captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> ifill: good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: on the newshour tonight, reshaping america's child care policies. as donald trump lays out his plan, we take a look at how thet candidates compare on the issue. >> woodruff: also ahead this wednesday, end game strategy. what the candidates must do to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win. >> ifill: and, in the first of our two-part series, how american women are falling victim to forced marriage, with no clear system to protect them. >> i do remember being very nervous, and yet knowing that i needed to be smiling and very happy. and i just looked in the mirror and thought, "this is it." >> woodruff: plus, turning down the volume on sound pollution.

one company makes strides to protect marine life from man- made noise in the ocean. 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 provide for and protect yourr financial future, because this is what you do for people youe love. lincoln financial-- you're in charge. >> bnsf railway.

>> xq institute. >> md anderson cancer center. making cancer history. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org.pone >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world.inco more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.s and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.pu thank you. >> woodruff: for donald trump and hillary clinton, this day has been all about health. d it included releases of medical

data, to varying degrees, and a journey to a michigan city beset by a water crisis. it was donald trump's first trip to flint, since the city founde lead in its water in 2014. the republican nominee made abl quick visit to a water plant ana a local church. but as trump turned to criticizing his opponent, theg minister interrupted: >> hillary failed on the economy, just like she's faileds on foreign policy. everything she touched didn't work out-- nothing. >> mr. trump, i invited you here to thank us for what we've donen in flint, not give a political speech? >> oh, oh, okay. okay, that's good, and we're >> reporter: trump was alsols heckled, but he promised quick relief for flint, if he's elected. word of his coming, though, was not well-received by democratic mayor karen weaver, who backs hillary clinton. she said: "flint is focused on

fixing the problems caused byfi lead contamination of our drinking water, not photo ops." earlier, trump taped anru interview with "the dr. oz show", and gave the host a one- page summary of a medical exam he had last week. >> if your health is as strong the campaign declined to say what was in the summary. the interview airs tomorrow. clinton is expected to resume campaigning tomorrow, after a bout with pneumonia. late today, aides released an overall medical update from clinton's doctor. it said she continues taking medication to control a previously known thyroid condition and blood clots. otherwise, the doctor found her in sound health. today, her husband, former president bill clinton, carried her cause to las vegas: >> we need to get over all these crazy divisions and go into the future together. that's hillary's position. that's what "stronger together"t means.

>> woodruff: meanwhile, bothuf major party nominees, especially trump, came in for stinging criticism from former secretaryr of state colin powell, in personal e-mails stolen by hackers and leaked to "buzzfeed." in one, powell called trump, "a national disgrace and an international pariah." and about hillary clinton, hein said: "everything h.r.c. touches, she kind of screws up k with hubris." and, on the foundation fronts: former president clinton and daughter chelsea will leave the board of a health group connected to the clinton foundation, if hillary clinton is elected; and the state attorney general in new york iso now investigating whether donald trump's foundation violatedw state laws on non-profits. we'll return to the state of the presidential race, later in thec program. >> ifill: in the day's other news, the u.s. signed a recordne aid agreement with israel, worth $38 billion over ten years.

the ceremony took place at the state department. national security advisor susana rice called it "a reminder of america's unshakable commitment to israel." >> it marks a significant increase over our existing funding, and it will ensure that israel has the support it needs to defend itself, by itself, and to preserve its qualitative military edge. this is the single largest pledge of military assistance ty any country in us history. >> ifill: the agreement came in spite of strained relations with israel over the iran nuclearel deal, and other issues. >> woodruff: former israeli president shimon peres is slightly improved tonight,ig 24 hours after a major stroke. his doctor says the nobel peace prize winner has regained consciousness, and reacts to stimulation. peres is 93 years old. >> ifill: the cease-fire in syria still appears to be holding, but humanitarian aid is

largely stalled. turkey's ruling party did send a pair of aid trucks to a syrian border town today. they carried food and children's toys. but two united nations convoys bound for aleppo remained stalled, despite pleas from the secretary-general. >> it is crucially important that the necessary arrangements, security arrangements, should be given so that they can be allowed to cross the lines. we are working very hard. we are very much committed. >> ifill: the cease-fire is due to run through sunday, but thehr u.s. and russia agreed today to extend it another two days. >> woodruff: in china,n authorities have cracked down oa a village known for grassroots demonstrations. the raids began early tuesday, after new protests in wukan over the arrest of a local chief. residents say police descended on the village, firing rubber

bullets and tear gas, as villagers hurled rocks back at them. >> ifill: a super typhoon battered taiwan today, with winds topping 140 miles an hour. it's the strongest storm anywhere in the world this yeari the powerful wind and heavy rain knocked out power to more than half a million homes and shut down air and train travel. meanwhile, tropical storm julia dumped rain along the southeastern u.s. coast. >> woodruff: u.s. soldier chelsea manning has ended a hunger strike in prison, after the army agreed to gender transition surgery. in a statement, manning welcomed the move, and said: "this is all i wanted, for them to let me be me." in 2013, then-private "bradley" manning got 35 years for passing secrets to wiki-leaks. later, she announced she identifies as a woman. >> ifill: the atlantic coast conference joined the ncaa today in pulling its championships from north carolina.

