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight: it's tuesday-- primary night in new york. voters hit the polls today after heavy campaigning by the republican and democratic presidential candidates. >> sreenivasan: also ahead this tuesday: the longest war. what's behind the recent uptick in violence in afghanistan. >> woodruff: plus, a conversation with special presidential envoy brett mcgurk on the decision to send morett u.s. troops to iraq. >> sreenivasan: and many american schools have a growing problem with lead contamination. why are districts across the country struggling to provide clean drinking water? >> the nature of the beast is that lead levels in water are unpredictable and exposure iss really like a russian roulette.

>> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation foro public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: a few hours from now, they'll be counting the votes in new york's presidential primary, and for the first time in many years, the results could be critical. broth frontrunners lost momentum after a series of defeats in recent weeks, but convincing victories in new york could change all that. for republican donald trump, winning big tonight might help avoid a contested g.o.p convention this summer. for hillary clinton, a goody night wold boost her already big lead in delegates for the democratic nomination. still, there's no sign their rivals plan to drop out, regardless of what happens tonight. so the candidates kept at it today, even as new yorkersas headed into voting booths to make their choice. >> reporter: who are you voting for?

>> easy decision! >> sreenivasan: donald trump-- casting his new york primary ballot this morning in midtown manhattan a few blocks from his namesake tower. but the republican frontrunner also had to address the churning within his political team. including new roles for veteran political operatives brought in as advisors and the resignation of a top aide, in reaction he acknowledged the shakeup during a phone interview this morning with "fox news". >> when you bring other people in, i could see some people-- their feelings get a little bit hurt. frankly, you know, we're in a position where i'd like to see if we can close it out. >> sreenivasan: meanwhile, trump's closest rival-- texas senator ted cruz-- turned his attention to next week's contests with a stop in philadelphia this evening. so, too, with john kasich. he's in maryland tonight, after an earlier stop in pittsburgh. the two democratic contenders started their days in new york state. hillary clinton voin the town she now calls home:

chappaqua. later, she made a quick trip to washington to court labor. >> and here's my promise to you. if i'm fortunate enough to become your president, organized labor will always have a champion in the white house. >> sreenivasan: her rival-- bernie sanders-- began with a morning stroll near new york city's times square. this afternoon, he made hisar pivot to pennsylvania, stopping in erie. >> let us see pennsylvania have the largest voter turnout of the history of their primaries. and let's see the great state of pennsylvania lead this country into the political revolution. >> sreenivasan: pennsylvaniann figures to be the keystone of next tuesday's contests, with 71 republican delegates and 210 on the democratic side. we'll take a detailed look at today's new york primary-- and what lies ahead-- later in thein program. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a two-man taliban raid shook the heart of afghanistan's capital city, killing 28 people and wounding hundreds more. the combined bombing and gun

battle raised new questions about the government's ability to secure the country. we'll look at the taliban's strength in afghanistan, ght after the news summary. >> sreenivasan: hundreds of international rescue workers fanned out in ecuador today, looking for earthquake victims. the weekend disaster killed at least 433 people. soldiers and volunteers joined those digging through the rubblh on the country's pacific coast. the military also dispensed food, water and other supplies to survivors. >> woodruff: another strong aftershock rattled southern japan, and the death toll rose to 45 in last week's twin quakes. meanwhile, a key airport re- opened, allowing the first passengers and relief goods to land. most outbound passenger flights are still canceled. >> sreenivasan: in cuba, raul castro and the country's old guard will keep top positions in the ruling communist party-- despite calls for reform. the government announced today that castro-- at 84-- will stay on as party first secretary and cuba's president.

89-year-old fidel castro also made a rare appearance at the party congress. >> woodruff: president obama left for a trip to saudi arabia today, at a time of tensionti between the two nations. the saudis have criticized the nuclear deal with iran. and in a recent interview, mr. obama said the sunni kingdom needs to "share" the middle east with shi-ite iran. he departed today after trying to clarify his meaning, in an interview with pbs's charlie rose: >> saudi arabia and the gulf states generally have to be guarded against iran.av they have to be in a position where they can defend themselves against iranian mischief in the region. but that in the end, iran is a large country in the region. and that a proxy war between saudi arabia and iran is in nobody's interest. >> woodruff: the trip also comes as congress considers letting families of september 11 victims sue the saudi government over any role it played in the attack.

the white house opposes the senate bill, but senior members of both parties voiced support for it today. texas republican john cornyn iso the main sponsor: >> now the president seems to want to use the leverage of the 9/11 families in order to some how mollify or cure that riftth that the president has created himself as result of iranian nuclear deal. i think that's entirely inappropriate. and as i tried to point out, we actually need to deter people from facilitating and financing terrorist attacks on our own soil. >> woodruff: both senate majority leader mitch mcconnelll and house speaker paul ryan sai today they still need to review the bill. the saudis have reatened to pull billions of dollars from f the u.s. economy if it becomesit law. >> sreenivasan: major parts of houston were still under water w today, after widespread flooding that's killed six people so far. school was canceled again in the nation's fourth largest city, and hundreds of people were in shelters.

