captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a turn in the russia investigation-- special counsel robert mueller moves beyond the 2016 election, investigating possible obstruction of justice by the president since he took office in january. also ahead, 12 turkish security agents are charged after a violent clash with protestors outside turkey's embassy in d.c., testing already shaky diplomatic relations between the two countries. then, a look at companies, including one owned by jared kushner's family, that take advantage of tax breaks to create jobs in high unemployment areas, but do those jobs end up going to those who need them?

>> several of us tried to get a job downtown. but they're not hiring us. i don't know no one at all who has no type of job from downtown at trump towers. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> 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. >> woodruff: president trump is now under scrutiny for possible obstruction of justice, and he's fighting back. that's after reports that special counsel bob mueller has broadened his probe of russian meddling in the election. on twitter today, the president complained: "they made up a phony collusion-with-the russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice. nice."

later, mr. trump charged that hillary clinton committed a list of infractions, and was cleared anyway. there's also word that vice president mike pence has hired outside legal counsel to deal with the russia investigations. his office tells "the washington post" that former u.s. attorney richard cullen will handle inquiries from congressional committees and the special counsel. the president hired his own private lawyer last month. we'll examine all of this, and talk to the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee, senator mark warner, right after the news summary. the u.s. senate today overwhelmingly approved new sanctions against both iran and russia. the overall bill is aimed at iran's missile program. an amendment expands sanctions on russia for meddling in last year's election. senate minority leader chuck schumer said today it sends a message to russian president vladimir putin, and president trump. >> not only did we pass a new round of tough sanctions for russia's meddling in our

election, we codified existing sanctions into law making them harder to lift. any idea of the president's that he can lift sanctions on his own for whatever reason are dashed by this legislation. >> woodruff: putin fired back during a national call-in show in moscow, and said the sanctions say more about the u.s. than about russia. >> ( translated ): why have they started to talk about introducing these sanctions with no grounds? of course it is evidence of continuing internal political struggle in the united states. if there weren't other problems, they would have thought up something else to hold russia back as it has always been. a policy of holding russia back. >> woodruff: we'll take a closer look at the senate's sanctions bill, later in the program. a top house republican, majority whip steve scalise, remains in critical condition tonight, after a gunman shot him during a congressional baseball practice. a lobbyist who was wounded is also in critical condition.

president trump visited scalise in a washington hospital last night. today, at the white house, he said scalise's recovery will be "more difficult than people thought". >> he's in some trouble, he's a great fighter and he's gonna be okay we hope. and steve in his own way may have brought some unity to our long divided country. and i have a feeling that steve has, made a great sacrifice, but there could be some unity being brought to this country. let's hope so. >> woodruff: the gunman, james hodgkinson of illinois, was killed by police. meanwhile, the annual congressional baseball game is being played tonight, raising money for charity. an american student released from north korea, and now in a coma, with a massive loss of brain tissue. doctors at the "university of cincinnati" medical center said today that otto warmbier suffered a severe neurological injury.

they could not say if he was beaten. warmbier's father condemned the north koreans, but said the family wants to move on. >> what i would say to the north korean regime i would say i'm so proud of otto my son who has been in a pariah regime for the last 18 months brutalized and terrorized and he's now home with his family. and i'm just tremendously proud of otto. his spirit is with us. >> woodruff: the state department now says a u.s. diplomat who went to north korea to secure warmbier's release, also contacted three other americans being held. the department would not comment on their conditions. in london, rescue crews have pulled more bodies from a burned-out apartment tower. the death toll in wednesday's fire reached at least 17 today, amid rising outrage. paul davies of independent television news has this report.

>> reporter: a second dawn brought no end to the agony. there are no flames now but this smoldering shell that was once home to so many still holds an unknown number of their bodies. fire crews believe in flats not yet safe to enter there are a whole families who couldn't get out or obeyed the instruction to stay put. many many remain missing. and it could take weeks to confirm their fate. >> it's the upper floors that will be more challenging and will need some additional shoring for us to be able to get in there. the size of this building it could take weeks. i want to be realistic. this is a very long process. >> reporter: these images show the destruction on the ground floor of grenfall tower. this is the area least affected by that all consuming fire. as this photograph shows it gets worse as you go up. very few escaped the higher floors.

