captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> ifill: good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan. judy woodruff is away. >> ifill: on the newshour tonight: >> in a trump administration, all immigration laws will be enforced.en >> ifill: donald trump outlines tough immigration proposals, hours after returning from a surprise meeting with mexico's president. >> sreenivasan: also ahead this thursday: a deep dive into the politics of trade thisad presidential election, and where hillary clinton stands on america role's in the global economy. >> ifill: and empty shelves line venezuela's grocery stores as desperate crowds await a rare meal-- a look at the country'snt worsening food shortage. >> it's one article of food per person and then you have to wait eight days because if you try to buy food. they'll stop you. >> sreenivasan: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future.is >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial e literacy in the 21st century.

>> supported by the rockefeller foundation.on promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.orgn. >> support also comes from s carnegie corporation of new york. a foundation created to do whato andrew carnegie called "real and permanent good." celebrating 100 years of philanthropy at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation foro public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.an yo >> sreenivasan: the campaign spotlight stayed on donald trump

today, and what he will-- or will not-- do about immigration, deportation, and a border wall. the republican nominee faced fallout from a fiery speech las night-- hours after he had taken a more moderate tone with mexico's president.de we'll have a full report, after the news summary. >> ifill: in the day's otherhe news: people along florida's gulf coast braced for a direct hit tonight by a hurricane-- the state's first since 2005. hermine is projected to make landfall with winds of 75 miles an hour -- or higher-- and drive across the state toward thed atlantic. as it approached today, rain caused minor flooding, and people filled sandbags. governor rick scott warned against taking the storm for granted. >> we're going to see big storm surge. we're going to see a lot of rain. we're going to see flooding. we're going to see down power lines. there's going to be a lot of risk if we don't do our job. everybody needs to be prepared. we are blessed we have the best emergency management teams ines the country at the state and local level. we have a great national guard, but you have got to take this

seriously.yo >> ifill: many cities in the storm's path, including the capital-- tallahassee-- have not been hit by a hurricane inen decades. >> sreenivasan: state lawmakerss in california are expanding a climate change law that'sch already the most aggressive inst the nation. majority democrats agreed last night to regulate methaneth emissions from landfills and dairy farms for the first time. it came over the objections of o industry and farming interests. >> ifill: a huge explosion rocked a space-x launch pad today at cape canaveral, florida. the unmanned "falcon" rocket blew up as a test for a saturday launch was under way. the blast also destroyed a communications satellite on board, but no one was hurt. space-x said there was a problem in a fuel tank, but gave no details. >> sreenivasan: in eastern ukraine: a fragile, new cease- fire took effect at midnight between government troops andn pro-russian rebels. both president petro poroshenko and the rebels said the truce appeared to be holding. fighting had flared in the contested donetsk region over the last month, after an earlier cease-fire collapsed.

>> ifill: back in this country: authorities in florida have found zika virus in three groupu of mosquitoes in miami beach. it's the first time that's happened in the continental u.s. the insects were trapped in the small area that's seen active zika transmission. officials said today the finding will help them fight the virus. >> if there are positive traps,e we know when, we know where. all right? we can identify where this transmission is occurring.wh typically what happens is that transmission occurs in mosquitoes in a limited area. and so we can intensify what we do in those areas. we can do more active surveillance, we can do surveys, we can do more active mosquito control. >> ifill: the control efforts could be complicated by the hurricane coming ashore tonight. its heavy rain will leave new breeding pools for mosquitoes. >> sreenivasan: in economic news: major auto makers reported u.s. sales slumped in august--mp as a surge in business begins to cool after six years. and on wall street: the dow jones industrial average gained

18 points to close at 18,419. the nasdaq rose nearly 14 points, and the s&p 500 added a fraction. >> sreenivasan: still to come on the newshour: donald trump's immigration speech in context, both presidential candidates make their appeals to veterans, where clinton stands on international trade, and much more. >> ifill: the talk on the campaign trail today focused largely on one issue: immigration. and the new words from one candidate: donald trump.ca lisa desjardins reports. >> reporter: the scene today was southwestern ohio. >> don't worry, we're going to build that wall.bu that wall will go up. >> reporter: but the big applause lines for donald trump were the same as last night in phoenix: talk of a mexican border wall and fighting illegal immigration. that speech was trump's most comprehensive yet on his signature issue.