emergency teams worked around the clock to evacuate homes flooded by the deluge. more than a foot of rain fell monday, and a flash flood watch remained in effect. >> woodruff: the nation's largest health insurer will pull out of insurance exchanges in most states by next year. united health said today it's losing too much money on the system, established under the president's "affordable care act". the company covers just under 800,000 people in exchanges across 34 states-- about 6% of the total. >> sreenivasan: intel has announced it's cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide-- about 11% of its workforce. the computer chip maker says it needs to cut costs as sales of p.c.s decline. and on wall street: the dow jones industrial average gained 49 pointto close at 18,053. the nasdaq fell 19 points and the s&p 50 rose six. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: special envoy brett mcgurk on the decision to send more troops to iraq, how

new york's primary could shift the momentum in the presidential race, schools across the u.s. grappling with lead-tainted water, and much more.ed >> woodruff: we return to our top story, the upsurge in taliban-driven violence in afghanistan, nearly 15 years into the american involvement there. smoke over the kabul skyline signaled the capital was under attack. >> ( translated ): it was a big blast, dust covered all the area, i wasn't able to see what was happening.ha later i saw lot of damage. >> woodruff: one insurgent blewe up a truck bomb outside a security agency that protects top officials. a second attacker ran into the compound, and started shooting. >> ( translated ): after the car bomb exploded, a suicide bomberi

was trying to enter the building, he came under fire from inside the building as well as from police forces who were outside, who did not give him the chance to enter. he was killed. >> woodruff: the attack caused extensive damage just a few hundred yards from the presidential palace. meanwhile, fighting continued in the northern part of the country, where government forces around kunduz have battled thist week to repel a taliban assault. last year, the militants captured the city and held it for three days before afghan forces backed by u.s. air strikes drove them out. but afghanistan's chief executive abdullah abdullah said kunduz and kabul show the taliban's latest spring offensive has failed. >> ( translated ): they wereat defeated all over the country after they carried out their attacks and have suffered lots of causalities. so by carrying this suicide attack they wanted to take revenge.ng >> woodruff: still, by most reckoning, the taliban is at its

strongest in years: likely a concern for president obama, when he reversed course last fall, and announced the u.s. will keep 10,000 troops in afghanistan through this year-- drawing down to 5,500 in 2017. for more on today's attack in kabul, and whatt says about the over all security situation in afghanistan, we turn to setha jones, director of the international security and defense policy center at the rand corporation. he's written extensively about afghanistan, and in 2011 was a special advisor to u.s. special operation forces there. seth jones, welcome back to the program. so what does this attack today is it stronger than it's been, or, as abdullah abdullah says, is what it's doing failing? >> well, judy, i think what it shows is the taliban does have the ability to conduct attacks in most any part of the country, and they actually said this in

their twitter feeds today and in their internet announcements after the attack of the purpose of doing this. at the same time, it's probably also worth noting that the taliban does not control urban terrain like isis does in iraq, for example. they don't control kabul. they don't control any major provincial capitals. so these kind of urban attacks are done more for psychological operations rather than criminal of territory. >> woodruff: what's the distinction? you say they don'tio control urn areas, but they're able to pull off something like, this almost 30 people killed, hundreds badly hurt. >> what it. shows, they do control a fair amount of rural terrain. they also haveai cell structures that operate in cities. so while the government controls most of the urban terrain and cities like kabul, the taliban does have an ability to push in resources and conduct attacks. and it certainly has an effect on the population there, which believes the government can't secure it at all times. >> woodruff: and so that psychol effect, why isn't that the same or almost the same

as having actual control? >> well, it's different because the taliban does a lot. it administers justice in areas that it controls, it taxes the local population.n. it has a political structure, almost a political state apparatus in areas that it controls. it does not have that in cities like kabul. what it has is really a military and intelligence infrastructure, but it wants the political architecture to go with that. so this is part of a longer-term campaign. >> woodruff: what does this say, send -- seth jones, aboutu the standing of afghan security forces, which we know the u.s. has been trying to build up for years now?rs >> look, there are plenty of challenges with the afghan national security forces. the higher-end forces that responded to this today, the intelligence forces, the afghan commandos, some of the higher-end army forces are pretty good, but the general

state of the police and a lot of the army are mixed quality. i think the problem we're seeing is they're not very proactive in pushing out against the taliban in rural areas. and so the fight is now coming to them in the cities. >> woodruff: how do you assess what the u.s. is doing? we know the president decided to keep american troops in afghanistan longer, but what is... what role is the posture... is u.s. posture playing right now in this battle between afghans... the afghan government and the taliban? >> well, first of all, the u.s. president has said that the number of troops that will continue to come down through january of 2017. so now we're roughly 10,000. he said they're going to go down to about 5,5. -- 5,500. he's also restricted the ability of the government to conduct

