captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight, democrats in the house of representatives take control of the floor, with a sit-in protest demanding votes on gun control. >> ifill: also ahead this wednesday, britain remains divided ahead of tomorrow's historic referendum over whether to leave the european union. malcolm brabant, in london, listens to the voters. >> i think a lot of brexiters have got their fingers in their ears and are going la la la la la, because if we leave europe, on what terms do we then do business with europe? >> 100% out. my dad, his dad, my grandparents all fought to keep this country british. >> woodruff: and, the shrinking of america's middle class-- i

talk with i.m.f. head christine lagarde about why the numbers are lagging and how the country can build itself back up. >> if you look at the size of the middle class in 1975, it was roughly 60% of the population. if you look at the middle class today, it is about 50%. >> ifill: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> ♪ love me tender ♪ love me true we can like many, but we can love only a precious few. because it is for those precious few that you have to be willing to do so very much. but you don't have to do it alone. lincoln financial helps you

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committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the politics around guns in the u.s. took a dramatic turn today, with an almost unprecedented sit-in on the floor of the house of representatives. nearly 100 democrats are refusing to leave the chamber until they secure a vote on a gun control bill. >> the time to act is now. we will be silent no more. the time for silence is over. >> woodruff: the protest came in the wake of the mass shooting in orlando. the goal, to force a vote on legislation that would prevent anyone on the "no fly" list from being able to buy a gun.

>> we are calling on the leadership of the house to bring common sense gun control legislation to the house floor. >> give us a vote! let us vote! >> this cannot stand. we will occupy this floor. >> woodruff: democrats continued to chant as republicans gaveled for order and called a recess, bringing legislative business to a halt. that meant the cameras went dark-- so members took to social media to show the sit-in that was still happening. congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz teared up reading a letter from former congresswoman gabby giffords, herself the victim of a shooting. >> speaking is difficult for me, but i haven't been silenced, and neither should the american people.

and we will be here and sit in and stand strong until we can make sure there are no more guns, no more orlando, no more aurora, no more victims. thank you so much. >> woodruff: outside the chamber, minority leader nancy pelosi rallied support in front of cameras and blamed republican leaders for not bringing any gun legislation to the floor. president obama voiced his support for the effort in a tweet. for their part, republican leaders have not signaled when the house will reconvene. >> ifill: in the day's other news, the justice department has completed the largest-ever takedown of medicare scammers. today the agency announced it has charged 300 people-- including doctors and other health care professionals-- with

defrauding medicare of $900 million. the cases include money laundering, billing for unnecessary treatments, and identity theft to obtain prescriptions. donald trump launched a full frontal assault against his democratic opponent hillary clinton today in yet another pre-general election campaign salvo. john yang has the story. >> reporter: the gloves were off in the presidential campaign trail today as donald trump and hillary clinton traded barbs from 500 miles apart. >> hillary clinton might be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the united states. >> look, i know donald hates it when anyone points out how hollow his sales pitch really is. now think about it, he's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance. >> reporter: in new york this morning, trump delivered a blistering attack on clinton.

he hit her on her character: >> as you know, most people know-- she's a world class liar. >> reporter: --and on her immigration proposals: >> under her plan, we would admit hundreds of thousands of refugees from the most dangerous countries on earth, with no way to screen who they are, what they are, what they believe, where they come from. >> reporter: that last claim about screening refugees isn't new but politifact has rated it "false," citing the current federal system, a process that typically takes between one and two years. in a sign of what the four months until election day may be like, the clinton campaign quickly issued a list what they say are the top 15 inaccurate statements in trump's speech. speaking in raleigh, north carolina, clinton responded personally: >> he has no feasible plan for he has no real strategy for creating jobs, just a string of empty promises. and maybe we shouldn't expect

better from someone whose most famous words are "you're fired." well, here's what i want you to know-- i do have a jobs program, and as president, i want to make sure you hear the words, "you're hired." >> reporter: clinton also got some bipartisan signs of support-- an endorsement from republican national security expert brent scowcroft, and a rousing welcome from house democrats in a meeting on captiol hill. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> ifill: and, dropping out of the presidential race and into a senate race, marco rubio announced he's now changed his mind and will run for re-election to the senate from florida. rubio said it is important to run again, because control of the senate could come down to the florida race. and he pledged to stand up to the next president, even if it is donald trump. >> woodruff: former u.s. house speaker dennis hastert reported to a minnesota prison

