captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> cornish: and i'm audie cornish. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight: >> some things are law and i'm all in favor of that, and some things are common sense. this is common sense. >> woodruff: a federal appeals court takes up president trump's controversial immigration order. >> cornish: also ahead this tuesday, how the confirmation of betsy devos as education secretary might affect students and teachers across the country. >> woodruff: and, in our "race matters" series, the challenges facing minorities with autism, and one family's mission to tear down the obstacles leaving too many without the help they need. >> if you're anything other than a seven-year-old white boy, even if you're a seven-year-old white girl, you're less likely to be identified with autism. >> cornish: all that and more,

on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> xq institute. >> bnsf railway. >> 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. >> woodruff: we're having guests join me here at the newshour anchor desk in the coming weeks. tonight, it's audie cornish of npr news. welcome, audie. >> cornish: thanks for having me. >> woodruff: the day's top story: a federal appeals court hears arguments over president trump's executive order on refugees and immigration. the panel will have to decide whether to override a lower court that blocked enforcement nationwide. we will examine this in detail, right after the news summary. the white house says it is confident of ultimate victory in the court fight. and the president made clear today, he is willing to go to the mat. john yang reports. >> reporter: president trump vowed to fight for his executive order, all the way to the supreme court, if he has to. >> we're going to take it through the system. it's very important. it's very important to the country, regardless of me or

whoever succeeds at a later date. i mean, we have to have security in our country. we have to have the ability-- when you take some place like syria, you take all of the different people pouring-- and if you remember, isis said "we are going to infiltrate the united states and other countries through the migration." and then, we're not allowed to be tough on the people coming in? explain that one. >> reporter: the order temporarily stopped citizens of seven muslim-majority countries from entering the united states, and barred the admission of refugees. friday, a federal judge in seattle blocked enforcement. on twitter, the president warned: "the threat from radical islamic terrorism is very real. just look at what is happening in europe and the middle east. courts must act fast!" on capitol hill, representative bennie thompson, the top democrat on the homeland security committee, pressed homeland security secretary john kelly on whether any terrorists have entered the country.

>> it's entirely possible that someone that's coming in, whether it's during this stay, during the court action or previous to this period, to do us harm. >> but you don't have any proof at this point. >> not until the boom. >> not until what? >> not until they-- they act and blow something up or go into a mall and kill people. so we won't know until then. >> reporter: kelly denied that mr. trump's order was a "muslim ban." he said it made "an awful lot of sense", but he acknowledged problems with the rollout: >> in retrospect, i should have-- this is all on me, by the way-- i should have delayed it just a bit so that i could talk to members of congress, particularly to the leadership of committees like this, to prepare them for what was coming. >> reporter: kelly also told lawmakers the administration is not contemplating adding other countries for now. >> this travel pause is all about countries that are not cooperative, or can't be cooperative because of the conditions within the country,

to provide us, to provide the president, to provide me now, a confidence that the people that we're dealing with are the people who-- you know, who they say they are. >> reporter: related to all of this: the president's assertion that the new media has ignored some terrorist acts. the white house released a list of 78 incidents it said were terrorist attacks that didn't get enough news coverage. white house press secretary sean spicer: >> part of this is to make sure that the american people are reminded how prevalent some of these attacks are, and how much time and attention they have, or have not gotten. but more importantly, to make sure that they understand the unwavering commitment that the president has, that the actions that he will take to keep the country safe. >> reporter: spicer said the list of attacks was assembled after the president's statement. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang at the white house. >> woodruff: the president also repeated a claim he's made before, that the nation's murder rate is the highest in 47 years.

in fact, f.b.i. figures show it is the lowest in decades. >> cornish: in the day's other news, the senate confirmed betsy devos to be secretary of education by the slimmest of margins-- 51 to 50. vice president mike pence stepped in to cast the tie- breaking vote, part of his duties as president of the senate, but it's the first time that's happened on a cabinet nomination. we'll take a closer look at devos and the battle over her nomination, later in the program. >> woodruff: the president's choice to head the veteran's affairs department, david shulkin, sailed through committee today, and headed to the full senate. and, overnight, the labor secretary nominee, andrew puzder, acknowledged he once had an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper. in a statement, he said: "when i learned of her status, we immediately ended her employment." >> cornish: house speaker paul ryan now says congress will finish the work of repealing and replacing obamacare before the year is out, and he delivered a rough timeline today. this, after president trump said over the weekend that the process might take until next