strikes against the taliban unless there are good examples of those forces conducting attacks against americans. so the u.s. has limited its ability to impact this except in response to these kinds of attacks. >> woodruff: well, we are continuing to watch this story, seth jones. we thank you for joining us. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: now, to another major american military campaign against isis. yesterday, secretary of defense ash carter announced that some 217 more american troops would soon go to iraq, pushing the american strength there to overo 4,000. the u.s. will also send apache fast-attack helicopters, which will help protect the iraqi army as it begins its advance on the isis-held city of mosul. the u.s. also announced more than $400 million in aid to the kurdish peshmerga forces in northern iraq. for more on all this and theth wider war against isis, i'm joined by president obama's special envoy to the coalition

fighting isis, brett mcgurk. welcome back to the program. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and why is the president sending these additional u.s. advisers? >> well, the president instructed our team about four our five months ago to do all we can to accelerate the campaign. it took a while, judy to, get particularly the iraqi forces in place to be able to stand up, maneuver, conduct offensive operations. we're now seeing some success. they liberated ramadi just last week. they liberated a really critical strategic town just to the west of ramadi in the center of the euphrates valley. it's been al stronghold of isil. they liberated that last week. what we're now in a position to do with the iraqi security forces is apply pressure on ice until multiple fronts, the euphrates valley, from operations will continue, and now beginning up toward mosul. so this is a package that's within in development for some

time, and we think it will give the iraqis some unique capabilities as it moves on mosul. mostle is a little different than ramadi. logistically the iraqis have the travel a it will further than they're used to, so we'll be helping with logistics, sustainment, and when they come into combat, we'll be ready to support them with apache helicopters and other enablers. >> woodruff: but sending u.s. forces or u.s. advisers closer to the front line, is this an acknowledgment the iraqi military is really not able to do the job alone?? >> no, it's really... you have to look at the topography of the battlefield. in ramadi, for example, when ramadi fell, the president ordered a detachment of u.s. special forces to an air base sandwiched right in between ramadi and fallujah. it's only 25 kilometers or so from the front line. mosul, we have to be with the in their headquarters, and their headquarters as theyua

move toward mosul will change. they will be kind of mobile. so we'll be with the iraqi commanders, advising and assisting what they're doing, which is very similar to what we did in anbar province. but in anbar where we had two facility, it's a little more stationary. we're on base. we're advising and assisting. in mosul it will be a little more dynamic. we want to make sure our best advisers are with the headquarters, with the iraqi commanders as they're planning and conducting their operations. >> woodruff: is it fair the call this "mission creep"? >> no, it's the exact same mission in mosul that we've been doing in anbar province. we're moving into that phase in mosul now. it's the same mission. the only difference is apache helicopters. we were prepared toe use apache helicopters. the president authorized it for ramadi, but given the situation, given the fact the iraqis were having an awful lot of success and given the urban environment, we determined that it really wasn't needed, but in mosul, it's a complex terrain. it's the citadel. they're well defended there.

we think apaches can make a difference. we discussed this with the iraqi government. everything we do innt iraq withs with the consent of the iraqi government. this is something the prime minister wanted.ve we found a formula we think will be effective. >> woodruff: let me ask you about some criticism we're hearing from the other side. the "newshour" spoke today with retired army colonel david army. he told us he thinks these steps represent insufficient resources in the first placefi by the administration and poor execution. poor execution by the administration working with the iraqis. >> i worked wir with david petrs in those days, too. it's a different time now. we're in the fighting a war. the iraqis are fighting a war. we're in the middle of liberating all of anbar a province. again, we liberated ramadi. that was done with iraqis. we're moving west uphe you euphrates valley.

this is critical because it opens up an expressway from ramadi to haditha. haditha has been under siege for almost two years. we're now in a position to break that siege. we're having an awful lot of success. it's a different campaign than it was in 2007/2008. you know, americans are not doing the fighting. we are advising. we're assisting. we're providing devastating air support and special operations. you know, there are things we don't talk about much. we have special operations and special forces in northern iraq. they're very effective against the leadership of dash. and so, you know, they're doing a great job. everything we do, again, judy, is with the consent of the iraqi government. this is not a situation in which we're an occupying force. it's a very, very different, much more complex, much more challenging situation than 2007. but we believe that the most sustainable way to do this is to get the iraqis fighting, to empower locals. >> woodruff: you can understand why people look at this and they see more troops going, they see apache

helicopters going, and they want to know what going on, but just in the time we have left, i want to ask you about syria, the fight against isis there. first of all, do you see real evidence that the russians have begun to go after isis rather than going after the rebels who are fighting the assad regime? >> well, we have seen a bit of a shift, and if you look at the statistics that we talk about, when russia came in, they claimed to be going after isil. that simply wasn't true. about 80% of their strikes were against opposition, moderate opposition forces. since the cessation of hostilities came in place, their air strikes have shifted quite a bit. at one point it was about 70% against isil. and they helped the syrian forces retake palmyra, but look, we have a very listening way to go in syria. there is no question. president obama spoke with president putin yesterday. we'll be traveling with the president and secretary tonight to saudi arabia to meet with the gcc and discuss the situation in

