captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> yang: good evening. i'm john yang. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, while president trump signs another flurry of executive actions, the senate grills his picks to run the nation's budget and healthcare. then, life after the presidency. a look at the second acts of mid-life former presidents after leaving the highest office. and, jeffrey brown sits down with the director of "la la land," to talk how the unconventional musical is ushering the past into the modern age. >> if you want to actually help an art form, or sort of contribute to it in some ways, you have to find a way to add something new. you have to update it. >> yang: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> yang: another busy day at the trump white house today, with the new president undoing more of the obama legacy. this time, the focus was on hotly-debated plans for moving oil. >> we'll see if we can get that pipeline built. >> yang: with the stroke of a pen, president trump breathed new life into two major pipeline projects: the keystone xl, running from alberta, canada, to nebraska, which then-president obama halted in late 2015; and the dakota access pipeline, for which the army corps of engineers decided last year to explore alternate routes across north dakota. on keystone, mr. trump directed

the state department to rule on a new application for the 1,100 mile pipeline within 60 days after it's submitted. >> a lot of jobs-- 28,000 jobs. great construction jobs. okay. keystone pipeline. >> yang: the dakota pipeline has triggered protests from the standing rock sioux tribe and others, who say it endangers cultural sites and drinking water. mr. trump ordered that all new pipelines be constructed with u.s.-made steel. the president also moved today to speed up the environmental review process for infrastructure projects, as well as the permitting process for manufacturers. >> sometimes it takes many, many years, and we don't want that to happen. and if it's a no, we'll give them a quick no. and if it's a yes, it's like, let's start building. >> yang: cutting red tape was a topic as well, at a breakfast meeting with auto executives: >> it's out of control, and we're going to make it a very short process. and we're going to either give

you your permits or we're not going to give you your permits. but you're going to know very quickly. >> yang: that drew praise from g.m. c.e.o. mary barra: >> there is a huge opportunity, you know, working together as an industry with government that we can do and improve the environment, improve safety and improve the jobs creation and the competitiveness of manufacturing. >> yang: meanwhile, mr. trump had news on making a nomination to the u.s. supreme court. >> next week. i'll be making my decision this week and we'll be announcing next week. >> yang: later, he huddled with senate leaders to discuss the year-old court vacancy. he also sat down with mike pompeo, the newly confirmed c.i.a. director. and there were reports that he's asking james comey to stay on as f.b.i. director. white house spokesman sean spicer would not confirm that, but he did discuss the president's belief, which he repeated to congressional leaders on monday, that hillary clinton won the popular vote because of ballot fraud. >> the president does believe that. he's stated that before.

i think he's stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign, and he continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence people have presented to him. >> yang: election officials across the country say there is no evidence to support the claim. meanwhile, president trump will address a joint session of congress on february 28. on capitol hill, four more of mr. trump's cabinet-level nominees sailed through committee votes and headed to the full senate. dr. ben carson, for secretary of housing and urban development; billionaire investor wilbur ross, to be commerce secretary; south carolina governor nikki haley, for united nations ambassador; and for secretary of transportation, elaine chao, a former labor secretary. late this afternoon, the full senate confirmed haley. the nominee to run the small business administration says her experience building "world wrestling entertainment," or the w.w.e., is just what's needed to do the job. linda mcmahon also told her

confirmation hearing today that she and her husband once lost their home to bankruptcy, and she said, "i know what it's like to take a hit." british prime minister theresa may will have to get parliament's approval before she starts the process of withdrawing from the european union. the united kingdom's supreme court ruled today that may does not have the authority to do it on her own. in response, the government told the house of commons it will rush legislation to approve the beginning the brexit process. secretary of state for exiting the european union, david davis: >> the purpose of this bill is that is what the british people voted for, and that is what they would expect. parliament will rightly scrutinize and debate this legislation, but i trust no one will seek to make it a vehicle for attempts to thwart the will of the people, or frustrate or delay the process of leaving the european union. >> yang: lawmakers will have a chance to offer amendments on worker rights and other issues and that could delay brexit. the israeli government has announced plans to build 2,500

new homes in jewish settlements in the west bank. it's the second such move since president trump took office. he has indicated he will be much more receptive to settlement expansion than president obama was. israel says the new homes will be in existing settlements that they would retain in any peace deal with the palestinians. a palestinian spokesman condemned the announcement. russia, turkey and iran pledged today to shore up a fragile cease-fire between the syrian regime and rebel groups. the announcement came at the conclusion of peace talks they hosted in kazakhstan. the opposition quickly objected, especially to iran's role.

