>> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, budget battles. president trump calms congressional nerves over a potential government shutdown, by dropping insistence on money now for a mexico border wall. then: >> democrats need a strong, progressive agenda. >> woodruff: i sit down senator bernie sanders to discuss the trump agenda and what democrats need to do to start winning again. and, dreamers worry about a potential nightmare. young, undocumented immigrants prepare for the worst as the trump administration adopts a hard-line approach. >> losing my job, losing the ability to teach my kids, being separated from my family. losing everything that i know;

i don't think it can get any worse than that. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> 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: a federal judge in san francisco has blocked president trump's order on so-called "sanctuary cities."

it sought to withhold some federal funds from localities that don't cooperate with u.s. immigration authorities. the district judge said today that the president has no authority to take that step. his ruling is in effect nationwide while a lawsuit against the order is being heard. the bulls had the run of wall street today, and the nasdaq hit a milestone. the rally was fueled by strong earnings at caterpillar, mcdonald's and other companies. the dow jones industrial average gained 232 points to close at 20,996. the nasdaq rose 41 points, to close above 6,000 for the first time ever. and the s&p 500 added 14. congress is back in session, and raising new questions about contacts between trump advisers and the russians. leaders of the house oversight committee said today that former trump national security advisor michael flynn broke the law by

taking money from russian organizations in 2015. as a retired general, he was barred from doing so. republican chairman jason chaffetz and ranking democrat elijah cummings spoke, after reviewing classified material. >> there is no evidence, as the chairman said, anywhere in these documents, that said he reported the funds for this trip. there is also no evidence that he sought permission to obtain these funds from a foreign source. >> he was supposed to seek permission and receive permission from both the secretary of state and the secretary of army prior to traveling to russia, to not only accept that payment, but to engage in that activity. >> woodruff: an attorney for flynn defended his actions. meanwhile, congressman cummings complained that the white house refused to hand over relevant documents on flynn. separately, a senate subcommittee announced it will hear next month from former acting attorney general sally

yates, who played a role in flynn's firing. former director of national intelligence james clapper will also testify. russia denied again today that it is arming taliban fighters in afghanistan. that is after the top u.s. commander in afghanistan said he would not refute such reports. in moscow, foreign minister sergei lavrov dismissed the claims. >> ( translated ): as to statements about alleged supplies of arms by us to the taliban, these are unprofessional, they are baseless. whatever negative things they say about russia now-- simply look into it, no one is providing a single fact that would prove such negative statements. >> woodruff: russia has said it does maintain ties with taliban officials, but only to push for peace negotiations. north korea held mass live-fire exercises today for the 85th anniversary of its military, but it did not carry out a nuclear test, as feared.

instead, pyongyang marked the occasion with celebrations. many people left flowers at the statues of the country's former leaders. turkish warplanes targeted kurdish forces in iraq and syria today, drawing criticism from the u.s. turkey's military released video of the operations, and activists in syria said more than 20 combatants were killed. most belonged to a syrian kurdish militia that is fighting the islamic state. turkish officials claimed the group is linked to rebels who are battling the government of turkey. the state of arkansas has carried out the nation's first double execution in 17 years. it happened last night, when two men were put to death within three hours. william brangham has our report. >> brangham: for 12 years, the death chamber at the state prison in varner, arkansas sat unused. but last night, both jack jones and marcel williams died there. both had been on death row for

more than 20 years. both, for rape and murder. jones went first, as witnesses looked on. >> he said "i'm so sorry, i'm so genuinely sorry. i hope that you can learn more about me, to learn that i'm not a monster." >> brangham: the daughter of jones' victim, mary phillips, survived the attack in 1995, when she was just 11. >> i'm glad it's done. i'm glad that part of my life is-- that chapter is closed. >> brangham: lawyers for marcel williams charged that jones had been "gulping for air" as he died. but after a brief delay, williams was given the lethal injection as well. he'd expressed remorse, last month. >> to those i hurt, "i'm sorry" is not enough. i wish i could take it back, but i can't. >> brangham: the mother of stacy errickson, the woman killed by williams in 1994, said he'd "finally gotten what he deserved." arkansas has now put three men to death in the last week.

this sudden rush is because one of the state's lethal injection drugs expires at the end of april, and drug makers-- citing concerns over how the drugs were obtained and are being used-- are trying to block the state from getting any more. governor asa hutchinson defended the process: >> i don't want to go back to these victims' families and say, "well, we're worried about how this looks, or the speed of this, and so we're not going to be able to carry out the will of the jury and courts and the sentencing." >> brangham: the state hoped to execute eight men this month. four have been blocked by courts. a final execution is set for thursday. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: also today, a special commission in oklahoma recommended a continued moratorium on executions, until the system for carrying them out is reformed. and, first daughter ivanka trump got a rough reception today, at a women's summit in berlin, germany.