today, to begin his 15-month sentence. the 74-year-old pleaded guilty in a hush-money case that revealed he sexually abused high school boys decades ago. hastert-- who has numerous health issues-- arrived at the rochester federal medical center this afternoon in a wheelchair. the facility specializes in care for ailing inmates. >> ifill: colombia's government and the leftist "farc" rebel group have agreed on a ceasefire deal that would end more than a half-century of fighting. under the agreement roughly 7,000 "farc" rebels will surrender their weapons. the conflict has claimed the lives of over 220,000 people, and displaced millions more. the deal is expected to be signed tomorrow. >> woodruff: there's new concern north korea's latest back-to- back missile tests mean it's closer to being able to hit u.s. bases in asia and the pacific. the north appears to have successfully launched one of its

mid-range ballistic missiles for the first time this morning, hours after a similar test failed. the test was the sixth in just the last two months. it traveled more than halfway to japan before plunging into the sea. >> ifill: india's monsoon season is off to a deadly start. lightning strikes killed at least 74 people in the last 24 hours. storms are raging throughout the country's eastern and northern regions. most of the deaths occurred in the eastern state of bihar. 2,000 people are fatally struck by lightning in india each year. but the recent spate of deaths-- mostly farm workers in open fields-- is higher than usual. >> woodruff: two sick workers at a remote u.s. research station at the south pole have been evacuated after a risky operation in extremely frigid, pitch black conditions. they were rescued by a small canadian plane and flown to a british research station in antarctica. photos from the national science

foundation show the crew preparing to leave with the evacuees. they are now being flown to chile for medical treatment. >> ifill: golf star rory mcilroy has pulled out of august's olympic games in rio, citing fears over the zika virus. in a statement, the 27-year-old from northern ireland said: "my health and my family's health comes before anything else." mcilroy becomes one of the highest-profile athletes to drop out of the olympics over explicitly-stated zika concerns. >> woodruff: on wall street today, stocks fell in anticipation of tomorrow's british referendum on whether to remain in the european union. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 49 points to close at 17,780. the nasdaq fell ten points, and the s&p 500 dropped three. >> ifill: and, the city of cleveland celebrated it's basketball team's national championship today. the team beat the golden state warriors sunday, to end the city's 52-year winning sports drought.

members of the team-- including the nba final's most valuable player, lebron james-- paraded through the streets of cleveland. hundreds of thousands of fans were on hand. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: what residents in britain are saying on the eve of the brexit vote; i.m.f. chief christine lagarde on the diminishing american middle class; president obama signs a major overhaul for chemical safety rules, and much more. >> ifill: voters in the united kingdom head to the polls tomorrow, to make a momentous decision on their future. will they remain a part of the european union, or strike out on their own? newshour special correspondent malcolm brabant has been talking to people in the east of england. he brings us this report. >> reporter: with local polls

suggesting that most east anglians favor brexit, the remain campaigners cranked up their polite offensive in the market town of ipswich. >> what do you think about it? are you going to vote yes? >> yes, i'm going to vote remain because i don't really see the point in not voting to remain because you literally lose like so much. >> reporter: hi, will you be voting next thursday? do you know which way you're going to vote? >> remain. >> remain, fantastic, excellent. >> out. definitely out. >> reporter: do you want to talk about it? >> shut that bloody channel tunnel up, mate. concrete it up. >> okay. >> reporter: but her suggestion that immigration made the country's foundation stronger met a sharp response. >> my husband served 27 years in the military and what have we got to show for it? nothing. fighting to keep them out. definitely out. 100% out. my dad, his dad, my grandparents

all fought to keep this country british. >> reporter: so is britain about to chime in with a painful divorce, after an often turbulent, fractious, and skeptical 43-year union with her neighbors across the north sea and declare independence day? at this gentle summer garden party in the village of hoxne, in amongst the cream teas, one of the key referendum issues reared its head in an almost visceral manner. >> i think we should stop immigration and not allow any more people in the country. i think there's far too many, pinching our money from the national health service, that sort of thing. >> reporter: next to the sausage stand, the conversation switched to national sovereignty and the deep resentment many britons feel about the amount of control exerted by un-elected european commissioners, and their unaccountable staff in brussels. >> every year, every day, every hour we are spending so much money with faceless individuals