>> yang: in central italy, search teams found ten more bodies in a hotel wrecked by an avalanche last week. that brings to 17 the number killed when the wall of snow smashed into the site. rescue crews have been working for days to try to find more survivors. nine people have been found alive so far; a dozen are still unaccounted for. on wall street today, bank stocks helped fuel a rally that set new records. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 113 points to close at 19,912. the nasdaq rose 48 points, and the s&p 500 added almost 15. both the nasdaq and the s&p closed at all-time highs. and the oscar nominations are out, and "la la land" got a record-tying 14. the romantic musical will contend with eight other films for "best picture," including "hidden figures," "manchester by

the sea" and "fences." overall, this year's nominees are much more diverse, with seven actors of color out of a total of 20. still to come on the newshour: two presidential nominees get grilled by senators; a shifting u.s. environmental policy, starting with the keystone and dakota oil pipelines; life after the oval office-- what presidents do when they leave the white house, and much more. >> yang: on capitol hill today, it was another marathon round of confirmation hearings for president trump's cabinet nominees. his pick to head the department of health and human services, georgia congressman tom price, took his turn before the senate finance committee. just like last week, the physician-lawmaker faced tough

questioning on what will happen as the administration moves to repeal the affordable care act. last weekend, mr. trump signed an executive order allowing the administration to delay, waive or change parts of the law that are too much of a "burden." senators wanted to know what that means-- starting with oregon democrat ron wyden. >> will you guarantee that no one will lose coverage under the executive order? >> i guarantee you that the individuals that lost coverage under the affordable care act, we will commit to making certain that they don't lose coverage under whatever replacement plan comes forward. that's the commitment that i provide to you. >> the question again, is will anyone lose coverage; and you answered to something i didn't ask. will you commit to not implementing the order until the replacement plan is in place? >> what i commit to the american people, is to keep patients at the center of healthcare.

and what that means to me is making certain that every single american has access to affordable health coverage that will provide the highest quality healthcare that the world can provide. >> what the congressman is saying is, the order could go into effect before there is a replacement plan. and independent experts say this is going to destroy the market in which millions of americans buy health coverage. and on the questions that i ask, "will the congress commit that nobody will be worse off," we did not get an answer. >> yang: senators also tried find out what role price was playing in crafting the president's health care alternative, without much success. not far from price's hearing, the senate budget committee grilled the president's pick to head the office of management and budget. lisa desjardins has that story. >> reporter: congressman mick

mulvaney was introduced at this morning's hearing as a "vigilant budget hawk." the staunch conservative is president trump's choice to lead the white house budget office. >> i believe, as a matter of principle, that the debt is a problem that must be addressed sooner rather than later. i also know that fundamental changes are necessary in the way washington spends and taxes if we truly want a healthy economy. >> reporter: mulvaney was elected as a south carolina representative in 2010, in the tea party wave. he told senators today that medicare, medicaid and social security need significant changes to be preserved for the future. but mr. trump used different words when he spoke to the conservative news site "the daily signal," in may 2015. >> i'm not going to cut social security, like every other republican, and i'm not going to cut medicare or medicaid. >> reporter: vermont senator bernie sanders pressed mulvaney on the contrast. >> will you tell the president of the united states, "mr. president, keep your word, be honest with the american people, do not cut social security, medicare and medicaid?"

>> the only thing i know to do is to tell the president the truth. and the truth is that, if we do not reform these programs that are so important to your constituents in vermont, and to mine in south carolina, i believe in nine or ten years the medicaid trust fund is empty. and roughly in 17 or 18 years, the social security trust fund is empty. >> reporter: the sustainability of social security also came up in an exchange between mulvaney and fellow south carolinian lindsey graham. >> would you agree with me that for younger workers, they may have to work longer before they enter the program, to save the program? >> i've already told my children to prepare for exactly that. >> reporter: mulvaney said he doesn't want to cut entitlements for people already receiving benefits. and, he said he agrees with president trump's plan to boost the pentagon's budget. that issue, and mulvaney's record on the military, came up during his second hearing this afternoon, before the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee.