year. >> so the question about how long it takes to effectuate the change, how long it takes to put these things in place-- that's a question that the h.h.s. can answer. but far as legislating is concerned, we're going to do our legislating this year. >> cornish: republicans voted last month to dismantle the affordable care act, but they've missed their target date of january 27 to start drafting the legislation to make that happen. >> woodruff: the u.s. army corps of engineers cleared the way today for completion of the controversial dakota access oil pipeline. the corps notified congress that it is granting the final easement in north dakota. the standing rock sioux tribe says the pipeline's route threatens its cultural sites and water supply, and it promised a new legal fight. >> cornish: the governor of louisiana has declared a state of emergency after tornadoes in and near new orleans today. the storms damaged a number of homes and businesses, and knocked out power to thousands. there were no reports of deaths and most of the injuries were minor. >> woodruff: in afghanistan, a

suicide bomber attacked an entrance to the country's supreme court today, killing at least 19 people. officials say the attacker, on foot, targeted a side door as court employees were leaving the building in downtown kabul. 41 people were wounded, including ten critically. >> cornish: israel's parliament has touched off a new confrontation over jewish settlements in the west bank, but, it may end up being largely symbolic. last night, the knesset voted retroactively to legalize thousands of homes built illegally on palestinian land. it drew praise and condemnation alike. >> ( translated ): both sides benefit, actually. the side who owns the land but cannot fulfil its presence on it, receives a respectable amount of money and can build somewhere else; and the side who already lives there won't have to dismantle his life achievement. >> ( translated ): the israeli government passed a bill yesterday in the knesset that legalizes stealing palestinian private land in favor of settlers. this legislation is contrary to international law, and we will

continue our efforts with international courts in order to protect our existence and land. >> cornish: a number of israeli legal experts predicted the nation's supreme court will strike down the law. in washington, the trump white house said it will wait for the courts to rule, before taking a stance. >> woodruff: back in this country, first lady melania trump has reached a settlement over a libel lawsuit she filed against a blogger. he had claimed-- falsely-- that she worked as an escort in new york in the 1990s. attorneys for both sides say the settlement included his apology and a "substantial sum" of money. >> cornish: wall street had another relatively quiet day. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 38 points to close at 20,090. the nasdaq rose ten points, and the s&p 500 added half a point. >> woodruff: they turned out by the hundreds of thousands in boston today, as the super bowl champion new england patriots paraded through the streets. with trophies in hand, players and fans braved snow, rain and

wind to celebrate. new england beat the atlanta falcons sunday for its fifth n.f.l. title overall. >> cornish: and, another winner. the word of the year for 2016 is: surreal. the merriam-webster dictionary people define it as "unbelievable" or "fantastic," and they've picked it as "word of the year" for 2016. they say online searches for "surreal" spiked after last year's terror attacks. the most popular day for that search term? the day after the presidential election. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: where president trump's immigration order goes from here; fact-checking the president's claim that the press doesn't cover terrorist attacks; shocking details of a syrian prison's routine torture and executions, and much more. >> cornish: now, for the latest on the ongoing court battle over

president trump's executive order on refugees and immigration. a federal appeals court in san francisco tonight heard arguments on whether to override a lower court's decision to block enforcement nationwide. the court live-streamed audio from the room. here's part of the opening remarks from august bengee, special counsel to the u.s. justice department, arguing on behalf of the trump administration. >> congress has expressly authorized the president to suspend entry of classes of aliens when it is necessary, or when otherwise it would be detrimental to the interests of the united states. that's what the president did here. and the president's determination that a 90-day pause was needed for the seven countries that issued here in order to ensure adequate standard-- and that's language from the order-- for visa screening was plainly constitutional. >> cornish: and one more exchange, this one between noah purcell, solicitor general for washington state, and judge richard clifton.

>> we do not need to prove that it harms every muslim, or that it was directed at muslims, just need to prove in part desire to harm muslims. there are statements that are rather shocking evidence of intent to discriminate against muslims given we haven't had any discovery to find out what else might have been said in private. the public statements from the president and his top advisers reflect that intent are strong evidence certainly at this pleading stage to allow us to go forward on >> cornish: and we are joined now by newshour regular marcia coyle, of the "national law journal." all right. so what precisely is the question before the court in. >> this three-judge panel is looking at the government's

appeal of a temporary restraining order that was issued by judge robart in seattle, washington. so the court... the three-judge panel is basically going to be looking to see, did judge robart abuse his discretion in issuing that temporary restraining order. the three-judge panel is going to look at certain factors, for example, does the government have a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims here? what are the harms? who is being harmed? and so it's a very early stage in the proceedings, and the court, i believe, is not intending to rule tonight, even though it had the hearing, but basically they're just trying to flesh out each side's arguments over the temporary restraining order. >> cornish: and we heard a little bit of that. let's start with the argument from the government. how are they defending themselves here, and how are the

judges responding? >> the government is arguing that the president had broad powers under the law and the constitution to issue this executive order on immigration. the judges were concerned, though, almost immediately, with the government attorneys statement that the president issued this order after an assessment of risk that immigrants from these seven countries could pose to the united states. one of the judges pressed the government's attorney very hard on what evidence does the government have of the risk coming from immigrants from those countries. another judge pointed out that if you look at the history of terrorist attacks, they do not really come from those countries. so the government was telling the court basically that these