and we can't even govern ourselves. why can't we as a nation, run our own country? >> in the long run, if the human race is going to exist to survive on this planet that we're wrecking, then we need to come together and work together. >> reporter: karon sanders is a truly international woman with part italian heritage who's worked around the world. but she will vote to leave. she says excessive e.u. regulation is endangering her small organic free range farm. she struggles to get her animals into abbatoirs that favor industrial food producers, has given up breeding turkeys and has lost money because of e.u. rules governing slaughtering. >> i don't want people's employment rights, i don't want their human rights changed. i don't want that to be lessened. and i don't think it will. what i do want is to be able to look at legislation in a realistic manner. we may be able to put in the small slaughter houses, have

that working for us, rather than against us. why do we need a vet to stand over people who for centuries have always killed the animals usually at the back of a butchers or at home. there are legislations and ways that we can work that our stands don't drop. >> i think a lot of brexiters have got their fingers in their ears and are going la la la la la, because if we leave europe, on what terms do we then do business with europe? >> reporter: mrs. portly has spoken. that's the name financial journalist linda duffin uses when she blogs about food. >> my concerns are the potential for a drop in trade and investor uncertainty. if you look at the figures, 42% of our exports are to the e.u., 48% of our foreign direct trade is from the e.u. and essentially, if we leave the e.u. we'll have to toe the line, but we won't have any say in where that line is drawn.

>> every week the united kingdom sends 350 million pounds of tax payers money to the e.u. that's the cost of a fully staffed brand new hospital. >> i'm walking through the remains of coventry cathedral, bombed and destroyed by nazi warplanes 75 years ago. and now painstakingly and lovingly maintained as a monument to wars that we've left behind and to the sanctuary of peace. and what message would we send to the rest of the world, if we, the british people the most internationally minded of all were to walk away from our nearest neighbors. we should be leading in europe, not leaving it. >> reporter: nostalgia for britain's fighting spirit during the second world war is never far away at frinton on sea, where a portrait of winston churchill adorns the railway station. frinton, a bastion of gentility and snobbishness, has frequently rebelled against convention and

common causes. when churchill promised that britain would fight hitler's german on the beaches, there was the following response. >> frinton parish council cabled whitehall and said, "not on our beaches, you're not." >> reporter: a second world war machine gun nest is part of the fabric of frinton station, and for the remain campaign symbolizes the bunker mentality of the brexiters. chris opperman, a former pig farmer and broadcaster was going to vote to remain, but changed his mind. >> i believe england is better off by itself because we have the drive and tenacity to make up for any of the so called benefits. i believe the engineering powerhouse is still locked away somewhere in britain. i've been inspired by some impassioned speeches by employers, small factories, major employers as well who've

said we can get on we don't need what they call the feather bed of europe to push our exports. >> reporter: over the course of this campaign, the lead has changed hands. the latest opinion polls suggest that both sides are neck and neck. but in recent election campaigns, such surveys have been exposed as fallible because people have sought to mislead the pollsters. so it's far too risky to predict the outcome. watching from the sidelines as britain tears itself apart are immigrants from eastern europe, who're concerned about a campaign that some say featured a xenophobic edge. these are some of the 5,000 poles who live in ipswich. student julia rusek: >> it's quite hurtful that people like me get blamed for things like the fall of england,

and we're apparently stealing the jobs that english people could do. we want to give back to the country that gave us education. when i grow up, after i finish university, i want to be paying my taxes, i want to be paying all of my bills, the way i was brought up was to give back to people that give to me. >> reporter: the campaign has also generated quiet despair in professor stephen bazire, a leading pharmacist. his hobby, railway modeling. he believes prime minister david cameron's pledge to hold the referendum was a mistake that could lead to the break up of the united kingdom. >> i'm quite worried that there'll be a lot of vindictiveness going around between pros and antis. i don't see britain becoming at all united as a result of this. because if the result is very close then you'll have people who really are quite worried about staying in europe and people who're quite worried about leaving europe. and will be blaming each other. and scotland will probably go for another referendum and will probably leave.

