captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> sreenivasan: good evening. i'm hari sreenivasan. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: 21 state election systems were targeted by russian hackers during last year's presidential race. homeland security officials testify before congress in the ongoing investigation. also ahead, $50 million later, republican karen handel prevails over democrat jon ossoff in georgia's special election. what the race means for future elections in the trump era. plus, a heat wave blasts through the southwest, starting fires, shutting down power and grounding flights. the increased risk of spiking temperatures due to climate change. >> we have a finely-tuned civilization, and as the temperature goes up, though it has only gone up a degree

celsius over a hundred years, it does create pockets of these heat waves. >> sreenivasan: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their

solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: we are now on the eve of seeing a senate proposal for health care, including replacing the affordable care act. republican leaders plan to

release their bill tomorrow, after working on it behind- closed-doors, for weeks. the "washington post" reports a draft bill largely mirrors the house's version passed last month, with some notable changes. that includes cutting medicaid expansion more gradually, and removing language that restricts federally subsidized health plans from covering abortions. lisa desjardins joins me now. lisa, considering the process here, tomorrow's going to be an unveiling of this draft, not just to the public but even tie lot of republicans. >> that's right. most republican senators have not seen the language yet, hari. they tell me they will see it tomorrow around 9:30 i'm eastern time. that's when republican senators will gather for this exact reason. when will we see it? whenlet the public see it? at the same time, 9:30 a.m. eastern online, not exactly sure where yet. hari, even as we wait for the exact bill, today we're hearing from some key senators that they have alarm bells ringing in

their heads. remember, republicans can only lose two republican senators and still have this bill pass. rand paul told me he sees what he hears bach light, and another said he asked for more time to review the bill. he said a vote next week as is planned is too soon. he said he's not getting more time and he's not sure he can get to yes without it. >> sreenivasan: today was the deadline for insurance companies to figure out whether they were going to participate in smft exchanges or not. >> this is critical for what options people will have on the individual market. some insurers were pulling out of markets, anthem and blue cross blue shield pulling out of markets in wisconsin and indiana. it's a mixed story because we're also seeing new insurers enter in places like tennessee, which will have three more options for insurance than it did last year. and i spoke to a company called medica, and they plan on

offering insurance throughout iowa. that will be new for them this year, adding another option for ions. medica says to do, that they're planning to increase premiums by 43%. so we'll get more news here but it's a really mixed picture, all of these insurers saying there's instability in the market. >> sreenivasan: all right, lisa desjardins joining us from capitol hill, many thanks. >> sreenivasan: in the day's other news, congressional republicans and the trump white house celebrated their latest win in a special election. republican karen handel held a g.o.p. house seat in the atlanta suburbs, beating democrat jon ossoff in tuesday's vote. it was the most expensive u.s. house race ever, and both candidates called for unity last night. >> to the jon ossoff supporters, know that my commitments, they extend to every one of you as well. we may have some different beliefs, but we are part of one community-- the community of the sixth district. >> we showed the world that in places where no one thought it

was even possible to fight, we could fight. we showed them that we can still build coalitions of people, who may not see eye-to-eye on everything, but rather than demonizing each other, we find common ground to move forward. >> sreenivasan: another special house election in south carolina was closer than expected, but republicans won that one, too. president trump tweeted that democrats are losing because they're obstructing action on health care and tax cuts. he's in iowa this evening, for a campaign-style rally. meanwhile, montana republican greg gianforte formally joined the u.s. house today. he won a special election last month, despite body-slamming a reporter. he's since been convicted of misdemeanor assault. today, house speaker paul ryan presided as gianforte took the oath of office. he replaces ryan zinkie, who became interior secretary. the f.b.i. confirms the gunman who opened fire on house republicans last week, acted alone. investigators said today that james hodgkinson of belleville, illinois, had no ties to any terror group. he attacked lawmakers at a

baseball practice in alexandria, virginia. house majority whip steve scalise was gravely wounded, and the hospital upgraded his condition to fair today. a police officer was stabbed at an airport in flint, michigan, today, and the f.b.i. is looking at it as an act of terrorism. officials charged a canadian man who came to the u.s. last week. the man yelled "god is great" in arabic and made comments about iraq, syria and afghanistan. the officer was stabbed in the neck, and officials later said he was at a hospital and his condition was satisfactory. in saudi arabia, the kingdom's ailing 81-year-old monarch elevated his much younger son to the role of successor today. the decision comes at a moment of economic challenges and high tensions with regional rival iran. >> ( translated ): the custodian of the two holy mosques king salman bin abdul aziz al saud has issued royal decrees... >> sreenivasan: the announcement was read on state television: king salman named his son, 31-year-old mohammed bin salman, crown prince, next in line to

