captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, april 23: france begins voting to elect a new president. protests in venezuela amid a deepening economic crisis. and in our signature segment: examining america's blue city - red state divide. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual

and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. the first round of france's presidential election is over. exit poll projections and early returns indicate controversial nationalist marine le pen will be one of the two candidates advancing to a runoff two weeks from today. the other will be centrist candidate emmanuel macron. it appears macron and le pen will each win about a quarter of the vote in a crowded 11-candidate field. incumbent francois hollande did not seek a second five-year term. >> sreenivasan: turnout was high by american standards. by early evening around 70% of eligible french voters had participated. making his first run for office,

macron is a former investment banker who served as france's economy minister for two years. at 39, he was the youngest candidate on the ballot. his plan for reducing france's 10% unemployment rate includes strong ties with the 28-nation european union. by contrast, le pen advocates holding a referendum on leaving the european union, just as great britain voted to do last year. her far right national front party wants to reduce legal immigration, impose protectionist trade measures, and limit france's role in the u.s.-led nato military alliance. le pen's platform was the defining issue for some voters we spoke to in paris. >> i vote against marine le pen, because she is all what i hate in life: closing the border, speaking about getting out of europe, because she is racist, anti-semitic, homophobic, >> how concerned are you about the rise of marine le pen?

>> not very much. i don't fear it. i mean, she has no chance of being elected. >> if she passes, yes, i am concerned, because it is just a catastrophe economically also, not only in terms of her ideas. it's a catastrophe. she has no program. >> sreenivasan: for more on the french election results," newshour weekend" special correspondent malcolm brabant joins us from henin beaumont, two hours north of paris, at the election night headquarters of marine le pen's "national fron"" party. >> it looks like a celebratory environment and she did really well in areas in france that might be cared to the american rust belt where her opponent did well in the entrepreneurial class and the city folks. this is a similar pattern to what we saw in the u.s. >> this is the place that used to be thriving with lots of heavy industry jobs and coal mines and now you drive to the

city and you see the old coal locations and the thing is the people have lost their jobs and unemployment in this part of the world have gone done. this is a town controlled by the national front and that's the reason why she's come here. there are other areas in france down to the south for example where there are lots of immigration. and what macron her opponent has done is grabbed the center. in the election it's a battle between the right-wing, the working class and the centrists who believe in europe. >> sreenivansan: one of the facts from tonight is this was not the dominant parties france is used to. this is a turn away from the establishment. why is this significant? >> the thing is these parties,

the two main parties the republicans on the right and the socialists from the left have been around since the 19th century and people are period of them and they haven't provided solutions or protected them during the time of the attacks and there's the level of unemployment. france's economy is different in the european union. and they're looking to abandon the traditional parties. >> sreenivansan: as you told us yesterday this is almost a bit of a referendum in the staying in or leaving the european union. what happens in the next couple of weeks? >> well, i think there's going to be quite a lot of division in

the country. we've already seen some of that tonight in paris there were supporters near the bastille area that were protesting and fighting with police. we may see some social unrest over the possibility marine le pen may become the president. i also think there's going to be tremblings in the european capital. france following britain out. you should watch the euro tomorrow to see if that goes down because that will be a major concern. that's where macron will do extremely well. there are lots of french people who believe in the european project and want to stay and want france to have a voice and that may be a deciding factor when it comes to the second part. >> sreenivansan: he joins us from the national front headquarters with marine le pen

in beaumont outside of paris. >> congress face as a looming federal government shutdown. to do that it has until friday to send president trump a spending bill he will sign. one sticking point president trump demanded the bill include a $1.4 billion downpayment on his proposed border wall with mexico. homeland security secretary john kelly said today he believes the president will not back down. >> i would suspect he'll be insistent on the funding. >> a sign of the battle where the wall street journal reports none of the senators or house direct border mexico support the request. budget director mik mulvaney said it could lead to a spending agreement anytime in the next five days. >> i don't think anybody's trying to get to a shutdown. shutdown is not a desired end. it's not a tool. it's not something we want to