it cited a state law limiting protections for transgender people and others. but, the republican leader of the state house insisted the state won't back down. >> woodruff: a major merger may be on the way. germany's bayer a.g. offered $66 billion for monsanto today, and the u.s. seed maker accepted. they'd control a quarter of the world market for seeds andol pesticides. it's subject to approval fromo shareholders and regulators. >> ifill: and, on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 32 points to close at 18,034. the nasdaq rose 18 points, and the s&p 500 dropped a point. still to come on the newshour: the differences between donald trump and hillary clinton when it comes to child care; the road to 270-- how each candidate could win the electoral college; forced marriage here in the united states, and much more.

>> woodruff: childcare is one of the biggest expenses many american families face, surpassing the cost of college tuition and rent in more than thirty dozen states. when it comes to providing paidi family leave, the u.s. lags behind every other developed country in the world. it's a cause long-championed by democrats. and now, the republican nominee for president is out with a new plan that seems to break with conservative orthodoxy. correspondent lisa desjardins reports. >> reporter: the two who would be president of all, are focused on the very youngest americans-- our children. outside of philadelphia tuesday night, donald trump became thebe first g.o.p. nominee to propose paid family leave and childcaren help. >> we need working mothers to be fairly compensated for their work, and to have access to affordable, quality childcare for their kids.

>> reporter: how would trump provide that access and care? first, trump would push for mothers-- but not fathers-- to receive six weeks of paid maternity leave.e. then, he proposes that childcare costs be fully deductible for families making less than $500,000 a year. total cost is not clear, but trump says he would pay for this all by cracking down ondo unemployment insurance fraud. the family-friendly turn is family-generated-- trump's daughter ivanka helped craft thp policy, and today, charged the democratic nominee has failed.le >> hillary clinton has been around for decades and there's no policy benefiting either mothers or fathers in terms ofit paid leave. but, how things have changed. now both presidential nominees are pushing for paid family

i would call it quite surprising that trump would make a proposal like this. it would not get much support, i think, in a republican congress. >> now to hillary clinton who has stressed childhood issues for decades. what's her plan? all parents would get twelvent weeks of paid leave. childcare costs would be kept to 10% of the family's income for most families-- though clinton hasn't shown exactly how she'd achieve that-- and she'd pay for it all by raising taxes on the wealthy. clinton would also use those taxes to make pre-school universal starting at four years old. >> we have to make it easier to be good workers, good parents,er and good caregivers, all at the same time. >> reporter: this is further than clinton went just two years ago on mandatory paid leave, when she told cnn it was too soon politically. but, how things have changed. now both presidential nominees are pushing for paid family leave at the same time-- and

make sure that paid family leavi gets the support of over 70% of americans over aged 40, and that's the same group that has the highest turn out in elections. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> ifill: the latest national polls show a tightening in the race to the white house. but a win in november for hillary clinton or donald trumpm will depend on a viable path toh 270 electoral votes. for more, we're joined by john brabender, republican strategist and chief creative officer for brabender cox, a political medil firm; and bill burton, former deputy white house press secretary under president obamat and currently, california managing director for s.k.d. knickerbocker. hohn brabendejohn brayjohn bray.

>> first, win every state that romney won. if there's one, it's probably north carolina, that will be a battleground. that doesn't get you near 270 because mitt romney wasn't near 270. two different paths -- you can - win a whole bunch of small states and quoble them together which is almost impossible. to me the logical path is where could have romney maybe have won and didn't and you look at ohio, florida, you're still not there. now you've got to win either pennsylvania or michigan and ii think pennsylvania is probably y little bit more doable than michigan, but again, neither one of those states have the reps won since 1988.19 >> ifill: take that map and add what you think hillary clinton needs to get to 270. >> you start in the same place. look at the states obama won and wonder whether would hillaryth clinton va problem and where does donald trump have problems.