wales might well do the same. and i think we'll become little englanders then, again, rather than being part of a wider community. >> reporter: only the voters can now decide whether the brexit express is a runaway train, that may lead to the shrinking of world's fifth largest economy. if britain votes leave there can be no turning back, and no one seems to know what the consequences will be. for the pbs newshour, this is malcolm brabant in east anglia. >> woodruff: the american middle class is shrinking and struggling. the six-year-long economic recovery is slowing and the pronounced divide in inequality may get worse without bigger steps. those warnings were part of a new report issued today about

the u.s. economy by the international monetary fund. i sat down with its managing director, christine lagarde, at the i.m.f. earlier today to hear more about the concerns about what's happening to the middle class and the poor, and what could be done. managing director christine lagarde, thank you for talking with us. >> pleasure. >> woodruff: so this latest report from the imf looks at the american economy, says it is in good shape overall, shows resiliency, but then it goes on to point out a number of factors that provide concern for the future, and one of them has to do with the shrinkage of the american middle class. what do you and your colleagues see, and what concerns you? >> we are seeing a shrinking of the middle class. if you look at the size of the middle class in 1975, it was roughly 60% of total population. if you look at the middle class today, it is about 50%. so that's a significant decline

of the middle class. and it is an economic issue, because the middle class has always been the consumption force of this nation. the upper class doesn't spend as much. the lower class doesn't have as much to spend. so the maximum impact in terms of consumption is generated by the middle class. >> woodruff: what's happening here? you also write in the report your concern about the so-called labor force participation rate, the number of people who are actually working, and we know that there is concern about the number of men and women who are able to find a job. what do you see there? >> what we are seeing is something that affects us all, which is aging. the u.s. population is aging, like in other economies of the world, and as a result, the

participation of active workers in the economy is declining. now, we cannot stop the course of time, but what policies can do is encourage people who are not joining the workplace, the job market, to actually do so. and i would point to a couple of policies. one is support given to women, and by that i mean maternity leave policy that would help them face the decision of do i stay or do i go. second, childcare support, and not just child actually, but the kind of support that would help families look after a child or look after an elderly, because with aging, we will have to support more parents or grandparents. >> woodruff: you're describing a real squeeze on the middle

class in this country. >> uh-huh, yes, there is that squeeze, and that's where you head in the directions of people feeling insecure, people not wanting to move from one job to the other, people not spending as much as they would otherwise do. those behaviors, those decisions have an economic impact on our growth. >> woodruff: help us understand, what's the connection with the overall economy? >> well, the major engine for growth in this country and in quite a few advanced economies, as well, is typically consumption. when the u.s. consumer consumes, there is demand, more demand, and therefore the u.s. manufacturers must manufacture more. if they have to manufacture more, they have to create more jobs. it's a fairly simple sir d.l. that is generally initiated by consumption. >> woodruff: a number of remedies you lay out would cost money. they would require action by the congress another a time when this country is very politically

polarized. how realistic do you think your recommendations are at a time like this? >> i see one area where there is some agreement, and that's on the earned income tax credit, which is combined with the minimum wage increase would certainly bring people up and would boost consumption. so on the earned income tax credit, there seems to be common ground. i hope we can find many of those small-ticket items which will push the envelope further and increase growth in the u.s. >> christa:. >> woodruff: and if these remedies you lay out are not enacted, what's your concern for the future of the economy? >> you know, if this issue such as low participation in the labor force, increased poverty, reduced productivity and polarization in terms of income are not addressed, then the u.s.

economy will face what i have called this new mediocre, where potential growth is lower. there is growth, there is a degree of recovery, but not sufficiently to bring people out of those poverty levels that we talked about, not enough to increase the middle class, and not enough to address the unlimit of those who are still looking for jobs. but those forces, poverty, participation, productivity and polarization of income are there to stay unless they are addressed. >> woodruff: finally, a different question. voters go to the polls tomorrow in great britain to say one way or another whether their country should leave the european union. you've been clear, you've made public statements about how you think if it happens it would be harmful to great britain, to other parts of the world. how do you see the effect on the united states if there is a vote the leave the european union? >> well, the u.k. decided to

leave the european union, there would be some effect on the u.s. economy. how big that effect would be, difficult to say. there are two channels of communication of uncertainty and lack of demand, one is through trade, less trade between the u.s. and the u.k. most likely, but it's not a huge volume. so that impact would be relatively low. however, on the financial front, because of the role played by london as a financial center, because of the potential impact on volatility, on the anxiety of people who then sort of fly their money to safe havens, then there could be a significant impact on the u.s. economy. >> christa:>> woodruff: so amers should be watching closely? >> i think we should all be watching closely, and i hope the right decision is made, but it's