>> what's more important, the budget or the military? >> our number one priority is to defend the nation. >> that's nice to hear it's important. i spent my congressional career pitting the military against the budget and you determined the military is less important. >> reporter: the nominee was also forced to answer for his failure years ago to pay more than $15,000 in payroll taxes for a household worker. mulvaney said it was a mistake. >> i did not consider her a as soon as it was brought to my attention, i did the only thing i knew to do, which was to take every step to fix it. i will pay any penalties, any interest, any late fees, and abide to the law to the best of my ability. >> reporter: some democrats have said that error is disqualifying, and nominees have

confronted similar issues in the past. two of president clinton's picks for attorney general, kimba woods and zoe baird, withdrew for a failure to pay taxes on household help. that led to revelations that two already confirmed secretaries, ron brown and federico pena, had also failed to pay employee taxes. and in 2009, tax concerns sank tom daschle, president obama's choice for the health and human services department. but tim geithner was confirmed as treasury secretary that year, despite not paying all of his personal taxes. >> and mull vain was also pressed on the 2013 government shutdown. he was one of the conservatives who said it was worth not compromising and allowing the showdown to make their point about the affordable care act which he wanted to repeal. one thing, though, republicans say despite all the pressing from democrats, they think all these nominees will ultimately be confirmed, john, even as we

see some of the votes continue to be postponed in hearings, john, it's really a question of republicans, they say, of not if but when. >> yang: one nomination president trump says he will make next week is to the spfnlgt what are you hearing about the meeting? >> we're hearing it was a short meeting. i have multiple sources, republican and democrats, telling me it lasted about 30 minutes. from the republican side, one version, saying it was a step in the right direction, productive and frank. the other side said the nominee must be from the main stream. how eride that, both sides are gearing for a fight. republicans are brace themselves for the possibility that they may not be able to get 60 votes which is the requirement right now for a supreme court nominee and they seem to be considering a discussion over changing that

rule down to 50. that will be a monumental change and seems like it might be ahead. >> yang: give us update on what is the big trump goal on the hill which is to repeal and replace the affordable care act. >> there are deadlines coming up on that in a couple of days. friday, that's the deadline for committees to put in their language for what the repeal should look like, not the replacement. the replacement will be a huge topic for conversation, perhaps the biggest, when house and senate republicans go to philadelphia starting tomorrow for their retreat. this is going to be where they lay out their game plan for the entire year and at the very top of the agenda, republicans will try to work out amongst themselves how they want to deal with the obamacare replacement. >> yang: and another trump priority thought the democrats on the hill might be able to work with them on was the

infrastructure project. i understand the democrats had something to say about that today. >> democrats agree, we also want to expand american infrastructure and do more on it, but that's where the agreement ends. democrats' proposal today is a $1 trillion infrastructure plan. the difference seems in how they would pay for it. democrats say they would like to close tax loopholes. we're waiting to see what president trump proses, how large the infrastructure plan is. but republicans say on the hill, no way to what the democrats are going. they want a straight spending plan. republicans want a tax credits that go more to businesses rather than just hiring for paving highways and such. so they agree on one thing that america needs more roads and bridges but they certainly disagree on how to do it. >> yang: the republicans complained a lot about president obama's executive actions. we've had a lot of executive actions from president trump so far. what's been the reaction on the

hill? >> this has been an interesting story line today. republicans are happy with the executive actions, things like the keystone keystone pipeline in canada, they've pushed for that. but the details of the executive actions, today another on pipelines, the congress was asked to come up with a plan to make sure pipelines be made with american steel. that's something they talked about in the campaign but something house speaker ryan took out of the bill. not all republicans like the bill. they're not sure it's good for business. >> yang: lisa desjardins, thank you very much. >> yang: president trump today signed a number of executive orders, several of them in keeping with his stated intention to undo much of

president obama's environmental legacy. william brangham has that story. >> brangham: president trump today signed two executive orders, giving new life to two of the most contentious oil pipelines in america: the dakota access pipeline, which hundreds of native american groups have been protesting, as well as the keystone xl pipeline. both of these had been delayed or put on hold by the obama administration. to understand how these moves fit into the trump administration's broader plans for energy and environmental policy, i'm joined by valerie volcovici, she covers this for reuters. welcome. >> thank you. so let's talk about the two pipelines. the dakota access pipeline, what did trump's order say about that? that he wants to expedite theid process. as you well know the dakota access process has really galvanized native american tribal sovereignty issues, brought together environmentalists, social activists in addition to tribes, so it's been one of the more

