captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, october 16th: the vice presidential candidates take to the airwaves to make the case for their running mates in our signature segment, if california legalizes recreational marijuana on election day, will the rest of the nation follow? and, examining the role of the u-s military in yemen's civil war. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. hari sreenivasan. new york,at this is pbs newshour weekend. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. with three weeks left in the presidential campaign, democratic candidate hillary clinton leads republican donald trump in opinion polls and funds to finish the race. a washington post-abc news poll today shows clinton preferred by 47% of likely voters to 43% for trump. that's in a four person race with libertarian gary johnson and green party candidate jill stein. a "wall street journal-nbc news" poll shows a wider lead, of 11 percentage points, in a four person race. today, clinton's running mate,

senator tim kaine of virginia, said he likes where she stands against trump. >> he's blaming the media, he's blaming the gop, he's saying that america can't run a fair election. he is swinging at every phantom of his own imagination, because he knows he's losing. >> sreenivasan: in cash on hand, the clinton campaign and party committees supporting her had 150 million dollars entering october- that's double the $75 million reported this weekend by the trump campaign and party committees backing him. neither clinton nor trump had public appearances today. both said to be preparing for their final debate wednesday in las vegas. the polls show slippage in support for trump in the wake of a 2005 video revealing him talking crudely and aggressively about women, and allegations by women who say trump made unwanted sexual advances on them. today, trump's running mate, indiana governor mike pence, said those claims are getting too much attention and clinton's state department emails, too little. >> i mean, we discovered this week that state department officials actually directed

contracts for the haitian recovery efforts after the earthquake to friends of the clintons. >> sreenivasan: the clinton foundation has said its supporters received no special treatment for rebuilding contracts after the 2010 earthquake in haiti. for more analysis of the presidential race, i am joined now by "newshour weekend" special correspondent jeff greenfield, who is in santa barbara, california. jeff, it seems in the past few news cycles, we've kind of seen donald trump take center stage for all the allegations and accusations made against him. and we've actually seen hillary clinton kind of quietly drift off to the side. now she's in debate prep mode. >> it may be she's following an old line, m napoleon said it ner interfere with your opponent when he's in theçó process of destroying himself. it's not hopeful to the trouble campaign to have endless allegations. the question is just how much he's been hurt. this is one of the areas if you're obsessed with this campaign and read every pole your head's going to explode

because the washington point has trump only 4 points down and the journal poll has him more. the question is what's going on in the states. if you're a trump support you take in in a, ohio and iowa he's relatively close. if you're a clinton supporter she seems to be opened up a huge lead and more to the point, if you look at all the battle ground states trump's path of the electoral vote seems more and more tricky. that's why the odds on him losing have now gone up 10 to 15% chance of winning. while in the debate he's got to try to figure out a way to go beyond his base. >> reporter: what are you expecting in the debate given what happened in the last one. >> the first debate i watched wasn't nixon kennedy. it was kennedy humphrey in west virginia. i think i've seen every single debate and i literally don't know. trump seems to be doubling down on the kind of the most extreme argument that the whole process

is rigged. that clinton is conspiring with international bankers which by the way has an unpleasant echo 1930's talking about lowest people meaning jewish people. whether trump knows it or know that's what that is. so i suspect he's going to go right back at the line she ought to be in jail and he will try to raise the issue of bill clinton's sexually predatory behavior that women have accused him of. in her case, you know, the question is whether or not she has to respond to some of the stuff that wiki leaks have shown that i have i, would have cast her into some doubt were it not for the fact that trump has dominated the stories as you said. >> reporter: is he missing opportunities, given that wikileaks has provided a steady stream of insight into how people inside her own campaign were thinking about issues and also thinking about the

candidate. >> yes. that's what i mean when i say not for trump and dominating in a negative way the stage, she could have some problems. take for instance the transcript of her speeches to goldman sachs. they say exactly what some of her critics thought they would. but in private when she's talking to these 1% of 1% people, she's much more sympathetic to wall street and the elite than her public paws paws -- posture. if bernie sanders at that in the primaries. there are comments from only of her staffers that is not contell scious, but kind of skeptical about catholics. that's not a helpful notion. there's also the notion they keep struggling to find out, remember these are people in her campaign saying well what's at the core of her argument. which is way in that debate, i think it would be really important to try to go beyond saying i'm not trump and say but here's who i am at heart and here's why i'm on your side. >> reporter: finally briefly