if the initial response to this tragedy was horror, as the hours have passed there have been mounting questions and mounting anger. >> there is a system in place. that is the product. that is it. >> there's nothing at all. yeah, but they're lying. >> reporter: labour's leader visiting the area heard the concerns for residents who say fears they'd expressed about the tower's safety were ignored. >> someone has to be held accountable. someone has to be held responsible. we don't want it kicked to the long grass. we don't want the government to sort of hide with some hollow platitude about lessons being learned. >> reporter: the prime minister paid her own private visit to grenfall tower this morning and was criticized for meeting only the emergency teams and not the local community. >> people are very angry. people are crying. people are lost, missing. she's the prime minister, where is she? >> reporter: london's mayor visiting the scene said anger was understandable. >> we can see the anger in the

community justifiably so. because many members of the community have been saying-- >> not just the community, it's everyone outside as well. >> fed up with these politicians. no handshakes. we want action not handshakes. >> reporter: sadiq khan said the inquiry should be immediate and that no one should have to wait two years to find out why this happened. >> woodruff: both the national government and local police have now opened investigations into the fire. islamist fighters in somalia attacked a popular restaurant overnight and killed at least 31 people. it happened in the country's capital, mogadishu, and involved five gunmen. the al-shabab militants detonated a car bomb, then stormed inside, taking hostages. witnesses said they shot victims at point-blank range. somali security forces finally killed the gunmen early this morning. back in this country, jurors in the bill cosby sexual assault trial deliberated into the night again, after reporting they're

deadlocked. the judge in norristown, pennsylvania told them to keep at it. cosby is now 79. he's accused of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 14 points to close below 21,360. the nasdaq fell 29 points, and the s&p 500 slipped five. still to come on the newshour: the vice-chair of the senate intelligence committee on revelations that president trump is under scrutiny for potentially obstructing the russia investigation. arrest warrants issued after a violent clash outside the turkish embassy. a government visa program receives renewed criticism, and much more. >> woodruff: for more on the special counsel's investigation into the president for possible obstruction of justice, we are

now joined by carrie johnson. she's the justice correspondent for npr. carrie, welcome back to the program. >> happy to be here. >> woodruff: first of all, define fur us what is obstruction of justice? >> there's a bunch of obstruction of justice statutes on the books, judy, but if plain language, it means trying to interfere with or impede an official proceeding, something lick a grand jury investigation, a conditional investigation, and prosecutors would have to prove some kind of bad intent by the person involved. >> woodruff: and so tell us what you have been able to learn about how the special counsel is looking into this. and by the way, it's been reported that they're also looking into potential financial misdeeds. >> yeah, the special counsel investigation appears to be running on three tracks now, one probing any russian interference in the election, two, probing any financial misdealings and connections with that interference by associates of the trump campaign and russians, and urge three, probing obstruction of justice by the

president himself in the firing of james comey, the f.b.i. director he ousted last month because he later said to take the pressure off the russia thing. >> woodruff: so this is clearly, carrie, an expansion of what it was originally said the special counsel's mission was. >> i think it's another layer. we knew at the time that the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, appointed bob mueller special counsel that his mandate included crimes that arose or may have arisen in connection with the investigation. of course, obstruction of justice may have arisen in connection with this investigation. the president and his leaning on comey to go light on michael flynn, the national security adviser. >> woodruff: we've also been learning in the last few days, carrie, about some of the professionals special counsel robert mueller has brought on board for his team. tell us about them. >> it's a breathtaking array of prosecutorial talent from man who had experience prosecuting a watergate scandal, a former

f.b.i. agent, andrew weissman, who led the justice department's fraud and money lawntdering section, and a top lawer in the obama administration's d.o.j., finally the deputy solicitor general, the man who many lawyers think is the most respected guy in the whole department. >> woodruff: so what does that tell you about what mr. mueller and they will be looking for? >> well, it signals that special counsel mueller knows there are a number of thorny legal issues involved here, everything from financial dealings and tracking the money to complicated questions of executive privilege with respect to the president, his aides, and conversations he might have had with people outside the government, as well, and michael dreban, the deputy solicitor general, is well-known for making criminal convictions stick in appeals court, so they're settling in for the listening haul here. >> woodruff: is it your understanding from what you've been able to learn that mr. mueller is now finished,