syria. but in the war against ice until syria, we're very focused again, east of thein euphrates river, moving down and constricting raqqa, the center of operations. that's something we're also looking at accelerating some of our efforts there. we're also working again to close off that last 98-kilometer strip of board they're isil still controls with turkey. there's very active fighting ongoing there now which we're supporting. it's a veryti complex, very dynamic situation. there are no shortcuts. there are no easy answers. but we're doing... when we see something that works, and what we've seen in the euphrates valley and anbar province, the advising and assisting, that's's work. now we will replicate that as we move on to the campaign to liberate mosul. >> woodruff: a lot of fronts to keep track of there as well as in iraq. brett mcgurk, special presidential envoy, you're off the saudi arabia later today. where president obama will be. thank you very much for joiningf us. >>ni judy, thank you so much. great to be here.

>> sreenivasan: now, for more on today's empire state primaryat we're joined by tamara keith of n.p.r. who is in new york city tonight, and in albany is karen dewitt, capitol bureau chief for new york state public radio. first, am the a, let me start with you. what are you looking for tonight? >> i'm looking for a margins of victory. donald trump is in search of a clean sweep of delegates. the only way he can get there is if he can get more than 50% of the vote. and on the democratic side, hillary clinton is widely expected to win here. bernie sanders' campaign is sending around an e-mail talking about how in 2008 she beat president obama by 17%, which seems to be setting up a question of what the margin would be this time. sanders is expected to do better than that. he's expected to keep it relatively close. the question is just how close.

>> sreenivasan: karen, how about you? what are you looking for as you look at the returns later this evening? >> i would agree. if hillary clinton doesn't do 10% win better than bernie sanders, it's going to look bad for her because she has the party establishment supporten here, the support of governor cuomo, new york city mayor bill de blasio, she was our senator for eight year, a very popular senator. so if she doesn't do a double-digit win, i think it's going to look quite bad for her. but i'm also looking at turnout. i mean, big turnout does help bernie sanders. it helps donald trump. and, you know, anecdotally we've heard a lot about turnout being quite high almost everywhere, and particularly in a number of upstate places like syracuse university where there's a lot of students who presumably support bernie sanders. so that's another thing to be looking at, as well. >> christa:. >> sreenivasan: karen, staying with you for a second, what about the demographics in new york. are upstate republicans in new york different than city slicker republicans in manhattan or the

boroughs? >> there are not very many republicans in new york city. there's very few of them. their base is long island and westchester and upstate. they're not as conservative as national republicans. i think that's why we've seen ted cruz hasn't didn't as well. they're independent-mindednt people. i think that'sle why donald trup has really resonated with them, as well. >> sreenivasan: tamara, these are candidates now that are focused on already next week. as we looked at, ted cruz was turning the corner and left, john kasich is in different places, bernie sanders, hillary clinton.hi they're already looking to next tuesday. >>es absolutely, because the primary moves on from here. the clinton campaign is also beginning to have this conversation where they say, we aren't asking bernie sanders to drop out of the race, but we are saying, it looks like clinton is going to be the nominee, maybe sanders should change the tone. so the clinton campaign really feels like new york turns a

corner. the sanders campaign doesn't agree, and they are planning to compete all the way through california on june 7th. and they believe that he does have momentum and that he will continue to, but the delegate math is a real challenge for sanders at this point going forward into the states ahead. >> sreenivasan: tamara, staying with you, this is not a winner-take-all state like we've had in several other contests. what happens as we get on both the republican side of and the democratic side without too much math? >> on the democratic side like in every state, it's proportional, so you can't really win huge in any state, but there are a lot of delegates at stake here in new york. on the republican side, it's... if donald trump gets more than 50%, there are some statewide delegates that he would get, and then each congressional district, if you get more than 50%, it's winner-take-all,

otherwise it's divided up. >> sreenivasan: karen, have you talked to voters over the past week? have the recent challenges that both donald trump and hillary clinton have faced, the idea that momentum might be shifting to other candidates, has that resonatessed with voters upstate? >> yeah, one thing i would add is that it is... new york is really has a closed primary. more closed than other states. if you wanted to switch parties or join a party, you had to do it last october.. if you're a new voter, you had to register by march. so i think what we're really seeing is a lot of people are disappointed because if they were newly interested in the last two weeks, they're being left out of being able to vote in the primary today. >> sreenivasan: and what about that idea of momentum shiftingti in the past few weeks? has that crossed the minds of the voters you've spoken with? >> i don't think so really. i think new york voters are focused on new york. we've seen the campaign be all about new york specific to

