captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday july 30. after the conventions, trump and clinton continue to make their case to voters but, how much do political conventions matter anymore? and in our signature segment: america's climate refugees being forced to leave their homes due to sea level rise. >> all that water was land. basically all land, except for a few ponds here and there. >> sreenivasan: next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. 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. barbara hope zuckerberg. 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, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. a spokesperson for hillary clinton has confirmed that a data analytics computer program used by her presidential campaign was "accessed" as part of the hack of the democratic national committee. reuters reports that the justice department is involved in the investigation, a sign that the hack could be state-sponsored. this latest development appears to be part of a wider cyber attack on democratic political organizations. the f.b.i. is already investigating cyber attacks on the democratic national committee, as well as the

party's fundraising arm for the house of representatives. president obama has said that experts have attributed the cyberattacks to hackers in russia. meanwhile, hillary clinton and running mate senator tim kaine of virginia began their rust belt bus tour in philadelphia yesterday. her second stop was a toy manufacturing company in hatfield, pennsylvania. the clinton campaign bus is making stops in johnstown and pittsburgh, pennsylvania today and youngstown, ohio this evening, with more stops in ohio tomorrow. republican presidential nominee donald trump will also be stopping in the same battleground states of ohio and pennsylvania, with plans to appear in columbus and harrisburg on monday. the courts have thrown out voting restrictions passed by republican lawmakers in three states. a federal judge ruled yesterday that parts of wisconsin's 2011 voter i.d. law are unconstitutional, ordering the state to make photo i.d.s more easily available and lifting restrictions on absentee and early voting in the democratic- leaning state. also, a federal appeals court struck down a voter i.d. law in

north carolina, ruling that it discriminated against african- american residents with "almost surgical precision." the 2013 law required photo identification, as well as limiting early voting and same- day registration. and in kansas, a county judge ruled the state must count thousands of votes in local and state elections from people who did not provide proof of citizenship when they registered. the ruling could affect up to 50,000 registered voters in november. health officials had been fearing for months that this would happen-- and now it has. the first confirmed transmissions of the zika virus by mosquitoes on the u.s. mainland. tourism powers florida's economy, with more than 100 million visitors last year, and state leaders urged tourists not to stay away after the centers for disease control confirmed that four people have been infected in the miami area. the c.d.c. says no actual zika- carrying mosquitoes have been found yet in florida and at this point is not advising pregnant women or any other visitors to

avoid travel to the miami area. more than 1,600 people in this country have been infected with the virus, most of whom show few, if any, symptoms, but the virus is linked to birth defects. joining us now from atlanta is dr. tom frieden, director of the centers for disease control and prevention. so we want to try to make sure there's not unnecessary fear and panic spreading. i understand why state leaders would want the tourists to keep comes in because that's a lot of dollars and cents, but what's the threshold at which the the c.d.c. says there is concern for pregnant women or if you are traveling to this area? >> there's a several-block area in north miami where it appears that zika spread in early july. if there or anywhere else we saw continuing spread of zika or explosive spread of zika, then we would advise pregnant women not to go. that's what we did in puerto rico because we anticipated that there would be a zika epidemic, which is now, sadly, well under way in puerto rico. >> sreenivasan: how do we make

sure that miami and other parts of the mainland u.s. don't turn into puerto rico and don't have the explosive growth of zika cases? >> first off, puerto rico has, although a beautiful environment, they have the bad luck of having an environment that's very conducive to the spread of this particular mosquito and diesels caused by this mosquito. so dengue, and now zika have spread very rapidly when they've been introduced. that's a reflection of population density, the lack of screens and air conditioning, and the large number of places with standing water, and the absence of mosquito-control program. in florida, they have a mosquito-control program. it's very aggressive. and it's been going house to house in this community, and in every community where there have been travel-associated zika cases, on to reduce the likelihood that there will be local spread. >> sreenivasan: for someone traveling to florida, we have a choice, perhaps, to say, okay, well we can move our vacations elsewhere. what about people who live in

that zip code? >> people in that area have been offered zika testing, particularly if they're pregnant, by the state health department. we provided support to the state health department for that. it's, obviously, scary. that's why it's so important that we work intensively and ensure there are things people can do to protect themselves. as an individual you can wear mosquito-repellent with deet. you can use long-sleeved shirts. you can have the air conditioning on and reduce the likelihood that mosquitos will come. on the community level it is so important that there is a real mosquito-control program, that we're tracking mosquito populations, controlling them, eliminating standing water and controlling the larva mosquitos nd adult mosquitos.va mosquitos >> sreenivasan: are there benefits from the federal government? >> we're very disappointed that the federal government-- that the congress didn't pass supplemental legislation. that would have allowed us to have both more resources, more