for the u.k. people to decide. >> woodruff: christine lagarde, the managing director of the imf. thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> ifill: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: a high schooler creates a device that turns breath into words; efforts for more racially integrated classrooms; and a plea to adopt the metric system in the u.s. but first, the president and congress have reached rare agreement on a new law that will regulate everyday toxic chemicals used around the house. the president signed it today, setting in motion the biggest changes in four decades. the environmental protection agency now has new authority to review-- and eventually restrict or ban-- tens of thousands of chemicals, potentially toxic substances that could be

carcinogenic or otherwise harm human health. among them, substances found in household detergents and cleansers, or flame retardants in furniture. but it may take a while. lisa desjardins is here with me now to fill in the picture. lisa, why is this significant? >> this is incredibly significant. we're talking about a vast universe of things we touch in our everyday lives. some estimate that one out of every three sort of processed products that we buy, not food, but everything else, could have toxic chemicals in it, and what happened, gwen, is the law passed 30 years ago and it was essentially toothless. so the e.p.a. wasn't even able to regulate forcefully something like asbestos, which we know from scientific evidence is lethal and causes a lethal form of cancer, but it's in the banned because the law previously was not strong enough. >> ifill: you and i have covered washington for a while. we know how hard it is to get bipartisan agreement on anything. why this, why now? >> imagine. nothing is getting done in washington.

a sweeping bill over an $800 billion industry, that's the answer. the industry got on board. the chemical industry felt this was in their interest because up until now they have self-regulated and states have regulated, gwen, so the chemical industry has dealt with 50 different sets of laws across this country. they found that it was in their interest at this time to have a national law, have the e.p.a. take this over. so what we're going to have now from this law is the e.p.a. having dominance, being able to override states with some exceptions in general when it comes to chemical safety. >> ifill: there are so many different arguments. one is the best it can get and this is a strong, big move. what is the argument for that? >> right. so let's talk about supporters. they feel like this was something that was a long time coming. these are dangerous chemicals that are unregulated and could explain things like autism and cancer. we don't know if they do, but the question is no one is investigating. now the e.p.a. can investigate. so that group includes people

like tom udall of new mexico. he spoke to us about this law. >> the first thing to realize, we're doing zero today. we're not doing any chemicals today. and so what this bill does is stand up the agency to get working in a really constructive way on chemicals. there are going to be many chemicals, and that's why i think many chemicals that aren't addressed in the first couple years, that's why i would urge the states to get out there and to regulate. >> ifill: yet, lisa, there are people that don't think this goes far enough, not only members of congress, but a lot of people involved in activist groups. >> that's right. this bill tried to address a problem of scale, but it has a problem of scale. let's look at a graphic explaining this. as we mentioned earlier, there are some 84,000 chemicals that the e.p.a. has yet to review and now can review, but the problem is how long it takes to do that. under this law, the e.p.a. is required to examine at least 20 of those chemicals within a

four-year time span. that gives you a sense of how long it takes to go through each of these chemicals. some who are nervous about this bill say realistically, we're in the sure this will scratch the surface of the problem. someone who has those questions are scott favor with the environmental working group. he talked to us for this story. >> the bill provides half as much money as the agency needs just to get through the thousand most dangerous chemicals out of many thousands of chemicals that are used in commerce. certainly if you ask the question, is this law better than what we have on the books, the answer is yes. if you ask the question, does this law give e.p.a. the ability to quickly review and regulate the most dangerous chemicals, the answer is almost certainly no. >> ifill: that's not the most enthusiastic... in fact, not criticism or endorsement. >> and yet groups like this still signed on because they feel like this is better than nothing, which is exactly what you heard. i think it's because this is sorts of an invisible problem. when we say this is a huge

amount of products, it's a vast number of product, baby bottles, car seats, mattresses, even something like the necklace i'm wearing, i know you'll be shocked it's not real gems. it's probably made of chemicals that are unregulated. we don't know what these are doing in our lives. they're saying something is better than nothing, but we'll see what happens in reality. >> ifill: we say "unregulated." they were unregulated by the federal government, but states often were able to regulate a lot of these substances. >> that's right. that was one of the final pivot points to make in this will become reality that some democrats, including democrats from california, like barbara boxer, where they have some of the strongest regulations on these chemicals, were concerned about this. and they ended up carving out an exemption where some of the laws that already have on the books will stay on the books. but going forward, anything passed after 2015 by the states, can be overridden by the e.p.a. it has to go out of its way to do it, but that can happen. >> ifill: it really sounds a little bit to me, however, as if