that the team is done, or that he's continuing to bring people on? >> they have not given us a formal update. he's not yet submitted a formal budget to the justice department. and i'm hearing from sources that more people are clamoring to join this team. they view it as a major public service and working with bob mueller, who had been the f.b.i. director for 12 years, with his reputation for integrity, that's something a lot of people inside the government want to do still. >> woodruff: and what are you hearing about how long this could go on? how long is it going to take? >> there is no prediction at this point. of course, all these investigators could dig and dig and dig and find nothing. at the end of that time, they may want to do a report that becomes public, or they may find something they want the charge with a grand jury, and it's unpredictable right now who they might charge if anyone and whether that person might want to fight it out in court for months or years to come. finally, judy, with respect to the president himself, no evidence yet he will face any charges whatsoever, but there is a complicated legal question of whether you can actually indict a sitting president of the

united states or turn that evidence over to congress for a possible impeachment. >> woodruff: a complicated legal question. and we can assume some folks are looking into that. >> i think a lot of folks are looking into that. it arose during watergate, of course, and was never fully answered. we may yet get an answer in this investigation before it's over. >> woodruff: carrie johnson of npr, we thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the senate select committee on intelligence met behind closed doors this week with three key figures in their expanding russia investigation. national security director mike rogers, director of national intelligence dan coats, and special counsel robert mueller. and with us now the committee's top democrat, its vice chairman, virginia senator mark warner. senator, first off, we've been hearing, we've been discussing with npr's carrie johnson the fact that the special counsel has expanded his investigation to include potential obstruction

of justice. is that something you're committee is doing, as well? >> judy, i'm not going to comment on the expanse of special counselor mueller's investigation. i do think it's an indication of how serious it is that he is obviously recruiting some of the top talent from around the country to assist him in this effort. it shows how seriously he's taking this effort, and frankly how seriously the vast majority of elected officials, democrats and republicans, who realize that the russian intervention was massive in our election, we've got to get to the bottom of it. we have to make sure it doesn't happen again. it really appears that the only elected official may be in washington that doesn't accept the potential dangerousness of the russian intervention is actually the president of the united states. >> woodruff: well, that's what i wanted to ask you about. the president has been actively tweeting today. among other things he said they

made up a phony collusion with the russians story, they found zero proof, and now, he said, they're going after obstruction of justice because they found nothing. >> that's, you know, just factually not appropriate. you know, we are still early on into particularly some of the individuals that were affiliated with the trump campaign and their potential contacts and communication with russians. we thought we would be further along but for the fact that the president in an unprecedented way fired the f.b.i. director, jim comey. we've had obviously a pattern here where there are at least reports of other individuals that were at least contacted by the president. i'm not going to comments on the specifics of the individuals we saw. we need to keep that confidential. but we do have former national security adviser general flynn who was fired because he didn't come forward with his contacts with the russians.

we've had the attorney general recuse himself because he didn't fully disclose his contacteds with the russians. if the president's rendition is true, you know, that there's no there there, why wouldn't he collaborate with the investigation to get this cleared up as opposed to his constant tweetage saying that this is a witch-hunt and fake news? i don't think there's any member of the senate that believes this is fake news that theussians interfered, just as they interfered in france, just as they will probably interfere in the german elections coming up later this year, and it's national security threat. >> woodruff: well, while we're talking about the question of whether there is obstruction or not, i know your committee met this week as we have just reported with dan coats, the director of national intelligence, and also with the national security agency director mike rogers. in both cases, presumably asking questions that they would not... that they were not willing the answer in open session. were they able to shed any more light on this question of whether they... go ahead.

>> i'm not going to get into the contents of their testimony. i will say that it's very important that sources and methods in terms of how we discovered russian interventions, that that is maintained and preserved and there's an appropriate classified portion. i do think there are questions that still need to be explored about if a president was calling on the subjects, how much of that is classified. i'm not going to comment again on any specifics, but these are all... what i worry about is is there a pattern emerging, and that's something again that time will tell, and obviously the special counsel mueller will continue the look into. >> woodruff: you met with the special counsel yesterday, you and chairman richard burr. can you explain for us the difference between the mission of what you're doing, your committee, and the house intelligence committee versus

what mr. mueller is doing? >> well, special counsel mueller has got a criminal standard. in many cases that criminal standard is quite high. if he chooses to bring charges against anyone, they'll have the meet those legal standards. we're leading a counterintelligence investigation that started with looking at russian interference in our election, was broadened to include any potential communication or collaboration between officials in part of either campaign and the focus is generally on the trump campaign, and the russians. we have actually not had a chance to get to many of the witnesses that have been at least bandied about, because again, the... we've been superseded in a way by the firing of director comey and president trump disparages director comey in front of the russians, saying on national

television that he fired him because of the russia investigation. all things that at least for this senator raise a lot of questions that i'm still trying to sort through. >> woodruff: so no concern you're going to get in each other's way? >> i think that's something that we have to make sure there's appropriate deacon politics. at the end of the day, you know, the criminal investigation, we can't do anything that would interfere with that criminal investigation. and, you know, i'm not going to again comment about conversations with special counsel mueller, but i think it was a good first step, and i think you have to have ongoing communications. >> woodruff: one final quick question, vice president mike pence has hired his own private counsel to address any issues arising out of the russia investigation. do you have a comment on that? >> no, i don't have a comment, but i just... other than the fact that it would be helpful if the administration actually collaborated and cooperated with all of us.