the truth is donald trump is not showing strength in any of the big states he would need ined order to get to 270, and hillary clinton is showing herself to be remarkably stable in all the states she needs. so i think florida, ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, all those states actually lookst pretty good for hillary clintonl right now.no while donald trump is showingwi strength in places like iowa, it's just not enough to get him close to getting the electoral votes that he needs to win. >> ifill: john, we know he did incredibly well in the primaries. we didn't expect donald trump to do so well. could he use that mega tone for the jerl election? >> pennsylvania might be a parochial state, but he has very, very broad support.ro the second thing in fairness to the trump people, if you look at the most recent numbers, they'ry doing well in ohio, winning in a

lot of polls in florida and now in pennsylvania and michigan have both tightened. they're not ahead but they've tightened and that's a good trend. >> brown: bill burton, one of o the things the democrats say is donald trump gets a lot of free media and that's a disadvantage for hillary clinton. can the free media lift him to where he needs to be? isn't that a potential threat toker? >> i have to giveth their campan credit. monica langley hasn a great piee in the "wall street journal"ur about how they're trying to create different moments foren donald trump as opposed to him shouting at rallies.i they're trying to get him in classrooms, churches, diners and places where he can make a more personal connection. obviously the strategy has its setback as you saw today, donald trump in a church getting interrupted by the pastorto because he started attackingrt hillary clinton. but i think if he does really r want to make gains, if he does want to find a path to the voters who are in the middle, then he needs to do different things than just do theseth rallies and, you know, i think k

he's actually doing a pretty good job at that. he's still pretty limited in the effect he can have because he so disqualified himself with such a large number of voters that i don't think there is an actual a path to victory for him but he is at least engaging in a better strategy than previously. >> ifill: john, isn't there a reason for that? we see him in a church in detroit, michigan not a state he's necessarily competing in, but we see him bringing forth the childcare program, isn't that to try to address the issues bill burton is talking about? >> well, i think what it's to do is make him more likable.. here's the biggest problemge donald trump has, he's not getting enough votes today ofa the people who already say they don't like hillary clinton. c so i agree with bill, i agree with the pastor, i don't thinkor donald trump has to be out there making the case against hillary clinton. i think people have known her 24 years. how you feel about4 her, you fel about her. but if they're unsure about particularly moderate reps, we know there is gender differencei

i think donald trump has to seal the deal by letting people feel comfortable in both ports oirks i think yesterday, bill clinton said it depends on who's showing up, the composition of the voters. what do you think theio composition has to be in order for hillary clinton to win?y >> what's interesting about the current polling is ass you wath hillary's numbers fluctuate, part of the reason is because the obama coalition, younger voters, african-american voters, latino voters, they're not showing up in as large a number for her as they did for president obama and, for that reason, i actually think her numbers are artificially low. i think that, at the end of the day, those voters are going to join ranks and it is going to help propel hillary clinton to victory. >> ifill: i'm going to stayi' with you for a moment, bill.t, we have seen in the last few days a big debate over the deporables comment hillary clinton made the other night and

i wonderig if part of that debae isn't about this very issue, how do you win over the people either who are offended by portions ofe the trump ologist r how does trump, in turn, tar her as being intolerant? isn't that about part of this? >> i think that conversation ise happening along the edges.en i don't think that the folks who are in the middle look at the conversation of whether or not donald trump's campaign is racist or whether or not hillar clinton should use that term to describe some of his supporters made sense, i don't think that i the folks in the middle are looking at that debate, i think they're more looking at these two candidates. it's a band of voters with which neither candidate has very high approval ratings and they're trying to make up their mind on who has a better plan for the economics whose presidency would morey positively impact my lif, and i think that debate happens among people who have alreadyav made up their minds.in >> brown: what do you think t about that, john?j >> i agree.r sometimes we all go on these shows and have a debate over

deplorable, not deplorable andbl that's not what people are talking about at night. what donald trump has done is tie into what would be sons and daughters of reagan democrats who are voting for him becauseau they feel both parties left himh on the economic battlefield. b they feel washington doesn't understand their lives anymore and they feel even though donald trump might make a mistake with what he says from time to time, they see that as authenticity and maybe someone who will truly pay attention to them becauseec they feel ignored.g >> ifill: enough of thosefi people to get 270 for donald trump? >> in a state like pennsylvania, the paradox is to win you have to get the conservativer democrats in the west but have to do well with the collar county moderates in the east.n trump has to seal the deal with the moderates in the east.a >> ifill: 56 days. john brabender, bill burton,

thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us. s coming up on the newshour: uber debuts self-driving cars; man-made noise disturbing the ocean's wildlife; and restoring federal education grants for prisoners. but first, today on capitol hill, a senate hearing looked into ending the practice overseas of child marriage. but what wasn't examined-- thousands of american girls and women here in the united stateso who are forced into marriage every year. in the first of two parts, special correspondent gayle tzemach lemmon reports. >> reporter: for nina van harn, raising her children today is a radical departure from her own upbringing. i >> my childhood was part magical, and part complicated. >> reporter: she was raised in rural michigan on a 40-acremi farm, in a tight-knit community that practiced a conservative