at one point during a panel discussion, the audience groaned and hissed as she argued that her father is a "tremendous champion" of enabling women and families. later, she dismissed the reaction as "politics" and said: "i'm used to it. it's fine." still to come on the newshour: the white house and congress attempting to avert a government shutdown; senator bernie sanders weighs in on what democrats need to do to get back on top; president trump's new tariff on canada, and much more. >> woodruff: one of the biggest obstacles to keeping the united states government funded past this friday's deadline may have been averted today. correspondent lisa desjardins starts us off. >> reporter: the president was at the capitol this morning for a holocaust remembrance event. >> mr. president, are you going

to insist on border funding? >> reporter: --but he ignored shouted questions about a government funding bill. in fact, it's this after numerous reports that mr. trump told conservative journalists last night that he's open to delaying a border wall down payment until september. democrats on capitol hill declared a kind of victory on the issue. >> now, last night we received a bit of good news, not just for democrats, but for the country, that the president is easing off his demands for a border wall in the government funding bill. >> reporter: senate minority leader chuck schumer and other democrats have insisted that border wall money would jeopardize the larger funding bill. and, not all republicans support it, either. >> now, we democrats have been opposed to including the wall in this bill since the beginning of the negotiations. there's no plan to make mexico pay for it, as the president promised it would. there's no plan to resolve the emminent domain issues on the border, and the money is better

used elsewhere. >> reporter: the president was quick to insist that whenever the funding comes, his plan to build a border barrier is alive and well. this morning, he tweeted: "don't let the fake media tell you that i changed my position on the wall." >> reporter: white house press secretary sean spicer followed up at today's briefing. the wall gets built, 100%. >> reporter: even if the border wall issue drops away, other obstacles could still derail the spending bill. for one: health benefits for coal miners. thousands of miners will lose their health care this weekend if congress does not act. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell favor it, but have to find funding. >> i'm in favor of the permanent fix on miners healthcare. it's my hope that that will be included in the final package.

>> reporter: other problems? democratic sources say republicans want the bill to give religious businesses more leeway to opt out of coverage for women's reproductive health. for now, the clock is ticking for congress to pass a long-term spending bill before the deadline saturday, president trump's 100th day in office. the latest offer to democrats on the spending plan has dropped the border wall money altogether. also, senators from both parties say they think it's now likely there will have to be some kind of short-term deal for a few days. they're not even sure they could write and passes a larger bill by friday. all this means, judy, is probably we will be talking about this spending fight into next week. >> woodruff: so going into next week. so if the white house is dropping the demands for its funding for the boarder wall, what are the remaining sticking points? >> among those sticking points are women's health, say democrats. they say republicans, as they have brought up many times in the past few years, would like this bill to include more exemptions on religious grounds for funding contraception and other women's health issues for

employers. that goes along with the hobby lobby case and other things. democrats firmly say that's not something they will support. but some republicans, judy, say they're not sure they really will go to the mattress so to speak over that issue. they might be willing to take that issue down the road a ways. what are the other problems? honestly, not quite clear. there's a lot of frustration up here, and it seems there is a lot of tying up of loose ends. >> woodruff: lisa, stay with us. i'm going to bring in john yang who is at the white house reporting for us. john, tell us, if the president has in essence backed down on the demand that they fund this border wall right now, what's the rationale? we hear the president saying when the cameras with were him earlier today, it's stale priority, it's going to happen soon, but he's dropped it as a demand. >> he dropped it as a demand because they realize or acknowledge the political reality. they weren't going to get it without a big fight, without general dieding or threatening the government shutdown. they're putting it off. it's still their top priority.

they still, mr. trump says he will still build this wall in his first term, and they're putting off this fight until the next fiscal year, the spending year that begins in october. remember, this money is only until the end of september. they're going to work through the next spending year to get money. they have enough money to do planning, but there is no indication of why they think this fight will be any easier in fiscal year 2018. >> woodruff: so lisa, back to you, if the white house is clearly moved its position in the last 24 hours, are republicans and democrats now looking at the president as somebody who is a whole lot easier to deal with than they thought? >> it depends on who you speak with. i think democrats will tell you, those that speak to you, you know, off mike phone, will say they think the republicans, the white house completely misplayed this. they think this is added to enormous leverage they didn't