the throne. he also became interior minister, in charge of security. the king's nephew, mohammed bin nayef, lost both titles. but, he appeared with the new crown prince, and pledged loyalty. >> ( translated ): i am content. i am going to rest now, and may god be with you because you are now under the responsibility. >> sreenivasan: the announcement capped prince mohammed's meteoric rise to power since his father assumed the throne in 2015. peter waldman, a writer for "bloomberg businessweek," profiled the young prince last year. >> he wants to bring entrepreneurship and initiative, and kind of a high-tech sensibility to saudi arabia. on social issues, he is relatively progressive, meaning that he clearly can see a point in time when women will be driving and can essentially travel and take jobs without their husband's or male guardian's permission. >> sreenivasan: he was already defense minister, and firmly opposes dialogue with shiite iran, fierce rival to the saudis

and their sunni allies. prince mohammed has also overseen the saudi military campaign against yemen's shiite houthi rebels, in a proxy war with the iranians. >> his confrontation with iran across the persian gulf is a bit dangerous. he has said, and is willing to do military interventions in yemen, most notably, where lots of civilians have died in this ongoing war. people worry that he doesn't necessarily have the wisdom of age and experience. >> sreenivasan: on the domestic side, the prince has championed economic reforms. he wants to reduce the country's dependence on oil, and allow an initial public offering of stock in the state-owned oil giant, saudi aramco. the elevation of mohammed bin salman came after he met with president trump, during the president's visit last month. the white house said president trump called prince mohammed today to offer his congratulations. elsewhere in the middle east, president trump's son-in-law and senior advisor, jared kushner, spent today in the region,

pushing israeli-palestinian peace talks. kushner met first with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. later, he met with president mahmoud abbas of the palestinian authority. in iraq, the islamic state group has destroyed a historic mosque in mosul. the centuries-old site is where the group's leader, abu bakr al-baghdadi, declared a so-called islamic caliphate in 2014, shortly after isis captured the city. it comes as iraqi forces are pushing into the old city, the group's last stronghold in mosul. there's been a new confrontation in the skies over the baltic sea for the second day in a row. russia released footage today, that shows a nato fighter jet near a plane carrying the russian defense minister. then, a russian fighter moves in, before the nato plane pulls away. nato says it was following standard procedure. back in this country, tropical storm cindy crawled toward the gulf coast, drenching a stretch from eastern texas to the florida panhandle. both louisiana and alabama

declared emergencies, over fears of flooding. the storm is expected to make landfall near the texas-louisiana border overnight, and could dump a foot of rain. louisiana governor john bel edwards: >> this will be a severe weather event, primarily consisting of threats of rain and flooding, but there is also a potential for wind damage as well. no one should be under the belief that this storm is only going to affect coastal louisiana or southeastern louisiana. this storm is going to affect the entire state. >> sreenivasan: a ten-year-old died on the alabama coast, after being struck by a log washed in on a storm surge from cindy. a jury in milwaukee has acquitted a former police officer in the shooting of a black man last august. dominique heaggan-brown had been charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the shooting of 23-year-old sylville smith. it happened after a traffic stop and a brief foot chase.

smith had a gun, but appeared to be throwing it over a fence. the shooting sparked two nights of riots. the c.e.o. and co-founder of uber has resigned. travis kalanick stepped down overnight amid turmoil at the ride-hailing company. uber faces allegations of sexual harassment and theft of trade secrets, plus a federal investigation into whether it misled local regulators. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 57 points to close at 21,410. the nasdaq rose 46 points, and the s&p 500 dropped a point. still to come on the newshour: the former homeland security secretary testifies before congress on the russia investigation. what georgia's special election means for democrats' chances to take back the house. how cities are bracing for potential cuts to medicaid. and, much more.