high profile protests we've seen in a while. right now it's kind of stalled because former president obama ordered an environmental review of our kind of contention section of this pipeline that the tribe argues crosses into some sacred sites. his aim is to move it along. >> brangham: he wants to get it built. >> he wants to get it built and said so on the campaign trail and is following through on day four of the administration. >> brangham: what about the keystone xl? this goes from canada to the gulf and one that president obama for many years seemed to wrangle and debate and eventually deny the permit for it. what did trump do today? >> invited canada to reapply. transfatranscanada said it wanto

reapply. they will do an environmental impact assessment on the permit that needs to be done within 60 days, another sign trump wants to fast track this. the keystone fights last add congress long time and became a symbol of president obama's environmental goals and really also galvanized the environmentalists. >> brangham: these orders don't guarantee that they will go forward, they just seemed to move the ball closer to the goalpost, right? >> right, but this will be, you know, everything will be at the discretion of the various agencies involved and i guess one could assume that they would lean in favor because now we have a different administration in. we can also expect to see legal challenges. the lawyer for the standing rock tribe said they will be focusing on the legal battles, they will be in court. >> brangham: president trump

has said all along this is about jobs, primarily. do we have a sense of how many jobs these two pipelines would generate? >> he said this morning when he was announcing these orders that the keystone pipeline would create 20,000 jobs. previous assessments of the pipeline said the permanent jobs created are little more than a dozen or two dozen jobs. >> brangham: two dozen jobs. yeah, so the numbers are always in conflict. they are always very much contested, when you look at the permanent and the temporary jobs. i think that environmental groups will argue that, as far as these pipelines being job creators, in the long term not so much because the permanent jobs are just much fewer than the temporary jobs. but we saw president trump yesterday met with labor union representatives, very strong proponents of both these pipeline projects, and they were very, very happy after their meeting with president trump

yesterday, and one of the labor leaders today said, you know, we're really excited to see, you know, he's not all talk, he's action, and they were very happy to see it early on. >> brangham: there were a few other executive orders the president issued today that pertained to. this what were these about? >> these orders were more generally talking about the overall process of approving these pipeline projects and different infrastructure projects. >> brangham: speeding the process along? >> speeding the process. a very interesting addition is that a pipeline project should use american steel, american labor, so using some of trump's america-first energy and broader policy, that's kind of injected into his approach to pipelines and infrastructure. >> brangham: more broadly, i know you've studied the obama administration's policy and the trump administration's policy. how do these pipeline projects fit into that larger vision, as

you see it? >> well, candidate trump made it very clear what he wants to see. he has seen former president obama's environmental regulations as something that's choking the u.s. economy, that's preventing jobs from being created. former president obama did not really see that they were an impediment to job creation and he liked to high light u.s. emissions went down as the economy grew. so trump's vision is very different. he sees an all of the above energy strategy with a very heavy focus on fossil fuels, he sees that as a way to create this american renaissance and manufacturing and, you know, those good old blue-collar jobs he was really talking about very much on the campaign trail. so for him, it's part of his economic vision, the environmental gains of the obama administration were seen as an impediment to those goals.

>> brangham: valerie volcovici of reuters, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> yang: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: does more police in schools improve safety, or make racial disparities worse? and, the inspiration behind the film with the most oscar nominations-- the musical "la la land." but first, when former president obama lifted off from the u.s. capitol friday, he joined one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. there are just five living ex-presidents. today, a former president can do pretty much whatever he wants. after a weekend in palm springs, president obama and his wife reportedly flew to the british virgin islands for some vacation time. but what next? judy woodruff sat down with atlantic writer barbara bradley hagerty, who spent several months looking at how presidents who left office at relatively young ages decided what to do

with the rest of their lives. this is part of the newshour's ongoing partnership with the atlantic. >> well generally, presidents throughout history, unless presidents were wealthy, they generally had to work. so, george washington became the largest whiskey distiller. and, you know, william howard taft became the supreme court chief justice. so they had to work. but more recently, what i was interested in seeing is that presidents are living so long now, and when a president leaves in midlife, at the peak of his game, what does he do then? what does he do for an encore? >> woodruff: so over time, the idea of what to do and the amount of time has changed. take us back to modern presidents; i mean, you looked at jimmy carter. >> jimmy carter. he had a rough landing after his presidency, which is not atypical. so jimmy carter loses in a