states are being deprived of some of their role. usually the argument on capitol hill is that the states or even at the supreme court that the states should have more power, not less. >> that's the argument i think the states are making clearly, and some of the opponents of this law are very concerned about, but think about it. this is not the only issue where we've seen this trend. how about cafeeé standards? the mileage requirements for our vehicles? those used to be state by state. under president obama those were raised so carmakers had to make our cars more fuel efficient on a national level. previously it had been on a state level. >> ifill: the argument being a patchwork series of law didn't apply to everybody equally. >> especially that it was a burden on the product makers, the manufacturers that had to make a product that fit 50 different sets of rules. >> ifill: it's fascinating the way things get done in washington, on some days like today. >> and surprisingly, this really did happen. >> ifill: it really did happen. lisa desjardins, thank you so much. >> my pleasure.

>> woodruff: next, a promising and affordable technology that could give voice-- literally-- to people unable to speak. fred de sam lazaro reports from india, part of our weekly series covering the "leading edge" of science. >> my name is arsh shah dilbagi and i'm from panipat, india. i'm good at computer science and maths, and i wish to change the world. >> reporter: he was 15 when he made this video two years ago, as a finalist in google's science fair, with a smartphone- sized device called "talk" that converts breath into speech. >> talk is an innovative device for people with developmental disabilities. >> reporter: he is also savvy at marketing, abundantly displayed on social media. here he is giving a ted talk in mumbai: >> i felt that as long as you are breathing, you should be able to live, truly live.

>> reporter: the passion for tinkering actually began when he was nine, when he asked his parents for a puppy. they, instead, gave him a lego kit. he says there was only one thing to do. >> i made a little dog out of the lego kit. the very fact that we humans are capable of creating machines which can be more capable than we ever can be, that is fascinating. that's just like cheating evolution. over the years i learned locomotion, how to control motors, how to put things together, how to make robots better. >> reporter: he learned to turn toys into tools. the idea for talk began when he accompanied his grandmother to the hospital and saw a severely speech-impaired parkinson's disease patient. >> i researched about everything i could about all the speech impediments i could, so there >> reporter: the devices now on the market, like the one used by one of his favorite authors, stephen hawking, all require a

laptop computer, they can be invasive and they are of course expensive well beyond vast majority of people, especially in india. he doesn't recall the actual light bulb moment, when the idea popped in his brain for a breath-driven interface-- through either nose or mouth. as he points out in his own promotional online videos, he had to learn how a machine learns as he built on the idea. >> i had this computation engine which could take in signals, from a microphone, distinguish noise and normal breathing, a single exhale and a double exhale. once i had that, i developed an entire library where those signals were put into morse code and then into english alphabets >> reporter: the next step: miniaturize the hardware. >> this is it. >> reporter: some 35 of them are

now being tested by users across india. their feedback is expected by this summer, the first step in the long, uncertain journey from prototype to an actual product. an indian medical device >> i have high hope for him, but this device itself is going to be of limited impact. >> reporter: the talk device requires far too much lung control and effort in a typical user. a parkinson's patient, for instance, couldn't muster. nonetheless, he sees potential. >> it's extremely clemple he's marketing the wright brother's plane as the concorde, but we live in ady and age when you can see in your lifetime the evolution in different technologies going from the wright brothers plane all the way up to the concorde. >> and this device very well may prove to be useful for a subset of the

population with degenerative condition. >> reporter: more immediately, like so many high school seniors, this young man is focused on transitioning to college life. he's headed this fall to princeton. for the pbs news hour, this is fred desam lazaro in india. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is part of our "breakthrough" series and a partnership with the under-told stories project at st. mary's university of minnesota. >> ifill: the u.s. justice department recently hailed a federal court ruling affirming plans to desegregate schools in cleveland, mississippi. desegregation, the court ruled, allows students "to learn, play and thrive together." as part of her year-long look at solutions to racism, special correspondent charlayne hunter- gault talks with a teacher on how to successfully teach in

integrated settings. >> reporter: the percentage of block and latino students in what's being called apartheid schools has only increased, and yet most schools seem ill prepared to help those students be the best they can be while reducing prejudice and teaching them to learn to live with each other. but maureen costello of the southern poverty law center says there are ways to achieve all three. maureen costello, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> reporter: the southern poverty law center has a curriculum that looks at teaching tolerance in schools. what caused that to happen? >> well, before we started this program, we were fighting hate crimes basically. our founder was bringing civil suits against groups like the klan, and often these young men who had committed some terrible acts against others were motivated by terrible, terrible hatred and just complete