what the russians did in 2016 in the united states elections they're also done in the french elections, they'll do in the german elections, and as a state that has statewide elections this year, i'm concerned about their ongoing efforts to try to frankly sow chaos in our democratic process. this is not about relit gaiting 2016. it's not about the russians being for democrats or republicans. they are for their own interests. we have to be careful about this new contact. >> woodruff: so you're saying the administration is not collaborating? >> i wish there was closer cooperation. there are a number of members in the administration that volunteered to come forward, a number of individuals that work on the trump campaign, but i don't see what value is added by the president's con stand dismissal of the seriousness of this threat. >> woodruff: senator mark warner, the vice chairman of the senate select committee on intelligence. we thank you. >> thank you, judy.

>> woodruff: as we reported earlier in the program, the senate today overwhelmingly passed new sanctions against iran. but a key amendment makes that bill even broader: it now includes sanctions targeted against russia, five months after u.s. intelligence agencies concluded russian president vladimir putin ordered cyber interference in the 2016 election. lisa desjardins has been following the vote and joins me now. lisa, tell us what these russia sanctions are. >> these are not just symbolic, judy. these are significant. they target russian industries, especially the energy sector. those sanctions would include things limiting u.s. companies and prohibiting them from working with russian firms exploring the arctic. that's a big deal. also, this will target individuals working in defense or intelligence, individual russians. there are new powers in here. the treasury will get access to

u.s. bank records of russian oligarchs. also $250 million for a counter-russia influence fund which could be used for u.s. propaganda. >> woodruff: and separately, the senate passed an amendment that affects the president. >> this is remarkable. this is a republican congress asserting power with a republican president in office. let's look at exactly how that would work. if this president wanted to roll back any of these sanctions, he would have do give congress 30-day notice under this amendment. congress could then disapprove and ultimately block the president from rolling back sanctions with a two-thirds vote. essentially, judy, what the senate is saying is we think congress should set russia policy now, not the president. >> woodruff: and what is the white house saying about all this? >> the white house is reviewing these sanctions. the president is in a tricky position here, not because of the russia investigation, but because he and his secretary of state have said they don't think this is a good time to increase

sanctions on russia. they think it could backfire. but it's interesting, the senate attached these russia sanctions to an iran sanctions bill that the president wants to sign. meanwhile, democrats are worried about the iran sanctions, worried that could cause problems with the robb deal, which leaves the president deciding, does he swallow these russia sanctions that go with an iran deal he likes at the time of the russia investigation? we'll wait and see. >> woodruff: if the president were to veto this, the assumption is it would be overridden? >> that's correct. it passed with 98 votes in the senate. absolutely they would override that veto. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, thank you. >> woodruff: a new flashpoint in the tense and fraying alliance between the united states and turkey, after turkish security forces attacked protestors during president erdogan's recent visit to washington, d.c. hari sreenivasan has our report. and a warning, images in this

report may disturb some viewers >> sreenivasan: it's been one month since attackers launched into protesters, outside the turkish ambassador's residence in washington. now, d.c. officials have issued warrants on assault charges. police chief peter newsham: >> we all saw the violence that was perpetrated against peaceful demonstrators here in washington, d.c. and it's just something we're not going to tolerate. >> sreenivasan: the demonstrators had gathered at a park shortly after turkey's president, reccep tayyip erdogan, met with president trump at the white house. then, as erdogan arrived at the ambassador's residence, trouble started. video showed security guards and supporters teeing off on the protesters. d.c. police officers tried to separate and calm the crowd, but nine people were hurt. two people were arrested that day, and two more were apprehended by u.s. marshals yesterday. now, there are 12 new warrants for turkish security officers. most, if not all, returned home after the attack. two canadians are also being

sought. it's unclear why they allegedly joined the melee. chief newsham is calling for the suspects to surrender and not fight extradition. >> if you are a law abiding person and you feel like you did not do anything wrong then please present yourself here to answer to these charges. >> sreenivasan: erdogan responded to the charges, and said the demonstrators were associated with kurdish militants who've been engaged in a long insurgency against the turkish government. >> ( translated ): of course we're going the fight this on legal and political grounds. what kind of law is this? if my security guards are not oing to protect me, why would i bring them to america? >> sreenivasan: meanwhile, erdogan's role in all of this remains a question. after the incident, "the new york times" examined the video and spotted erdogan's head of security leaning into the president's car, and then speaking into his earpiece, just before three guards ran toward the protesters. at the time, the state department said it communicated