landslide to ronald reagan, and he comes home to plains, georgia, and there he finds that his business, his peanut business, is a million dollars in debt, that his house is in need of repair, and literally, the forest has come right up to his back step, their back step. and it was kind of this metaphor for jimmy carter's life. how does he navigate through the thicket, how does he have meaning in his life, after he was a one-term, relatively unpopular president? so that was his challenge. >> woodruff: and he was in his mid-50s. >> he was. he was 56. >> woodruff: so how did he go about figuring out what he would do? >> when you look at carter, what you saw was a man who was, his personality, he was very smart, very ambitious, and he had a kind of biblical ethos. in fact, walter mondale told me that jimmy carter said, "you know, when this is all over, i want to be a missionary." so there's that. and then there was his presidency, and what you saw in the presidency, it was a rough presidency, but he had this one defining area, right, camp david, peace between israel and

egypt. and so what he did is, he took those two things and he created the carter center, and the carter center absolutely redefined the post-presidency for everyone who came behind him. he created this institution where he could do freelance diplomacy and other good works around the world. the carter center has monitored more than 100 elections. he's won the nobel peace prize. he also kind of got under-- he was kind of a burr under the saddle of his successors, because of this ethos, this "peace at any cost" type of ethos. he ended up interfering in their policies. for example-- under president clinton, north korea was developing nuclear weapons, and carter went over as a private citizen and said that economic sanctions were off the table. he said this on television. and clinton was absolutely furious. >> woodruff: so after the jimmy

carter legacy of building up the carter center, a couple of presidents later, along comes bill clinton, very different set of circumstances. >> yes, absolutely. and bill clinton also had a pretty rough landing when he was the ex-president. on his first day out of office, he went to the coffee shop in chappaqua, new york, to get a cup of coffee, and suddenly he was surrounded with a phalanx of reporters, right? and they were shouting questions at him, "why did you pardon marc rich," the fugitive financier. "why did you do that?" and suddenly he found himself completely naked, you know. he didn't have a press office to protect him, he had no barrier between himself and the rest of the world, and it was a really rough time for him. made all the more rough because he was counting on some speeches to help him with his debt. as you remember, he came out of office with $12 million in legal fees because of the impeachment proceedings.

he paid a lot to his lawyers. all of those speeches just disappeared overnight because of the marc rich controversy, so it was a pretty tough time for him. >> woodruff: you wrote, i think, that clinton was described as having given a lot of thought to his post-presidency. >> yes, apparently from the first day. apparently from the first day he was in office, he was thinking about his post-presidency, and he set up the clinton foundation when he was still president. so he had given a lot of thought to it. it's just those plans were a little bit delayed while he had to get through those first, rough months. >> woodruff: how do you see the clinton foundation and what it's been able to accomplish, compared to jimmy carter's work at the carter center? >> well, the clinton foundation is kind of the carter center on steroids, right? i mean-- and it reflects bill clinton's personality. and so when he started this clinton foundation, it is a global enterprise to do good. they've done a lot of good.

they've gotten sugary drinks out of public schools, they've driven down the price of aids medicine in africa. >> woodruff: but with the clinton foundation comes a lot of money. they raised a lot of money, and then there were questions about how that money was spent. >> yes, there was questions about how the money was spent and whom he raised the money from: the royal saudi family and blackwater. there's kind of really a lot of murkiness, which actually did not help his wife and her presidential campaign, of course. there were a lot of questions about it. but you know what bill clinton did with his post-presidency is, he turned it into a money-making enterprise for himself. so since 2001, bill clinton has earned $250 million in speaking fees and in book contracts. as one person said it, "being president is a really, really good career move."

>> woodruff: his successor, george w. bush, comes along, has, of course, his own set of issues during his presidency, and approaches his ex-presidency very differently. >> very differently. he was delighted not to be president. he tells this story that the day after he left the white house, he's down in crawford, texas, and he opens a newspaper and he looks at the news, and he thinks, "what are we going to do about this?" and then he realizes, "i don't have to do anything about this. this is no longer on my watch." so he closes up the papers, he grabs his two dogs, drives to the office and starts writing anecdotes for his book. so, he absolutely loved being away, from what i understand, from the everyday pressures of the presidency. >> woodruff: and he's been one of the less visible former presidents. >> yes, he has. >> woodruff: how do you account for that? >> i think it's personality. his speechwriter said that the reason he seems content is because he is content. he isn't trying to burnish his legacy. he's unbothered about the