have. we want our priorities funded and one of the biggest priorities during the campaign was border security. keeping americans safe and part of that was a border wall. >> sreenivansan: he also said the president will outline the principles of the tax reform plan including new lower proposed tax rates. the controversy over an invited speaker at uc berkeley. find out more at pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: even with the specter of a government shutdown, some of the nation's fiercest political confrontations are occurring far from the nation's capital. in tonight's signature segment, we look at "preemption"-- when state laws take precedence over city regulations. preemptions have led to growing tension between many republican- led state governments and democratic-led cities." newshour weekend" special correspondent chris bury went to

missouri to explain this blue city, red state divide. this report is part of our ongoing series "chasing the dream," focusing on poverty and economic opportunity in america. >> reporter: fast food workers such as frances holmes are caught in a tug of war between democratic-majority cities and the republican-controlled states where they live. the 54 year old, who is primary caretaker to a one-year-old, earns $9 an hour in a state where the minimum wage is $7.70. her annual earnings last year: $13,000. >> even though i make $9 an hour, it's not enough money. my rent is $840 a month, and it's two incomes in my house, but we both work fast food jobs, so it's still, it's a struggle. >> reporter: holmes lives in st. louis, where she is engaged in a

movement to get higher pay for workers in the city, because living here is more expensive than in other parts of missouri. under a bitterly contested local ordinance that passed in 2015, the city's minimum wage was set to gradually rise from $7.65 to $11 an hour by january 2018. >> 16 aye votes, eight nay votes. >> $7.65 an hour it's not enough to survive. >> reporter: alderman shane cohn introduced the measure. why did you want to raise the minimum wage here in st. louis? >> i think it's the right thing to do for working families and the economy as a whole. when we live in a consumer- driven economy, and when consumers don't have money to spend, then our economy suffers as a result. >> you want to do the green tea mango? >> reporter: but some business owners in st. louis opposed the move. at the urban eats café, in the

working-class dutchtown neighborhood, john chen says hiking the minimum wage, even gradually, could convince some businesses to leave st. louis or to cut employee compensation in other ways. >> for many small businesses in the neighborhood, they may have to cut down hours and reduce the employee, the job count, simply because you have to bring your minimum wage from $7.70 to $10 an hour without a clear and certainty of sales increase. it will have a detrimental effect. >> reporter: business groups challenged the st. louis ordinance in state court, and just hours before the first minimum wage hike was set to take effect in 2015, the judge sided with the businesses, saying the ordinance was "in conflict" with the state's minimum wage law, which has gone up only a nickel an hour since then. dan mehan is the president of the missouri chamber of

commerce. >> if localities can do their own minimum wage, you'd have a patchwork of different wage rates that employers would be forced to adjust to whenever they're in different areas of the state. so it's a problem, and especially in the st. louis area, where you have 96 municipalities in the st. louis county alone, in addition to the city. >> reporter: but in february, missouri's supreme court overturned the lower court ruling and upheld the higher st. louis minimum wage. republicans immediately introduced new legislation to preempt the st. louis ordinance, putting it on hold once more. >> preemption is when a higher- level government tells a lower- level government, "you can't do that." or, "you have to do it." >> reporter: university of missouri political science professor terry jones says the first preemption laws here and in many other states block municipalities from enacting gun control laws. they were backed by the national rifle association starting in the 1980s and 1990s.

>> it's very forthright. it says everything dealing with guns are only the purview legally of the state legislature and the governor. local communities cannot pass any kind of separate controls or regulations dealing with firearms. >> reporter: in missouri, legislators who represent suburbs, small towns, and rural areas-- not cities-- hold most of the power. state representative dan shaul, a republican from the outskirts of st. louis, sponsored a bill to preempt all cities in missouri from setting their own minimum wage. >> i think it comes down to consistency, having one basic set of rules across the whole state. it allows employers to have a consistency and reduce regulation. i think it's just smart for business. >> reporter: but doesn't the city of st. louis and their representatives, don't they know better what's good for st. louis than you do? >> i think, you know, i was elected for the betterment of the state of missouri. and i think for us to remain