"concerns" to turkey over the confrontation, and today said: "we will weigh additional actions." >> it's irresponsible, unprofessional and violent. >> steven cook is a senior fellow in washington. steven cook is a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations in washington. he says relations between washington and ankara are as bad as they've ever been. >> charging president erdogan's security team with crimes is going to add another element of tension between the two countries. this tension will no doubt be used by the turkish leadership to advance their own political agenda, which is only going to cause raw feelings here in washington. >> sreenivasan: the u.s. and turkey are already at odds over kurdish forces fighting in syria. and, the turks have demanded the u.s. extradite exiled cleric fethullah gulen for allegedly organizing last summer's failed coup. for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan.

>> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: race matters: how a couple's love 50 years ago changed marriage in the u.s. lost music from the holocaust, rediscovered. and tv great dick cavett gives a brief but spectacular take on his life. but first, how a little-known program designed to attract foreign investment is increasingly under the microscope, for economic reasons and political ones. thousands of investors apply and participate annually, and one real estate business in particular has put it back in the spotlight in recent months: the family of jared kushner, the president's son-in-law. our economics reporter, paul solman, has covered the controversies around the program before. here's his latest update, part of our weekly series, "making sense." >> reporter: the soaring real estate market in jersey city, new jersey, due south of wall

street, a city becoming famous for its many murals, and its wave of emigres from manhattan and brooklyn, fleeing sky high rents. one neighborhood that's on the rise: journal square, named after the 150-year journal news. one of its latter-day reporters, terrence mcdonald. >> that was our old headquarters and jared kushner's company bought that and bought the office building next door and bought this whole vacant lot right here. >> reporter: jared kushner is, of course, president trump's son-in-law. and what are they going to build? >> the plan is to build two towers on this vacant lot and one tower across the street. 72 stories, mostly residential and also commercial retail on the bottom. >> reporter: now, you may have heard about this development last month, when jared kushner's sister pitched it to investors in china. >> cnn found out about this event because of this ad; it was actually posted in the elevator of our building here in beijing. >> reporter: so reporters went, including cnn's matt rivers, and

most were promptly shown the door, which only provoked more coverage. why the selective secrecy? for one thing, nicole kushner meyer may have thought twice about the optics or my-optics, of trading on her family connection to the president, though kushner companies later said meyer "apologizes if that mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors." but also iffy: the investment itself, criticized for selling u.s. citizenship for cash, the embattled eb-5 visa program, in which foreigners who ante up a million dollars to create 10 u.s. jobs are granted permanent residency, and eventual u.s. citizenship, for themselves and for all immediate family members under age 21. now the kushners, who declined to comment for this story, have used eb-5 investments before, also here in jersey city.

>> as a company we've done a lot of projects but i've actually never done a groundbreaking before. >> reporter: $50 million of chinese cash-for-visas helped build trump bay street, the president licensing his name to his son-in-law's company, the financing at below-market rates. >> so this is one of the newer high rises, luxury high rises, here in jersey city. the highest price i saw was on the 48th floor, it's a 50-story building, and it's about $5,000 a month for a two-bedroom two- bathroom apartment. >> reporter: luxury apartments, just a few minutes by subway from manhattan. but hey, congress decided, during a recession in 1990, that a million dollars to create 10 jobs is a good deal for the u.s. economy, no matter what the project. it turns out, however, that the investors in kushner's project only had to put up $500,000-- half-price tickets to citizenship for themselves and their entire families-- thanks to a clause that takes 50% off

if you create the jobs in a" high unemployment area." but wait a minute. the unemployment rate around trump bay street was very low. >> there is an essential dodge here going on, there's something really fake going on. >> reporter: journalist norman oder was the first to report on the loophole that the kushners, and pretty much all urban developers who use the eb-5 program, exploit. >> eb-5 investments are supposed to be a million dollars unless it's in a rural area or an area of high unemployment. that's called a targeted employment area, then it's $500,000. guess what, every project is finagled into a "high unemployment area." >> reporter: so how do you do that? >> you have to connect census tracts. >> reporter: so let's walk you through the process that played out here in jersey city. >> we're about one mile away from trump bay street. >> reporter: but we're still in the eb-5 district. >> yes we are. >> reporter: eb-5 visa investors can pay half price if they're investing in an area with a