criticism of his eight years in office, the wars and the recession and all of that. and so what he does is, he does the things that give him meaning and purpose. he's pivoted toward his friends, toward mountain biking, toward golfing. also, he goes to africa and he looks in on the clinics and things like that. but you know what he's really into right now is, he's into painting. took it very seriously. he took lessons, he does it hours every day, and now he's painting. he's painted war veterans, many of them wounded, as a kind of tribute to them. >> woodruff: so let's talk about president obama. he's out of office, he's got his own eight-year legacy, and a very different set of circumstances than he anticipated as he left office. >> this election really muddied the waters. there was a sense that the world was barack obama's oyster. he could do anything he wanted. he could work on gun control or race relations of criminal

justice reform, climate change. he could own a basketball team. he could teach law. he could do anything he wanted. the day after the election, we realized that his opportunities were circumscribed, at least at the beginning. because there's a republican president and congress who is actually actively seeking to undo some of his greatest achievements. what's really interesting about this time, is this election actually gave him a new, unexpected purpose. because the clintons are no longer really the head of the democratic party. he's the senior statesman in the democratic party. he knows that he needs to begin to work on developing new talent, bringing the party along. and so he's got this short-term purpose as well. >> woodruff: the other thing about president obama was the importance to him of family. he spoke about living over the store, being able to have dinner every night with his daughters, and that will affect his life post-presidency.

>> absolutely. you know, erik erikson, the great psychologist, said you need three things for midlife: you need work, love and play. and he has-- he will find meaningful work; and he has play: he bodysurfs and plays basketball and reads voraciously; and then, love. he's got a lot of friends, but he's got his family. i mean, this was a man who spent his childhood kind of without a father, and in many ways, he defines himself more as a dad and a husband than he does as a president or ex-president. so, kind of one of the things that people told me is that leaving the white house is not going to be difficult for him. what's going to be really difficult is watching his children leave the nest. >> yang: since the shootings at

columbine high school in 1999, there's been a big rise in police stationed at schools. there are 44,000 of them around the country. it's led to concerns over their role and whether teenage behavior is sometimes being inappropriately criminalized. a new analysis of federal civil rights data by education week finds that black students are more likely to attend schools with police officers present, and they are three times more likely to be arrested on campus than white students. special correspondent kavitha cardoza, with our partner education week, has a report on how the st. paul public schools in minnesota are revamping their approach, for our weekly series, "making the grade." >> reporter: minnesota. it's known for the vikings, lake woebegon and being "nice." but in the past year, a series of violent interactions within the st. paul school system has

taken center stage. school fights; teacher assaults; and one incident where a visiting student was arrested for trespassing. all caught on cell phones and of course, widely shared on social media. teachers threatened to strike; the superintendent was fired; and more than 100 students walked out in protest. makkah abdur salaam is a senior. >> the truth is, i don't feel safe around police. like, it's point blank, period. >> reporter: students like saffiyah al'aziz muhammad say rocky police-civilian relations have filtered down to schools all over the country. >> us seeing all this police brutality in the media, then going to school and then your interactions with school police aren't good, it's kind of like, traumatizing a little bit.

>> reporter: nationwide, there were nearly 70,000 arrests during the 2013 school year. and in most states, black students are far more likely to be arrested, according to an analysis of federal data by the education week research center. one reason might be that they are far more likely to be in schools with police officers. laura olson is trying to change the relationship between students and police officers in st. paul schools. >> if students don't feel safe when they come to school, they're not going to be in a position to learn. >> reporter: one of the first things she did? change the uniforms. some students expressed that they felt uncomfortable, kind of that paramilitary look. so over the summer, instead of the hard, military-style, blue and metal badge, they moved to a more soft, blue polo shirt with stitched on badge. officers, known as school resource officers, are still

armed and carry tasers, but olson hopes this "softer" look makes them more approachable. another change? clarify when s.r.o.'s should step in, and when should they step aside. >> we realized that we had a bit of a disconnect between, what is perceived as behavior, and what is criminal activity? what is the line between what schools handle and what the s.r.o. handles? and sometimes the lines were a little blurry. >> reporter: commander kevin casper has also increased training for s.r.o.'s, in areas like mental health and de-escalation. he's creating a different mindset. >> we want to be more guardians than warriors. if a family, if a mom or dad, caught their kid with marijuana, their first instinct wouldn't be to turn them over to the police and get them into the criminal justice system. >> reporter: casper tells of a student who was suicidal.