>> let me tell you about my plan. >> reporter: tell he did-- for an hour and 15 minutes. much was familiar but on the topic of deportation, something new: >> i am going to create a newin special deportation task force, focused on identifying and removing quickly the most dangerous criminal illegalim immigrants in america. >> reporter: that's an important shift, as in this speech in i florida last year, previously trump pledged to deport every undocumented immigrant. >> we're going to take people that are here illegally, and we're going to move them out. got to move them out. >> reporter: but last night, ths republican nominee said he would target only some-- those who commit crimes and those who overstay their visas. >> there are at least two million criminal aliens now inside the country. we will begin moving them out day one.

>> reporter: this leaves the question of what happens to everyone else-- millions of others here illegally who haven't committed crimes since arriving. trump answered the question two ways. first, he said, those who stay,h will remain outside the law. >> for those here today illegally who are seeking legal status, they will have one rout and only one route: to return home and apply for re-entry. >> reporter: but later, near the end of the speech, trump indicated that someday thatth could change. >> in several years, when wehe have accomplished all of our enforcement and deportation goals-- and truly ended illegal immigration for good-- including the construction of a great the construction of a great wall

then and only then will we be in a position to consider the appropriate disposition of those individuals who remain.s that discussion can only take place in an atmosphere in which illegal immigration is a memory of the past >> reporter: trump also launched a new plan to limit all legal immigration, proposing aro commission with these goals. >> to keep immigration levels, measured by population share, within historical norms, to select immigrants based on merit, skill and proficiency and to establish new immigration controls to boost wages and tod ensure that open jobs are offered to american workers first. >> reporter: the speech brought repeated, thunderous applause in the arena, but in the aftermath multiple members of trump's

hispanic advisory council resigned from the group. today, democratic vice presidential nominee tim kaine slammed the speech as anti- immigrant. >> it is a deportation nation and they're all criminals ande they're doing terrible things that is not going to make our country great. >> reporter: kaine also charged that trump "choked" in yesterday's meeting with mexican president pena nieto by not repeating his demand that mexico pay for a border wall. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> ifill: digging deeper into the politics and policy of thehe immigration debate, we turn to: kris kobach, the kansas secretary of state who helped author donald trump's immigration policy, marielena hincapie, the executive director of the national immigration lawo center, and karthick ramakrishnan, associate dean of the school of public policy at university of california riverside. he writes extensively on immigration issues. ramakrishnan, how did immigration end up being or at least appear being central to this politicalei debate right n?

>> well, it all started with the launch of donald trump's campaign. it was a signature issue. it was a thing that got him a lot of attention, some would say a lot of negative attention int the beginning, but he used that publicity and notoriety to jump to the top to have republican heap and has never looked back sense. >> ifill: marielena hincapie, how do you interpret donald trump's approach? >> i think donald trump is atrd very smart man who knows how to use the media and he's using immigration as a wedge issue.u he understands that there are low-wage, white voters, for example, who are feeling a lot of economic distress and a lot of economic pain and, rather than focusing on the true issues, which is that those workers deserve a living wage, collective bargaining, safety net programs, he instead is using their fear of the other, their fear of immigrants and scapegoating immigrants and fear mongering in order to get elected. >> ifill: kris kobach, she said a lot of things there. i want to start about the part

about who he is speaking to. who is his audience? >> you know, i think he'se speaking to northwestern people generally. last night in his speech, he was talking about putting american interests first, whether talking about resource or crime, and to the point that was just maded about speaking to individuals who are competing with illegal labor for those jobs and are seeing wage depression in their workplace. illegal immigration, the impact of it falls disproportionately upon african-american u.s. citizens and hispanic u.s. citizens and legal immigrants of hispanic ethnicity.ic so, you know, really, he's talking in terms of the wage depression effect of illegal i immigration h he's talking to individuals who are often not white, and i think this is part of broadening the base, making the point that you know your wages have suffered becauser of illegal immigration, i want to do something about it. >> ifill: professor ramakrishnan, how often is an