jobless rate one and a half times the national average. i can see that we're gradually getting into dicier territory here. >> we're about two miles away from trump bay street now in an area of the city that has struggled with violence and with crime and with poverty. >> reporter: in 2014, when the kushners and their partners were pitching chinese visa seekers, the national unemployment rate was just over six percent. so now we're how far away from downtown? >> we're about three, a little more than three miles away from trump bay street now on ocean avenue. >> reporter: and we're in a substantially worse neighborhood now. >> yes, businesses that are closed. this neighborhood does struggle with violence even more than the neighborhood we were just in. >> reporter: we're walking the so-called "targeted employment area" the developers created, with an average jobless rate of more than nine percent.

>> the unemployment rate where trump bay street is, about four miles away, is so low that they have to include a huge swath of the inner city and lower half of the city to make the rate work. >> reporter: the only requirement: the employment area has to be made up of neighborhoods that border each other. >> so we're about at the end of the line here, that's bayonne on the other side of the train tracks. >> reporter: about five miles and a whole lot of shoe leather south of trump bay street-- a gerrymandered but legal district made up of 16 different census tracts, with an overall unemployment rate of 9.8%, when the national average was six. the claim is that trump bay street created more than 1280 jobs. but did it actually help the poor parts of town that made its financing attractive? so you work in construction. >> absolutely. >> reporter: did you try to get a job downtown? >> several of us tried to get a job downtown.

but they're not hiring us. i don't know no one at all who has no type of job from downtown at trump towers. >> do you think that the construction of these luxury high rises downtown has benefited this area of the city at all? >> no, not all. look around, a lot of people need help around here. >> reporter: any of the contractors you know work downtown? >> no. >> reporter: you either? >> no. >> reporter: what do you think of the idea though of you being included in this area that then allows them to get the foreign money to build the towers. >> i don't think that's fair! >> the intentions of the eb-5 program are to subsidize areas in a city or community that are lower income, in needs of jobs, and don't have development. >> reporter: not to subsidize areas that don't need it, says jersey city mayor steven fulop. >> the media scrutiny on this stuff has brought a lot of that to light, and there will probably be policy changes in washington as a result of it. >> reporter: well, there's been legislation to try to reform eb- 5 for years. >> i think now you're in a

unique moment in time where there's more scrutiny and more awareness around it. >> reporter: mayor fulop, a democrat up for re-election this fall, is also more aware. the day after the story broke about nicole kushner meyer's efforts in china, he withdrew his support for a usually standard 30-year tax abatement and $30 million municipal bond that the kushners and their partners had applied for to build one journal square. so where's the mayor right now? >> we're not giving the subsidy, we've clearly said that, and they say they can't move forward without it so we'll see where it goes from here. >> reporter: where it's gone is that just yesterday, the kushner consortium withdrew its tax break request. according to the private company helping raise $150 million in eb-5 money, 6,600 new jobs are now on hold. but they would be in a prospering part of town with just a 4% jobless rate. the poorer neighborhoods to the south? their job was to boost the

average unemployment rate high enough to qualify foreign investors for the half-price visas. for the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from jersey city. >> woodruff: this week marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark supreme court decision: loving versus virginia. in 1967 the justices struck down virginia's laws prohibiting interracial marriage. in her latest book, "loving: interracial initimacy in america and the threat to white supremacy," sheryll cashin explores the history of white supremacy in america and how relationships between different races challenge that ideology. cashin is also a professor at georgetown law. this conversation, part of our race matters series, was recorded yesterday.