>> so the s.r.o., kind of like, became his life coach. coached him, trained him, and he actually made the football team, and he's doing great. >> reporter: that is a very emotional story for you, tell me why? >> it is personal. to think that cops don't want the best for the community and kids, is way, way out of what i see day to day. >> reporter: it's personal for officer tong yang as well. >> i'm also an advisor of the kids, social worker, counselor, a father figure, a coach in sports, life coach. a little bit of everything. >> reporter: now, yang only gets involved when there's an actual crime committed. instead, he works on building relationships. >> we've been pushing to be more proactive, be more visible, be

more approachable, building that bond between us and the kids, having that trust factor. >> reporter: most st. paul teachers want s.r.o.'s in schools. they recently threatened to strike over school violence. >> as teachers, we just want to feel fully supported by everyone. >> reporter: the new teacher contract now includes money for additional supports, including counselors and social workers. so have efforts to overhaul school policing in st. paul worked? it's barely been a year, but the police point to far fewer student arrests and administrators say the school climate has improved. but ask some students? they aren't so sure. >> that's a tough question. >> it's a tough question. >> i feel like they could be better. >> i would say its better than last year. >> the year is not over though. >> yeah, that's true. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour and education week, i'm kavitha cardoza reporting from st. paul, minnesota.

>> yang: finally tonight, who would have thought? a movie musical, set in contemporary los angeles, and it's become a commercial and critical hit. today, it was nominated for 14 academy awards, tying "titanic" and "all about eve" for the most nominations ever. jeffrey brown sat down with the director of "la la land," who received two nominations himself, including "best original screenplay." this report is part of our ongoing coverage of awards for the 2016 movie season, "beyond the red carpet." ♪ ♪

>> brown: the story itself is well-worn: two young performers striving to make it big in the land of the stars. but "la la land" aims to take an old form, the movie musical, and give it renewed life and broader appeal, placing it firmly in the here and now. ♪ ♪ in new york recently, writer- director damien chazelle told me he spent six of his 32 years on earth trying to sell studios on the film. >> not just a musical, but an original musical, so you're not even going to be familiar with the songs going in. we can't even sell that. everything about it seemed very, like, this could never possibly have an audience or make money, >> brown: but this is a film all about beating the odds. it stars ryan gosling as a jazz pianist who thinks all the great music came from an earlier era and is stubbornly trying to bring it back; and emma stone as an aspiring actress struggling to land a role and wondering if she has what it takes. >> i grew up with movies. musicals, i kind of held at

arm's length for a while, as a kid. then i belatedly fell head over heels in love with them. i fell in love, specifically, with old hollywood musicals, like "singin' in the rain," "top hat," and the french new wave ♪ i'm singing in the rain ♪ just singing in the rain >> so i think, as soon as i fell in love with those movies, i was thinking already about how could you do something like that today. >> brown: what did you hear in those films? what grabbed you, at whatever age you were? >> the reveling in what only movies can do, the sort of unbridled experimentation, the audacity, the privileging of emotion over anything else, the privileging of image and sound and telling a story that way. not just telling it through dialogue or through things that you could do in literature or in a play, but really just indulging in the possibilities

of the medium. i just felt like musicals were the most liberating form for a filmmaker. ♪ as long as i can be with you, it's a lovely day ♪ >> the language of falling in love through dance, the fred and ginger model, especially in a movie like "top hat" or a movie like "swing time," a number like, "isn't it a lovely day to be caught in the rain?," which is one of the early numbers in "top hat." the bickering couple, where the dialogue is telling you that they're not in love, but they start to kind of sing and they start to dance, and the song and the dance is what tells you, "oh, actually, there's something underneath here." >> brown: you're also working here with actors ryan gosling and emma stone, who are not known for singing and dancing. >> yeah. part of the intention was to not

have it be people who you had seen in a musical before, so it's not a situation where you're sitting there waiting for them to break into song. i wanted to cast actors, first and foremost, and just people who would really flesh out these characters, with the same amount of depth and complexity and truth as they would if there were no musical numbers in the movie at all to help the lifting. and then, the numbers can emerge out of the emotions that the actors have fleshed out. that was much more important to me than the technique of the steps or the notes. >> brown: the film's received some criticism for its portrayal of gosling, a white man, trying to save a distinctly black art form, jazz. jazz is a longtime love of chazelle's. he first gained widespread