money, for a robust response and more ways to get it done faster. >> sreenivasan: finally, where are we in the mosquito season? is this likely to get worse before it get better? >> we're still not yet in the middle of mosquito season. we expect this to continue for the next two to three months. that's why it's so important that people protect themselves. we expect there will be additional both travel-associated and locally spread casees of zika. whether those turn into clusters or outbreaks is something we have within our power to control. >> sreenivasan: dr. tom friedman from the centers for disease control and prevention. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: with the republican and democratic conventions now behind us, tradition has it that presidential candidates try to capitalize on the momentum the four-day events are supposed to provide. but this campaign season is

unlike any other, as both donald trump and hillary clinton try to overcome historically low approval ratings and trust issues. here to discuss the effectiveness and relevance of the conventions is newshour weekend special correspondent jeff greenfield, who reported from both cleveland and philadelphia these last two weeks. could not have been a more stark choice in not just the content but even the of what these two weeks were. >> night-day. the republican convention was hit by stumbles-- melania's speech turned out to have been borrowed from mechelle's. the freshman senator from iowa, who they really wanted showcased, was pushed out of prime-time by a kind of over-the-top presentation by a retired general. then ted cruz shows up and doesn't endorse. by contaft, the democratic convention was so structured that when a speaker used a phrases like, "stronger together," hdreds of signs with that exact phrase by some amazing coincidence popped up. and they structured every night to make a point, whether it was about hillary, the

unacceptability of donald trump. and then finally and perhaps most remarkably, taking a page from regan's book it's flags, american exceptionalism, u.s.a.! u.s.a.! if you had transported me 30 years into the future from when i first started covering it, i would have said, "oh, that's a republican convention." >> sreenivasan: let's talk about the messages. it seems both candidates have a tough time convincing people to like them so they really go out the their way to say, "well, i'm so much better than the other person." >> that is definitely the major theme with both campaigns. "you don't like me, check out the other person." in the republican case, the governing republicans, like mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader; paul ryan, the speaker, were at pains to say, "okay, he's not really one of us, but it doesn't matter. we have an agenda and he'll go along with it." whether that's whistling in the dark we might or might not find out. the democratic message was, apart from this is not left and right, this is a reasonable

person versus an unreasonable one and also trying to say about hillary, okay, she's not the warmest person in the world. and i thought her acceptance speech, both for good and ill, i can't do poetry. i can't reveal myself. when i try to reach for flowery rhetoric it turns out to be rotary club luncheon stuff, but when i talk plainly and simply, either about what i've done or what's wrong with trump, that's when her message, i think, just measured by potential effectiveness, was greater. >> sreenivasan: you know, there was a moment where i thik it was shonda riens made this 12-minute biopic video of her, there were moments when she seemed calm and relaxed and normal sitting at a kitchen table but by the time she got in front of the audience. >> it's like they don't been microphones, that carry sound. when hillary clinton, as she did with the the point about donald trump, donald trump says he knows more about isis than generals. no, donald, you don't. that is so much more effective than attempting to ratchet up

the rhetoric. and i think that's a point i'm sure her people have been telling her about this forever. and it may be one of the things they just have to live with. >> sreenivasan: you know, in the end, in this cycle especially, do these event matter? because we think about the theater and the stagecraft and the orchestration-- did we build up to a crescendo? most people at home might not even watch these. >> and the evidence of that is that for all of the stumbles of the republican convention, donald trump got a reasonable bounce out of it, you know. he got-- depending on what poll, four, five, six poingts. but point you make is more significant that this may be a year when the laws of political gravity are in temporary suspension. if you look at how donald trump went to the nomination, how many point along the way did people say, "well, he can't survive that." and that ought to be a guidepost to the fact that we simply are not sure what we are watching now. and so we come out of the conventions, just as you say, i know what the conventional wisdom will be, but we have 100 days between now and election

day, i wouldn't bet a plug nickel on knowing what happens. >> sreenivasan: all right, i won't take that bet. jeff greenfield, thanks for joining us. >> pleasure. >> sreenivasan: climate change, particularly rising sea levels, is leading to a new category of people now being called "climate refugees." in one community, 60 miles southwest of new orleans, a tribe of native americans is seeing its homeland slowly disappear underwater. they now face an imminent decision to relocate, and the plan for them to do so may set the standard for other coastal communities who face the same challenge in the decades to come. driving the road to isle de jean charles feels like you're heading straight into the gulf of mexico-- until finally you reach a tiny sliver of land, land that's being swallowed by the sea. in the past 60 years, 98% of this island has disappeared. this is what it looked like in