immigration debate about economics and how much is it, as marielena hincapie was saying, is about fear mongering? >> it's a little of both. it's important to correct the record kris kobach laid out. the national academy of sciences in a consensus report among social sciences -- it's very difficult to get a con ecensus among social scientists -- found no evidence -- this was back in a report 20 years ago and also a more recent report last year -- no evidence that there is any significant wage depression effect. more generally, when we talk about america being strong, it's important to remember that immigrants are americans, too, and, in fact, when you've seen instances like riverside new jersey, for example, whichi passed a law trying to cut down on undocumented immigrants in the city, they actually lost economically. you have cities and states throughout the country that aret trying to get immigrants, including low-skilled immigrants, because they are so

vital to sectors like construction and agriculture. >> ifill: i'm going to let kris kobach respond to that and then i'll get to you, marielena hincapie, in a moment. >> the wage depression effecte has been well researched by economists who look specifically at it and i would note george borjas overharvard university. anyone familiar with industries like meat packing or hotel janitorial service knows those wages have gone down not only in real terms but absolute dollars because of illegal immigration. the point about the economies of places that crack down on illegal immigration, look at arizona and georgia, two states that have cracked down on illegal immigration at the statt level and have e-verify requirements in place, their economies are booming. so clearly pushing illegal labor out of the labor market does not mean a state's economy collapsel and the same is true for the country. >> ifill: marielena hincapie, let's talk about one ofy. the specific proposals in donald trump's speech last night where he talked about deportation.

seems like he was talking about eventual, maybe self-deportation which sounds like something we heard from mitt romney four years ago. how different is his deportation plan, assuming there arehe 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country, how similar is it to what is already in place and what other republican candidates in the past have proposed? >> i think there are a couple ol things to what trump said last night. one, before the speech yesterday, he appeared to be toning down the rhetoric but, in fact, yesterday he made very clear that not all is 1 millions will be deported on day one. he said within the first hour of his first day of the presidency, he would immediately push to have all individuals and i think he referred to the number 2 million individuals, anyone who's been convicted of crimes and "bad people" is the way hee refers to immigrants, that theyh would be depored. what that really means in practice, gwen, one, it's

abextreme position and it's an expensive position. in order to deport and have a deportation force that would result in the deportation of 11 million immigrants, we're w talking about over $60 billion. one of the things in terms of the current policies that many people don't understand is current administration, obama administration's policy is to deport criminal -- individualsrt with criminal convictions and, in fact, here in los angeles, organizers are fighting the deportation of a grandmother convicted of shoplifting as a misdemeanor over 30 years ago.rs is that really who donald trump thinks are bad people thatt should be deported? she's the grandmother of four u.s. citizen children, she's raising, helping support her family. >> ifill: let me ask kris kobach about what that happened today.t after his speech last night, several of donald trump's hispanic advisory council resigned in disappointmentdi saying they would no longer support him. are they justified in leaving

and what was happened in mexico when there was so disagreement about what was said? w >> i'm not familiar with what they've decided to do. as far as the visit to mexico, - you know, i think that was a shrewd move by mr. trump. he was given an invitation. so his hillary clinton. she declined it, at least for the time being.e he took it and said, look, i'm going to go and talk to the president of our neighboring country and, you know, they hadh an interesting meeting by all accounts. we don't know exactly what was said, but one of the interesting things i take out of it is theye came out of the meeting and both recognized that border security is important and the mexican president seemed to be suggesting that he, too, thought a wall was justifiable. so, you know, that's really interesting. obviously mr. trump was in no position to -- >> ifill: i think everybody

agrees about border security, democrats, republicans, but we don't have time to debate all that. i want to ask professor ramakrishnan, what is it about a zero-tolerance argument thatth seems so effective or at least keeps coming back in our debates about immigration? >> well, it's important to recognize, gwen, that donald trump's position sacksly a minority -- is actually a minority position not only in the general electorate which he needs to win but even in the republican party. it's apu bit surprising he doubd down on the kind of rhetoric he did early in the primary season. this was a real opportunity for him to potentially pivot and maybe not go as far as many of his advisors were thinking about, but he used the kind of language, and we know in our research on framing, we have a book coming out on framing, and as it involves immigrants, with we know frames using words like amnesty, we're talking about thu