feel they had here at the capitol until this week. you talk to republicans, some of them will say, again, off microphone, that they're relieved this has come off the table. there is enormous scepticism and some all-out problems with the idea of a border wall, especially when it clearly hasn't been defined in their eyes. so mainly relief i would say at the cust capitol, but i do think there are real questions about the strength of this president in negotiating with congress and perhaps making some strong-arm moves that have backfired against him, at least this week. >> woodruff: john, this is all coming as the president approaches his 100-day mark. is there concern at the white house that the president is not seen as a strong leader? >> well, i tell you, judy, you know, the president himself says this is an art official deadline. he calls ittre ridiculous amd sean spicer, the white house press secretary, echoes that. but at the same time, the communications office is really working hard on this. we have a series of briefings

this week, a number of executive orders being signed, cabinet secretaries coming into the briefing room to talk to reporters, to talk about what they've done, and a big splashy new web pagen -- page on the whitehouse.gov web site talking about what they've done in this first 100 days. >> woodruff: all right. we're watching it all closely. i know the two of you are, john yang, lisa desjardins, thank you. >> woodruff: for more on these political battles and the challenges facing democrats, i spoke this afternoon with senator bernie sanders, the ranking member of the senate budget committee. i started by asking whether he thinks an agreement will be reached to avert a government shutdown. >> i certainly hope there's going to be an agreement, not a short-term, but a long-term agreement. i do not and will not support

billions of dollars going to a border wall at the same time 2 trump administration wants to show 24 million people off of health insurance, cut become on education, cut back on the needs of working people. that is not something thatly support. >> woodruff: senator, today at the white house the commerce secretary announced with regard the trade that the white house, the president wants to slap in essence a terrific on canadian lumber. you and the president often were at least in the same or what appeared to be on the same page when it came the trade during the campaign. what do you think about this move? >> i don't know enough to comment intelligently, but what i do know is when we have trade policies for decades now that have cost ups millions of decent-paying jobs as profitable corporations shut down in america and they go to china and they go to mexico, we have to fundamentally rethink our trade policy and make them work not

for the c.e.o.s of large corporations but for working people. so if trump wants to develop a rationale trade policy which demands that corporations start investing in this country rather than china, that's something that we can work on, but right now i just don't know enough about the specifics of the um lumber situation. >> woodruff: is there a specific move you'd like the see the president make on trade? >> as i've said. i want to see a trade policy which works for american workers. right now what we have seen for a very long time is large corporations shutting down plants in this country, plants that are often profitable in order to get cheap labor all over the world. and that is one of the reasons why the middle class in this country is disappearing. we have lost our manufacturing base, and that's got to be dealt with. >> woodruff: in that connection, you're reintroducing legislation to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. i believe by 2024.

this is something that's had a tough time getting through congress in the past. you now have a republican-control senate, house, a republican white house, is this realistic? >> of course it's realistic. it's what the american people want. it is an outrage that we have a $7.25 crept an hour federal minimum wage. and when we talk about why is the middle class in decline, why are people working two or three jobs, working 50, 60 hours a week, it's because wages in this country are much too low. so we have to raise the minimum pthr when people, it is not a radical idea to say when you have massive income and wealth inequality, the very rich becoming much richer. it is not a radical idea that to say in america if you work 40 hours a week, you should not be will living in poverty. that's what the american people want, and that's what we'll introduce. >> woodruff: senator, i think

this is in connection with that. you said in an interview two days ago, the democratic party, you said this is not independent. the democratic party is failing. it needs the change. are you saying there should be a litmus test to be a democrat. what does one have to believe? >> judy, here is the reality, and i don't think it's just me saying it. right now you have the republicans controlling the white house, right-wing extremist republicans controlling the white house, the u.s. house, the u.s. senate, two-thirds of the governors chairs and in the last eight years democrats have lost 900 legislative seelts all over this country. that is a failed approach toward policy. so in my view the democrats need to do several things. number one, democrats need to become a 50-state party. you can't have a great party on the west coast and the east coast. you need to have a party in all 50 states. that's not the case right now. that's why i've been running around the country to republican states to galvanize people to get involved in the political

process. second of all, you need a democratic party which is a grassroots party, which makes decisions from the bottom on up, not just from the top on down. in my view, it is not a question of trump having won the election, it's a question of democrats having lost the election. democrats need a strong progressive agenda which says to the working class of this country, we are going the stand and fight for you, we're going to raise the minimum wage, pay equity for women, we're going to rebuild the infrastructure, we're going to guarantee health care to all people as a right. we're going to make public colleges and universities tuition-free. we understand that there is enormous pain in this country. we're going to stand with working people. we're going to take on the billionaire class. we're going the take on the drug companies and the insurance companies. we're going the take on wall street. that's where i think the future of the democratic party lies. >> woodruff: and my question is: does that mean that some democrats are not acceptable? for example, the special congressional election in georgia last week, you initially did not endorse the democrat

john ossoff, and you said he was not a progressive. >> judy, don't believe everything you read in the corporate media. john ossoff never asked me for an endorsement, never asked me. of course i want him to win the election and of course i want the democrats to gain control of the u.s. house. just is happens he never asked me for an endorsement. >> woodruff: i guess the broader question is does a democrat have to tow a certain line? you said democrats have to do well in red states, so, for example, a heidi highcamp in north dakota, joe manchin in west virginia, are these democrats you consider under the tent that you'd like to see, under the umbrella -- >> those decisions are going to be made by the people in north dakota, where i think heidi is quite popular. they'll be made by the people in west virginia. it is not my job to tell the people in 435 congressional districts or in 50 states who they should be supporting.