countries were picked because prior administrations and congress had labeled them as having had terrorist activity. the judges also brought up some of the comments that the president had made referring to whether this is a muslim ban, whether there's religious discrimination here. one of the judges asked the government attorney, can we look at what are allegations of bad faith behind this executive order, and the government's attorney said, no, you have to look at the order, the face of the order, and make a determination based on that. and the government ultimately was having a problem convincing the judges, it seemed, that the states here did not have the right to be challenging the executive order, but the government said that if we can't convince you basically that the

states shouldn't be here, the temporary restraining order is overbroad, and it should be at the very least limited to the people that the state claims are being harmed here, and that's... those are people who have been in those two states left, maybe to visit, and couldn't come back, left to visit other countries, and then couldn't come back. it should be limited just to those. >> cornish: let's go back to the speech for a second. it seems like they were putting their chips on the intent behind the order? >> they were behind it. the state's attorney noah purcell, he told the court first of all that the states did have a right to be challenging the executive order, and he faced a lot of strong questions from the judges as to the history of state standing to sue. and then the court moved into

some other areas, mostly the claim of religious discrimination here. one judge in particular, judge clifton, noted that, and i think we had snippets, that a very small percentage of muslims actually were in those countries that have been targeted by the executive order compared to the muslim population in general, and how can you say there's discrimination here and where is your evidence. and the state's attorney then did put a lot of emphasis on the president's comments and his advisers' comments about looking for a muslim ban. >> cornish: marcia coyle of the "national law journal," thank you so much for speaking with us. >> my pleasure.

>> woodruff: one charge the president and his team have raised repeatedly in recent days is his claim that the news media either ignores or under-covers terrorist incidents. on monday, the president himself said, "the dishonest press doesn't want to report" on terrorist attacks. that was followed by the white house issuing a list of attacks that it contends did not get enough press attention. philip bump, who reports for the "washington post," has been looking into the accuracy of the president's claims. he joins me now from new york. so just to be clear, what exactly did the president himself say, and distinguish that from what his press secretary said. >> it's an absolutely critical distinction. the president speaking to the united states central command said that the media was not reporting, that for whatever

reason, implying there was some bias involved, the media wasn't reporting about terror attacks. the white house's press secretary then came back and modified that, tried to soften it and say, what he mend to say is these things have been underreported. that is the point at which they issued this list of 78 attacks that occurred between 2014 and 2016. >> woodruff: so you went over this list of 78 different attacks that they put down and handed out, and what did you find? >> i didn't find any that hadn't actually been reported. and that's the bar the president set. that's important to remember. he said they had not been reported. each of these 78 i had found had been reported. think progress, the liberal site, went back and found 17,000 news articles covering these 78 attacks. so it's certainly the case that these things had been reported. underreported, of course, is very subjective, and that's really where the administration right now is putting its emphasis on making that point. >> woodruff: just to back up a little bit, there were a number of terrorist attacks that were clearly covered, in fact, some would argue they were overcovered, from orlando to san bernardino to the paris attacks, brussels and so on. >> that's exactly right. i think that's why it's very safe to assume that the motivation for releasing this list wasn't necessarily to make this point about being underreported.

yes, to include on this list something like the san bernardino attack or the orlando attack, which got saturation coverage for days on end, justifiably, to include those on a list of things being underreported suggests the list itself, in that there were all these terror attacks this that the administration at this moment with this court battle going wants to make people aware that terrorism still exists as a big problem. >> woodruff: but philip bump you did find some that didn't get that much coverage. most occurred outside the united states, is that right? >> that's exactly right. so the scale of the attacks here range from the attack in paris, which was a multi-pronged attack, a soccer stadium and a music hall and cafeeé, to stabbing attacks on military officials in egypt. there was a huge range included in this. a lot of the attacks no one was killed, not that that should be a standard by which we say a terrorist attack is good or bad, but the fact all of these were packaged together as one whole suggesting this is a threat to the united states, which was the

clear implication, i think is worth noting. >> the bottom line is what the president stated is not accurate, that the press has ignored most terrorist attacks. but to go beyond that, you point out in the article this concept of working the ref. the white house approach to talking to the press about what it's going to do or not going to do in covering something that's coming up. explore that with us for a second. >> sure. so there's this idea of working with the refs, looking as the media as referee, this idea carries over from sports. it's the idea of shaping the media by criticizing the media in a very deliberate way. what donald trump said, i don't think this was planned. i think he was irritated in the moment, at the media, made these comments. i can't say that with certainty. but i think what sean spicer, the press secretary did, is very