regions upstate, to morning city, all the candidates are here, and i don't think that certainly voters here are really thinking much beyond that at all. >> sreenivasan: karen russia there any specific issues upstate that are different than the ones voters are facing in the cities? >>ci well, you know, it's upsta. it's a different world up here. it's more rural. you have all these are u.s. belt cities where manufacturing has left. and people are really discontent over the economy. and i think that both sanders and trump have resonateed with these voters here who aren't feeling really good about their future. they see their children having to leave after college to get jobs. the jobs aren't here. so it really is kind of a different world, and there's had to be at least two different campaigns, if not as tamara said, 27 different campaigns because of the 27 conditional districts where they're having to compete in every single one of them. >> sreenivasan: karen dewitt, capital bureau chief for new york state public radio, and tamara keith of national public

radio, thank you so much for joininus tonight. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: the economic toll of the migrant t crisis on the greek island of lesbos, and a look at the in- depth coverage of police shootings that won the "washington post" a pulitzer prize. but first, worries over lead in the water in school districtsl around the country. the outcry over flint, michigan has brought a new spotlight to problems elsewhere. communities are becoming more sensitive to the issue, but many schools are having a hard time dealing with something so complicated and expensive.et the newshour's april brown reports for our weekly education series, "making the grade." >> reporter: across the nation, there has been a lot of news coverage on a growing problem in many schools.

>> anxiety, parents at newark's monday night meeting had a lot of it-- mostly about lead in the schools drinking water. >> and wny continues to follow- up on high levels of lead in the ithaca school district's water sources. >> reporter: but that isn't newr to second grader cyrus schillenback, who knows a lot more about lead than most kids his age. >> it's very dangerous and if you eat it you'll get poisoned quite quick. >> reporter: and if you drink it? >> and if you drink it it's the same. >> reporter: cyrus and his brother cazimer attend caroline elementary, just outside ithaca, new york. their school was one of two in the area where high levels of lead were found in the water last august.t. but parents, including cyrus' mom rebecca, say it wasn't until january they were told their kids might have been exposed fon months to a neurotoxin that is especially harmful to children. >> we got a letter home. it was kind of cryptic. it said there has been elevatede lead found and we're sure you

want to talk about this, basically. so come to this parent meeting this information parent meeting. >> you wouldn't give me a call. you sent me papers. >> reporter: the district wouldn't make anyone availableab to speak with us, but administrator david brown spoke at the community meeting: >> we should have reported, we should have re-tested-- we didn't. we waited for the county health department-- that was in september. i can't go back to september. that is where we are right now. >> neither can we. >> reporter: caroline parent melissa hoffman felt the district should have taken action much sooner. >> i was very alarmed. my heart was just exploding with fear for my child, for all the children, for the teacher and i felt helpless because i was unaware. >> reporter: over the past few decades, districts in los angeles, new york city, seattle, washington d.c. and elsewhere have found higher than

acceptable lead levels in school drinking water that's cause for concern according to lynn goldman, a former regulator with the environmental protection agency and now dean of george washington university's schools of public health. >> lead is quite toxic to children, and especially when it comes to the development of their nervous system and the brain, but also the cardiovascular system. >> reporter: in fact, the e.p.a. warns that exposure to even low levels of lead can cause low i.q., hearing impairment, reduced attention span and poore classroom performance. so, how does lead get into i schools' drinking water? many school buildings in the u.s. are old and were built when lead pipes, solder or fixtureses were allowed to be used. when water is in contact with these materials for extended periods of time-- over weekends and holidays, for example-- the toxin can leach into it. water can also become contaminated if small particles containing lead break off.

>> reporter: yanna lambrinidou, who teaches at virginia tech and has studied lead in water nationally, says finding lead contamination can be tricky. >> the nature of the beast is that lead levels in water are unpredictable and exposure is really like a russian roulette. you might hit a very, very high lead in water sample and then you might hit no lead in water for the rest of the samples you take. >> reporter: the e.p.a.'s safe drinking water act originally created in 1974, does not require all schools to perform regular water testing. only schools and child care centers with their own water supplies-- such as wells-- are required to do so. lynn goldman says that, and the fact no one agency is responsible for removing lead from school drinking water are big gaps in the regulatorye system. and she says this is a national problem that we really don't yet know the scope of.