what a grassroots party is about is people getting excited, getting involved in the local political process, saying we want her to run for office, we want him to run for office, and we're going to get involved and make sure that he or she wins. that's what i think the future of the democratic party is. not a few people in washington saying, sorry, no good, or that's okay. >> woodruff: so you're saying it's all right with you that the democratic party has elected members who, for example, disagree with you on trade, who may disagree with you on the corporate tax rate, on issues like abortion? >> right. look. this is america. between you and me, judy, i would love it if everybody in america greed with me on every issue. i can't get my wife to agree with me on every issue, let alone the american people. it's called democracy. that's what it's about. so i think, you know, i have supported candidates whose views are very different than mine on the need the break up wall street banks, on the war in iraq, on trade issues. of course i have supported those

people. my hope is that we're going to see and i believe it is the case, we're going to see more and more strong progressives running for office. that's my hope. that's my desire. that is up to... that decision is going to be made by people in 50 states and 435 congressional districts. >> woodruff: senator bernie sanders, very good the talk with you. thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: undocumented students fearful of deportation; a new database that tracks government spending; and, "the handmaid's tale," margaret atwood's dystopian novel, now a tv series. but first, as we touched on earlier, there is a trade dispute brewing between the u.s. and its northern neighbor. william brangham is back with that story. >> brangham: president trump's decision to slap tariffs on certain lumber imported from

canada escalated tensions between the two nations. the president has already said he wants to re-negotiate or overhaul nafta this summer. today's move drew a pointed response from canadian prime minister justin trudeau, who said, "you cannot thicken this border without hurting people on both sides of it." at a meeting with farmers this afternoon, president trump came back with some tough words of his own. >> people don't realized canada has been very rough on the united states. everyone thinks that canada has been wonderful, and so do i, i love can dark but they've outsmarted our politicians for many years, and you people understand that. so we did institute a very big tariff. >> [inaudible]. >> why not? >> they have a tremendous surplus with the united states. i have no fear. >> brangham: so, let's get some further explanation about this move, and what it means for the broader trade agenda of the new president. greg ip covers all this for the "wall street journal," and he joins me now.

welcome back to the "newshour." >> thank you. >> brangham: so who would have thought that we'd have our first trade flare-up in the trump administration with canada of all places. explain, what is this fight all about? >> it does sound like a surprise, but it shouldn't be surprising. remember, the canada-u.s. trade relationship is still the world's largest, and in a relationship that large, it always generates disputes. this did not fall out of the sky. it's been going on for decades. it's rooted in the different way canada and the united states charge forestry companies for the trees they cut down and turn into lumber. in the united states they have market-based system. there is an auction. companies compete against each other. in canada, the provincial government basically assign a fee that turns out to be lower than the market price american companies pay. the united states claims that's an unfair subsidy, and so this has been an ongoing source of dispute between the two countries. the dispute that is under way this week actually began under the prior administration. there had been a truce between the two countries. that truce expired. the obama administration had been negotiating with the

canadians to come up with a permanent solution and they failed. so even though this is being portrayed as the first salvo by trump, in fact it's quite possible that if hillary clinton were president, we would be in the same place. >> brangham: let's say trump is successful and he puts this tariff on imported canadian lumber, as a consumer in the u.s., would impact would we likely see? >> well, tariffs are in the end taxes. somebody has the pay that tax. in this case that tax will be paid by the buyers of that lumber, which is home builders primarily and people who buy those homes. the national association of home builders estimates there are about 15,000 dollars worth of lumber in a typical new home, a single-family home in the united states. this tariff will add about $1,200 to the price of that home. now it's been the case, because the market had already anticipated something like this, lumber prices have already started to move up, so you won't necessarily see an immediate impact from this point forward. but i think one thing people are forgetting is trade disputes are