criminal aspect, which is all the evidence shows, immigrants are much less likely to commitm crimes than the native born, but using that kind of language can fire up the base. he needs to grow that base and i'm not sure h he did that last night. >> ifill: professor ramakrishnan, kris kobach and marielena hincapie, thank you, all very much. >> thank you, gwen. . >> ifill: our analysis of donald trump's stance on immigrationgr continues online, where lisa desjardins explores his plan, and finds six new, key points from his speech. that's at: pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: and now we turn to another voting block in the presidential election, veterans. this week the candidates who are vying to become the nextto commander in chief courted that vote. both hillary clinton and donald trump briefly paused theirus

debate over immigration this week to address to the american legion. >> as the daughter of a veteran, as a proud american, i am grateful to you all. >> the men and women of the american legion represent the absolute best of america. strength, courage selfless devotion. >> sreenivasan: the candidates voiced their commitment to veterans and their families, and also took the chance to go after each other. but what do the men and women that served in uniform think of their options for president? bob simpson is a marine corps veteran who served in vietnam. >> i voted for trump all the way. case amongst all of us veterans, not every one of course, but most of us probably pull to the trump side. >> sreenivasan: gene miller, a former marine, also served twice in vietnam. >> i believe that donald trump. is the one that's best suited

over hillary. i believe that mr. trump has several attributes that is on record as far as knowing the military. he's up to speed on the s military. he talks a tough game. >> reporter: two recent pollsr: found that trump holds a significant advantage among veterans-- 14% in one poll and 11% in another. but when asked who they feel would be the most supportive of veterans, overall likely voters feel the candidates are even. navy veteran kia hamel says clinton's support is strongest with recent veterans. younger veterans, differentra ethnicities, females, l.g.b.t. community are coming out for secretary clinton, because she's more of a progressive candidate. >> reporter: hamel-- one of the first women to serve on the carrier the "u.s.s. nimitz"-- supports clinton. >> she is not going to be a person that's going to be very careless and want to use nuclear

weapons just because she's insulted. and that's the kind of person we need at the helm.e >> reporter: both candidates have stumbled in dealing with veteran issues. last summer trump responded to senator john mccain calling his supporters "crazies" >> he lost, he let us down. but, you know, he lost. so i have never liked him ashi much after that, because i don't like losers. but frank, he hit me. >> but he's a war hero. >> he was a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. okay? >> reporter: and when the father of a muslim american soldier--ic killed in iraq in 2004-- condemned trump's rhetoric att this year's democratic convention, trump attacked the khans on television and social media in the days following. clinton upset some veteransup answering questions last october about negligent medical care in certain v.a. hospitals. >> overall, veterans who do get treated are satisfied with their treatment. >> more so than people in the regular system. >> that's exactly right. but nobody would believe that

from the coverage you see and the constant berating of the v.a., in part in pursuit of this ideological agenda. >> but in part because there has been real scandal. >> there has been, but it's not been as widespread as it has been made out to be. >> reporter: veterans like bob simpson and gene miller say they're also concerned about clinton's response to the attace on the u.s. consulate in benghazi and her use of a private email server whileai secretary of state. >> if that had been any one of us with the computers, with benghazi, we'd have been in the jail and they would've thrown the key away.ay >> reporter: for kia hamel, the biggest concern about donald trump is what she says is a lack knowledge about world affairs. >> i think that he's more of ahe danger, because of the fact that he doesn't know enough about the situations to make an educated decision. >> sreenivasan: for the pbs news hour i'm hari sreenivasan in washington.

>> ifill: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: a massive protest sparked by venezuela's growing economic crisis, georgetown university sets out to make amends for its history of slavery, and lemony snicket explains how he got his pen name. but first: if immigration is one of this year's big policy debates, the other is freeba trade. and when it comes to the future of how the u.s. does business abroad, the two major candidates are not sounding that far apartr last week correspondent paul solman spoke with economist peter navarro about donaldrr trump's approach. tonight paul talks trade with ohio senator sherrod brown, one of hillary clinton's biggest supporters.su it's part of our "making sense" series, which airs every thursday. >> denise? >> reporter: sherrod brown's been buying suits made ins brooklyn, ohio for years. the democratic senator has longn

