captioning sponsored by wnet >> desjardins: on this edition for saturday, may 28: as isis gains ground in syria, in iraq, government forces try to retake the key city of fallujah. and in our signature segment, rural america: facing a shortage of lawyers. >> south dakota has 66 counties; 64 of them have courthouses. if there's no attorneys, it's the same as a hospital with no nurses: nothing's going to happen. >> desjardins: 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, lisa desjardins. >> desjardins: good evening, and thanks for joining us. it is a night of tense watching and waiting as war with the islamic state group appears to be escalating on two fronts tonight-- in syria and in iraq. isis militants are advancing in syria, in what the syrian observatory for human rights says is the group's biggest offensive in two years near

syria's border with turkey. isis also gained ground today near the northern syrian city of aleppo, fighting rebel forces who oppose syrian president bashar al-assad. various rebel groups are backed by the u.s., turkey, and saudi arabia. more than 160,000 civilians are reportedly trapped in those towns. but in iraq, isis finds itself on the defensive. for the sixth day in a row, iraqi government forces, backed by american airstrikes, battled isis militants in and around fallujah, which is less than 40 miles from baghdad. the iraqi government insisted it is on the verge of launching a sweeping ground campaign to retake the city. isis seized fallujah two years ago and it remains, after mosul, the second-biggest iraqi city still under their control. more than 50,000 residents are said to be trapped by the fighting in that city. the u.s. military sai

>> missy, thank you so much for joining us. >> let me start first by asking you, who exactly is involved in this charge to retake fallujah? >> there is a wide array of government forces and government aligned forces trying to reclaim the city of fallujah, so it is the iraqi police, federal police, it is the iraqi army, and then sunni tribal fighters and importantly, a wide array of shiite militia groups. >> and which have counted at least seven militia groups that are taking part in the operation, including some groups the united states, particularly those that don't want anything to do with such hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist group by the united states government. >> iraqi prime minister who helped put this coalition together said on national tv this week that iraqi forces were

approaching a moment of great victory. how important is this fight in fallujah for his seemingly fragile iraqi government? >> yes. it is a really important moment for the body right now. he is in the midst of a political crisis, and he is facing urgent demand for reform. he has got to, a sort of shaky basis on the shiite coalition and he really needs a win, so it is an important moment for him and also an important moment for the iraqi security forces. remember, two years ago, the iraqi army suffered a humiliating defeat when they largely collapsed in northern iraq ahead of the islamic state's advance there, so this is an opportunity for them to show that they can actually go into a rebel held city and defeat the islamic state. >> the mayor of fallujah, how desperate are things there? >> it seems like it is a very desperate picture there. as they have been in control of natural ja since 2014 but in recent months because of the huge fight by security force it

is decide to isolate the city, conditions, humanitarian conditions, living conditions have gotten very bad, so you have a shortage of food, you have a shortage of medication, there have been reports of people dying of hunger, obviously, not having access to vital medical care and the islamic state is monopolizing sort of dictating the distribution of what basic goods still remain. >> the u.s. military has spent about $500 million training rebel groups just in syria, in part that is to take on the islamic state. has that investment brought any results? >> well, if you talk to u.s. military leaders and that's something i have been doing here in baghdad they will say yes, it has so the new program really seeks to stand up an advisory force that can identify and support rather than, you know, train and sort of basic training way, pulling people out of syria so they say now with about 300 americans special forces in northeastern syria, they have been able to make some progress

in identifying not just kurdish but arab fighters and i think we have to be pretty cautious about what we conclude about this program so far, i think it probably is too early to make an assessment but they say they are at least sort of getting a better picture of the battlefield and understanding who are potential partners there. >> misty ryan from baghdad in the "washington post", thank you for your reporting on this very important topic. >> thank you. >> >> desjardins: encouraged by warmer weather and calmer waters, the number of migrants and refugees trying to get to europe from libya is surging, and so is the death toll. the italian coast guard said today it has rescued 1,900 people stranded in the mediterranean sea in the past 24 hours, in 16 different rescue operations. this italian navy video of a rescue yesterday shows a ship plucking some 135 people from a sinking rubber boat. crews also recovered the bodies of 45 people who drowned. officials say overall about