form of evangelical christianity. its members largely kept to themselves-- more "little house on the prairie" than modern day america. growing up, she always knew onek day was coming. she recorded its arrival in her diary. >> "dear kit--" that was the name of the girl in the journal-- "you will never guess what happened today.to this morning after breakfast,re papa sat naomi and i down at the kitchen table and nailed us both with a load of bricks. he believes he found husbands for both of us."fo >> reporter: van harn had turned nineteen.en she was legally an adult. there was no gun to her head. no chains around her wrists.ha but because of lifelong pressures from her family and her upbringing, she considers herself one of thousands of american women and girls forced into marriage each year.ea >> i knew that i wasn't going to say no. this was god's will. god had spoken. and it was just not even an option.sp i didn't think consciously in my head i'm being forced.

>> this is part of, if you will, psychological manipulation. >> reporter: christina bichhieri is a professor of philosophy ans psychology at the university ofi pennsylvania, whose work focuses on social norms. she says these marriage practices are more typical of close-knit, conservativeva communities, people with little contact to the outside world. >> your choices are much more restricted, and it is the case that even if the girl or the boy give their consent, that not only do they not know or conceive of an alternative, buta it is a terrifying thing to abandon their community. it's scary-- where do they go? who do they talk to? >> reporter: for nina van harn there was no one and nowhere to go. and then-- it was her wedding day. >> i do remember being very nervous, and yet knowing that i

needed to be smiling and i was supposed to be happy. t and i just looked in the mirror and i thought, "this is it." >> reporter: nina's husband was not physically abusive, but throughout over a decade marriage, she says that she suffered psychological abuse, under severe pressure from her family and community. every household chore, every meal she cooked, every family visit, even sexual interaction, she said, came to feel like imprisonment. >> when you don't consent willingly to be with someone, then even if you agree as to their requests, it doesn't make it a yes, it makes it, "yes i want to survive today."nt >> reporter: an attorney for her husband-- after an initial response to pbs newshour-- did not respond to further inquiries, and her father did not respond to multiple contact attempts. numbers are hard to come by.

but one 2011 study by a group that works against forced marriage found as many 3,000nd cases in a two-year period. legally, marriage is between twm adults, age 18 years or older.ea but every state in the country allows for exceptions. critics say these exceptionsns endanger young people, not help them. advocates say children as young as 12 have been married with the consent of their parents,co according to state data. ten states also allow underage girls to be married if theyhe become pregnant. but critics point out that those laws may actually be used toll legitimize other crimes, such as rape. in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, nina van harn decided to sue the state of michigan for an annulment on the grounds that her marriage was not consensual, and was, in fact, based on compulsion. with no legal precedent in the matter, she had to build the case from scratch. she left her husband and moved to a nearby city, where she now lives a much less conservative

lifestyle. the rest of her family ceased all contact. and she and her former spouse share joint custody of their three children. the case, she said, took on a deep personal significance. >> i felt, just, a sense that ij was going to actually, not only get away from him, but i was going to get free. >> reporter: that's what an annulment meant to you? >> uh-huh.h- it meant freedom and then it meant a peace in my conscience. >> reporter: when you look at these pictures, what goes through your mind? >> it's like looking at a different person. it's like looking at a stranger. >> reporter: fraidy reiss felt similar pressures in a very different place. she grew up in an ultra-orthodox jewish family in brooklyn, and she says that the pressure she faced to get married was obvious. even though she was legally an adult, 19 years old, she said felt she had no choice. >> you've never been on a date before.

and your whole life you've been told, "you need to get married right away." you're terrified. >> reporter: reiss was arranged to marry a man whom she'd barely met.an she remembers the ceremony as a joyous time, but she says herim marriage took a turn for the worse. >> he would describe to me how he was going to kill me. >> reporter: in detail. >> in detail. he would describe to me in detail, and he would explain how he was going to take my last breath. >> reporter: the threats t prompted reiss to seek a restraining order in a newde jersey state court, which was granted in 2010, and remains inh force. divorce is considered sinful in reiss's community, and family and friends offered littlere sympathy. on her own, she decided to take action. >> my first plan was, "i'm just going to get out of this marriage," and then it became, "i'm going to get out of this entire situation."," >> reporter: reiss left the community, and set out for what she considered "the unknown". her family felt so betrayed, in fact, that they cut off all contact.