1963, about 11 miles long and five miles wide. this is what it looks like today, about two miles long and a quarter of a mile wide. albert naquin is chief of a native american tribe that has called this island home since the 1800s. he first told us about these changes during our visit for pbs newshour four years ago. >> all that water was land. actually, it was basically all land, except for a few ponds here and there. >> sreenivasan: so, do you remember this, when you were growing up? >> yes. >> sreenivasan: how's it different? >> different? because we had trees there. there were actually trees up in this area. >> sreenivasan: where we're standing? >> where we're standing, yes. >> sreenivasan: there are multiple causes for the continuing land loss, including decades of oil and gas canals speeding up erosion and the sinking of the land by three feet in the past century, along with eight inches of sea level rise. one effect? the 60 or so people still living here must move because the island is becoming uninhabitable. the gulf of mexico is ravaging the freshwater wetlands.

the forest where residents once hunted and planted gardens now have rows of dead trees, poisoned by encroaching saltwater. when we met tribe member chris brunet in 2012, he wanted to stay on the island. >> this land may not be much, but this land is ours, and we are still here. >> sreenivasan: but now, he's decided to go, even though he's lived here all of his 50 years. >> i got around to thinking, okay, me, at my age, i could probably finish off my life over here on this island. but what about the younger generation that's about ten, 11, 12, 13, and all of this here? i don't think so. i am for the relocation. moving as a community. it makes it a whole lot easier to where you're just not beginning on your own, but that you're actually moving, you know, with family. >> sreenivasan: the tribe's first choice is to relocate to this 500-acre parcel of land in northern terrebonne parish, about 40 miles to the north.

>> the piece of land that we're looking at came out to be the best of all that we looked at. i mean, there's no marsh, there's trees, and it's high ground. >> sreenivasan: one goal of the relocation is to reunite with tribe members like chantel comardelle, who already left the island and are dispersed along the louisiana coast. five generations of comardelle's family have lived on the island. she visits there weekly with her children to see relatives, including her elderly grandparents. >> the plan right now is to move far enough north to where in a hundred years my great-grandkids won't have to worry about flooding still. >> so that was our discussion this morning. >> sreenivasan: kristina peterson is the director of the lowlander center, a non- governmental organization working with the tribe on its plan to relocate. >> it would be providing 42 houses. it would be providing all the infrastructure, the roads, all the different types of

utilities. all the homes will be elevated at least ten feet so that they'll be secure, mitigated against storm surges or hurricanes, but also that the space underneath can be used for family space. >> sreenivasan: the new community will be built partially with federal government funds. in january, isle de jean charles was informed it will be granted $48 million from the department of housing and urban development, or hud. that money was part of a larger national disaster resilience competition that will divvy up a billion dollars to pay for projects that make communities more resilient to climate change. marion mcfadden runs the grant program and says it represents a policy shift from reacting to disasters to preparing for them. >> we see lots of other communities that have repetitive flood damage, for example, or that have other dangers like forest fires. and so, we've tried to create a larger conversation about how do we plan for that? how do we prepare for that? and where hud is making funding available, how do we make sure that we're doing things that are going to be cost effective to prevent the kind of harm that

we've seen from past disasters? >> sreenivasan: part of what "cost effective" means is knowing when to invest in making a place stronger, and knowing when to invest in relocation. hud awarded funds to projects in ten states to support innovative ways to mitigate impacts of natural disasters-- everything from a clean energy project in massachusetts, which will supply critical facilities in the event of power loss during natural disasters, to a project in new york city that constructs a coastal flood protection system. isle de jean charles was the only relocation plan funded, marking the first time the u.s. government is paying for community relocation in response to climate change. mcfadden hopes the island's move will be a test case for building sustainable communities in places facing increasing risks from climate change. >> it sounds expensive when you have to build, you know, not just housing but all the infrastructure necessary and create a community facility. i absolutely understand that people think it sounds expensive. but we want to do it right and

share those lessons with other communities that are going to be facing the same kinds of challenges. >> how close do they want to be to the island? how close do they want to be to the water? how close do they want to be to schools? >> sreenivasan: pat forbes is the director of louisiana's office of community development, which is overseeing the resettlement. >> we want to make sure that not only do we get the folks in isle de jean charles moved up into a safe place and community that can preserve their culture, but we want to have a model that people can replicate in other places. >> sreenivasan: forbes says helping the isle de jean charles community is a priority. but there are many coastal communities in danger, and learning tangible lessons that can be replicated elsewhere is equally important. >> we're going to figure out ways to do this economically-- and, most importantly, well-- so that we learn some of those things. i don't know the answer to what it's going to look like to move a community of 3,000 people. but i think that when we finish