pushed "made in america," long fought free trade agreements which, he says, have shafted blue collar workers. >> senator brown is calling for action against cheating china. >> they don't play fair and we've gotta fight back. >> reporter: the message carried him to re-election four years ago in a state that's bled somee 300,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 20 years. >> we have lost millions of decent paying jobs. that has got to end! >> reporter: left-wingers like bernie sanders have long shared brown's stance on trade. but opposition to trade deals has gone mainstream in 2016. >> we're letting our jobs go to mexico! >> as president, i will stand up to china and anyone else who tries to take advantage of american workers and companies. >> reporter: the big switch is clinton, long associated with free trade agreements. brown threw his support behind her early on because, her

insists, she now gets it. >> she is someone who understands trade, who understands we want more of it, but we want it under a different set of rules. >> reporter: brown brought us to the keystone suit plant in thet cleveland suburbs to elaborate. >> what she wants to do on enforcing trade policy, she wants to triple the number of trade enforcement officers,en which will really matter in trying to level the playing field fighting with south korea and china, and other countries that don't play it straight. d she wants a special trade prosecutor, directed specifically at china, where we have by far our largest bilateral trade deficit. we lost five million jobs from 2000 to 2010, 60,000 plants closed, this one almost closed, in large part because of unfair trade practices. >> reporter: two years ago, hugo boss said it would close this factory. but brown helped facilitate its sale to keystone tailored manufacturing. the workers here have been

making hart schaffner marx suitc ever since. >>these are not high-paying jobn but they're good union jobs with good union benefits.it >> no surprise then, the senior senator is something of a hero here. brown says he walks the walk on trade. donald trump does not. >> i have a number of suits thao were made in, on this shop floor. donald trump outsources his suits to mexico, he could have bought them here. he could have had them made here. he outsourced, outsources his ties to china, he outsources-- this tie's made in the u.s. ah, donald trump talks a good game on trade, but he's never lived it. he's lined his pockets by outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries, and now he's talkingk about trade as if he actually means it? i've been engaged in this fightt for 25 years, against bad trade policy, i've never seen donaldi' trump stand with us. i've never even heard donald trump's name or voice while we're working against bad trade policy.li >> reporter: well, you haven't heard hillary clinton's voice on this issue, either!th

>> i, absolutely trust hillary clinton to stand strong on these trade agreements. when she was in the senate, she voted against some, she votedag for some. >> reporter: clinton has taken plenty of heat for changing hera mind about the trans-pacific partnership.p. as secretary of state, she said: >> this t.p.p. sets the gold standard in trade agreements. >> reporter: but candidate clinton has reversed course: >> i will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages- including the trans- pacific partnership. i oppose it now, i'll oppose it after the election, and i'll oppose it as president. >> reporter: you understand whyr people would say she's absolutely done an about face on this issue, right? and, that she might well go back on the position she now has ifw she, becomes president! >> well, she supported t.p.p. in the early days, because she was the, she worked for the president of the united stateshe and his cabinet, and so did everybody else in the cabineter

support t.p.p. as a candidate, she understands it, and she looks at t.p.p. in a different way.lo fixing rules of origin, fixing currency issues, fixing investor-state dispute settlement, which undermines environmental and worker safety standards. >> reporter: in nearbyne cleveland, at the former site of premier manufacturing, we met economist susan helper, a progressive democrat who also supports hillary clinton. >> when a plant like this closes down there's substantial economic damage. >> reporter: yeah. the people in the plant lose their jobs. people working in restaurantsau nearby lose their jobs, home values fall, et cetera. >> reporter: this steel wire plant which moved most of its work to mexico, exemplifies the migration of u.s. manufacturing. >> the decline of unions and th figuring out by management of strategies to avoid unions in the u.s., and then a movement particularly after nafta was signed to mexico, and even lower wages there. >> reporter: the north american free trade agreement was signedw

by bill clinton in 1993. but his wife has become a critic. for good reason, says helper. >> i think that one of the things now we have greater experience. we can see what, what's happened as a result of some of the trada agreements. there's some very excellent work that suggests that workers who were displaced by trade or othes reasons, but particularly by trade, don't easily find new jobs. and particularly in the case of a lost manufacturing job, a new job that somebody gets doesn't equal their previous wage. >> reporter: but many economists argue robots, not trade deals, are the real job robbers. so i asked sherrod brown. isn't it technology that's actually replacing jobs asla opposed to unfair trade? >> well, it's all of the above, it's: it's unfair trade practices, it's technology. about five miles from my home is a company called arcelor mittal. that plant was the first plantat in, in world history where close to one person hour of labor produces one ton of steel.