>> until fairly recently it was allowed in so many materials, >> reporter: and according to the e.p.a., for schools that must test, the amount of lead allowed in their drinking water is higher than what's allowed in homes. if schools that must test their water find lead levels higher than 20 parts per billion they must then start follow-up testing, treatment and public education. however, that number is actually higher than what the agencywh outlines for drinking water in homes, which is 15 parts per billion. but yanna lambrinidou says those levels were not chosen based on public health protection. >> the only level of lead in drinking water that is safe is zero and in fact e.p.a.'s lead and coppers rules states very clearly that when it comes to health and a health based standard zero is our number. >> reporter: last month officials in newark, new jersey began offering to test thousande of children and shut off water in more than half its 67 schoolo after finding lead levels exceeding the e.p.a.'s safety threshold. but the newark teachers' union believes some in the district may have known about the problem earlier, and shared an advisorye from 2014 with instructions on how to "reduce the risk of t

possible lead contamination." the district told member station njtv remedial actions are taken when elevated samples are detected. meanwhile, newark mayor ras baraka recently asked for the community's help to deal with the situation: >> we need at least 2,000 to 3,000 people to bring one to tw cases of water a piece and drop them off at all of our to community centers. >> reporter: using bottled water has been the solution for baltimore city public schools for years. do you know why you can't drink the water? >> because there's like, something wrong with it. >> reporter: that "somethingin wrong" is lead contamination. in 2007, after years of lead testing and remediation, the district decided to shut off all drinking fountains and food preparation sinks in cafeterias and move to bottled water.r. it reportedly costs about $450,000 a year. erika brockman runs the southwest baltimore charter school, which is housed in a baltimore public school building.

she says, in a district dealing with tough choices she can understand not wanting to potentially spend millions of dollars on repairing and replacing lead pipes and fixtures in schools. would the money that the district gets be better spent giving me a great teacher in my classroom or fixing the pipes i my building, in a short term basis i'm going to say give me the teacher. any day hands down.wn >> reporter: and for rebecca schillenback in ithaca, lead is now one more thing she must add to her parental worry-list. >> we weren't thinking about this before. it was just something we were taking for granted wherever we got we're going to have cleann safe water. and of course when we send our kids to school it will be cleanl safe water you wouldn't even think about it. i wasn't thinking about it. so this is a wakeup call. >> reporter: for the pbs p newshour i'm april brown in ithaca, new york.

>> sreenivasan: tourism businesses on the greek island of lesbos are asking for protection from bankruptcy as they face a potential economic catastrophe: tens of thousands of vacationers-- normally expected on one of greece's more idyllic spots-- are staying away because of the island's central role as a landing zone fornd refugees. now, the islanders are appealing for what they call "solidarity tourism." special correspondent malcolm brabant reports from lesbos. >> it's a cormorant i've seen a repose warbler. i've see a blue wark thrush. >> reporter: every year, springr in lesbos lures millions of migrating birds, and british pensioner helen stedman. unlike other tourists, troubled by images of suffering and misery, she and her keen bird watching partner jeff bailey have remained faithful to an island they believe typifies unadulterated greece. >> i feel sad for the islanders.

the economy is suffering. and we've noticed that restaurants that we've favored before have closed. they're not there anymore, they've gone bankrupt. the locals can't afford to pay wages and they're just not opening. tourism is their biggest income in this island, and if we don't come and support them, then they're not going to survive, >> reporter: seasonal worker nikos paspalatelis is helping his former boss prepare the hotel for the summer. married with two small children, paspalatelis has worked here for almost 20 years, but he's been laid off this summer. which means his state insurance won't be paid. which means he won't be entitle to unemployment benefit in the winter when there's no seasonala work. >> i'm not going to say angry because angry is something youu do if someone make you-- very big damage to you. but i hope this only for one year this damage. maybe if you ask me in two or

three years should this t situation continue, yes, i'll be hungry-- angry, sorry. >> reporter: this hotel was on the frontline. the owners estimate more than 1,000 boats landed on the beach next to their taverna, most during the peak season. german water sports instructor wolfgang punke has come to say farewell and remove his gear. >> i have to pack up because in europe, on the television, you get almost every two, third or fourth day you get informationor about lesbos, about the refugees and you think lesbos is full of refugees and so the booking numbers are going down to zero. >> reporter: hotelier dimitrios vatis, whom we met at the start of the refugee crisis, shows us the difference between bookings for last year, which started so promisingly, and this. >> this year the difference between the two of them is minus 88.28%.

>> reporter: this business, along with hundreds of others on lesbos, could be in seriouss trouble. they face double the pressure: extra tax demands to help with greece's other crisis, its debt burden. the hotelier is appealing to the government to protect vulnerable enterprises from bank foreclosures as they try toas survive. but his prime concern is for loyal employees that he's been forced to let go. >> in a little while, these people they may end up asking jobs somewhere else so they'll be refugees. i feel badly, terribly when i'm talking about the rest of there people that work in the hotel and they're not going to be able to have a job this summer. >> reporter: day trippers fromt turkey, who've taken the legal ferry to cross the aegean, climb one of lesbos's main attractions: the chapel inch petra-- the rock. but their custom in no way replaces the 90,000 foreign,0 visitors the island anticipated before the crisis. the islanders were being talked

about as potential nobel peace prize nominees for their generosity and hospitality. the sense of rejection pains cafe owner stelios chiotellis, who is a stone's throw from the chapel. not only is his business being jeopardized by the tourists staying away, but also by foreign package holiday companies, which are trying to force the islanders to cut their prices still further. >> all the locals here did the l best they could to help the refugees last year. when they first came out there wasn't n.g.os here there was nothing, so we gave them food drinks, many people helped a lot. a lot. i would not say, "me, i helped a lot," but we do our best. and then instead of people appreciating that and saying, "oh, these people help" they tend the buck to us now, they cancelled all the flights. >> reporter: this is eressos, home to sappho, the ancient