14,000 migrants were rescued this week, but that more than a hundred more may have drowned. russian president vladimir putin is stepping up his opposition to the advanced u.s. missile system being installed in eastern europe saying it's a direct threat to russia's security and naming two nearby countries as particular problems. during a two-day visit to the nato country of greece, putin suggested that poland and romania could find themselves in russia's "crosshairs" for hosting the missile system. putin told reporters in athens yesterday russia could even ta"" retaliatory measures." the world health organization says there is "no public health justification" for postponing or moving this summer's olympic games from rio de janeiro, brazil. the zika virus outbreak began in brazil last year, but the w.h.o. today rejected a plea by 150 health experts, who argue that the games risked speeding up the spread of zika globally. the mosquito-borne virus can

cause severe birth defects. the w.h.o. said the games would not "significantly alter" the spread of zika, but advised pregnant women not to travel to rio. turning to the race for the white house, with hillary clinton just 73 delegates shy of clinching the democratic nomination, bernie sanders is pushing back at his party's structure. the vermont senator is asking the democratic party to remove two prominent clinton supporters, connecticut governor dan molloy and former congressman barney frank, as chairmen of the convention's platform and rules committees. this as sanders held rallies in three california cities today-- hoping for a win in the state's june 7 primary. clinton had no public events. outside a convention center rally for presumptive republican nominee donald trump in san diego last night, police arrested 35 anti-trump protesters who shouted and threw trash at trump supporters. how will driverless cars make

split second, life and death decisions? read our story, at www.pbs.org/newshour. >> desjardins: in 2012, the american bar association sounded an alarm for small towns and rural america. they were rapidly losing lawyers, causing a legal backlog. in fact, while almost 20% of americans live in rural counties, only 2% of american lawyers have practices there. in tonight's signature segment, the newshour's christopher booker went to south dakota to see how one rural state is trying to reverse its attorney deficit. >> reporter: attorney kristen kochekian is spending her morning with officials from doland, south dakota, discussing how, legally, the rural ranching community can address a local rat infestation and a dog that is causing a nuisance around town. >> so, the ordinances that we are mainly seeing a problem with is that dogs are not tagged as well?

>> reporter: such legal counsel is hard to come by in doland and the nine surrounding communities in spink county. until last year, there were only two attorneys with private practices-- serving the county's 6,000 residents. >> we likely have some dilapidated structural ordinances in place that we can look at as well. >> reporter: most south dakota attorneys live and work in the state's biggest cities: sioux falls, rapid city, and aberdeen, or the capital, pierre. with two-thirds of south dakota's attorneys concentrated in just four cities, it's becoming increasingly difficult for the state's rural residents to find a lawyer, and as older attorneys start to retire, some rural counties are being left without any lawyers at all >> with kochekian's arrival, the number of attorneys in private practice in spink county grew from two to three. >> reporter: had you ever been to south dakota before? >> no. never. >> reporter: never? >> never. i saw a commercial on television late one night, and it looked beautiful, and i'm not afraid of change and or travel. and i figured, well, if i get in, then it's meant to be, and it worked out. >> reporter: it wasn't a commercial she saw, but a tv

news report about a first-of- its-kind program enticing young attorneys to move to south dakota. a few months later, kochekian, her dog, and her belongings were en route. following the death of her mother, she decided to leave her family's furniture packaging and shipping business in north carolina and return to the legal profession. >> the power of attorney is while you are living. >> reporter: now she spends her days pivoting between familynd criminal law, municipal disputes, real estate transactions, and the subject of this meeting, estate planning. >> this is where you would just appoint whoever you want to take over your affairs and handle the estate. they would pay your bills. >> reporter: getting kristen to this table might not have been possible without the efforts of david gilbertson, chief justice of the state's supreme court. >> south dakota has 66 counties; 64 of them have courthouses. they are not going to function without attorneys there. it's the same as a hospital with no nurses: nothing's going to happen. >> reporter: having witnessed the strain on courts caused by a rural attorney shortage, gilbertson championed a new program. you've been quoted as saying large populated areas are becoming islands of justice in a

rural sea of justice denied. how is justice being denied in rural areas? >> you oftentimes need an attorney in a crisis situation sooner rather than later, and if there are no attorneys within 100 miles, it's simply not available. if law enforcement needs the advice of a local prosecutor, they've made an arrest, and they have to decide what way to go with that case, do they have enough evidence, once again, if a prosecutor drives in from 100 miles away, it's justice denied. >> reporter: gilbertson, who is this year's president of the conference of chief justices, says virtually every state has this problem. >> i mean, you can look at georgia, i think, over 90% of the attorneys are in atlanta. arizona, same thing with tucson and phoenix. texas, virtually all the attorneys in texas, they say, are in those four urban areas, with a few sprinkled outside. you name a state, it probably applies. >> reporter: according to the

national association of counties nearly 70% of all american counties are considered small and only 2% of american lawyers have practices in these small counties. in 2013, south dakota's state legislature approved a $1 million budget for a 16-attorney pilot program. half the money came from state coffers; the other half, from participating counties and the state bar association. >> we were allowed five years to fill the original 16 slots; we filled them in a little over two. >> reporter: the program aims to entice young attorneys to live and work in a rural county in south dakota for five years with a cash stipend of $12,500 a year. kocheckian was in the first round of placements. >> and they give you a list of available counties. and so i looked up a lot of different, you know, schematics, with what mileage is from hospitals, from larger cities for shopping. and so i narrowed it down. spink county was absolutely perfect for me. >> reporter: she now works in redfield-- literally, a one stoplight town.