misunderstanding of what other people were like. >> reporter: it was mostly race. >> it was usually race, although sometimes it was also ethnicity. he was seeing 19 and 20-year-old perpetrators who were going to spend the rest of their lives in prison, and he said, you know, we have to do something to stop this before it starts. and he said, we need a school program. that really was the beginning of teaching tolerance. let's find the best research we can find about how we can reduce prejudice starting at early ages and let's get it out there to teachers. one of the issues in american education is that 80% of our teachers are white women. >> reporter: in the whole country? >> yes. i'm in the saying white women can't teach because i am a white woman and i did teach for a very, very long time, but they bring in all of their own expectations and beliefs into class, and teachers have to kind of constantly examine those and say, wait a minute. am i making some judgments here

that i shouldn't be making? >> reporter: how do you then deal with such an equation? >> american classrooms are diverse as a whole, but, in fact, when you get down the individual classrooms and individual schools, we see the laws of diversity fade away. so we have schools today that are more segregated than they have been in the last 25 years. >> reporter: even many public schools? >> absolutely, absolutely. there is a real disparity. >> reporter: so how do you get a handle on that? >> every teacher's job is to help students develop the skills they need to thrive in a diverse society. lots of people think it's a natural thing. we're all born open minded and then we learn to become bigots. and the fact is that's not necessarily true. you have to actually develop skills to cross boundaries. and we look at it three ways. we say, okay, first we want to reduce prejudice, which means dismantle stereotypes as much as possible. >> reporter: how do you do

that? >> you challenge them. you get kids to explore stereotypes without their own group, and once they recognize that the stereotypes of their group are not really real, you ask them to look at other stereotypes and other groups. a stereotype is simply a box. it's a very convenient one. it helps categorize people. we're natural categorizers. but real people don't all fit in the box. and so what we have to do is help students understand that there is no single story. >> reporter: what do you do to break through some of these problems? >> we provide resources for teachers, and one of the main resources is curriculum. we have a curriculum called perspectives through a diverse america. and at its heart is our series of texts that we have chosen because they're either windows or mirrors. window, windows are how i can look outside and i can see experiences in life that are different than mine.

and that's something we've always said is important in education, to learn about other people and how other people live. mirrors are where i can see myself reflected in the books that i'm reading. and, of course, that's important too, and it's particularly important for a child of color, for a child who perhaps has immigrant parents, for children living in poverty to recognize that they're not on the outside, that they can be the heroes of their own story, too. >> reporter: so where do they get those books and that material? >> we have it on our web site, on perspectives for diverse america. many are from published works. we've chosen them because they help teachers explore the areas of identity, diversity, justice and action, which we consider to be really the key parts of teaching tolerance. >> reporter: do you find teachers around the country want this kind of information, and how are they responding? >> the feedback we're getting is we need this. thank goodness you have it.

and we need to incorporate it into our everyday lessons. >> reporter: and how are you disseminating this? >> we have it available for free on the web site. we have a social media page on facebook. we have a twitter channel. we send news letters to teachers. so we have this kind of virtual community of about half a million teachers. >> reporter: how important is taking these issues on in school? >> reporter: i think it's incredibly important. first of all, schools are one of the few institutions we have left that in some ways we all share. so it's one of the few common institutions. every child goes to school. and they go home and they have conversations with their parents. the more important thing is that, you know, let's look at the original purpose of schools. it's a civic mission. schools are supposed to take young people and not just equip them for jobs and not just equip them to make money, but to equip them to be citizens who can analyze issues, take action, take informed action and stand

up for each other, and stand up for the ideals that we believe in. and so we think that this is something that belongs in school, belongs in every school. >> reporter: maureen costello, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: we return to the u.s. capitol now, but for a different form of speaking out-- the light sentencing of a stanford university swimmer for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman sparked outage across the country and in congress. the story prompted new hampshire congresswoman ann mclane kuster to share her own experience with sexual assault, during a speech on the house floor tuesday night. >> i was an 18-year-old student. i was going to a dance, the dance was at a fraternity, and i intended to enjoy the evening