do you think this notion of the end of the republican party or the civil war has been overblown or does it have life here. >> the point is it's been around for 150 plus years and probably not going to go away. i do think the we assume trump is going to lose this election, these going to be a series battle within the -- serious battle within the party because people who don't like trump in the conservative party, the party establishment has not really spoken to some of the issue that have driven so many of our people into the trump camp. >> reporter: all right, jeff breene field. thanks sfield-- greenfield, thanks so much. >> pleasure. >> sreenivasan: this election day, five states will vote on legalizing marijuana for recreational use, with opinion polls suggesting they will join four other states, plus washington d.c., where it's already legal to grow, buy, and sell pot for recreational use. among the states voting november 8th is the nation's largest,

california. with medical marijuana already approved in california and half the 50 states, pro-legalization forces say california's vote on recreational pot could lead to the day when buying pot in the u.s. will be no different than buying a bottle of wine. in tonight's signature segment, "newshour weekend" special correspondent mike tabibi looks at both sides of the debate. >> reporter: beyond a winding country road out of the mountains in central california, a half-hour drive from a store of any kind, 63-year-old farmer simon caleb tends his crop. >> we bought seed from a guy in town. >> reporter: his crop, for more than 25 years-- marijuana. medical marijuana, he says. his grow operation, well let's say, discreet. >> i guess i like the thrill of kind of being on the other side. >> a touch of outlaw? >> a touch of outlaw, yeah. non-conformist, i guess. >> reporter: in the 20 years since medical marijuana was

approved here farmers like caleb say their cottage industry has been operating in a legal gray area where federal law and local regulations are at irreconcilable odds with each other. now, on election day, that legal tension could ratchet up even higher: california will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana through proposition 64, the adult use of marijuana act. the 62-page initiative comes down to this: for consumers: the ability to possess, transport, purchase, and use up to one ounce of the drug, and to cultivate up to six living plants. for growers: a prohibition on large scale cultivation licenses for the first five years to discourage a gold rush by giant corporate interests. for the state: an additional 15% tax on all pot purchases, on top of sales tax, with projected new revenue in the billions every year earmarked for youth drug awareness and treatment programs as well as law enforcement. the most outspoken supporter of

prop 64 is lieutenant governor gavin newsom. >> i'm just anti-prohibition. i'm vehemently anti-prohibition. i think prohibition has done more harm than the drug itself. that's my crusade. >> reporter: but prop 64's opponents have their own crusade. >> and if you're in an industry that is selling this stuff. >> reporter: kevin sabet is a professor of psychiatry and has advised three presidents on drug policy. he now heads a nationwide anti- legalization group that advocates for public health based approaches to marijuana regulation. >> what this is about is not adults smoking a joint in the privacy of their own home. this is about the mass commercialization of marijuana by for-profit companies. >> reporter: medical marijuana is already an industry generating huge profits, nearly three billion dollars in california last year. >> let me see your id too. >> reporter: derek peterson's blum dispensary in oakland sits just off a highway off-ramp, and the traffic inside is bumper to bumper. >> we see anywhere from 900 to a

thousand people a day, about $13 million a year in revenue out of this store, and that's just with the medical program in place. >> reporter: right now, 25 states allow the sale and use of medical marijuana; four states plus the district of columbia have already legalized recreational use, and besides california, four more states will vote on legalized recreational pot on election day. but both sides agree-- california, with its 39 million residents and the world's 6th largest economy, is the lynchpin that could lock up the west coast for legalized pot and lead to the end of any meaningful marijuana prohibition in the u.s. >> i think if california goes, it's a domino effect for the rest of the nation. >> they see california as a massive economic powerhouse, as a massive place where their commercialized marijuana can make money. >> reporter: law enforcement also opposes legalization for recreational pot. mike boudreaux is sheriff in central california's tulare county. >> i just can't, in good

judgment, believe that if we make it legal that our community will be safer. >> reporter: sheriff boudreaux says that last year alone his department shut down more than mber of those were linked to criminal drug trafficking operations. >> our resources are drawn very thin in the fight against these marijuana cartels and drug trafficking organizations. there's violence that comes along with that. in 2011, there were nine of our 18 homicides that were directly related to marijuana grow sites. >> reporter: he is also concerned about marijuana- impaired driving. for example, in washington state, in its first year of legal marijuana sales, the percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes who had marijuana in their system more than doubled from 8% in 2013 to 17% in 2014, that according to triple-a and the state's traffic safety commission. but researchers are hesitant to draw any conclusions, because there's no clear method for collecting this data and no reliable test for when drivers become impaired from using marijuana.