>> sreenivasan: on capitol hill today, current and former u.s. government officials testified before members of the house and senate intelligence committees, painting a clearer portrait of how russia meddled in the 2016 u.s. elections. a current f.b.i. official told the senate intelligence committee how the russian government directed cyber attacks to wage an information campaign that favored then- candidate trump. a homeland security official also offered new details on how russians attempted to interfere with state election systems. >> as of right now we have evidence of 21 states, or election-related systems in 21 states, that were targeted. >> but in no case were actual vote tallies altered in any way, shape, or form? >> that is correct. >> sreenivasan: in a separate and almost simultaneous hearing before house intelligence, former secretary of homeland security jeh johnson described learning about russian hacking into democratic national committee systems, months after the f.b.i. became aware.

>> it had been some months before, i was learning of this, that the f.b.i. and the d.n.c. had been in contact with each other about this. and i was not happy to be learning about this several months later. very clearly. i was not pleased we were not in there, helping them patch this vulnerability. >> sreenivasan: we get more on the senate intelligence committee's russia investigation now with one of its key members, senator james lankford, republican from oklahoma. he joins us now from capitol hill. senator, thanks for being here. this afternoon, we heard multiple d.h.s. official says they have more and more evidence that russia tried to interfere in the campaigns or interfere in the election systems in 21 different states. and while they stress none of the votes were flipped in any of these states, they did say some of these intrusions made it past of the security systems. so my question is why not release the information on which states or which localities were compromised? >> so the f.b.i. has a very

clear policy. they don't expose victims. and they consider these states to be victims of intrusion on the outside. if the states want to be able to say that or release, thatob they're welcome to do. but for a location that was actually attacked by an outside force they're not going to release it. some of those will continue to come out. some of those states will say, "yes, we're one of the states," and the list will eventually come out. >> sreenivasan: you agree it's important, regardless whether you're democrat or republican, to make sure these things are fixed before 2018. >> absolutely it is. there were three simultaneous hearings today, one in the house, two in the senate, dealing with state election systems and penetration from outside actors. >> sreenivasan: since the investigation into russian meddling began, has anything changed your opinion and how serious this is? >> it hasn't changed my opinion. i serve on the intele committee and i have been very aware of it. i think more american americanse of it. a lot of states have become more

aware of it, and their state c.i.o.s-- chief information officers-- and other agencies are stepping up to say this is a real threat and we need to be able to treat it seriously. >> sreenivasan: since this garn we have reports in the last couple of days from the "new york times" now that says the c.i.a. director, mike pompeo, continued to brief michael flynn, even after he was given information that michael flynn might be compromised. was this-- was this handled appropriately? >> it was handled appropriately. was virsurprised at the "new york times" story. they get some things right. for this one it seemed much ado about nothing. the fact that in the earliest days michael flynn was there and and there were people from the previous administration who didn't like michael flynn or thought he had been challenged before, this administration, the current administration, was still trying to determine that and to put that off on mike pompeo who had just been hired days before, they're confronting

mike pompeo saying he should have confronted a white house official days into his new post i think is an unfair reevaluation, rewrite of history. >> sreenivasan: it seems from an outsidary perspective, even when comes to intelligence gathering, there's a layer of politics on it and a layer of distrust. you would think by the time the information filters up to the head of the c.i.a., that whoever is coming up with that information is putting country first and not party. >> correct. and you would also assume there is a way to be able to interpret that information. at times you see an accusation that may be released out-- for instance, with michael flynn to say he might have been compromised or vulnerable to blackmail. one analyst will look at one thing and see it one way, another analyst will see it an entirely different way. there's more open to interpretation here than what americans are being led to believe by this story. i would tell people to take a deep breath and not revise history of what was going on in

literally the first weekave new administration as they were getting organized. >> sreenivasan: is there any concern michael flynn had access to information he should not have had. >> no, he was the national security adviser working next to the president, so in the time he was the national security adviser, he is working in the white house. he should have access to that information. once the president fired him he should have access to no information at all from that point. >> sreenivasan: you also had the opportunity to listen to mike rogers-- i'm sor riche the head of the d.n.i., and the head of the c.i.a. nclosed door session, has anything they told you, without having to reveal it here, given you a greater sense of comfort or a greater sense of alarm? >> no, they haven't. obviously, when we balk walkthrough classified information and sources and methods, we have a chance to see the raw data. very often what comes out in open hearings is an impression that has been made and you look back at the data and determine whether i would agree or disagree with that same impression. we are walking through all the