strategic. this is trying to get this list of 78 attacks out in from the of the media and at the same time get to media to focus from here on out about the extent to which they cover terror attacks. obviously in this moment in this political moment, it is beneficial to the administration to have this perception that there are a lot of terror attacks that are going underreported that are happening all the time, this is a way i think that spicer realized of getting the media to be more attentive to should we or should we not cover this that we might not have otherwised covered. >> woodruff: there is also the question that's been raised about how much coverage of terrorist attacks or attempted attacks raises what we know is the fear level in this country, this idea that the more terrorist attacks are in the news, no matter how small or how large they may be, how many incidents, the more there is a sense of fear that begins to permeate the public. >> that's right. the point of the terror attack is to terrorize. the only way you can terrorize

is if the news media, if people in general hype the idea there is a lot of terrorism going on and there is reason to be afraid. so there is clearly a balance that any elected official has to hold to between whether or not you emphasize terror or whether or not you downplay terrorism. today during the daily press briefing, sean spicer tried to play both ways. he suggested that it was important that we talk about all these things, but that the result of that would be that people would feel safer under president trump. i'm not sure he can have that cake and eat it too. >> woodruff: it certainly was important to go down and look at this list the white house put out of 78 incidents. your reporting was important. philip bump, we thank you. >> sure. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: how the newly-confirmed secretary of education could reshape that department; on our "race matters" series, the unique

challenges facing black children with autism; and a new take on timothy mcveigh's motivation for the oklahoma city bombing. but first, amnesty international has just issued a report documenting what it says is clear evidence that the assad regime in syria has been illegally imprisoning, torturing and murdering political opponents. william brangham has more. and a warning: some of the details here are disturbing. >> brangham: amnesty's report says that somewhere between 5,000 and 13,000 people were tortured and executed at one military prison outside damascus between 2011 and 2015. amnesty alleges that officials at the highest level of the syrian government approved the killings, as did the grand mufti of syria, the highest ranking religious figure in the country. i'm joined now by sunjeev bery. he's amnesty's director of advocacy for the middle east and north africa.

>> thank you for having me. >> brangham: very, very troubling reading in the stories of this reported of the people tortured and executed. can you tell me, who were these people? >> there were thousands of civilians as well as some ex-military officers held at the prison in syria. we estimate between 10,000 and 20,000 people are held there now. for years on a weekly basis as many as 50 people have been hanged in mass executions by the syrian government at this prison. >> brangham: are these people who are picked up, what are the crimes they're accused of? >> many of them are perceived to be opposition to the government, although when you're doing this kind of mass arrest, mass torture and mass execution, who knows what the individual people's backgrounds are. of course, peaceful, non-violent opposition to a government is certainly not a crime, but with that background, many of them are subjected to forced confessions through extraordinarily brutal torture, and once that confession is put via ink to paper, then the excuse process begins. >> brangham: i understand a lot of the documentation for

this report came from people who witnessed what's going on in there. i understand that there is some kind of a trial process, so-called trial. can you explain a little bit about what goes on? >> sure, to put it in perspective, the so-called trial is a total of 1 to 3 minutes. >> brangham: 1 to 3 minutes long? >> 1 to 3 minutes per person who is later executed. so you have thousands of people in these prisons living in complete silence, under rules of complete science. a certain percentage of the population in this prison is then taken to trials via a military field court, a so-called court, in a suburb of damascus. where during a 1 to 3-minute trial, with of course no lawyer present, no due process at all, in 60 to 180 second, they are sentenced to death, that death sentence is then rubber-stamped by higher authorities up to the highest levels of government, and later they are tortured and hung to death. >> brangham: the thing so striking to me among many in this report is the bureaucracy,

the documentation of it, the fingerprinting, the getting witnesses to sign that they had never been mistreated, getting doctors to certify that all these deaths occurred because of natural causes. why do you think the regime goes to these lengths to basically catalog their own war crime? >> it is difficult to know why the regime is so efficient in its documentation of its crimes against humanity. one possibility may be the senior levels of the government, perhaps even including president bashar al assad, want to know that the crimes against humanity that they are likely to be ordering are, in fact, being carried out by the military and intelligence bureaucracy, and so with each of these executions, the executions are signed, either by the grand mufti, the highest-appointed supposedly muslim authority in syria, although if you're signing off

on all these mass executions, it's highley questionable what your personal morality is, or the army chief of staff, or one other senior level defense official, the minister of defense. >> brangham: what do you hope the international community does with this evidence? >> the first thing to do is stare the evidence in the face and acknowledge what's happening. it's time for russia and china to drop their veto at the u.n. security council and allow the united nations to take action on this. it's time more the u.s. government under president trump to stop pretending that anything other than gross crimes against humanity are happening, and it's also time to acknowledge what syrian refugees are fleeing. you have perhaps 5,000 to 13,000 people killed at this prison, another 17,000 people killed at other prisons across syria, and all of that against the back drop of some 400,000 people who died since the syrian war began. people are fleeing for their lives, and it is shameful that our own u.s. governments here have said no to syrian refugees at a time of such extraordinary suffering. >> brangham: this report is the latest piece of evidence on