marijuana can stay in your bloodstream for weeks. los angeles police officer kamaron sardar says police are still searching for a tool like a breathalyzer to measure marijuana use and impairment. the lapd is testing this oral fluid device. >> it collects just saliva from the mouth, is that it? >> correct, saliva and any debris in there. >> reporter: on the growers' side, simon caleb has been showing up at meetings about prop 64 because he wants to make sure he complies with any new regulations that may be coming. but even so, it may surprise you to learn-- he does not support the initiative. >> i am opposed to it. i don't like the idea that big business is going to be able to come in. i think the whole industry is going to change. it's going to stop from local farmers, the cottage industry, it's going to be big business and the quality will go down. >> reporter: on his ten mile stretch of country road, he says, the number of similar grow

operations known to law enforcement is mind-boggling. >> 237 that they know of. >> that's a precise number. so they know there's a marijuana grow operations?" >> yes. it's going to be too many for the area, too many for the whole market. >> reporter: and then there's that elephant in the room: whatever california and other states decide, the federal drug enforcement administration still lists marijuana as a schedule one drug, among the most dangerous, along with heroin, lsd, and ecstasy. buying and selling pot remains a crime under federal-- and most state-- laws. the result, say legalization advocates, more than 700,000 arrests every year for marijuana-related offenses, many for mere possession and primarily african-americans and latinos. lynne lyman is the california state director for the pro- legalization drug policy alliance. >> we have the data that shows that black, white, latino, we all use and sell drugs roughly

at the same rate, and yet any jurisdiction in this country, certainly in california, you will see that the people we arrest and incarcerate for drug offenses are black and brown. >> it's about a war on drugs that's an abject failure. i want to end it, want to end it in this country. and i want to reduce the cost to the taxpayers. i want people to operate legally, and i want them to be accountable and responsible. >> reporter: anti-legalization activist kevin sabet does support decriminalization for the consumer as the middle ground between legalization and prohibition. >> if they want to grow a plant, if they want to get it from a friend, i don't care, if they want to get it as a gift from somebody, i don't care. the point is, i don't think the sales should be legal, because i think what that brings is another tobacco industry. >> reporter: sabet fears big marijuana is looking to hook buyers when they're young, given the way medical marijuana and its edible products are already being marketed. >> they look like gummy bears they're called gummy bears. they've got lollipops. >> yup. >> things that kids like. >> yup. >> reporter: in fact, opponents insist legalization for recreational use all but

guarantees a parent's worst nightmare- the normalization of pot use, even for children. >> the last thing they want to see their kids get involved in is a drug that essentially makes you drop out of life, a drug that makes you not care about anything if you're using it everyday. >> are you getting to ¡pot makes >> you can smoke 15 joints a day, you're not going to overdose, you're not going to find your child on the floor convulsing and have to rush him to the emergency room. it's just not going to happen. >> reporter: legalization supporters point to the netherlands, where a 2014 "newshour weekend" report showed recreational pot use in so-called "coffee houses," where customers smoke openly, has been tolerated for 40 years with no measurable increase in the use of harder drugs. derek peterson says the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries like his and the ease of getting a medical marijuana card have already lowered the bar for anyone in california who just wants pot. >> it is very quasi-recreational. anybody that tells you otherwise is, to me, being dishonest. but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. you know i run a publicly traded company.

i have 150 employees, i deal with very complicated issues, i'm a very functional individual. i smoke almost every day. >> reporter: legalization advocate lynn lyman says many californians already tolerate such recreational pot use. >> people who look like me for white people marijuana is practically legal in california. i can use my marijuana anywhere, nobody ever bothers me. >> probably not in a local starbucks. >> oh, believe me, i've done it. well, i have a vape, so it has no scent but if you are black or brown that is just not the case. >> reporter: legalization would be a bonanza for new pot products, including the oils for lyman's e-cigarette vaping devices and, yes, those edibles sold at the blum dispensary. with imaginative chemists in a seed-to-sale operation, and legalization in other states on the horizon, peterson envisions his business becoming a multi- state empire. >> our short term trajectory, over the next 24 months, is to get the company between $50 million - $75 million in revenue. >> in the next 4, 5 years, you will be the r.j. reynolds of the pot business. >> hate that comparison but i

like to look at our company more like a ben & jerry's type of an organization than say r.j. reynolds. >> reporter: but for simon caleb and those other small growers who've been operating in the shadows for years, even decades, becoming street legal is a really complicated process. complicated and expensive. there'll be fees to the county and the state, income and payroll taxes, workers compensation insurance for his employees, inspections by a half dozen agencies. caleb says many of his neighboring farmers say, ¡forget about it.' >> i've only seen maybe two of them at a meeting. they don't attend; they're, i guess, maybe burying their head in the sand, but it's coming- and we have to be prepared. >> sreenivasan: the u.s. military is investigating whether a third missile launched from inside yemen was aimed at american navy ships patrolling the red sea. the navy says radar detected a