two sided. when the united states imposes tariffs on a partner like canada, there is always a possibility canada will retaliate. at that point you have to ask the question: which canadian industry will suffer because the canadians have -- which u.s. industry will suffer because the canadians retaliated against it? >> brangham: we're seeing this trump move on wood. he also had some very strong complaints about canadian milk. last week you saw him making some noises about steel in china. there might be a move on aluminum coming up. are we starting to see now a trump trade policy emerge? >> i think we are. when he was first elected there was a lot of fear of a trade war. they listened to his rhetoric on the campaign. a 45% tariff on china, a 35% tariff on mexico. it's clear that trump and his administration does not want the start a trade war, i.e. big tariffs on whole countries that triggers retaliation, but what we are seeing is a very careful and meticulous review of all the tools they have available and

the use those to start bringing case against countries under existing law that they think are unfair. now, that doesn't look like a trade war, but it could look like a lot of border skirmishes that add up. we still don't know, though, what the end result is. so we have things like nafta and the world health organization is that when there is a dispute like this, as there always will be, it's contained. you don't get an escalating tit for tat spiral. the real test will be if canadatates this to a panel for nafta and the w.t.o., will the trump administration abide by that ruling? >> brangham: we have seen a lot of instances where the president has talked very tough standing on the sidelines, and when push comes to shove and you get a meeting with foreign leaders, he becomes more conciliatory. let's say a trade fight does break out, do you think he will escalate or de-escalate? >> at this point it's impossible to say, and i think it would be unwise to speculate too far

because i don't think they know, but i think we know this much about trump so far: he believes he's a deal maker. part of bargaining is you talk really tough. you ask for the moon, you settle for the topsoil. he says he beats up on the mexicans and the canadians, but the point is not to have the two of us putting up walls and blocking trucks at the border. it's the come up with a deal that both sides feel they can live with. and i think that's probably where we're going to end up. i think that trump has people working for him who are ultimately deal makers. and the canadians are the same way. they're grownups. that's why you saw the prime minister of canada not respond the trump with the same rhetoric but to talk about the strength of the relationship and the desire for a deal. >> brangham: the president has also said, as we touched on, that he wants the renegotiate nafta. how could that unfold? what likely might we see? >> i think one of the interesting things is that this dispute did erupt while that renegotiation is under way. wilber ross, taking questions from the press today, said he

preferred to keep those things separate, because as we discuss admin ago, this lumber dispute is a very old dispute that almost follows a dynamic entirely of its own somewhat independent of the issues that are bothering the president with nafta. unfortunately, because they could not get an agreement within the legislative window, it will end up getting sucked into that agreement. and it's very hard the say exactly how it turns out. we know, for example, drafts of the administration has circulated on capitol hill, there are a few things they would like the change about nafta. they would like the ability to impose tariffs just becauseism ports are surging from canada or mexico, not because they're being sold unfairly. they want the ability to not have... they want more freedom to use our countervailing subsidy laws against canada and mexico will. the canadians and mexicans accept that as a price to preserve the special agreement or will they say, no, we'd rather have no agreement? all those things remain to be

seen. >> brangham: greg ip from the "wall street journal," thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: about 65,000 undocumented students graduate from u.s. high schools each year. most are protected from deportation because of an obama administration policy called deferred action for childhood arrivals, or daca, which allows those brought here illegally at a young age to go to school and get work permits. president trump tried to reassure those young people, called dreamers again this week that he does not plan to go after them, but a lawsuit filed last week claimed one dreamer has been deported, and daca students are on edge. special correspondent kavitha cardoza, of our partner "education week," traveled to los angeles and spoke with three daca recipients to see how their lives have changed. we've agreed to use only their first or middle names.

this is part of our weekly series on education, "making the grade." >> reporter: 25-year-old jose has something in common with president trump: they both graduated from the prestigious business school, wharton. unlike many of his classmates, jose did not choose a career on wall street. >> teaching sixth grade math is most challenging thing i have ever done in my life. i wouldn't trade it for the world. >> reporter: his students know he is a daca recipient, at a time when the federal government is cracking down on undocumented immigrants. >> i had a lot of students in tears asking me if i was going to be taken away, and if they could hide me. i had students asking me, if their parents were deported, if they were going to be allowed to leave with them, or if they would become a part of the foster care system here. >> reporter: immigration arrests are up 33% nationwide, compared to the same three months last

year. for jose and others, this adds to the climate of fear. >> ice has basically set up shop at the grocery store. they are there all day. now my mom is like, "we need to stay home, and if we need something from the store or something, we only go out at night." >> it's hard for me to talk about, because i know there might be a chance my parents can be taken away. that scares me. >> i tell my students that they are important, that their families are important, that our community is important. >> reporter: of the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the u.s., more than 750,000 have been granted daca status. to qualify, they would have come to the u.s. as children, be in high school or graduated, with no felony record. randy capps is with the migration policy institute. >> we don't usually punish children for the sins of their parents. even if they had crossed the border illegally, they didn't know they were doing it.