a mountain of evidence that already exists about assad's regime, but assad still sits happily on his perch in syria, do you think this will move the needle in any way? >> the needle has to move. one key factor will be putting pressure on the u.n. security council to take action, that means putting pressure on the russian government, putting pressure on the chinese government and ensuring the u.s. government under the new u.s. ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, actually stands up on this issue and pushes on it a opposed to referring to president bashar al assad as some kind of ally in the so-called war against terrorism. >> brangham: sunjeev bery of amnesty international, thank you. >> thank you. >> cornish: now, let's turn back to the contentious confirmation of betsy devos as the next secretary of education. the vote was razor-thin. tonight, we look at how it went

down; what devos can do as education secretary; and the limits of her power. it's the focus of our weekly education segment, "making the grade. lisa desjardins gets us started. >> on this vote the yeas are 50, the nays are 50. the senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative and the nomination is confirmed. >> reporter: it marked the first time a vice president, presiding over the senate, has broken a tie to confirm a cabinet secretary. a dramatic ending to the nomination of betsy devos for secretary of education. and it came after 24 straight hours of debate, when democrats held a rare overnight speech-a- thon to oppose devos. but the primary doubt came from two republicans, susan collins of maine and lisa murkowski of alaska. both said devos' confirmation hearing led them to vote no.

democrats like ohio's sherrod brown tried to persuade convince other republicans. >> as many have said on this floor, based on her confirmation hearing, it appears she has a complete lack of knowledge as to what the department of education actually does. >> reporter: but a number of republicans, like tennessee's lamar alexander, defended devos. >> she led the most effective public school reform movement over the last 30 years. and i urge you to give the new president the opportunity to choose his own education secretary. >> reporter: devos is known as a "school-choice" activist, who supports for-profit charter schools, and wants public funds to be used as vouchers for private schools. she's also a billionaire, who, along with her family, has donated heavily to republicans. in the end, she survived the toughest fight for any trump nominee yet, and vice president pence swore her in late today. >> cornish: and lisa joins me now. and lisa, outs of all of these nominees, this one ended up giving the trump administration the most trouble. what happened? >> well, i think there was an overwhelming response from

america, part of that we know was individual voters following betsy devos' hearing, who called their senators, but let's not kid ourselves, there was also a huge organizational push, largely by teachers' unions. i talked to the national education association. they said they directed 1.1 million e-mails toward senators and 2,000 actions from the american federations of teachers. they made a huge push, but this is also a tale of unions. they still have influence, but they don't have decisive influence anymore. they lost. >> cornish: close but no cigar. what about democrats on the inside? what were they able to do? because i know they were able to try to peel off a republican in the last minute. >> cornish: i think democrats thought this outside push would do it. but you talk to the republicans who voted no, like susan collins, and she said what did it for her what betsy devos herself. the hearing changed susan collins' mind and the voices she

was listening to were the teachers in her state. she said the superintendent from the bangor school district, their voices said to her, we don't like betsy devos, we don't trust her to run our education system. that's who saw san collins listened to. >> cornish: what does this mean going forward for her relationship with capitol hill? >> they do have an oversight role, of course, over everything in the agency, but for the most part, audie, this is over. republicans want to move on. they're hoping the education secretary, now that she's confirmed, does well, but i think watch democrats, because this is just another very difficult political decision for them. do they keep opposing everything the way their base is pressuring them, or as dick durbin said, do they take a deep breath and see what's winnable, what could change something. our producer pam crossman talked to dianne feinstein, she just shook her head and said, "it is what it is." >> cornish: lisa, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. >> cornish: with the confirmation battle behind her,

what can betsy devos do now? what is in her power to change at the education department? emma brown, i want to start by asking you about what the education secretary can actually do on her own? we've seen an administration that's willing to use executive power and try to deal with regulations. what does that mean for an education secretary? >> there are certain things the education secretary absolutely can do on her own now. one of the really important areas is civil rights, and civil rights advocates are really worried actually about what betsy devos and the trump administration will do in this realm. they could really easily with the stroke of a pen rescind or revise the obama administration's controversial guidance on transgender student accommodations in public schools. similarly, they can reverse the guidance that has really pushed schools and colleges to handle complaints of sexual violence

differently. so there is a whole realm of civil rights enforcement and investigation that is really under betsy devos' manage. >> cornish: with both the obama administration and the bush administration, there were times when their education departments and secretaries were accused of overreach. they faced massive backlash over federal initiatives. what has that shown us about the limits of power for the education secretary? >> yeah, the obama administration took the power of the education department to its limits. we saw a backlash from congress. congress did not appreciate that. and in the end, you know, they passed with overwhelming majorities, a new federal education law, the every student succeeds act, that really reined in the education secretary's authority and shifted quite a bit of authority from the federal government in general back the states and local districts, and so there is a real sensitivity right now in washington to the federal role in education, and republicans really want to see that federal role shrunken.