investigations in a very bipartisan way. the senate intelligence committee is a very bipartisan committee where we look at all the information, and have people passionate about national security behind closed doors and i think that's the way it should be. >> sreenivasan: the white house is supposed to announce, possibly as early as this week, to settle this question on whether or not there exists recordings of conversations between the president and former director james comey. as a member of the senate intelligence committee, do you have any reason to believe that there are or that there are not tapes? >> we don't know. we have, obviously, made the request. we will receive those recordings. it would clear up a lot of issues. obviously, the former f.b.i. director, jim comey, said he released out his memos that were of f.b.i. document that after he left employment he released them to try to pro actively cut that off. i wish we would not have done that. if we have recordings we could get the recordings and get all the information out there. at this point, if there is a recording, based on a tweet from

the president saying that james comey better hope there aren't, i will tell you if the white house has recordings, they should release them and that will settle the issue. >> sreenivasan: if there are recordings is that concerning to you? >> it would only be a question for me to figure out why they're trying to record what's happening in the white house and in private conversations. if there is, we get the information out, and let's resolve the issues and try to determine why those are happening, what was the source of those. and that will help settle a lot of issues. >> sreenivasan: senator james lankford from the senate intelligence committee and from oklahoma, thanks so much. >> you bet, thank you. >> sreenivasan: we return now to the results of yesterday's special elections in georgia and south carolina, and what both parties can learn from these congressional races as we look ahead to next year's midterms. john yang has more on that. >> yang: joining me now to look at what happened in these two southern races, and the big

takeaways for both democrats and republicans, are karine jean- pierre. she's a senior adviser for moveon.org, and worked in the obama white house. and, david avella, chairman of gopac, a republican political action committee focused on developing candidates to run for higher office. ica rin, david, thanks for joining us. republicans held on, one was being highly watched, one not so much. the one being highly watched was not as close as people thought it might be. the one that nobody seemed to be watching was much closer. so what did we learn last night? karinewhat, did we learn? >> there are a few big takeaways. i want to be clear, yes, the one we watched, georgia sir, we didn't come as dloas as we thought, but he was dealing with a 24-point deficit. if you think about tom price, who won that district in november, he got as close as five points which i think says a lot. that district is a gerrymandered district that is a stronghold

for republicans. it is a republican. plus-eight district. i think getting that close says a lot. if there are a lot of takeaways which i take from it, in 2018 if we're now able to play in georgia and south carolina, we're going to be able to play nay lot of different southern states because georgia and south carolina are deep red states. looking at south carolina fair second. it went under the radar. it did better than we expected. to me that's going to be more like 2018 because you will have 435 races that you're not going to be able able to pay attention to so i think there are similarities dl there which are you're not going to have the focus did you with georgia six. >> david what, did we learn? >> here are the facts -- south carolina five was only competitive because republicans didn't pay attention to it. democrats what they needed to do, which was try to sneak up on the republican it failed. in georgia 5, this is a race that every poll except one said

jon ossoff was going to win, and he didn't comeulose close. five points is not a close win. republicans should feel good about what happened yesterday. but here is the bigger lesson, and it's really for the u.s. senate, not the u.s. house. these four special elections all say the same thing-- karine's team cannot put enough progressives together for the nine democrats who sit in seats where donald trump won their states. and if they're going to get reelected, they've got to find republicans and independents that are willing to come vote for them. and if they're going to do, that they better find something in the trump agenda that they can vote for that they can go back home and tell information they're supporting the britain's agenda. >> what about that? is it enough for the democrats to be against everything the republicans are doing? >> i completely agree. we cannot just be anti-trump. we have to have i believe a progressive, clear vision, and be able to talk about that vision and be able to define ourselves before the republicans do, but also use that vision to be awbl to draw that stark

contrast with donald trump. so that is, i think, a lesson that we learned from yesterday, which is yeb which is incredibly important. there are 70 to eight districts that are going to come up in 2018 that are not as red at all as georgia and south carolina that we will be competitive in. i just want to be clear. special elections are special elections for a reason. we should not put too much stock in this. in twu fooirveg democrats lost special elections and in 2006 they won the majority back in the house. >> david, is there-- going back to what karine said in her first answer, is there reason to be concerned on the republican side, in every special election the democrats have out- ed, have done better than they've done in previous congressional elections and in some cases are done better than president trump did in those districts? >> republicans still won. republicans are still in the majority. and if republicans pass tax