they were too young to know that. >> reporter: he says the daca population has the support of many republican, business and university leaders. even president trump, known for his tough talk on the campaign trail: >> anyone who has entered the united states illegally will be subject to deportation. >> reporter: ...has softened his stance. >> we're going to show great heart. daca is a very, very difficult subject for me. to me, it's one of the most difficult subjects i have, because you have these incredible kids, in many cases, not in all cases. in some of the cases, they're having daca, and they're gang members, and they're drug dealers, too. but you have some absolutely incredible kids. i would say mostly. >> reporter: trump's change in tone has not been popular with some of his supporters, like iowa representative steve king. he says he'll never be convinced that the daca program makes sense, because "illegal is illegal." >> if you reward people for breaking the law, you get more lawbreakers.

>> reporter: he says daca recipients compete for jobs with u.s. citizens, and are an economic drain. according to a 2007 congressional budget office report, undocumented immigrants overall do access more services than they pay in taxes. but daca recipients, who came to the states as children, are mostly u.s.-educated and far more likely to move up the economic ladder. king disagrees on principle. >> it's an injustice to our founding fathers, to the people who have fought and bled and died for this freedom, that we simply give it away to people who have violated the law, when we have 5 million people outside america that are in line, that do respect our laws, that are waiting to come to america. >> reporter: california has the highest number of daca recipients. it's also among of the most welcoming. daca students here can get state loans for college, in-state tuition, even a driver's license.

yet in california, financial aid applications for all undocumented students were down nearly 60%, because students feared revealing their status might put them at risk. then, a media campaign helped bring those numbers up. for yael, a daca student receiving financial aid at u.c.l.a., today's rhetoric reminds her of how she felt in high school. >> i was not able to say i'm undocumented without bursting into tears. it was just, this painful, painful and heavy shame that i felt. >> reporter: yael came to the u.s. when she was four. she volunteers to help other undocumented immigrants in her free time. >> i feel privileged to be here at u.c.l.a., but when i think about my future, it all seems very uncertain. >> reporter: for high school senior elena, classes are a refuge. >> i motivated myself to take challenges, like honors, a.p. classes, extracurricular activities.

>> reporter: elena came here when she was six. she has more than the typical teenage concerns. >> the fear that my parents might be deported makes me feel both sad and scared at the same time. like, sometimes, going to school, i'm worried. i'm like, "what if i don't see my mom again?" >> reporter: elena volunteers for the big brothers big sisters program. >> when i was a little girl, i didn't really have someone to be there for me. because my parents, they try their best, but of course they didn't understand the language, so, when i had the opportunity to be in this program, i was like, "yeah, i really want to do it, because i want to help someone." maybe they're in my situation, or a similar situation, so i want to be there for them. >> reporter: if president trump does not deport daca recipients, representative steven king says he'll feel "betrayed." >> they can take up the task of rebuilding the countries that they came from. the education that they have with them, the language skills, the cultural skills, the experience of being here in

america. i think it could be a fantastic improvement, and one of the best things that america could do for everyone south of our border. >> reporter: but jose echoes thousands of other daca recipients when he says, he can't imagine returning to mexico, a country he left when he was just two. >> losing my job, losing the ability to teach my kids, being separated from my family. losing everything that i know. i don't think it can get any worse than that. >> reporter: i'm kavitha cardoza of "education week," reporting for the pbs newshour from los angeles, california. >> woodruff: and online, a special education teacher in chicago who has daca status remembers the day her family was separated by deportation. that's at www.pbs.org/newshour.

>> woodruff: almost all of us have wondered at one point or another about the taxes we pay: where does the money go? former microsoft c.e.o. steve ballmer not only wondered, he decided to make the information available in the form of a new public research tool. last week, ballmer launched "usa facts," an interactive website listing revenues and expenditures at all levels of government-- federal, state and local-- all of it free to the public in digestible, searchable form. i spoke yesterday with mr. ballmer, who is also the owner of the los angeles clippers basketball team, about his latest venture, and started by asking why he wanted to do this. >> over three years ago when i retired, my wife and i were talking about our philanthropic work and how does one help give opportunity particularly to kids growing up in very disadvantaged

situations. and my initial kind of sense was the government does that primarily, and what we should mostly do is pay our taxes. my wife said, no, i don't think that's quite right for us. we need to do more. we can do better. it got me kind of rummaging around in government data and i soon found that as good as the search engines were, it was really hard to bring together not just a picture of what was going on with disadvantaged kids, but how all the money was spent, not just at the federal level, but at the state and local level, not only to target kids, but then you have to understand what the trade-offs were. that's how i got started really working on usa facts. >> woodruff: what does it tell you somebody can't find something easily in. >> we use all government data services, so everything is findable. i'm not going to pretend we invented that much. on the other hand, we tried to organize things in some sensible way.