competitive with other states, other geographical areas throughout the country, it's our responsibility to make sure that missouri has the best opportunity to bring jobs and grow our economy in missouri. >> i believe that as one of the economic engines of the state, we have a right to set the precedent in terms of how we treat our employees. when the state is neglecting its own workers and wage-earners, i think that it's incumbent on local municipalities to take on those issues. >> reporter: here in missouri, republicans dominate state government, controlling majorities in both houses of the legislature by wide margins and the governorship. in fact, republicans hold unprecedented power in state capitals across the country. they enjoy majorities in 32 legislatures and hold the governor's office in 33 states. missouri is one of 26 states to preempt local minimum wage ordinances. another is alabama, which

blocked birmingham's minimum wage increase last year. according to grassroots change, a national group that tracks preemption, 15 republican- controlled legislatures, and one with a democratic majority, have adopted laws since 2010 that ban local requirements for paid sick days. milwaukee voters approved a referendum for the benefit in 2008, and in 2011 wisconsin governor scott walker signed into law a measure that preempts it. other state preemptions have prevented city regulations on plastic grocery bags, pesticides, e-cigarettes, and sugary drinks. >> as a policy tool, preemption has been used primarily by the republican party, but even that's a bit of an oversimplification, because it's been at the urging of interest groups that are allied with the republican party. those forces that want to fight the minimum wage find it very

difficult to carry on that struggle in a progressive, highly democratic community like a kansas city or the city of st. louis. >> reporter: at least 35,000 st. 0 enacted?rs by not having the >> the fast food workers and low-wage workers, we lost a lot of money. i'm like one check away from being homeless at any time, you know what i mean? >> reporter: that frustration over lost wages led holmes to memphis where she joined a national protest seeking higher pay earlier this month. in kansas city, missouri's second largest metropolitan area, where the city council passed a higher minimum wage last month, local leaders are also fighting back with a

grassroots approach. the reverend vernon percy howard jr., president of the southern christian leadership conference in kansas city, helped to gather enough signatures for a ballot initiative set for this august to let kansas city voters decide on an even higher minimum wage. >> the people of kansas city have said, "let us vote on $15 per hour this coming august 2017!" >> reporter: reverend howard says the referendum is in response to years of unjust wages and a way to give kansas city residents a bigger voice at the state capital. >> we have people who are there making decisions that impact us directly, but that don't share our interests, and that's an undercut and undermining of the democratic principle. >> reporter: they don't live here.

>> and don't share our interests. and that's why we have tried our best to create avenues in which we can seek empowerment here, locally. >> reporter: some people in the cities would say this is republicans who don't live in the cities trying to dictate their values on us when we represent the people in the cities. >> i'm very sympathetic to their concerns. i think we both want the same thing, it's just a different way of going about it. i want to see better jobs, more jobs. i think that's the same thing they want. it's just a different path of going about it. >> reporter: frances holmes, who's seen her wages rise only one dollar an hour over the last three years, hopes state lawmakers will understand her point of view. >> what i have to say to the legislators, i mean, just for one week try to live on what i live on.

>> sreenivasan: for the past three weeks in venezuela, protesters have demanded president nicolas maduro schedule new elections, and do more to address the country's long-running economic crisis. public anger has been brewing amidst triple-digit inflation and shortages of food, medicine, and basic supplies. protesters blame maduro's socialist policies. there's also been a steep global drop in venezuela's key export: oil." reuters" reporter brian ellsworth is in the venezuelan capital of caracas and joins me now via skype. >> sreenivansan: brian, last week we heard so many more stories about the looting running rampant with the protests on the street. >> the looting has been happening after protests mostly in working-class areas and what has happened and specifically we had an incident on thursday where there were people protesting in a middle-class working area of the area and