attention in 2014 with "whiplash," about a young drummer who worships the greats and desperately wants to join them, and an abusive music professor who pushes him to the brink of insanity. chazelle himself was an aspiring jazz drummer in high school. >> yeah, i love thinking about film as music, and how the two forms can speak to each other. >> brown: what does that mean, film as music? >> you know, that it's not just about putting a camera on someone or on a couple of people and having them talk, and doing shot-reverse shot and trying to passively tell a story. you're trying to ultimately say things that words can't say, and sometimes that can be done very simply. other times, it's done in very, i guess what you'd call musical ways, thinking about rhythm and tempo, playing with the sequence of shots in an edit room, or trying to make the camera dance,

trying to make the camera evoke a certain kind of melody or tempo. >> brown: but also thinking about jazz and musicals as-- i don't want to say dying art forms, i love both, and they thrive in some forms-- but they're not part of the popular culture. they're not the mainstream, mass culture. and yet, you're clearly attracted to both. i wonder what that says about you. >> sometimes i have felt a little bit like i was born in the wrong era, which i think, at least ryan gosling's character in this movie shares that viewpoint. and that was sort of personal, to write that. one thing that i think in the story of the movie that ryan gosling's character ultimately has to learn, is that there are limits to that kind of nostalgia. so it's not enough to just love something from the past and

of encase it in amber and say, "don't touch." because that actually winds up, to a certain extent, aiding its demise. if you want to actually help an art form or sort of contribute to it in some ways, you have to find a way to add something new. you have to update it. ♪ ♪ >> brown: you're very young. where does this ambition come from, to make films, to bring back the musical, to think long term, over the arc of a career? >> i guess i'm not entirely sure. the one thing i have adopted for myself as some kind of mantra is just to try to make things that scare you a little bit, to try to be testing your comfort zones. once you've done something, don't redo it, or don't stay completely in that box. try to play around and try to keep pushing, even if that means you fall on your face. but that's kind of the only

movie you really want to make, in a way, because otherwise, what are you doing? it's so much work to make a movie. it's so tiring, that it's like, you might as well be doing something that is really testing you and that, if it works out, is really going to push the medium forward. >> brown: now, damien chazelle will vie for best director, and "la la land" for best film, at the academy awards on february 26. from new york, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. ♪ ♪ >> yang: online, what does it take to write an oscar-nominated song? we talk to "la la land" composer justin hurwitz about creating the music that has a starring role in the movie. and, find all our coverage "beyond the red carpet" with features on movies, directors and our picks of the best films of 2016. that's at www.pbs.org/newshour. later tonight on "frontline," a look back at how president trump won the 2016 election.

"trump's road to the white house" draws on interviews with trump and clinton campaign insiders to dig into trump's unconventional strategy, >> donald trump is back on the road campaigning -- >> controversy from the start. in iowa, as he was interviewed by republican pollster frank luntz. >> and he and i get into an exchange over john mccain because he's taking shots at mccain, and i thought they were gratuitous. >> he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. i hate to tell you. >> did you hear that? he's a war hero because he was captured! >> i couldn't believe he said that. i was completely stunned. everyone in that room thought, this is it. it's over. >> folks, i want to make america great again. we want to get down to brass tax. we don't want to listen to his

stuff with being politically correct. we have a lieutenant of work to do. >> i asked mr. trump to have a private conversation and said we need to fix this. i saihe knew stuff i didn't know about the american people and he said you don't understand. >> trump refused to apologize. once i realized he is doubling down and being a fire for what he believes in, i'm all in. >> virtually, every republican criticized trump. >> this clip was played on every newscast for the next 24 hours. >> no guts, no glory approach. and he survived it. he survived walls and mexicans and everything. that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. and if you ever needed any evidence, just look at donald trump. >> yang: "trump's road to the

white house" airs tonight on most pbs stations. and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, our "leading edge" series explores the effectiveness of psychedelic drugs to treat mental health issues. i'm john yang. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> xq institute. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and

catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

. >> rose: welcome to the program, we begin this evening with a look at today's press conference in washington. joining me phil rucker, damian paletta, margaret brennan and jonathan karl. >> this has been an interesting day, for all the talk of shutting down the briefing room, there has been a buzz of activity at the white house for the first full weekday for president trump. the white house poll you mentioned, we've been brought in and the pool has gone in to more than a half dozen events here at the white house. almost everything the president has done, they have been running and calling sometimes at the last minute, bring the cameras in. the meeting is with-- it's been something else. >> rose: we continue with bob gates, fompler defense secretary for both barack obama and george bush. and talking about now the national security profile of the trump administration. >> i told him the same thing that i said in the senate hearing in