that's technology, that's efficiency, that's put some steelworkers out of work, because they're so efficient.ca >> reporter: right.. >> but unfair trade practices is-- have also put a lot ofal those workers out of work. >> reporter: moreover, susanor helper's research suggests that technology can actually add jobs at arcelor mittal or anywhere else. >> when your productivity goes up, your price falls so more people are gonna want to buy things made out of steel. we looked at manufacturing industries over the last couplee of decades, and found that those industries that had the greatesa productivity growth actually had the most job gains.th >> reporter: but why? >> because they found new markets, they were able to expand into new markets and find new uses for the technology that they had innovated. >> reporter: even so, sherrod brown believes candidate clinton's tougher stance onug trade is a welcome one. >> i'm glad we have the most efficient steel plant in the world, less than ten miles fromo here, but we've got a lot of work to do to make sure tradeo enforcement is done the way secretary clinton wants it done.

and that, that will ultimately provide jobs, it will save jobs, it will help manufacturing rebirth. >> reporter: this is economics correspondent paul solman, in and around cleveland, ohio. >> sreenivasan: hundreds of thousands of venezuelans turnedd out to protest against president nicolas maduro's government and calling for an end to his rule.l the country has been plagued by a deepening economic crisis, corruption, crime, all of which have contributed to a worseningt food shortage. nathan halverson, of reveal from the center for investigativeti reporting, recently visited caracas.si well before sunrise, hungry venezuelans are waiting outside grocery stores praying for foodr trucks to arrive. by mid morningo with streets crowded with anxious faces, there is little hope. >> there is only butter and oil. we need them to send us more food. >> when did you get here?

at 4:00 a.m. i got here at 8:00 p.m. last night. >> as venezuelans watch their country crumble and their desperation and hunger spill into the streets, their anger with president nicolas maduro and his party has become explosive. >> this is what's happening in venezuela, we're starving, we're struggling, thanks to this government. it's the maduro diet. >> police now guard groceryce stores across the country holding back the hungry and volatile mobs. >> why are you take meg out of line? i was here i recallly.li i also need food. >> 90% of venezuelans report food is too expensive to buy. hungry mobs are rioting and looting bakeries and food trucks. this has forced everyday people to try and calm desperate crowds. like this grocery store manager. >> we don't produce the food. everyone is waiting for something to arrive. if it doesn't arrive, we can't

create food.o >> people blame the socialist government tore >> it's one article of food per person and you have to wait eight days because if you try to buy more, they'll stop you. >> the result is hunger, and a country increasingly turning against president nicolas maduro. >> my friends have lost weight, 15, 20, 25 pounds even. >> paula jirrad is a journalist who writes a food blog about the country's rapidly worseningni situation. >> i'm afraid there will be although the government doesn't want to see it and i don't either, a social explosion of immense proportions. >> usually her only meal for an entire day some one egg. >> only one egg, no more. and she has to share it with her dog. the impacts are widespread. school children are fainting from hunger. >> in my house, there is no

food. >> school principal says some students don't even have the energy to attend. >> and you were absent from school. why didn't you come? >> because i had nothing to eat. the school now provides whatr is sometimes the only meal these children eat. food has become political.o in august, the opposition party started this school lunch program, winning the gratitude of a hungry community. but for others, food still remains hard to find. >> i have a job, but what's the point? my salary is worth nothing. right now you can't even get rice or corn flour. for everything, you have to wait in line. >> after work, men gather on street corners to scavenge for food rather than skip work to wait in line all day. these workers shopped at government subsidized groceryve store like this one once, but now the shelves are completely empty. but for some well-connected

people, there are still reliable sources of food. government employees receive privileged access at this warehouse, these are government workers and friends carting off items most venezuelans can no longer afford or file fined on the shelves. paula said the government is using the food to control people, to buy their support and was outraged by what we filmed. >> every week in the country, the hunger increases. the shortages increase and the corruption increases. i that's what millions and millions of venezuelans are enduring. >> for the country, the societal explosion ehat many fear seems to be inching closer every day. for the pbs "newshour", i'm nathan halverson in caracas. >> sreenivasan: in recent years, a number of prestigious collegeo