sheryll cashin, thank you very much for join us. so the title of the book refers to the virginia couple, richard loving, his wife mildred who were arrested and thrown in jail for the crime of marrying each other in the state of virginia in the 1950s, and then in 1967, the supreme court decision. but your story, your telling of this story, the book, goes much earlier than that, to before the beginning of this country. >> the law was created as part of a law of shavery. in the 1600s you had white indentured servants and black indentured servants and slaves working together, fraternizing together. and when slave owners wanted to transition to black chattel slavery, that had this problem. so they put in slave codes, laws that penalized interracial sex and marriage, and that began in

the 1660s. so for the next 300 years, you had the state of virginia and other states trying to separate people like mildred and richard loving. >> woodruff: going back to the beginning, was this something that was just bred in the psyche of the people who lived in this down fri? where did it come from? >> well, in the elite capitalist class, the landed gentry that could afford to buy big estates and own people, this idea of the supremacy of the white christian goes back to the crusades, but there is much evidence that in colonial virginia, in the colonies, the working bonded people did not have a concept of whiteness or supremacy or race at all. they related to each other as struggling people. it's only when the slave owning class needs to teach people to

treat each other differently based on race for utilitarian reasons that that begins. >> woodruff: what were the forces along the way in the history of this country that were pushing against people coming together, that were working against not just intermarriage, but friendships, any kind of connections between the race? >> right, wherever you have a regime of the color line, whether it's slavery or jim crow or a divide and conquer kind of politics, there's an economic story there. what the elites most feared was that struggling whites and people of color would come together and demand more of economic elites. >> woodruff: but along the way, as you point out throughout the book, there were also forces at work to bring the two, not the two, but to bring all races together. >> america has been in this

dance from the beginning. there have been two ideas, the beautiful, egalitarian, the fundamental idea of universal human dignity in thomas jefferson's words in the declaration of independence, but also this regime of white supremacy that is really designed to help with capitalism. and throughout the period, there have always been a small cadre of people that crossed lines for alliance or for love. and i feature some of those people, some of my favorite are frederick douse las and thaddeus stevens, who not only were radical in their politics, but were radical enough to have women of a different race as their lovers or common law wives or wives. >> woodruff: why were they able to prevail in some instances? >> the radical republicans behind reconstruction prevailed

with the idea that people of color and progressive, open-minded whites would come together in politics for the common good and create things like public education. my bottom line point is that the class of what i call culturally dexterous person that's open to difference in this country and wants to make it work is growing. >> woodruff: that's what i wanted to ask you. you do use the term "cultural dexterity" throughout. what do you mean by that? >> so cultural dexterity is the ability to enter a situation where you are outnumbered by a different group and experience that with comfort even wonder and enhanced capacity for dealing with people of a different group. it's the opposite of color blindness. it's the ability to see and understand difference and accept it rather than to demand that someone else assimilate to your cultural norms. >> woodruff: why do you think

it's spreading? i know there are people who look at the racial divide in this country today and say, yes, we've made progress, but we have such a long way to go. >> i'll agree. i acknowledge that we're in a state of toxic pole -- pole lairty. all i'm saying is that i believe we're going to get to a point where a critical mass of folks, particularly white people in this country, have accepted the loss of centrality of whiteness. and when you combine those folks with growing populations for people of color, you're going to get a majority coalition that will fight together for the common good. >> woodruff: even if along the way you may always have a group of people who fiercely believe something different. >> yes. i'm in the saying that interracial relationships are going to make racism go away, nothing like that, but there will always probably be some people unfortunately that are racist, but i think they're a

minority now. and i think they will continue to be a minority in this country. and what gives me hope is that there is a growing population of folks who like diversity and wants to make it work and wants to be part of the coalition for bringing everybody along. >> woodruff: sheryll cashin. the book is "loving: interracial intimacy in america and the threat to white supremacy". thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: when the death camps and ghettos of europe were liberated at the end of world war two, a psychologist from chicago visited former prisoners and recorded dozens of interviews. david boder's recordings are among the earliest testimonies from holocaust survivors, and long-missing reels of songs from this collection were recently discovered at the university of

akron, ohio. from pbs station wviz/ideastream in cleveland, david c. barnett reports that this music tells a story you might not expect. >> reporter: jon endres gingerly threads a thin, silver strand of wire through a machine that will reproduce some sounds unheard for decades. >> basically, it runs like a reel-to-reel tape recorder, if you remember those. >> reporter: endres is a media specialist at the university of akron. his colleague, james newhall spent three years building this playback machine from spare parts scrounged from electronic stores and ebay. the goal was to play some mysterious recordings made by psychologist david boder, over 70 years ago on a wire recorder. >> one of boder's areas of interest was the measurement of trauma. that was the basis of his grant

in 1946 to travel to europe to interview a group of traumatized people, survivors of world war ii, and this included many survivors of the holocaust. >> a collection of boder material was placed here in 1967. it included instruments and apparatuses, documents and a box of wire recordings, close to 50 wire reels in a box. >> one, two, three, one two, three, testing. >> scholars were telling us there was a missing reel. there was a reel of songs that were sung to boder by holocaust survivors in a camp in france, after the war. we had a box of reels, and scholars would ask from time to time, "do you know what's on those? and we had to say, "no, we don't. >> reporter: but now, they do. >> we are reproducing on this spool a set of songs that have been recorded at henonville, 50 kilometers from paris, at a colony of displaced persons."