>> cornish: that being said, we know that candidate donald trump advocated for block grants to states to support school choice programs. so now that he will have an education secretary who also believes in vouchers and school choice, what is the appetite on capitol hill for something like that? right? they hold the purse strings. they would have to approve the legislation to make it happen. >> absolutely. and this is where betsy devos is going to need cooperation from congress. you know, either in the budget language or in legislation. so trump's proposal was a $20 billion proposal, which is really huge. we spend $15 billion right now on title 1 funds, which is all the money that goes from the federal government to support schools that serve lots of kids who are low income. so $20 billion is huge. i think that a lot of folks in

the education community saw that as a really heavy lift even before all this pushback against devos, but there are other ways she can promote school choice. they can do it through tax code overhaul. they can look for examples like the d.c. voucher program. we have the only federally funded voucher program here in d.c. to expand that. and so there will be i think at least the beginnings of efforts to expand school choice maybe on a smaller scale first before goinged to bigger pushes. >> cornish: given the fight over her nomination, what do you see as the political kind of hurdle going forward? >> well, i think that the folks who have opposed her, including the teachers' unions but also civil rights advocates and the folks who just weren't connected to either of those groups but just came out against her because they said they believed in public schools, i think the goal of the opponents of betsy devos will have to continue mobilizing those forces to watch everything she does and to continue applying pressure on congress to serve as a watchdog. so i think, you know, she's

going to have to prove that she is an advocate for sort of this whole constituency that came out against her in the last few weeks. >> cornish: emma brown of the "washington post," thank you. >> thanks. >> woodruff: now, the story of an african american family that knows autism first hand, and the particular challenges facing communities of color. autism rates among african americans are the same as rates among whites, but african american children are often diagnosed with autism at an older age, missing potential years of treatment. special correspondent john donvan and producer karen zucker have our report. >> reporter: here's how handsome this man named jason harland is. this 29-year-old, who lives just outside chicago, and it's his mother's thought-- her name is debra vines-- that with looks like these...

>> jason's going to be the first autism model on the cover of "gq" magazine. >> reporter: that's the dream? >> it is. >> reporter: now, the obstacles to that ever happening may seem huge, because jason does indeed have autism, of a kind that means he has quite limited language, so that only a very few people-- like his dad, james-- have the insight it takes for real two-way communication with him. jason also has a limited repertoire of skills, like tidying up, which he excels at and loves. but in most ways, for meeting his own basic needs, he has to count on constant help from others. and then, there is this other factor complicating jason's journey through life. he is black. and when you are black and autistic, you face a set of disparities that significantly raise the challenges. they begin with the fact that when it comes to autism,

diagnosis skews white. neuropsychologist laura anthony puts it bluntly: >> if you're anything other than a seven-year-old white boy, even if you're a seven-year-old white girl, you're less likely to be identified with autism. >> reporter: it's in the c.d.c.'s own statistics, where the reported autism rate among black eight-year-olds, 13.2 kids per every thousand, lags the percent of white eight-year-olds by nearly 20%. among latino children, the gap is even larger, at 50%. anthony is a clinician and researcher who works with a lot of kids who have autism, like nine-year-old jaja. she says the undercounting of children of color denies them appropriate care. it happens in part because autism diagnosis is a judgment call on a child's behaviors, and inadvertently... >> we have a bias. even though we don't want to, we have a bias that that's what autism looks like. >> reporter: jason, in fact,

escaped that particular bias. he was diagnosed with autism at eighteen months, which is actually early. rather, it is another sort of discrepancy that has challenged him, which his mom illustrated by taking us all out on a stroll to where the des plains river north of chicago flows between two communities-- maywood, where she lives to the north, and which is mostly black; and to the south, the mostly white community of river forest. >> once you're in river forest, the services for the special needs is like the holy grail, services just open up for special rec, for education, for advocacy, for a.b.a. >> reporter: so compared to that way where you live? >> there's no special rec this way. >> reporter: now, debra is not a complainer. she's an agitator. and there's a difference. the first afternoon we spent with her, she was setting the table for a gala dinner and auction in support of her own startup, whose name is... >> the answer, inc.