with my friends. we danced. we listened to music. we enjoyed the evening, and we enjoyed the party. until one young man assaulted me in a crude and insulting way, and i ran, alone, into the cold dark night. i have never forgotten that night. i was filled with shame, regret, humiliation, while he was egged on by everyone at that party standing by. several years later, i was working as a legislative assistant right here on capitol hill, and i was assaulted again, this time by a distinguished guest of the united states congress. i was 23 years old, and as judge poe referenced tonight, i did not say a word to anyone. and, in fact, until i wrote these words to share with you

tonight, i had never told anyone this story. my family didn't know. my husband, my children, my friends. i tell these stories tonight on the floor of the united states congress not because they are remarkable or unique. sadly i tell these stories because they are all too common, and tonight we will not be silent anymore. tonight we stand together, republicans and democrats, mothers and sisters, from across the country to take a stand for liberty and justice for all. >> woodruff: congress wohl kuster also >> woodruff: kuster also called for more accountability and education about sexual assault on college campuses and in communities.

>> ifill: finally tonight, we return to another of our periodic essays. there are many hot topics under debate in 2016. best-selling author daniel pink wants us to focus on one issue not making headlines-- how the metric system measures up. >> reporter: this is my phone. like many of you, i use it to check the temperature. right now, a sprinkle afternoon in washington, d.c., my phone says outside it's 16 degrees. that's not a mistake. that's celsius, and i'm not a crank or a canadian. it's just that a few years ago i went metric, and it's time for you and the rest of america to join me. let me take you back in time. the 1970s. columbus, ohio, i'm in third grade. one day mrs. williams tells us something amazing. in a few years, she says, the united states will go fully metric. four decades later, i'm still waiting. all 84 kilograms of me. today only two other countries

still have not embraced the metric system, liberia and myanmar. but metric is a good idea whose time has finally come. on the muddy racetrack of 2016, it now offers a rare political trifecta -- it's good for business, good for international harm any and good for kids. begin with business. getting our organizations on a single standard will avoid mistakes like the one a while back when a 125 million dollar mars orbiter exploded because nasa was using the international standard but its contractor was using pounds. metric makes international trade easier and smoother and eliminates labeling and manufacturing. next, america has a tattered image overseas, but going metric can help mentioned that by showing we're ready, willing and able to work with the rest of the world. and finally, children. those little creatures every candidate says are the future. our kids' future is global and high tech. well, 95% of the globe has

already gone metric, so has 100% of science and technology. just as kids in china are racing to learn english, the global linguistic standard, shouldn't american kids be mastering metric, the world's measuring standard? there's another advantage i've learned from my own conversion, metric is easier than the liberian system. believe me, it's much simpler to divide by 10 and 100 than by 8 and 12. there's even evidence that when prescriptions calls for doses in milliliters and come with a metric dispenser, people make far fewer mistakes than when dosages are in teaspoons, which raises another question, teaspoons? it's 2 opinion 5 centuries since we broke from king george and our health care system is using teaspoons? we can do better, america, but we'll have the lead our politicians instead of waiting for them to lead us. so take out your phones and switch to celsius. reset your bathroom scale to kilograms.

maybe even dump your yard sticks into boston harbor. together we can lead this country into the future, even if we have to do it millimeter by millimeter. >> ifill: you can find all of our essays on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour/essays. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, 42% of grades that four-year college students earn today are "a"s-- a major change since the 1960s, when the most frequent grade was a "c." on our "making sense" page, we have a columnist who compares grade inflation with economic inflation. all that and more is on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and a news update before we go. the speaker of the house paul ryan has criticized the democratic "sit-in" taking place in congress. on cnn, he called it a

"publicity stunt" and said this meanwhile, democratic congressional leaders say they are still deciding whether to stay in the chamber through the night. under house rules, they can leave and resume the sit-in tomorrow. >> ifill: tune in later tonight: on "charlie rose," actress olivia wilde. and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, "making sense" of how high housing prices are changing san francisco. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here 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: >> you were born with two stories. one you write every day, and one you inherited that's written in your d.n.a. 23andme.com is a genetic service that provides personalized reports about traits, health and ancestry. learn more at www.23andme.com. >> bnsf railway. >> lincoln financial--

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this is "nightly business report" with tooil tyler mathisen and sue sigh. brexit on the brain, why tomorrow's vote on whether to leave the european union has investors on pins and needles. the feds will tell investors if they're in good shape. and old reliable, the surprising name topping one of the auto industries best lifts. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for wednesday june 22nd. good evening everyone and welcome. sue herera is off this evening, the evening before britains go to the polls to decide whether to sta