and universities have had to acknowledge their past ties and history to slavery in the u.s. today, georgetown universityun became the latest to say it will apologize for its past and take new steps. more than 200 years ago, the original georgetown college operated plantations in maryland that worked with slave labor. then in 1838 and facing deep debt, a pair of priests who each served as president of georgetown sold 272 people to help pay the bills.. the slaves were sent to plantations in louisiana. to help atone for its past the university announced: it woulded give a special preference in admissions to applicants who are descendants of georgetown's slaves. it's also: re-naming a building in honor of one of the slaves, erecting a public memorial, and creating an institute to study slavery and its legacy. university president john degioia spoke at a news conference today. >> so many were surprised, even shocked s by the revelation of

jesuit slave holding and the benefit we received from the 1830 sale. as a community and as individuals, we cannot do ours, best work if we refuse to take ownership of such a critical part of our history. we must acknowledge it. >> sreenivasan: i'm joined from new york >> sreenivasan: for a closerfo look at this, i'm joined from new york by craig steven wilder. he's a professor of american history at massachusetts institute of technology, ande author of "ebony & ivy: race, slavery, and the troubled history of america's universities." mr. wilder, put this in context for us. how crucial was this transaction of people to keep georgetown alive? >> in 1838, georgetown sold the -- the president of georgetown helped negotiate the sale of about 272 people to louisiana, and from what we understand, about 15 to 20% of the money, the proceeds actually was used to pay down georg georgetown's debts.'s so i think it's actually quite crucial to the continuedl

survival of the university.ni this is about the time that the university imposed tuition for the first time. so it was helping to meet a number of financial needs. >> sreenivasan: what about your thoughts on there university's actions today? >> i thought the report was thorough and quite thoughtful, but the real meaning to have thi report, i'm cautiously optimistic, i think the real meaning to have the report will get revealed over the next several years and decades as we see georgetown implement these promises, and it will depend on how fully those get institutionalized on the campuse so we can see them really get achieved. >> sreenivasan: so today thereo was a clause -- about admissions preference. explain that. >> i think they're looking at the descendents of the 272e people sold in 1838 and seekingn to bring them to campus and to give them preferential admission to georgetown, actually like a

lot of populations of students do. fors instance, children of alumi often get preferential treatment in admissions, so this would extend that to the children or descendents of the people sold in 1838. >> sreenivasan: how does this compare to what other schools are doing these days? >> that step actually takes theh response to slavery further than any other institution has gone. the other actions inside the report actually are fairly similar to what other institutions have done. for instance, the renaming of two of the buildings on the georgetown campus, the decision to create a memorial to slavery on the campus, and the decision to establish an institute forte the study of slavery. >> one of the dangers, this almost creates a checklist for universities that says, fine, i have a memorial, i'm going to do this, check, but the long-lasting change that you're

talking about could take years to get through the student bodyd and the entire campus. >> and i think that's the keys to. this a report doesey not bring closure to the story of georgetown's relationship to slavery. what will ultimately begin to, i hope, heal and repair the relationship between georgetown and the catholic church and the descendents of the people sold in 1838 will be, in fact, georgetown fulfilling these commitments in a really quite holistic way. >> sreenivasan: does this blaze the trail for other universities, considering there are already some who are already tackling this? >> it does.>> i think you will see a continued conversation about the legacies of slavery on our campuses and also the thing that's has kept much of this discussion alive for the past several years, student activism on campus, which has, in fact, been the instrument for keeping thispi conversation alive.l >> sreenivasan: has georgetown taken steps to track down the

descendents. 272 people from the 1800s80 could be thousands of people by now. >> right. one of the sort of remarkable things about the georgetown situation is that the records that the jesuits kept of the sale are actually quite complete. in many ways, with the alumni sort of pushed this conversation, members of the alumni community of georgetownf and actually helped to both fund and encourage the process of reaching out and going out to louisiana and helping to track the genealogies of the families who are related to those 272 slaves. >> and we're talking a lot about georgetown today and a few other schools but, really, when you look up and down the eastern seaboard for hundreds of years, all the early, early colleges likely had some of this in their past. >> yeah, every collegele established before the american revolution, there are ninere colleges established before the revolution in the british colonies, they're all