>> reporter: the answer? >> the answer, because so many families are always asking questions, so we want to be able to provide the answers. >> reporter: because she knew, first hand, since way back in early 1980s when jason was little, just how far behind her community was in being able to help people like her boy. that was when she had to travel half an hour by train to find a support group, only to find that: >> i was the only african american there, and this was, i would say, middle- to upper- class families, so they would drive a mercedes, they would, you know, had on nice jewelry, they had their children with specialized services, just an array of things, and i just felt really isolated. >> reporter: did you get a cold shoulder? >> absolutely not. they were very welcoming. i guess a lot of it might have been me. the fact that i had to go outside my community, and then find out that "you're doing it

all wrong, debra, you're doing it all wrong," and it's because of where you live. >> reporter: meanwhile, she also learned that her own african american community was not entirely accepting of jason's differences. >> one particular church that we were going to, the pastor came and told me that a couple of people had come to him and said they were uncomfortable with jason standing up during the sermon, and being disruptive, that he was being disruptive, and things like that. >> reporter: and james told me that isolation comes also from shame, which he admitted to feeling, embarrassed that his kid was not like his friends' kids. >> these milestones, they're talking this, that, and the other, and i say, "well, jason learned how to tie his shoes." and you get these looks, "he's seven years old and you just now learned to tie his shoes?" >> reporter: what did you feel? >> i literally got a warm feeling came all over me from being embarrassed. and what that made me do is kind of withdraw myself, you know, being honest, let me draw back. i wouldn't say anything about by

son. eventually, i quit going to the sports bar. >> reporter: the isolation hit other families in the community with autistic kids-- and there were many. these are their faces. they were cut off from each other, instead of organizing to demand more support for their loved ones, as families in white communities had been doing for decades. but this local state senator, kimberly lightford, says shame and stigma are only part of it. >> i think the connection is just being under-privileged, under-utilized. communities of color not receiving proper resources, lack of job opportunities, that provide insurance. so you have families, they just do enough to get by, but all of those essentials, "i can't go to the doctor because i'm on public assistance," or "i can't go to get this additional help, just because i feel like i can't do it." >> reporter: but here's what's changed around maywood. remember that gala debra was setting up?

well, now it's the night itself, where she showed up, dolled up, like it was the 1920s. so did everybody else. harlem nights was the theme. and these many families, once cut off from each other? here they were a big family together, out in public, proud of who they are. touched by autism. unburdened by shame. and grateful that debra started the answer, inc. >> they educate the community, police department, they serve the kids. >> i feel like i'm not in it by myself with the answer. >> thank god somebody, you know, especially a person of color. >> reporter: there's also a program called "just for men," which james runs. having long since stopped being embarrassed by jason, today he feels grateful to have this man as his son. >> and i tell the men at the

meeting: i've learned how to love since i've had jason. >> reporter: more than ever before? >> yes, oh yes. >> reporter: how so, why? >> because he loves unconditionally. there's no conditions attached to his love. >> reporter: the answer has served 4,000 families in its nine years, but still it's a work in progress. ♪ ♪ one challenge met, however, concerns church. this is jordan temple baptist, whose pastor stephen richardson says autistic kids, autistic adults, are all welcome. >> the fact of the matter is, it's not our church; it's god's church. >> reporter: which means it's for jason and his family too. and now sunday's are jason's favorite day of the week. when, walking into jordan temple's foyer, he's greeted like this. where his face is all you need to see to know how he loves, and where inside he gets to act like this, up and swaying, when

everyone else is praying in their seats, the very behavior that made him unwelcomed before. but here, it just doesn't matter, proving that acceptance doesn't take a miracle. not, perhaps like getting his face on the cover of "gq," but who knows? for the newshour, i'm john donvan, in maywood illinois. >> cornish: finally tonight, the oklahoma city bombing in 1995 was the largest act of domestic terrorism in u.s. history. a new documentary premiering tonight, on the pbs series" american experience," takes a fresh look at that traumatic event and what led to it. jeffrey brown has the story. >> there's heavy damage done. >> reporter: april 19, 1995. >> about a third of the building has been blown away.

>> reporter: a ryder rental truck with 5,000 pounds of explosives ripped through the alfred p. murrah federal building in oklahoma city. 168 people were killed, 19 children among them. >> i knew very little of the story. i mean, i remember like a lot of people remember that day, and the image of that building, you know, with its face blown off and sort of, an image that we weren't used to or accustomed to at the time. >> reporter: barak goodman is the director of the film, "oklahoma city." >> while i think a lot of people remember this as a simple story of a lone terrorist committing an act, it actually has very deep roots. and when we pulled on those roots, a whole other story sort of appeared. >> reporter: the film delves into the rise of white nationalist militias in the 1980s, and two later events that galvanized the country and deeply influenced oklahoma city bomber timothy mcveigh: the siege of ruby ridge in 1992,