>> reporter: baker says boder's but, the recent discovery of this long-missing reel of songs in the cummings center archives has sparked world-wide interest. >> two of the songs were sung by a woman named guta frank. guta frank had survived a number of the ghettos in poland, eventually ending up doing forced labor at a munitions factory. ♪ ♪ >> one of the songs they translated for us: "our village is burning". in singing the song, she changed the lyric from "our village is burning" to "the jewish people are burning."

that guta frank explained that the composer's daughter would sing this song in basements in the krakow ghetto, inspiring people to rebel against the nazis. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: for prisoners who had no means of writing down and preserving what was happening to them, they could sing songs about it to each other and pass the stories down in an oral tradition. australian researcher joesph toltz focuses the music of the holocaust. and in this specialized field, he's heard it all. >> this was a beloved song that traveled around the entire yiddish-speaking world, even to america and other places. >> reporter: toltz is particularly impressed with the clarity of the akron recordings. >> this is a technology which is 60-70 years-old and completely outdated. they've done it in such a way that has brought a completely new quality to the sound that is

trapped inside these wire recordings. >> reporter: media specialist jon endres was the one who made the digital transfer. >> i remember hearing "krakow." and i remember recognizing some of the more german words in yiddish knowing full well they were saying things along the lines of "burning" and "dying". it was extremely intense. >> it's a bit like hearing the voice of a ghost. here are voices that have been silent for 70 years. and all of the sudden, they're singing. and they're singing to us. ♪ ♪

>> woodruff: now to another in our brief but spectacular series where we ask people to describe their passions. tonight, we hear from legendary talk show host, dick cavett, whose in-depth discussions kept american television audiences entertained and intellectually engaged for more than five decades. his latest book is, "brief encounters: conversations, magic moments, and assorted hijinks." >> somebody said once, "what's the secret of doing a successful, what's the brits call a chat show, if there is a secret, it was enunciated by the great jack paar, he said, "kid, don't do interviews." and i said, "what do i do jack, read to them, he said, "make it a conversation, that's all." >> people ask me what kind of show did you decide to do or how would you describe your show, and i've never been able to come

up with an answer for that because of the fact that i never had any plan. all i knew was i was being thrown into and responsible for 90 minutes of live television, but i had the advantage of having seen great examples of what i would be doing by jack paar, merv griffin, johnny carson. all of whom i wrote for. with johnny, of course, and i know, you could turn them on in your head. many syllables he'll use, vocabulary that he doesn't use, >> i was just slap-happy delirious to have marlon brando on, and people have said it's my director admitted later that he said, "when brando threw that million dollar grin in a close- up shot, i couldn't cut away."

my wife's favorite line from that show is "were you happy with how the godfather came out?" "i'd rather not talk about movies." i had the luck of meeting and sitting with and relating to the katharine hepburn, bette davis, orson welles, fred astaire, groucho marx, alfred hitchcock, marlon brando. robert mitchum and the great john huston. and when somebody semi- humorously warned me, "you're becoming the poster boy for depression," because i chose to talk about it, because i found that when i did, it helped people. i did shows with it, a thing that is an ungodly task. as you stand there singing merrily with ethel merman, and you feel like roadkill. ♪ ♪ and people will say to robin williams, you're adored, you

have the thrill of going out on stage and meeting an audience screaming with happiness in their life. and incidentally, i saw robin come off one night after doing that and saying, "i could make those people happy, why can't i make myself that happy?" that's central to the problem. when people ask me who's doing what you did, or is there a show that is similar to what you were doing, i don't think there's anything exactly like it, partly because it's just the medium has changed a lot. i might be more like parts of jon stewart and certainly parts of stephen colbert, but people tell me nothing is quite like it, and i wish somebody would tell me exactly what they mean. my name is dick cavett, and this is my, how do i say, brief but spectacular take on my life and conversation i guess.

>> woodruff: and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in iraq and the afghanistan conflict. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are three more. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on friday, i sit down with retired general david petraeus to discuss the fight against isis, and the ongoing war in afghanistan. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. tonight, we leave you with a view of the congressional baseball games which gets underway tonight.

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