we used the constitution as the purpose of government, as our organizing framework. bidss have to have an organizing framework when they report to their shareholders. it seems that's the most natural framework to use for government. we found a few, three to four areas underneath each one of the preambles of the constitution point, and we have a holiestic view not only of where the money is coming in, but where the money is coming out, and at least as well as they're murder today, what kind of impact government may be having or at least what's going on in the areas in which government focuses. >> woodruff: what do you say to people who these days, a lot of people say they don't trust government, that they don't believe the information, the data that government puts out? what do you say to them? >> well, i'd say, look, it's the best thing we have. it's the best data. it's created by professional people. if i was in government and running government, i think i would use the government data

because i wouldn't know where else to look, quite frankly. and if i didn't like that data, i'd work hard the make sure it got better and better and better, whether it was at the state or local or federal level. people may have scepticism. i'm not one of those folks. >> woodruff: what is an example, steve ballmer, about information you find on this site that you think is important and exciting? >> i'll just give you one example of something that i found interesting. you look at homeownership percentages in the united states and off the top of my head i want the say they run around 60% of people in the home. it might be plus or minus a little bit. you look at the mortgage interest deduction, which is designed i think to promote home ownership, and then you can look at what percentage of that mortgage interest deduction amounts are going to people in the bottom 20% by income, the next 20% and so on. and one might ask the question:

is the mortgage interest deduction doing a better job, a worse job, if it's supposed to promote home ownership and savings. home ownership is the biggest form of savings in this country. different people will look at that data and draw different conclusions, but that's just an example of the kind of thing you can pull out of usa facts and develop a point of view about. >> woodruff: so does this project answer all your questions about what's government doing for people? or are there many, many more questions you have that you still can't get answers to? >> well, there are many many more questions, some of which we think we can get answers to. the data is out, there but it will take more work to pull together and put in a comprehensive form. we can tell you, for example, what reading proficiency is for fourth graders across the country, but it would be interesting to look at that in the state of washington or mississippi or california, that kind of data needs to be added

in. the data we have is not always very current. some of that is government data. it can be slower to get published. but some of that is state and local governments publish their data and there is a process of rolling that up at the federal level that takes quite a while. >> woodruff: two other quick things. one, i saw there have been several other accounts over the last number of years to set up a site like this with information accountability. many of those have had a hard time staying alive. how committed are you the keeping this going? >> i'm very exited. we have a philanthropic interest, my wife and i, and while we don't choose to use, you know, sort of a tax deductibility on this project, to me it's kind of a civic opportunity, hopefully people find it a value. we will stick with it. and we're very focused in on outcomes for government with respect to the amount of tax

that goes in and the amount of expenditures that go out. >> woodruff: steve ballmer, thank you very much. >> appreciate it, jawdy. thanks very much to you. >> woodruff: now, a novel beloved by several generations of readers is a major dramatic television series, and it comes riding a wave of interest, after the election of president donald trump. jeffrey brown has the story. >> when they slaughtered congress, we didn't wake up. when they blamed terrorists and suspended the constitution, we didn't wake up then, either. >> brown: in this world, america's democracy and constitution have fallen, replaced by a theocratic autocracy called "gilead." >> ladies, i have to let you go. >> brown: a place where women have lost the right to work or own property. where many of them are property. >> you girls will serve the leaders and their barren wives. you will bear children for them.

>> brown: the so-called "handmaids" are valued, and controlled, for their ability to reproduce, in a future america where most women are infertile. designated by their bonnets and red dresses, they are kept under an ever-watchful eye. >> i made sure that every horrific detail in the book, had happened sometime, at somewhere. so, think of it as a cake in which, i made the cake, but all of the raisins and chocolate chips are real. >> brown: the series "the handmaid's tale" is based on the classic 1985 novel of the same name, by canadian author margaret atwood. she calls it "speculative fiction." >> i get in trouble over making a distinction between sci-fi and speculative fiction, but my only point is that there is a

difference between a galaxy far, far away and this planet, really could happen now. >> brown: atwood mixed elements of totalitarian systems of the past, including the soviet system, and strains of american life, from the puritans to the rise of the christian right in the 1980s. the novel found an audience from the start and has kept it, never going out of print, and joining high school and college reading lists across the country. it's been adapted for opera, ballet, and the 1990 film starring robert duval and natasha richardson. and now, this hulu series starring elisabeth moss, who read the book as a teenager, playing offred, a handmaid just assigned to a new household.