greek poet who wrote of romantic love between women. this village is one of the world's leading lesbian destinations. its location on the west of the island, shielded it from the armada of rafts. despite its prominence in a niche market, eressos is also facing a bleak future. local tourist chief fani gallinou. >> we don't how long we'll be this season. we have guests that they want tt come, but they don't know how, or it is very expensive for the because there are no more charter flights. we had 25 charter flights per week, and now we have only ten. >> reporter: for a place that has had such a turbulent year y and whose geographical position has guaranteed it prominence in 21st century history, lesbos cac be disarmingly tranquil.

>> reporter: bird watcher jeff bailey has great sympathy with the people escaping war, oppression and poverty, and has this message for holidaymakers worried about the migrant crisis. >> well i think the island is looking as wonderful as always. i would urge anyone who wants to come to the island, to please come to the island. there's no issues with the migrants, the vast majority of the island you won't experience that, and so there's no reason for you not to come. >> reporter: last summer, lesbos was inundated as the authorities failed to cope with the refugeep crisis. but now the system is much more organized as europe tries to control its external borders. irrespective of the rights and wrongs, the reality is thatha refugees and migrants are being kept away from the main tourist areas. the village of molyvos, with its medieval citadel, has endured a torrid 12 months and witnessed significant tragedy. but the apocalyptic scenes in its cobbled streets have evaporated. although she has to work two

jobs, 15 hours a day, seven days a week, restauranteur ioanna stipsanou takes a long historical view and is optimistic. >> it's famous, everybody knows lesbos. and also the good things we have. hospitality, and how beautiful it's the people, the hospitality, and how beautiful is the place and how beautifulnd the people are and how secure and safe you are when you're here with us. >> reporter: while the islanders' short term plea is for tourists to return, their more substantive desire is for the world powers to bring peace to conflict zones, so that people no longer need to use these shores as a stepping stone. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in lesbos. >> sreenivasan: and now some news about our own reporting. today the pbs newshour won a 2015 peabody award for "desperate journey," our extensive reporting on the european migrant crisis. malcolm brabant, who just reported our story from lesbos, has led much of coverage on the

ground from across the region. you can find all our reports online, on our homepage at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and speaking of awards, let's look at some investigative reporting honored by this year's pulitzer prizes. "the washington post" won two pulitzers yesterday, including one for national reporting for a series on police shootings of civilians. there had been little national data about those kind of shootings. "the post" created its own database that included these findings: 990 people were fatally shot by police last year, one in six officers had been involved in a prior shooting. in three-quarters of the cases, police were under attack or defending someone who was. wesley lowrey is one of the lead reporters and part of a team of more than 60. he joins me now. congratulation, wesley lowrey.

let's see, how many years have you been reporting? >> a few.la a few. handful. 25. i've been at "the post" for two years. >> woodruff: what was your reaction? >> i was really excited. this was a project that really was a newsroom-wide effort. it involved a lot of different staff, our investigative staff, our national desk, which i work for, our graphics and data development staff, as well. it was a really great team win. >> woodruff: how did the idea for this come about? >> so this idea, this project was born in a lot of ways out of ferguson, missouri. i was one of our lead reporters on the ground in missouri, as a well as in baltimore when there was unrest there. in ferguson they were having this conversation where you had the police unions and the police chiefs saying at the time, this is a one-off anecdote. we almost never shoot anybody. most officers never fire their guns and you had the civil rights groups and activist and protesters saying young black men are being executed in the streets every day. this is an outrage and we're being killed. smart editors asked an obvious question. we should be able to provide some clarity to this debate.

it turns out we couldn't because no one was keeping track at the national level and also at state level, no one knew exactly how many people were being killed by police. >> woodruff: so what did the post do? as you said, 60 or 70 people involved? >> so what we did, and this part of the effort was led by julie tate and jen jenkins. systematically, day by day, we would search for local news reporting of police shootings. that's the place where you most consistently see some type of public acknowledgment of a police shooting, of a local television station, a local newspaper. we would build a database out. for every shooting we found, that was one line, one name. we would go in and report out 20 or 30 different, you know, pieces of data points about it, race, age, gender, mental illness, for example. >> woodruff: whether they were armed or not. >> whether they were armed or not, what they were armed with, was it a toy weapon, a knife, a sledgehammer, that kind of