possible attack on the u.s.s. mason last night, but nothing struck the ship. in the past week, shiite rebels at war with the government of yemen-- which is backed by the u.s. and saudi arabia-- twice fired missiles at u.s. ships. the u.s. responded with cruise missile strikes on rebel territory. to help us understand the situation, i am joined by barbara bodine, the u.s. ambassador to yemen from 1997 to 2001, and now with the institute for the study of diplomacy at georgetown university. ñrñrñixdambassador, this is a complicated tension in the middle east but not have a lot of people have been paying to because the presidential cycle is taking so much of the press. last week we reported a horrible attack, an air strike that killed 150, 140 people, wounded hundreds more. and then it seemed to escalate when they were missiles fired at a u.s. ship. >> right, right, exactly. the attack on our ships was probably a direct retaliation

for the sauniñ bombing of the funeral house. and we responded i think it's important to note that the navy characterized it as a narrow act. i they are we are trying to keep it from escalating. >escalating. >> reporter: our concern there has primarily been al-qaeda and different forces on the ground. >> right. >> reporter: the saudis have been involved for a different reason. >> the saudi's stated concern, they don't want to any government backed on their border. but this has been going on for 18 months and the u.s. support for saudi arabia has also been increasing. what is not clear to a lot of us is really what the saudi end game is. what is it that they are hoping to achieve. andñi what kind of a yemenen thy are looking to have on their

border when this is over. >> reporter: some of their concerns might beçó sort of a sunni submit and long a proximatey war against iran. >> they have called it a proxy warren witwar with iran. it is somewhat distorted. this is an internal civil war and it probably would have been a violent civil war but theñbp a qualitatively different level of violence and deception. >> reporter: ambassador, what can the u.s. do here considering that i mean do we see listen, we're not going to sell you these weapons if you're going to use them in this way because caught in the middle unfortunately are all of these civilians, horrible displacements, deaths. even doctors without borders has essentially pulled out of several hospitals in the northern part of the country because they don't feel safe from these air strikes. >> there's a famine in yemen and i think i would call it an

imposed famine as opposed to the saudi air strikes. we don't know how many children have died. we know that it is a fairly extreme famine. there's malaria, three cholera, there's dengue fever, and over 100 medical facilities including doctors without borders have been hit. and so there's a humanitarian capacity going on there. i know that quite recently the united states the whitehouse stayed that there is no blank check for saudi actions and secretary kerry in london obviously the focus of his stocks was syritalkswas syria wa cease-fire so humanitarian food, water, fuel, medicine can get into the 20 millio,000 yellese.

>> reporter: thank you. >> thank you, thank you. this is "pbs newshour weekend" sunday. >> sreenivasan: the conflicts in syria and yemen were the focus of diplomatic talks today in london led by secretary of state john kerry and british foreign secretary boris johnson. joined by their counterparts from 8 other nations in europe and the middle east, kerry and johnson said the u.s. and u.k. are weighing tougher economic sanctions on syria to pressure the government to halt its siege on rebel-held aleppo, syria's largest city. they also called for an immediate ceasefire in yemen's civil war. the iraqi army dropped tens of thousands of leaflets today over mosul, in advance of an anticipated military assault on the country's second largest city. mosul has been under the control of islamic state militants for two years, but for months the iraqi army, aided by the u.s., has been preparing to try to take the city back. the leaflets said civilians would not be targeted and warned them to stay away from iraqi army units and known isis

locations in mosul. about 900 firefighters are working to contain a growing wildfire in nevada. the fire between reno and carson city has spread to more than five miles and is twenty percent contained. it has destroyed 40 homes and buildings and is threatening 500 more. the fire broke out friday and has been whipped by winds nearing 70 miles an hour. another nevada wildfire-- which forced residents to evacuate 500 homes near the southern end of lake tahoe-- was 80% contained yesterday. emergency crews worked today to restore power to some 40,000 homes in washington state and oregon-- hit yesterday by the remnants of a pacific ocean typhoon. the storm brought 55-mile-an- hour winds and heavy rains to the seattle and portland metropolitan areas, downing trees and power lines and blocking city roads. despite the damage, the storm was weaker than predicted. meet a saudi artist who is using illustration to protest male guardianship laws in her country. visit www.pbs.org/newshour.

finally in nigeria, 20 girls kidnapped by the islamic extremists rea united with their families today. this was the government's first negotiated release with the group which kidnapped 276 girls from their school, two and-a-half years ago. but nigerian officials deny they swapped any prisoners for the girls and won't say whether they paid any ransom. one mother said i never expected to see my daughter again and i pray for those girls still left behind. about 200 kidnapped girlsxd are still unaccounted for. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and barbara hope zuckerberg., iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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