reform, pass a health care system that's better than obamacare, keeps americans safe, and works on an infrastructure bill, it will a good day for republicans in 2018. we have far more control over our fate in 2018 if we do the things that we need to do that voters elected us to do. >> i want to get back to the health care, but, karine,imented to ask you, the one thing in the georgia race that republicans did apparently effectively is they draped nancy pelosi around the shoulders of the democratic candidate. is that a concern going into the midterms? >> i think this is-- goes back to what i was saying earlier. you have to define yourself first before republicans do. and to me-- like, remember, this is a deep red district, both of them were. and to me it's an old playbook. most people don't know who nancy pelosi is. most people don't know who paul ryan is. once again, this was in a ditch type of district that democrats, it shouldn't have been

competitive in the first place. >> poor karine has to redefine what "victory" means. you either win and get to go to washington and govern or you don't and there's much discussion today about should nancy pelosi go or shouldn't she go! and some are saying she should, republicans are saying please keep her. nancy pelosi is only the messenger for a larger progressive cause. the problem isn't nancy pelosi. it's the ideas that she's ultimately pushing. there aren't enough americans to support that view to get democrats elected. >> david you mentioned health care, they need to get-- they need to pass things, they need to get some victories up on the board. how important politically is-- we're going to see the health care bill tomorrow in the senate-- getting a vote by july? the public support for the health care bill has been dropping since the house introduced it and passed it. is there concern that you do this, and you get saddled with an unpopular bill much the same

way that the democrats did eight years ago? >> well, we have to have a bill that helps keep premiums in line, that ultimately gives good access to health care, which we're not talking about the fact that every month another state goes down more health care providers so that more americans have to go find health insurance somewhere else in a system where there may have only been that one health care provider on the insurance side. so republicans need to deliver a health care bill that gets rid of the taxes that obamacare put on, that not only will make health care better but will also help create jobs and spur the economy. but, two, will allow doctors and patients to keep a strong relationship between each other, and provides ultimately access to everyone. >> my friend needs to read the c.b.o. score of the house bill, which what we're hearing, the senate bill is very similar to the house bill. look, it's cruel. if the house bill was mean, it sound like the senate bill is going to be cruel, and honestly,

it's not even about pol toirkz elections at this point. it's about taking people off of their health care. it's about people potentially dying. and what we're seeing is the republicans want to kick off tens of millions of people and hurt our most vulnerable, and that is a problem. >> but that is is what obamacare is doing. >> that is not true. >> more and more people are losing their health insurance every month. >> that is not true. not according to the c.b.o. score. >> i'm sure we'll talk more about this after tomorrow. karine jean-pierre, david avella, thanks for joining us. >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: why a heatwave is baking the southwest, and grounding flights. plus, actor alan alda explains what he has learned on how to communicate effectively. but first, as we heard, senate republicans are pushing hard to pass their own bill next week to

replace and overhaul the affordable care act. one of the key issues: major cuts to medicaid, the joint federal-state program that provides health care to low-income americans, the elderly and disabled. it was expanded under obamacare. but now, 14 million medicaid recipients stand to lose that coverage under a bill passed by the house. reports out tonight say there will be even deeper cuts under the senate version. special correspondent cat wise reports from los angeles on how these cuts could directly affect patients. >> reporter: a homeless man on skid row hoping to finally get a roof over his head. a middle class mom earning an income to care of her disabled son. a working class truck driver getting care for his complex medical problems. three very different lives, with a common thread, now at risk of being cut: medicaid. los angeles is well known for its hollywood stars with glamorous lifestyles. but, the city is also home to many who are less fortunate. the working poor and homeless

here have benefited from the affordable care act. in fact, about 1.2 million residents gained health insurance through the medicaid expansion. but all that may be about to change. the republican plan to replace the affordable care act, passed by the house of representatives in may and now being considered by the senate, would fundamentally alter medicaid in two key ways. first, the a.c.a.'s medicaid expansion, that offered states the option of covering most non- disabled, childless adults with incomes below and just above the poverty line, would end within several years. >> we're going to get this passed through the senate. i feel so confident. >> reporter: the house bill, which president trump cheered in may but has since reportedly called "mean," also calls for converting the entire program from one with no cap on dollars spent, to one where states get a fixed amount of money. it would give state governments more flexibility about how to spend medicaid dollars, but would cut the amount they receive by more than $800 billion over a decade, according