this project, we'll have a lot better idea. >> sreenivasan: alex kolker, a coastal geologist at tulane university, says the decisions here may foreshadow choices other areas face due to climate change. >> the rates that we see in louisiana in terms of overall sea level rise are the kinds of rates that we might experience in the rest of the country in the middle part of the century as global warming accelerates. the land loss here is so extreme, we are seeing things in louisiana that we might see in places like the chesapeake bay or new york ten, 20, 30 years from now. >> sreenivasan: kolker says a blueprint will be needed for american communities well beyond the louisiana coast, if projections about sea level rise prove true. >> coastal restoration is not simply about ecosystem restoration, right, that it's not simply about protecting habitat for great blue herons

and dolphins or something like that. coastal restoration is really about, in many ways, it's about protecting places for people to live. >> i didn't become governor to watch south louisiana wash away. >> sreenivasan: that's why politicians, scientists and business leaders gathered at the state of the coast conference last month in louisiana to talk about the eroding coastline and the cost-benefit analysis for saving parts of it. levees have been one means of protection, like this 98-mile- long levee being built by the army corps of engineers and paid for with local and state taxes. but isle de jean charles was not included, because it would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars more. on the other hand, pointe aux chenes, a larger town north of isle de jean charles, is included in that levee. theresa dardar lives there. four years ago, she showed us a cemetery she could once walk to, taking us there by boat. today, the encroaching water is worse. these telephone poles, some of which once stood on dry land just a few years ago, are now submerged. her community is staying put as

long as possible, but is keeping a close watch on their neighbors' relocation. >> if the time comes that we have to do a relocation, a resettlement, whatever you want to call it, well, then, they'll already have the blueprint. >> sreenivasan: far away coastal communities hope to benefit from that blueprint as well. due to land erosion, the residents of newtok, alaska, have been planning for years to move nine miles inland. but that hasn't happened due to lack of funds; hud rejected alaska's proposal. hud administrator mcfadden says her program received $7 billion in requests for the $1 billion it could grant. >> our money that we made available is a drop in the bucket against the need. >> sreenivasan: for the isle de jean charles community, the relocation is about more than just a safe place to live. the tribe is raising additional funds for renewable energy systems and community services at the new site. >> as it came further and further into the plan, we decided maybe we should do a

community center, a health care center, maybe for elders' care, child care, a kind of education where we can tutor our kids. >> sreenivasan: no one will be forced to move off isle de jean charles, and those that do will retain rights to their part of the island-- or what's left of it. longtime residents like chris brunet are hopeful for a new start but say letting go of teir ancestral home is hard. >> i find myself clinging on to this right here, so, for me, it's not so much that i'm abandoning it or letting it go; it's just that i know that what i'm up against that's greater than me, you know, i just can't stop it. and so that's the hard part. >> sreenivasan: read more about how residents of louisiana's coastal communities are grappling with the effects of coastal erosion. visit us online at www.pbs.org/newshour.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: a hot air balloon today in central texas crashed killing all sixteen people onboard. authorities say the balloon caught fire and crashed into a pasture near lockhart, in caldwell county, about 30 miles south of austin. the balloon may have struck nearby power lines. the sheriff's office says f.a.a. and national transportation safety board investigators are heading to the crash site. it was the deadliest balloon crash in u.s. history and the second deadliest on record anywhere. the "wall street journal" reports that according to new government numbers released yesterday, the economic recovery that began following the 2008 recession is the slowest rebound since 1949. at just over 1%, the 2nd quarter gross domestic product growth rate-- that's the broadest measure of the health of the u.s. economy-- fell below forecasts from wall street economists. despite strong growth in jobs

and consumer spending, it's believed that anxiety surrounding global economic uncertainty, record low oil prices and the u.s. election has slowed investments from business, governments and the private sector. turkish state dia reports more than 750 soldiers detained after the failed coup attempt in turkey have been released. the majority of those released were performing compulsory military service. turkey's interior minister says more than 9,000 people have been arrested since the coup attempt two weeks ago. meanwhile, military officials say tensions are rising in the southeastern portion of the country near iraq. the army killed 35 kurdish militants today after they attempted to storm a military base and eight soldiers also were killed in fighting with militants at a checkpoint. hundreds have been killed in the region following the breakdown of the peace process between kurdish militants and the turkish government last summer. on pbs newshour weekend tomorrow: from ohio, inactive voters, purged from the voter registry. >> i'm a veteran, my father's a veteran, my grandfather's a

veteran. now they aren't giving me my right to vote, the most fundamental right i have? >> sreenivasan: finally, the u.s. navy has announced it will name one of a new class of fleet oil tankers after gay-ist and former naval officer harvey milk. it's the first naval vessel to be named after an openly gay person. he was the first openly gay official serving on the board of supervisor. he was assassinated in 1978. construction of the new fleet is set to begin in 2018. that's it for this edition of newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. 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. and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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