population, a little over 2,000 people. her office is owned and operated by paul gillette, one of the two attorneys in the county before she arrived. >> so she came to redfield sight unseen, which was very strange from my perspective, i thought brave on her part. >> reporter: in theory there is a large group of people who could follow in kochekian's footsteps. according to the american bar association, almost a year after graduating-- around 30% of 2015 law school graduates are not working as full time lawyers. >> it's a blessing, especially to people that are struggling, trying to find a job or, you know, staying at their parent's home, because they haven't been able to find that golden ring position. i think they should take a risk, and i think they should relocate. and i think they should forge their own path. and i think this allows them the ability to do that. >> reporter: you arrived in the summer, passed the bar and basically are good to go. are you making a living at this point? >> yes. absolutely.

>> there are counties that are begging for attorneys. >> reporter: suzanne starr assists with the placement of the rural attorneys. are you being bombarded with applications? >> we do have quite a few applications, definitely. we have had applicants from texas, north carolina, ohio, l.a. >> reporter: but the majority of applicants are from south dakota. convincing them to stay in these communities slows the state's rural "brain drain," saves communities money, and has a multiplier effect on the economy. >> when we look at the overall package, what this attorney will bring: not just access to justice, but also they'll buy a home there, they'll pay real estate taxes, they'll pay sales tax on what they generate for income. and they generally bring other people into the community too. >> so martin, what i'm going to have you do is start signing. >> reporter: busy is how attorneys ryan mcknight and brittany kjerstad describe their law office in rural philip, south dakota, an agriculture and cattle town in the state's western prairie.

south dakota natives, the couple met at the university of south dakota school of law and got married. after mcknight was accepted into the rural attorney program, they decided to plant stakes in philip, 25 minutes from kjerstad's hometown. she currently works as a state's attorney-- the local prosecutor. >> you never would expect there'd be this much work to do out in rural south dakota. you just wouldn't expect it with the county around 2,100 people. no big city, nothing within 86 miles of us. but that drastically changed after the first couple weeks. >> reporter: was there any resentment? saying "look at these young people, the state, the county's going to give them money to come out and work?" >> that was our biggest fear, was like, you know, people say these are lawyers, why are we giving them more money, you know, just because of that stereotype of the lawyer, you know. so it's like, do we really want to pay lawyers more money for just coming here?

i am the state's attorney; if i wasn't here, the county would have to hire someone. and they'd have to pay them more to drive. and so it just made sense financially for them to do it. >> reporter: but does the program make sense financially for the rural attorneys? >> i have a really good friend that works for the federal public defender's office in pierre now. and he told me that he thinks we're doing a huge disservice to attorneys by encouraging them to come out into the boonies. and that we're sentencing them to a life of poverty as a result of this. i disagree with him, but-- >> reporter: why does he say that? >> well, because it's just not as lucrative as it would be if you go somewhere and you find yourself in a narrower, more lucrative field. >> reporter: we spoke with paul gillette. he actually cited a colleague of his in pierre, he said, there's also a danger that we're going to make these young attorneys too broad within a profession that essentially kind of rewards niche practice.

do you think that's fair? >> i was a small town attorney for ten years. i enjoyed the variety. and i think, if you talk to small town attorneys, and ask them, "hey, why are you here?" they'll tell you two things. one is the lifestyle; they probably don't even bother to lock their doors at night. and secondly, it's the opportunity to see clients, face to face, in a multitude of concerns and be able to help them and have the satisfaction, "hey, i just helped that person solve a problem." >> i can work from home too and if i need something i can just walk down to the office. >> reporter: mcknight and kjerstad recently purchased a home and are expecting their first child. they say they are on target to pay off their law school debts within four years but see the real benefit of rural practice in the work life balance. >> you see a lot of attorneys that are really overworked, and i just didn't really want that, i guess. >> that's one of the big things they always taught you or talked to you about in law school, was the first five years of your associateship at a big firm were always the ones where it's the

hardest on you physically, mentally, you put a lot of time in. i'd like a job where it's 8:00-5:00, done, no weekends, and work myself. >> reporter: and live? >> and live. >> desjardins: we turn now to new, potentially breakthrough research in alzheimer's disease that some are calling" revolutionary." more than five million americans live with the degenerative brain disease that robs people of their memory. it is the sixth leading cause of death in the u.s. a study led by harvard university researchers and published this week in the journal "science translational medicine" suggests that alzheimer's could stem from the brain's past attempts to fight off infections. joining me now from boston to explain these findings is one of the study's authors, rob moir.