>> i love the idea that the heroine of the book is an anti-heroine. that she's a human. she's a wife, a mom, is a normal person and is sort of picked up, taken, and dropped into this scenario and has to figure out how to survive. she does a sort of thing that often prisoners will do, which is, they have to adapt to the prison environment and they have to hold their enemies closer than their friends. >> brown: the series is striking in how disturbing it is, both in the dark version of society it portrays, and at the same time, its beautiful look, a combination sought by series showrunner bruce miller and executive producer warren littlefield. >> you recognize this world, it's a beautiful world. they want it to be cleaner, they want it to be-- they want the food to be healthier. they're trying to raise fertility rates. those are all good things,

that's very inviting. so, we come into our world and it feels pretty good, until you look closely. >> dystopia in our time has kind of been synonymous with rubble and dust and robots and scrounging around for food, and this is just a different kind of-- dystopia doesn't have dirty in it, it's just a terrible reality. >> brown: i asked miller and littlefield about working on this series where so much is about what happens to women. >> you know, i tried my best along the way to shore up that part of my personality that i couldn't change, that part of who i am that i couldn't change, by hiring, you know, as many people who were kind of spectacular women's voices, either with reed morano, our director, or lizzy moss, of course, our star, but also our writing staff is prominently women.

i think we had all female directors, except for-- >> four out of five of our directors for the ten hours are women, and many of our department heads, our wardrobe and production designer. we really built a very strong core of women who brought this show to life, because for that very reason, we're not. >> brown: the idea for the series and the shooting began well before the election of donald trump, but since november, atwood's book has returned to the bestseller list, and the series is generating many questions of parallels to today. >> there's a huge sort of awakening amongst people my age and people in their 20s and younger with what's happening now, as far as, "oh wait, someone can actually take that away from us?" it's a brand new concept to a lot of women.

>> i think one of the things that's happened to them is, rights were won for them long ago and they just took them for granted. their interests were other, then suddenly, bang, a light bulb goes on, maybe somebody's going to take these rights away. including healthcare and minimum wage and including forcing people to have babies. >> brown: that's not very hopeful. >> well, it's not me making this absence of hope. >> brown: but you can write the future. you could write a more hopeful future, hmm? >> i could, but i would have to make it plausible, would i not? so, i do believe that america is quite an ornery and diverse place, and i don't think people are going to roll over easily for this. >> brown: the first three episodes premiere wednesday on hulu. after that, episodes will come out weekly. for the pbs newshour i'm jeffrey brown.

>> woodruff: and, we have more online. author margaret atwood explains her inspiration for the blood- red costumes worn by the handmaids in the novel and in the new adaptation. you can find that, and more, on our website, pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: finally, prom season is upon us, and for many teenage girls, it's all about the dress. for some young women, though, getting that dress can pose a real challenge, and one organization is stepping in to try and help. from pbs station wgbh in boston, tina martin introduces us to the man behind the "believe in yourself foundation." >> reporter: these dresses are from designers all over the globe, but they're not for sale. they're free, for teenagers like 17-year-old raquel laskowski.

>> i was like, "oh, my gosh, it's so cute!" >> reporter: raquel and other girls at the south boston boys and girls club were chosen to receive these beautiful, donated dresses from the believe in yourself foundation. >> i think that's really nice that someone cares enough to donate these dresses. >> reporter: the organization was founded in january by sam sisakhti and is based in brookline. >> about a decade ago, i started a fashion company where we sell primarily to young women. and i noticed at the time that a lot of body shaming and cyberbullying was going on online. >> reporter: so he started thinking of a way to change that. >> i work with about 20,000 independent fashion designers, and would get a lot of samples, and i used to give them to celebrities. and at one point, i'm thinking, "they have enough clothes." >> reporter: sisakhti figured out a better use for the dresses, many of them size 12 and up. >> so i started going to low income areas. i didn't really say who i was. i would just drop off a box of clothes, a boxes of dresses. and the appreciation on their faces was like, really amazing, and they are telling me, now they have the confidence to go to their first dance.

>> there are some people here who are unfortunate, who don't really have the money to get these dresses. >> reporter: so far, the foundation has given away over 200 dresses, that range in cost form $60 to $200. the foundation donates dresses all across the country. and you're just traveling all over the world like santa claus, dropping off dresses? >> yeah, something like that. >> reporter: sisakhti hopes to give away between 5,000 and 10,000 dresses before the end of the year. he depends on donations, and has spent thousands of his own money. >> it's really important that all the dresses are new. i don't want these girls to feel like they are getting hand-me-downs. >> reporter: a new dress that's letting raquel laskowski get all dressed up with somewhere to go. do you know where you are going to wear it? >> to my cousin's party. >> reporter: somewhere to go, and now, the confidence to get there. for the pbs newshour, i'm tina martin in boston. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday: the first 100 days of the trump administration-- a look at domestic accomplishments and setbacks.

i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> 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