when the f.b.i. and u.s. marshals confronted randy weaver at his home in rural idaho, resulting in the deaths of weaver's wife, son and a u.s. marshall; and the following year: waco, texas, when federal agents, responding to reports of weapons stockpiling, attempted to arrest the leader of a religious sect known as the branch davidians. a firefight broke out, killing ten, including four a.t.f. agents, and after a 51-day standoff, the complex went up in flames as agents moved in with tear gas. 75 people died. during the long standoff, then 24-year-old army veteran timothy mcveigh had been watching nearby. >> mcveigh had been very concerned about what happened at ruby ridge, so he came down to waco and sold bumper stickers

with pro-gun, anti-government slogans. he saw the raid as clear evidence of what the government would do to try to confiscate guns and persecute gun owners. >> reporter: timothy mcveigh himself was not a member of a militia, but you're convinced that that context is the way to understand him? >> without question. mcveigh himself writes, he talks in interviews that we got access to and tape-recorded interviews, about the anger he felt, the rage he felt at ruby ridge in particular, and waco and the radicalization that happened in part because of those events. and in addition to that, a series of other exposures to this movement-- "the turner diaries" was his bible. "the turner diaries" is a horrible novel, racist novel that became a, almost a talisman to this movement, very important motivating force.

and i think it actually describes a bombing of an f.b.i. building in washington-- >> reporter: which became a model. >> it describes the kind of bomb, it's very similar to the one mcveigh used. so, he was steeped in the ideas of this movement. >> reporter: the documentary breaks often from that history to return to the bombing itself, talking with eyewitnesses who still hold painful memories. it shows how much confusion there was initially about who had carried it out, and the surprise when mcveigh was arrested. >> people forget that in the

days and hours after the bombing, everyone assumed it had been middle eastern terrorism. this was bandied about on national television, and cnn and cbs and all the networks. they were all focused on middle eastern terrorism and their sources were telling them that it was likely a middle eastern terrorist. >> reporter: the film also shows the role conspiracy theories about waco and ruby played in roiling this right-wing movement. some will no doubt see parallels to today. goodman takes a longer view. >> i would say that this is a movement that waxes and wanes throughout american history and sort of appears in different forms, whether it's going back to shay's rebellion at the beginning of the history of our country, up through the reds scare, the klan years. there's a lot of different manifestations. but what unites all of it are two things really. one is a deep enmity towards our federal government, a feeling that the federal government is the seed of all evil and is a tool in the hands of enemies like the jews, like blacks, like the u.n. now. the other thing that really characterizes it is sort of conspiratorial thinking, that

way of connecting dots, that, places movement in a kind of context of a war. >> reporter: despite the theories of a larger conspiracy at work, the film shows how mcveigh, with some help from two friends, was able to pull off the bombing. but did you come to any conclusions about how this act of domestic terrorism changed the country or changed our sense of our own security or selves? >> i think it had a tremendously transformative effect. i think, first of all, for law enforcement, there was never again a naivete about the threat from domestic terrorism. i think if you went to the f.b.i. today and you really talked to people, unlike perhaps some politicians, they are very focused on the threat from domestic terrorism, they understand it and they're paying attention to it. and i think just for the ordinary citizen, although this

movement kind of oscillates, it sort of can and it did after oklahoma city, retreat and recede, that we sometimes forget about it, it's still there. it never goes away and then it will come back and i think in recent years you've seen more and more of an uptick of these lone wolf terrorist acts. and dylan roof in charleston, and any number of other such actions are no longer quite as shocking. we understand that this is part now of a motif in american life and i think that the recent incarnation of that started with oklahoma city and timothy mcveigh. >> reporter: the film is "oklahoma city." from washington, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> cornish: "oklahoma city" airs tonight on most pbs stations. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, president trump's flurry of executive orders and actions have generated a lot of attention-- and some confusion. do you know the difference between an executive order and a presidential memorandum? or which president signed the most executive orders? take our quiz to test your

knowledge. all that and more is on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> cornish: online, newshour's student re >> cornish: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm audie cornish. >> woodruff: glad to have you. and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening, when i sit down with speaker of the house paul ryan to get the congressional view of the first weeks of the trump administration. 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. >> xq institute. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic

engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> 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 >> you're watching pbs.

narrator: tonight on "spark," arts and social issues. bay area artists and designers breathe new life into san francisco's neglected urban corridor. cullinan: what if you walked to work every day? and it was fun? i mean, why not? right? narrator: with spellbinding views from the sky, a bay area photographer reveals mankind's scars on the land. hundreds of thousands of people experience chinese artist ai weiwei's ground-breaking installation on alcatraz. [ wood blocks tapping rhythmically ] an experimental setting for new music and classical greats. inside san francisco symphony's soundbox. thomas: extraordinary to think that something 400 years old could have that powerful effect on someone who's a 21st-century person. narrator: it's all ahead on "spark." funding for kqed arts is provided by...