professor bicchieri says reiss's decision to leave puts her in a rare category:ra >> let's call this woman a trendsetter-- it will show to other women that it is possible to act against the norm of the community, as an example. they have more propensity to risk, they are more autonomous, and another important element is that they must believe that their rebelling in some sense will be facetious, that they will succeed. >> reporter: reiss moved to new jersey with her two daughters; her ex-husband retains some visitation rights to the girls. reiss started a nonprofit called "unchained at last," that lobbies to enact tighterig legislation addressing forced

marriage across the u.s. >> when people hear about this, they say, "oh, well, that's just happening in this one religion," or "that's just happening in this one immigrant community," and that's a way to abdicate responsibility it's so important to raise awareness about this and to talk about this publicly, because you can't solve a problem thatca nobody knows exists. >> reporter: back in michigan, nina van harn and her lawyer, matt burns, pushed ahead with their legal battle. the challenges, they say, areng not just legal, but cultural.lt >> the goal isn't to eradicate arranged marriage. in many cultures, that is the norm and it's accepted, buted there's, i think, a fine line and probably a fair gray area between what's arranged and what's forced. and so that's, i think, another difficulty that we face here. >> reporter: while notot confronted with physical abuse, van harn overcame great psychological hurdles in building her case. >> when i walked out, i didn't

just walk out on this person. i walked out of my whole family, i walked out of my community, i walked out on many parts of what had been my faith. and i had to run very fast, and that was heart-wrenching thing to do. but i did it because staying was more frightening than leaving. >> reporter: now she hopes that this case will help other womenl from all backgrounds escape similar situations. meanwhile, she has a steady job in human resources at an autoy dealer. she leads an active, busy family. and she has built a new group of friends, whom she met at a support group, sponsored by a local women's shelter. >> it's a community. we are a community that works together to help each other through life. we are in some ways, co-parents. and that's my family.

and they mean everything to me. >> reporter: on august 1, nina van harn's husband agreed to annul their marriage. the end of this case, she hopes, also will mark a whole new a beginning for her. for the pbs newshour, i'm gayle tzemach lemmon, in michigan. >> woodruff: tomorrow, part two of our series, looking at american girls taken overseas and forced into marriage. and online, gayle tzemach lemmon describes how she was able to convince her subjects to come forward. that's on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: now, the jetsons future may be arriving sooner than you think, for better or for worse. uber is experimenting with self- driving cars in a big way. in pittsburgh today, the compano began deploying a small test

fleet of its self-driving cars i around the city. hari sreenivasan has the story.v >> sreenivasan: okay, the first thing to know-- uber tried this with several journalists this week. k each self-driving car was accompanied by a human operator, who loosely kept hands on theel steering wheel. the cars are equipped with sensors, radars and light- mapping systems. select uber customers will be able to opt into a driverless car pick-up. alex davies writes about all d things transportation for "wired" magazine, and took a ride in one of uber's self- driving cars. he joins us from san francisco. so, alex, unless you were a friend ofex a tesla driver or google engineer, you're one of the first people to sit in the back of one of these cars.se what was the experience like? >> for the most part, it was kind of like a regular uber ride, minus the fact it was a carefully orchestrated media preview. it's same way most uber rides start. you pull out your phone, open up the uber app, enter your

destination and call up the car. what's going to happen from now on for some select customers in pittsburgh is it will say, hey, would you like a self-driving car instead of some guy driving who's trying to make extra money? you hit "yes" and that's whatat shows up. they're now using ford fusions with these lights on the roof, radars, cameras.da that pulls up.ul but after that, once you get in, it works more or less like a normal uber. you relax in the back seat and the car drives you exactly where you're going. >> sreenivasan: we mentionedas the biggest safety precaution which is the human engineer in the car. what precautions has uber taken to roll this test out? >> first of all, they're only operating within a small select area of downtown pittsburgh. they're top to about -- they're open to about 12 square miles now. the reason they're limited to

that space is they will only send their cars out to areas they've mapped in extreme detail. that means the car already knowo exactly where every trafficff light is. it knows which lanes are right-turn-only lanes, where it can make arn u-turn and can't, what the speed limit is everywhere, where pedestrians are likely to cross, where cars are usually driving if the lane lanes aren't super well marked. so basically, it's kind of slicing after the riskier areas by only operating in places where it knows what theno conditions are going to be like. >> sreenivasan: why pittsburgh? >> a couple of reasons.pipl the biggest one is pittsburgh is home to carnegie mellon which has -- carnegie mel hans one of the best robotics programs ins the country and probably the world and some of their engineers have been studying self-driving cars for 15 yearsar now, well before anybody imagined this could really be a thing. so a lot of those guys and women are now working for uber at its

advanced technology center iny the city.e the second reason is that uber -- sorry -- pittsburgh has a lot of different weather conditions, unlike silicon, valley which is pretty much always sunny. pittsburgh, you're going to havg to face snow, rain, differentr weather problems and that's a good challenge for the cars toto learn how to solve, a and the street grid isn't the easiest to navigate. so it's training cars to take on more complicated situations. the third advantage to pittsburgh is pennsylvania hasn't really regulated the space yet so uber is free to do pretty much what it wants.t >> sreenivasan: what is the safety record of autonomous vehicles to date and how is uber factoring that in to these tests? >> overall the safety record is excellent because, for the most part, at least when you're'r talking about fully autonomous vehicles, they've always got a trained operator at the wheel ready to take over in any situation. so, for example, google, which tests constantly in mountainview