to the congressional budget office. >> i think we'll have ample opportunity to read and amend the bill. >> reporter: a senate version, which would eventually need to be merged with the house bill before becoming law, is still being crafted, but is said to include many of these same adjustments, though with a potentially longer rollback of the medicaid expansion. california stands to lose more than any other state under the house version-- $6 billion a year starting in 2020, and more than $24 billion by 2027. those cuts could have a big impact on this group. >> i think he had gunshot wounds on his leg. a lot of mental health issues. >> i think you have hypertenth, diabetes, neuropathy. >> reporter: for the last several years, los angeles county has been deploying teams of nurses, mental health and substance counselors and formerly homeless peer advocates throughout skid row. their goal is to improve health outcomes for this medically complex and costly homeless population, by giving them a home. this "housing for health"

program uses medicaid dollars to fund supportive services, like mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment in locations where new housing is being offered. on the day we tagged along, the team reconnected with a client who has wanted to get off the streets. >> are you familiar with the russell hotel? that's the one everyone likes because you can get your own room. >> that sounds like my kind of room. >> it was a blessing to find him here. we'll basically link him to services and help him get to the point where he wants to be. >> reporter: nearly 3,000 people have received housing through the program so far, and the goal is to get 7,000 more off the streets by 2020. >> we've had dramatic drops in emergency department visits and hospitalizations following housing people. >> reporter: dr. mitch katz is the director of the los angeles health agency and he has been leading the county's effort. we met at the star apartments, a 100-unit building in the heart of skid row with a community garden, various counseling services... >> good morning!

>> reporter: ...and a health clinic on the main floor. the monthly rent is covered by county general funds, donations, and residents. but the services provided are covered by medicaid. dr. katz took me on a tour of a recently vacated unit. >> you'll see that although the space is small, it has everything that you would need. you have a refrigerator, stove, sink. it's not grand, but it really changes someone's life. over a hundred people came directly out of the hospital bed, or directly from the emergency room, and are now living here. and i can take care of them for way less than it costs to be in the hospital, and they will have a much higher quality of life. >> reporter: the a.c.a.'s medicaid changes have also been felt by a much wider swath of the population: low income, often working adults who previously had no access to health insurance. and that was the story for 60-year-old jorge arias, a

former self-employed truck driver. arias, who has had medicaid for the last two years, is a patient at the saban community clinic, a non-profit federally-qualified health center which opened its doors to low-income clients 50 years ago. last year, he had emergency surgery after a heart specialist determined he had three blocked arteries. without insurance, he says: >> i not even be alive, you know? because, no medications! no doctors. >> we see about 18,000 to 20,000 patients a year. 10,000 of them have medicaid, and over 8,000 of them got it with the expansion under the a.c.a. >> reporter: julie hudman is the c.e.o. of the clinic. >> before we had the a.c.a., someone would come in and, depending on their income, we'd take a copay, and it typically was around $18 dollars per person. now, when a patient comes in with medicaid, we receive about $200 dollars for the visit. the difference between the $18

dollars and the $200, $225 dollars is, you know, a huge source of revenue for us, and allows us to stabilize, to keep our doors open, and then actually expand services. >> so, how have you been this week? >> fine, yeah, i'm good. >> reporter: some of those new services include mental health counseling, which could be cut back if the clinic loses funding. traditional medicaid programs, like those for the disabled, and long-term care for the elderly, could also be impacted. victoria and steve rosen are the proud, adopted parents of 16-year-old max, who has a number of health problems due to prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol. >> so this is max, when we first met him in the nicu. he had a very rough beginning. >> reporter: max is the recipient of a medicaid funded program called "in-home supportive services." victoria earns about $3,500 a month through the program to help max with things like

personal care and feeding. that financial support has been key for the family because helping max is a full-time job, and victoria hasn't been able to work outside the home. >> it helps us survive, basically. i mean, before this, we were, you know, in debt. we don't spend a lot of extra money. and all the money we spend is on max. >> reporter: but many supportive medicaid service programs like this one are considered optional under traditional medicaid, and if states have to take on more financial responsibility for medicaid with the new republican plan, health analysts and program leaders say the optional services are likely to be cut. to the rosens, that doesn't make a lot of sense. >> i.h.s.s. saves money. it would be more expensive to take care of someone like max in an institutional setting than it is to have him in his own house. >> reporter: many republicans say these programs may be important, but medicaid is