established by slave traders and slave owners. after the american revolution we established 17 colleges, one every year until 1800, those colleges have close ties to slavery because they're founded with the recovery of slave trade after the war. in theaf decades before the civl war it's the rise of the cotton economy that drives the expansion of higher education.r so the story of american higherh education in particular is the story of american slavery. >> sreenivasan: craig steven wilder, thank you so much. >> thank you.n: >> sreenivasan: >> sreenivasan: online, the discussion of race continues. milwaukee was rocked by riots last month after a young man waa killed by police. we talked to community leaders and city officials about the city's history of segregation and what hope there is for future generations. >> ifill: now to another of our brief but spectacular interviews, tonight we hear from

daniel handler, a name you may only recognize if we identify him by his alias: lemony snicket.as >> when i was researching my first novel, "basic eight," i was, umm calling up right wing religious organization and political groups in order to make fun of them in my novel. i thought to myself i better not tell her my real name or i'll be on their mailing list forever.is so she said, "what is yourwh name." and i thought don't, say something else say something else and so i said lemony snicket. and then there was a pause. a and i thought during the pause i thought out of all the thingsse you could have said that was the worst one. and then the woman from the rightwing organization said, "ii that spelled how it sounds?" when i was five years old someone asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up and i said that i wanted to be an old man living on the top of a mountain giving advice. i don't remember it. all i remember is wanting to be a writer. b i would read on the bus.

i would miss the bus because i was reading. the first book that i bought with my own money was "the blue aspic" by edward gorey. in fact, when the first twohe volumes of "a series of unfortunate events" were readyfo to be published i sent them to edward gorey with a note saying how much i admired his work and how much i hoped that he would forgive what i'd stolen from him shortly after i sent it he died. so, i like to think that i killed him.im so much of children's literature is about enforced fun or enforced morality. surely you will be rewarded ifif you behave this way or aren't you having a wonderful time reading about this and you neved are and it never goes that way so part of a series of unfortunate events was an acknowledgment of the bewildering state of affair that is childhood. >> reporter: do you have a notebook on you right now? >> i do. i do have a notebook on my right now. this is my notebook. i think of things or i read them and then i write them down in the notebook. i type it onto a document on my computer and print it out. i paste them onto or tape them or paste onto index cards and i

move all the index cards around. i write it on a legal pad, long hand and then i type up the legal pad onto another document and then i print it out. it makes me look largely like a serial killer when i work in public. that's what it looks like. i see people clutch their children tighter because they're walking by a man sipping an espresso'r moving pasted index cards arounp and writing on a legal pad. that man's not to be trusted. >> reporter: you say "don't. worry i'm writing a children'sdo book." >> yeah, i say, "i'm in narrative prose!" a writer's relationship with rejection is like that of a fish to water. it's all that's there. i think you should feel it and feel utter despair and then move on. i was going to say something about technology's influence on reading but the i gotta text and i just have to answer it can i just i'll be right back. it's a triumph of finding specific things and an utter failure of finding something that you didn't know you were looking for. i think i exist in a state ofin bewilderment almost all of the time. am i grasping at the hem of some large idea that is worth investigating?

and i mull this over all day long whether this thing i'm pulling is a thread that will lead me through the labyrinth or will dismantle the sweater. my name is daniel handler, aka lemony snicket, and this is my brief but spectacular take on a bewildering world. >> ifill: you can watch additional installments of brief but spectacular on our website: pbs.org/newshour/brief. >> sreenivasan: and we'll be back shortly. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station.

>> sreenivasan: and that's the newshour for tonight. tomorrow: a return to joplin, missouri, five years following the devastating tornado there. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. join us online and again herene tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbsal newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future.tt >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention. in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org.

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this is "nightly business e report" with til mathison and sue h rare ra. > not s on tomorrow's jobs report as the riger for the f manufacturing sector shrinks. >> mission to mars and how nasa an attention to get people to the red planet sooner ather than la off-campus housing has the all of that and more for and welcome. i'm bill griffin in tonight for tyler mathison and i'm sharon epperson in for sue herera. it was a common belief that all ofhe