and austin and a few other places, has had a few minor accidents but nothing serious,r nothing where anyone's ever been injured. the same thing with uber, at least in california, where it's required to report any accidents as are all autonomous car operators. in pennsylvania, it's not exactly clear what the record is, though they say they haven'h had any accidents. just because there are no rules saying they have to tell you ife there is one. >> sreenivasan: right.: also put this into perspective. why is uber doing this? we've heard about google, tesla, auto manufacturers, what's uber's interest in having autonomous vehicles?? >> uber's interest is naturals because when you ask automakers, for example, when you think about an aton mouse fleet of cars, what does that look like? they'll tell you, well, looks like uber. u it's a car that you don't have to own ordeal with parking or maintenance that shows up and picks you up and takes you whero you want to go. so if uber can take its model which is already enormously successful and rapidly spreadins

around the world and can take out the the single most expensive part of that which is a human driver which takes half or three-quarters of every customer's fare and remove that person from the equation, the business gets a lot more efficient and profitable. >> sreenivasan: and how far out is that future?ha >> so uber right now, if you say, well, when are you going to be able to take the engineers out of the cars, they'll say when it's safe which is not a particularly helpful answer. but the chinese equivalent of google says 2019, ford is targeting 2021, so i think it's safe to say uber will be more or less on that timeline.ss so three to five years out. >> sreenivasan: alex davies joining us from san francisco tonight. thank you so much. >> thank you.is >> woodruff: there's a growing problem for marine life in the world's oceans and waterways--

man-made noise. this week, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration released a new, decade-long plan to try to deal with the way it's affecting life under water. special correspondent cat wise has our report, part of our weekly series covering the "leading edge" of science and technology. >> reporter: beachgoers are drawn to the water this time of year to relax, and enjoy some peace and calm. and that's what many describe it's like under the water, too. >> i would say it sounds beautiful, relaxing. >> i think it sounds so peaceful, like, i mean, just calm. >> reporter: but the calm near the surface often belies what it actually sounds like deepou beneath the waves. especially if that's where you live. over the last hundred years, as humans have increasingly used the world's waterways for shipping, defense, and natural resources, among other things, the level, and the amount, of a

man-made noises in marine environments has increased. but many species of mammals, fish, and even invertebrates rely on sound to communicate under the water, to find food, mates, and stay safe.fe and those vital communications, in some areas, are being drowned out. >> people don't really realizet how noisy it is. sound travels very well underwater, compared to air. so it can travel very longav distances. >> reporter: marla holt is a wildlife biologist for the national oceanic and atmospheric administration in seattle. she and other noaa scientists have been studying the impacts of noise pollution on marine life from big to small. it's been shown that noise can cause behavior changes, hearing loss, and it can even be fatal. holt's reseocuses on orcas-- also known as killer whales-- and how they amplify their calls when they are inwh noisy waters, especially around container ships. >> okay, so here are orca calls with minimal boat noise.

and here are calls with lots ofc boat noise. >> reporter: that's quite a difference, and you really see here on the screens, the difference. >> yeah, so it shows that they really have to pump up the volume on their calls to hearme each other. >> reporter: many of the orcas holt studies spend a lot of their time in washington state's puget sound. they and hundreds of other marine species have a lot morelo than just container ships to contend with-- more than four million people live around pugef sound. the beautiful waterways are what draw so many people to this area, but all the boating and shoreline development make this a noisy place to be for marine life. it's an issue that the state of washington has been trying to deal with for quite some time.de >> any time we touch anything with water, we try to deploy practices that aren't harmful.ce

>> reporter: rhonda brooks is works for the research director for the washington state department of transportation. she says the state's many ferry. terminals and bridges require a lot of work that is often quitea noisy, especially when it comes to driving foundation piles inco the water. >> i think it's only really been in the last decade or so that we've become concerned about th sound that it makes underwater,n as it's being struck from above the water, and what that sound a does to the species that are not only in the vicinity of the pile, but also miles and miles away. >> reporter: while marine pile driving is a relatively small slice of the overall noise pollution problem, it is one of the loudest and most distressful man-made noises for marine life. documented fish kills around marine pile driving projects in the early 2000's led to more state and federal noiseno mitigation requirements. one of the main ways to reduce the noise, with pile driving, has been through the use of "bubble curtains," which are large rings that surround the pile, and the bubbles that are