stuff. >> woodruff: this took how long? >> a when year. we launched in january and we're still to date still working. but this was a year's worth of reporting. >> woodruff: it really made a huge splash when this story came out, continues to be looked at, wesley lowrey. what struck you as most... what surprised you most? i know we saidu that three-quarters of those who were killed by police were armed or were attacking officers. did that surprise you? >> it wasn't come ploatsly surprising to me. a. lot of the conversation wee have is perhaps the cases where that didn't happen or there is some question, but in some ways we expect that. we hope and know that most police officers out there are not being faced with these situations and in many cases when someone is shot and killed, there is some type of legal justification or some type of extenuating circumstance, but, the sheer number did surprise us. the fact that it was almost 1,000 over the course of a year, and that very many of them, even in cases were people were armed or were unarmed, you had issues

of mental illness. you had people who had fives instead of guns perhaps, cases that seemed that perhaps there was something that could have been done to prevent this person from being killed. >> woodruff: i was struck that one quarter of the cases the individual was having a mental episode or they were mentally ill. >> yeah, one out of every four shootings, that person is either explicitly suicidal or in the midst of some type of mental crisis. sometimes that's compounded by drugs or alcohol. very often you are seeing people with depression, people who are manic depressive, people who are bipolar and who are suffering from some type of ailment, some physical, mental ailment. that's leading them into these confrontations with policewi officers. >> woodruff: do you believe this has had an impact? >> i do. one of the most obvious way is we embarrassed the federal government into announcing they're going to try to keep some of this data. previously, this wasn't out there. we had to count them case by case. and i think as we wrote these stories, people got outraged and said, that's ridiculous.

we should know, in a country where we count everything, barrels of quarterback and number of shark attacks and the statistics from the movie that premiered last night, we knowht how many people saw it and how much popcorn we ate, but we didn't know how many people were being killed by police. now the f.b.i. announced they'll start doing a project similar to ours that should launch next year to track this so we can keep having this conversation, we can have this conversation with information and data and facts instead of us having the conversation with emotion and anecdotes. >> meaghan:. >> woodruff: last question. in a time when we see so much focus on social media, which is how people communicate, less resources put into raw reporting, what do you think a project like this says? >> this speaks to the power that we still have as journalists and that newsrooms still have when we decide to pivot on an issue and focus our resources into it. as a political reporter previously, i was someone who did a lot of real-time social media reporting, doing things, you know, as they break, and this was, you know, for me a great experience getting to work

on many longer-term kind of enterprise pieces, but it speaks to... it's very inspiring to work at a place like "the post" that can devote this kind of man and woman power to this. >> woodruff: congratulations to you and your entire team at the "washington post." wesley lowrey, thank you very much. >> thank thank you for having me. >> woodruff: we have more coverage of the pulitzer winners online, including our owns interviews with lin-manuel miranda, winner in drama for his broadway musical "hamilton," ana author joby warrick, whori explored the rise of the islamic state. plus, see our special series from jack ohman, who won for his editorial cartoons. >> sreenivasan: also on the newshour online: the weather's getting warmer, and people want to get out of the office-- including potential employers. in our "ask the headhunter" column today: the do's and don'ts of interviewing in a bar. and how a music program is helping underserved youth in austin, texas, by teaching kids to play the steel drums. we have a video from member station klru. all that and more is on our web

site, pbs.org/newshour. time to vote in new york ticked down as voters headed to the polls in the presidential primaries.. democratic and republican candidates campaigned furiously ahead of the vote. a two-man taliban raid shook the afghan capital of kabul, killing 28 people and wounding hundreds more. the target was a government security agency near the presidential palace. and the death toll in last weekend's earthquake in ecuador rose to 433. international rescue teams fanned out to look for the dozens of people still missing. >> woodruff: tonight on charlie rose, more of charlie's interview with president obama focused on foreign policy. in this preview the president explains his decision to keep u.s. troops out of syria. >> probably the area where i've gotten the most criticism from some of the foreign policy establishment here in washington is around the syria situation.

>> rose: yes, and the red line situation. >> and there, what you have isre people who i think instinctively feel that where something is going wrong, where we have aer problem, the solution is for the united states to send its military in and impose order. and surely, what we've learned not just from iraq, but even the great challenges that we've had in places like afghanistan, where we've now been there for 13 years, devoted enormous resources, lives lost. and i can tell you from visiting afghanistan, talking to our troops, they are the best of the best. i mean, these folks know what they're doin'. they are outstanding at what they do. and yet, it's still a very challenging environment. so the notion that while we are still busy in afghanistan, still trying to keep iraq together, that we would now then potentially involve ourselves in another military excursion in syria. that's the kind of unwise

decision making that i think leads us to make big mistakes and ultimately also miss out on opportunities elsewhere in the world. >> woodruff: that's tonight on "charlie rose."os >> sreenivasan: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday the supreme court hears arguments about whether police officers can give blood or breath tests to suspected drunk drivers without a search warrant. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again heree tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:y: ♪ ♪

moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of newon york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace andem security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support

of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation foro public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. yo captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llclc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, e-trade, and cancer treatment centers of america. >> proper nutrition can maintain your immune system during cancer treatment. that is why dietitians are part of every patient's team. learre