simply out of control. >> medicaid has grown into this incredibly wasteful program, rife with fraud, siphoning lots of money away from the people the program should be helping. >> reporter: michael cannon is the director of health policy studies at the cato institute, a libertarian think tank. cannon is concerned the current legislation being considered by congress would not go far enough in axing federal medicaid regulations and turning over control to the states: >> so, what congress should be doing here is saying to the states, "look, we don't know how to run these programs better than you. we will continue our, our contribution to your medicaid programs, but we're going to give you a fixed amount of money. it's not going to grow from one year to the next, but, we're also going to give you full flexibility to run your programs the way you think is best for your state." states will have a much greater incentive, then, to eliminate fraud, to make sure that those medicaid dollars are being spent on the people the program was meant to help, and not on the people the program was not meant to help. >> reporter: back in los angeles, the health department's

dr. katz says he has no problem working within a budget-- as long as it is a fair one. >> if you give me flexibility, i can do a better job. and i could do a better job for less money. but i can't do 70 cents on the dollar. then, i'm actually going to have to cut services. >> reporter: while the health care debates continue in washington, the teams on skid row are still hitting the streets looking for people to help, and hoping they can do so for a very long time. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in los angeles, california. >> sreenivasan: now, let's turn to the extreme heat wave baking the west and southwest parts of the country. temperatures are well above the 100-degree mark. in california, it was 127 degrees yesterday in death valley, 122 in palm springs. in phoenix, the temperature is expected to top out at 118

degrees today. in fact, it's been so hot there, that more than 40 flights were canceled or delayed, because some planes can't safely lift off in that heat. a new analysis published in the journal "nature climate change" this week also said climate change is leading to more heat waves in general. it found that 30% of the world's population is exposed to potentially deadly heat for 20 days per year or more. it's the subject of our weekly segment on the "leading edge" of science with miles o'brien. and, let's start with what's happening in phoenix. miles, you've flown for a long time. we've always heard of flights being delayed because it's too cold. how can a flight not take off because it's so hot? >> hari, if it weren't for the snow and ice, the winter would be the perfect time to fly because a wing achieves flight. it derives lift based on the number of air molecules that surround it. and as the temperature heat up, those mo molecules command. we know when you warm things up,

things expand generally. so there are fewer air molecules so it takes greater amount of speed for that aircraft to fly. and if the runway isn't long enough to support that-- in other words, if the temperature is so high that there are so few molecules there to lift the wing that you don't have enough runway to get going fast enough, you're grounded. >> sreenivasan: so this is still smaller planes that were affected. what's the difference between the bigger planes? the larger planes, the boeing 737s, the big airliners, are designed to operate in a wider range of circumstances for one thing. they have to operate in all kinds of intense conditions. and frankly it costs more to certify them to these parameters. in addition, a 737, for example, has a lot more potential payload. so you can take off some cargo and still fly the mission. the smaller planes are not designed with as much versatility, and because they're smaller, they have lescapability to reduce the payloot explood take off. and really, ultimately, they have charts in there that a

pilot has to look at and there will be a maximum temperature, given the alttiewld of the field, et cetera. if you exceed that, you legally cannot take off g. >> sreenivasan: ask there are lots of runways that are too short to deal with this kind of heat. we talked about in phoenix, but a place like laguardia is just as confined or san francisco constrained by a certain amount of space. >> researchers looked at this. the laguardia runway is about 7,000 feet, and while that's about 20 feet above sea level and thus the air is denser there by virtue of where it is and it doesn't get quite as hot, nevertheless, at that length, you still-- there are still some parameters and constraint that we have to be watching as the climate gets warmer. this goes into the larger subject, hari, of of how our civilization is designed. when you think about a beach house on a barior island or phoenix sky harbor, as the temperature goes up, even though it's only gone up a degree