he's an assistant professor in neurology at massachusetts general hospital. and harvard. >> thank you so much for joining us, a very big week for you and for those watching alzheimer's. tell us what your research shows. >> yes. thanks for having me. yes. so alzheimer's disease and the neurodegeneration you see with it is thought to be caused by a little protein that forms this concrete like substance in your brain, this turns out to actually be an anti-microbial pit pod that is to say it is a natural antibiotic that defends against infection in the brain and if you get a virus or a bacteria that gets into the brain, it rises to do better with it and binds to it and then entraps it in these long fibers and eventually entombs it forever and as they mount in number, eventually they start to be toxic to our own cells, and

that leads to the neurodegeneration. so that is what it does. it was an important, well, we are not saying this directly but what it certainly is very provocative in terms of suggesting is that there is an infection in ad, maybe low level, maybe many different pathogens increase into the brain and it has to form this amloid around them and this is what drives the disease. >> desjardins: what do you think, though, that this could hold promise for this is it more promising for finding a treatment for those who have alzheimer's? or is it more promising for those to identify who might be at risk or both? >> well, it is actually both. so if it does turn out to be an infection, there is a possibility of treating people before they get ad with vaccines, to target those particular bugs so that the pathogens don't get a chance to infect the brain.

>> desjardins: are there some of us who have naturally more of this ameloid oar defense system that kicks in than others? could that help explain why more are more prone to alzheimer's than others. some suggest there is a genetic limping to al alzheimer's. >> sure, it is like any inflammation response, genetics plays a big part, so does environmental factors and we all have an ameloid in our brain once you turn 40 you start to develop the stuff but some seem to get it much faster that could be driven by the genetics, a hair-trigger when it comes to immunity or it could be driven by the fact that they are getting more part generals, pathogens sneaking into their brain and there could be a number of reasons for that. >> desjardins: we definitely will be paying attention in the months and years ahead, rob moir i know your lab did this, at harvard, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks so much for having me.

>> >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> desjardins: a new art exhibit launched this week in italy with no authorization or support from the artist whose works are on display. the newshour's megan thompson has more. >> thompson: the artist goes by the name "banksy," but his real identity remains a mystery. 150 prints, paintings, and objects attributed to banksy are on display in this new exhibit at the palazzo cipolla museum, in rome. it's called "war, capitalism, and liberty," and organizers say it's the largest museum exhibit ever of banksy's work. banksy is best known for his street art-- murals and graffiti which pop up by surprise all over the world, featuring political and social commentary. his work has criticized europe's handling of its migrant crisis. this mural at the large migrant camp in calais, france depicted

apple computer founder steve jobs as a migrant from syria. jobs' biological father was syrian. after police fired tear-gas on the calais camp, bansky painted this work on the outside wall of the french embassy in london, depicting a character from the musical "les miserables" choking on tear gas. the leading theory is that bansky is an englishman in his 40's from the city of bristol. but that has never been confirmed. acoris andipa is a curator of the new exhibit. >> there is a certain romance in the tale, isn't there? that there is a sort of unknown robin hood of the 21st century. i think, that in itself, has a certain enchantment about it. >> thompson: the exhibit features works from the collections of private individuals. there are celebrity portraits; depictions of the military and protests; and several rats, a

signature banksy image; and copies of one of his best known images, "girl with a balloon." the exhibit will be on display until early september. >> desjardins: finally, among some 400 children pope francis methomethamphetmaine today at te vatican were many migrants, life jacket of a drowned girl, the pope told them migrants are not dangerous but danger. in the audience was nigerian boy taken in by an italian family after the parents drowned. and join the newshour gwen ifill when president obama followed by a town hall meeting where he will take questions on a variety of topics. questions for president obama, pbs newshour special airs this wednesday at 8:00 p.m. on your pbs station. that's it for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i am lisa desjardins. 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.

as one of the great rock artists janisof our time,embered also one of the saddest stories of rock 'n' roll. echols: she sang her vulnerability. she sang and exhibited her pain in, you know, in a way that was pretty much unparalleled by any other, i think, white woman singer of the era. selvin: she was the hippie blues girl. and we didn't know we needed one, and once we had one, we didn't need another one. but that is the archetype, and she is it -- the drunken, bawdy, foul-mouthed, badass, blues-singin' hippie chick. uh, meet janis joplin. joplin: ♪ cry-y-y-y baby