pumped out reduce the sound waves, but sometimes not very v much, as little as 30%. they also can cause construction delays, according to brooks. >> as we know, time is money in construction. and that's why we started looking at newer innovative practical ways to attenuate that sound. >> reporter: so brooks and other transportation officials sought help from engineers around the state. and they eventually got that help, from this man. >> once we understood the principles of how sound was created, then the solution was pretty simple. per reinhall is the chair of the mechanical engineeringin department at the university of washington. over the years, he has developed a number of products, including a "next-generation" football helmet. but this was his first foray in marine construction, and what he came up with was a double-wallea pile. reinhall showed me how the system works on a model. >> so what we've done is taken the ordinary pile and we've put another pile inside it. and as you can see here, there's an air space here where the

water can not get to. and what we do is, we strike the inner pile, and now we have a bulge going down. but now it's acting against the air, not the water. so, essentially, no sound, ornt very little sound, escapes. >> reporter: the other key part of the design is the connectiono at the bottom of the two piles, seen in this testing prototype,, which prevents sound from traveling into the sea floor. >> that's really the secret sauce of this concept, is the flexible coupling at the bottom. it's essentially a spring, a very, very stiff spring, between the outside pile and the inside pile. >> reporter: reinhall has turned his innovation into small startup. the company, called marine construction technologies, has done several tests with the state department of transportation and the results, says reinhall, have confirmed the design works. w at this test, done in 2014, there was a 21-decibel noise reduction.ib to understand what that means, you really need to hear it:

>> so this is a regular pile. this is our new pile. so it's a dramatic difference. >> reporter: it is a big difference. how much of a difference? >> it's a reduction of about 90% of the volume. >> reporter: ninety? >> 90% of the volume, so it's a big deal if you're a fish. >> reporter: one hurdle, though, is the cost-- the double-walled piles are about 20% more than ab standard single pile. but reinhall says those costs should be mitigated by the effectiveness of the technology. >> the goal of this is to actually save money. if you include everything, if e you include monitoring, the time of the project, permitting, etc, etc, so overall, the project should be cheaper with this b technology. >> reporter: the reinhall piles have yet to be used commercially, but the state is now evaluating them now for future projects. as for the marine life in puget sound, there was no comment, but we expect any noise reductions

in their waters would be a welcome development. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in seattle, washington. >> woodruff: yes, it would. cat's report is also part of our "breakthroughs" coverage ofhs invention and innovation. >> ifill: next, we continue with our "rethinking college" series. hari returns with a report on whether taxpayers should cover college tuition for convicted criminals. >> sreenivasan: jermaine isaac killed a man when he was 15. he's been in prison for secondso degree murder 11 years. during his punishment, he is trying to make something bettera of himself. for the past two years, he hasth been attending college, behind bars. >> going to college, it's taugho me patience, it's taught me hard work, it's taught me that more things are possible.

>> sreenivasan: isaac is one of 100 maryland prisoners studying for a degree as part of a partnership with goucher college, a private liberal artsa school in baltimore. goucher provides the professors and pays for the education with private donations. amy roza directs the goucher prison partnership. >> we have a chance to change the way we do criminal justice in the united states, if we invest in some of the root causes in what brings people to prison. >> sreenivasan: when jermaine isaac came to the maryland correctional institution inti jessup, he could barely read. >> college was never in a realm for me, it was never in sight. >> sreenivasan: now with a g.e.d. and 16 college credits, isaac feels he's getting a second chance.ed in january, he will be released. there's going to be people watching, thinking, why are weng giving a guy, who took somebody's life, an opportunity and an education?

shouldn't he be punished? in prison? >> we are the people who are coming back into society. whether they like it or not,he we're coming back to society, and we're trying to come back prepared to be citizens, and give back to where we took from. >> sreenivasan: this summer, the obama administration said it will extend that second chance to 12,000 inmates across theec country. as a pilot project, the department of education will partner with 67 colleges, including goucher, to provide higher education to prisonerson who can't afford it. called "second chance pell pilot," eligible inmates will be able to apply for federal grants. education secretary john king: >> students who have the opportunity to pursue educationo while they're incarcerated are dramatically less likely to return to prison. 42% reduction in recidivism from students just having exposure to education-- 98% of the folks who

earn a bachelor's degree don't end up back in prison. >> sreenivasan: advocates for college in prison say those statistics can break the link between poverty and crime.tw >> we see huge changes in lifetime earnings, $8,000 more a year for a student who has f access to some college, $22,000 more a year for a student who has a bachelor degree. all of those impacts have a deep impact on children, and more than half the people we incarcerate in the u.s. are parents of school age children. >> this case was a consolidation of two cases. >> sreenivasan: but is the education that prisoners receive comparable to college courses on the outside? professor brad stoddard teaches religion and social reform for the goucher prison educationth partnership. >> it is the exact same curriculum that i do for my general population students. we use the same reading material, we use the same primary sources, the same secondary sources.nd >> sreenivasan: until the mid-'90s, inmates of state and federal prisons were allowed tot apply for pell grants-- money offered to any low income college student in the nation. but as part of the 1994 crime bill, congress took away grant money for the incarcerated.