that led to people coming down and breaking windows, looting. varies levels of damage in different shops about two dozen or so and in that process eight people were electrocuted in what is still not entirely clear what happened. but it tends to happen at night. not a lot of reporters will go out and cover that it means there's still a lot of -- not entirely clear what's going on. >> sreenivansan: are the street protests gaining momentum? >> they've wayne waned. they waned and trying to keep it going as we saw in 2014 we saw protests go on that long. yesterday was a very -- a smaller protest, more calm environment and ultimately the

protest was not broken up so it had a different feel to it. tomorrow promises to be confrontational because the opposition is talking about basically holding demonstrations in the streets in major highways around the country. >> sreenivansan: and weeported on general motors deciding to shut down but this is the most recent company deciding to withdraw from venezuela all together. it's been hard to get information from the federal government and a civil lawsuit led them to take over. there's a reason to believe general motors doesn't have an interest in being here because they can't produce cars and the reason is these are assembly plants that require imported parts to assemble and the companies can't get dollars. if they can't get dollars to import parts there's not a lot to do.

if the factory's been idle more than a year it makes sense they do something else. >> sreenivansan: thank you so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: sheryl sandberg, the chief operating officer of facebook and author of the bestselling business primer" lean in," is out with a new book that's more personal. in "option b: facing adversity, building resilience, and finding joy," sandberg describes the sudden death of her 47-year-old husband, dave goldberg, two years ago. in an interview to be broadcast on tomorrow's "newshour," sandberg tells judy woodruff how she's recovered. >> the book is trying to help other people hear what i couldn't hear at the beginning. when dave first died, i felt like i was in a void. it does get better. i will always miss dave. i miss dave every day. but that feeling of not being able to breathe has passed. i can breathe now! and sometimes i think of him and cry, but sometimes i think of him and smile. and my children can think of their father and smile. and i want other people going through this to know it's possible.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: the u.s. navy says a strike group en route to the korean peninsula held routine joint military exercises today with two japanese destroyers in the philippine sea. the u.s. ships could arrive in korean waters within days, vice president mike pence said yesterday in australia. this is the strike group president trump has called an" armada," comprising the u.s.s." vinson" aircraft carrier and two guided missile warships. north korea's ruling "workers party" newspaper said today-- it's prepared to sink "the vinson" with a, quote, "single strike." meanwhile, a 58-year-old korean- american has become the third known american civilian currently detained by north korea. the chancellor of the university where the american taught accounting for the past month pyongyang international airport as he attempted to leave the country. no details have been released on

why kim was arrested . north korea is also detaining an american student and an american missionary in labor camps. today, defense secretary jim mattis visited the tiny but strategically located country of djibouti. located on the horn of africa, it, which houses a key u.s. military base. since 9/11, the u.s. has stationed special forces and drone operations there in the fight against islamic extremists, especially in somalia and yemen. mattis greeted u.s. and french soldiers stationed in the former french colony. china is also building its first overseas military base there, just miles from the u.s. installation. in florida, firefighters worked all weekend to contain three separate wildfires. the largest, near naples in southwest florida, destroyed at least nine homes and had threatened 6,000 structures. officials say the fire has grown to almost 5,000 acres and is 50% contained. governor rick scott had deployed the national guard to help with mandatory evacuations, which were rescinded today.

>> sreenivansan: returning to our top story a far-right marine le pen and emmanuel macron took the top two spots of the election and both are appealing to patriots to carry them to victory may 7. le pen told supporters what is at stake is savage globalization and macron said i want to become the president of patriots against the threat of nationalist. and the third-place candidate urged to vote for macron. i'm hari sreenivasan >> pbs newshour weekend is made

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

[country music] (male narrator) memphis, tennessee. it has been written if music were religion that memphis would be jerusalem and sun studio, its most sacred shrine. and you are here with margo price. ♪ the future ain't what it used to be ♪ ♪ let's go back to tennessee ♪ mountain high and valley low.. ♪ - i'm margo price. we're at sun studio in memphis, tennessee. i'm joined by jeremy ivey on bass, luke schneider on pedal steel, dillon napier on the drums, and jamie davis on lead guitar. i was born and raised in a very humble town. it's called aledo, illinois. but i've been in nashville 12 - 13 years now.