critics of second chance pell grants say the department of education is now oversteppingis its authority. chris collins: >> there is a law on the books that there is no ambiguity in, pell grants shall not be allowed for prisoners, period, end ofra discussion. >> sreenivasan: by designating the program an experiment,og education officials say they can access the money and help prisoners get jobs upon release. >> we need them to come backbs prepared to be successful. otherwise, they'll end up backp in jail, which is a cost to not only to them and their families, but to the-- to the country.th >> sreenivasan: collins says inmates should be trained in the trades and helped to complete a g.e.d., but he stops short of money for college. >> we have no surplus. there's no extra money anywhere in the federal government. so i do not believe our children and grandchildren should be

paying off in the future with interest, money so a criminal behind bars can take a few random college courses. >> sreenivasan: james flood, thv director of security operations for maryland's department of correctional services, says classes do more than help the individual-- they improve thein environment. >> you don't have time to dwell on negative things, you're working, you're studying, you're concentrating on positive things. so we benefit as an institution, and it makes the facility safern >> sreenivasan: and he says other inmates view those enrolled in classes differentlyd >> this is positive peer pressure, because it fuelsus admiration and respect. >> i started college here cause i needed a change, man. something positive, something productive. i was in search of something to better myself. >> sreenivasan: deval wallace is incarcerated for attemptedrc murder. he will not be eligible for parole for another six years. still, he is enrolled in goucher classes and hopes to get a degree in psychology. >> it still benefits me.>> >> sreenivasan: how? >> even though i'm not able to

go out and use a degree, just having that knowledge, i can help the next person that's in here, that might have a chance of going home. help steer him in the right direction, give him positive information. >> sreenivasan: what's your guarantee to me that five years from now, when i catch up with you, it's not going to be in awi room like this? >> i can guarantee that because prison-- i hate prison. i can't be here, this is not the place for me. there's no way i'll return here, there's just no way.s >> sreenivasan: the department of education estimates 100 correctional institutions acrosc the country will take part in the second chance pell pilot program. in maryland, for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: now to our "newshour shares," something that caught our eye that might c be of interest to you, too.

we visit the nation's first lighthouse was built just offn' boston. b sally snowman is boston light's 70th lightkeeper, the first woman ever to hold the post.y >> my name is sally snowman, an. i am the coast guard lighthousea keeper of boston light. boston light is the last manned coast guard life stationt in the entire country. it is located on little brewste island at the entrance of boston harbor. in 1716, there were many shipwrecks here in the outerec harbor of boston, and they wanted to have a major aid toaj navigation to show the ships safe passage into the harbor, and so in 1716, boston light was erected. and then it had an incident in 1776 in the revolutionary war where the tower was blown up. it was rebuilt in 1783, and that is the tower that exists today. and today, 300 years later, the lighthouse is doing exactly what it was intended to do in 1716,

which was showing a safe way into boston harbor. so now i am the 70th keeper of boston light, with the first 69 having been all men. when i was hired in 2003, i was a coast guard auxiliary person that volunteered out here and wore a uniform. h however, being on the payroll for the coast guard as aco civilian employee, i wasn't allowed to wear the uniform, and i was asked to come up with something that would help me stand out from the crowd. so i came up with the idea for this costume from the late 1700s, to help tell the story that it's not the original tower of 1716, it's 1783. this is what the keeper's wife would have worn during that

period of time. we are a living museum.ri visitors get to come out, climb the 76 spiral stairs and two ladders into the lantern room, and stand by an 11-foot crystal made up of 336 individual prisms. many of them are local, many are from boston. and so many of them say, "oh i've lived in boston all of my life, and never came out. and, "why did it take me so long to come out here?ne because it is a jewel. it's a jewel of the harbor." >> woodruff: tonight on "nova," as part of pbs's spotlighta, education week, a look at the divides in education acrossca america and potential solutionsc "school of the future" examines how education could be redesigned to help narrow the gaps in educational opportunities and achievement. "nova" airs tonight on most pbsn stations. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, correspondent john yang checks in from ohio with the first of two reports from the battleground state. i'm judy woodruff.nd >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill.

join us online, and again herell tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbsre newshour, thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you takeit charge of your financial future. >> xq institute. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies.

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>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good. kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and aruba tourism authority. >> planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. you can find it here in aruba. families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm sunny days,