celsius over 100 years, it does create pockets of these heat waves. we're not exactly sure why, probably because the jet stream is weakening and causing high pressure systems to park in these places. i spoke with a climate scientist who has looked into this extensively. he's at columbia university, rabi horton, is his name, as part of a series i did for the weather app, my radar. >> if we look at the last decade or two, we are seeing twice as many record-break heat events, cities that are break their daily record highs for a given day, compared to the ratio-- compared to the number of cities having record-break cold temperatures. if you make temperatures just a couple degrees warmer on the hottest days, that means much more demand for air conditioning, for example, which means much greater risk of the power going out, precisely at those temperatures, those times, when people are so sensitive to just a little more warming from a public health perspective. >> sreenivasan: that goes a bit to the goldilocks effect you are talking about because our

infrastructure and systems are built for us to be within a certain range. >> exactly. and that's why we need to be really watching the effects of cliept change. it's easy to dismiss a one-degree celsius increase and say, "well, that's not a big deal." but in isolated locations, in specific locations, whether it's phoenix or miami beach or whether it's another city that has a sea level problem that it is dealing with, or whether it's california dealing with wildfires, those particular pockets, those problems are exacerbated by that overall increase in the temperature of the climate, the overall temperature of the planet. and it causes changes to our weather systems which we're just beginning to understand, researchers are just getting a handle on it. >> sreenivasan: so in the case of this news about phoenix and the-- do airlines, who think about buying planes years and years out-- these are hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of purchases-- do they think ditchly about what kind of jets to buy or where to park all those jets, a place way long

runway? >> hari, i think this is something the aviation industry has not gotten out ahead of. i suspect there are a lot of conversations going-- right now, as we've seen this record heat wave. there was a similar record heat wave last year as well, which caused similar problems. so the airlines are gog have to contend with this. the airliner makers and airports as well. the longest runway at phoenix sky harbor is a little more than 11,000 feet. they might have to think about extending that runway. what about laguardia, though? is that even possible? is it possible to consider that? all these things get factored into the consequences of climate change and how we as a civi civilization can adopt to it. >> sreenivasan: miles o'brien, thanks so much. >> you're welcome. >> sreenivasan: now, a lesson in communication from an unlikely, but very familiar source. it's the latest addition to the "newshour bookshelf."

jeffrey brown has that. >> brown: one enormous turn in the life of alan alda: his 11- year run in the 1970s and '80s as the star of one of the most beloved programs in television history, "mash." >> hello, and welcome to scientific american 41 feerpz >> brown: another, by his own account, came in 1993, when he began to host the pbs series "scientific american frontiers." he was a non-scientist, learning on the go, using his trademark humor and wit to get the experts to explain complicated ideas in accessible language. >> what keeps the water from going in here? i mean-- >> well, it's actually tapered. if you look at the hatch, it's like a porthole. > and pressure push themselves down. >> what i brought to it was curiosity and a huge fund of ignorance. and i just was after them, until i could fill up the ignorance a little bit with real stuff.

but that process of connecting with them, getting them to be who they were, because they were worried about getting me to understand it. so it was much more personal. and that's when i realized that you could build on that-- you can help people do that all the time. >> okay, now he's leaving. >> brown: first, he worked to help scientists and science writers do it all the time, helping to found the "center for communicating science" at stony brook university in new york. now, a book for the rest of us, with the colorful title: "if i understood you, would i have this look on my face?" alan alda and i met recently at lisner auditorium in washington before he gave a talk about the problem and promise of communicating. what i think i found is, that it's all based on a personal connection. if i can sort of understand it some way, make some approximation of what you are thinking and feeling, it's easier for me to get inside your head with my message. if i don't know how you're receiving it, if i can't see how it's landing on you, then i'm

just spraying it at you. i'm just trying to pour it over your head. but i'm not really connecting. well, that connection-- this is what i don't understand-- that connection with another person feels so good. why do we retreat from it? i don't understand that. >> brown: we're living in a time that's not only skepticism, but outright hostility from the-- people towards science. is that just a communication problem? >> i think it's largely a communication problem, because there has to be trust, and you get trust through-- one way you get trust is through good communication. there are lives at stake. take doctors: when patients regard their doctors as being "empathic," at least one study has shown that the patients are 19% more likely to follow the doctor's advice. now, i imagine in that 19%, some lives are at stake. >> brown: yeah, so some of this is life and death.

>> yeah. science needs to be understood by the public so they can support science. >> i don't tell the people i care about the most, the meeft important thing i can tell them, that i do care. >> brown: for alda, better communicating starts with better person to person "relating"-- a concept he had to learn as a young actor. >> i knew you were supposed to relate, in the beginning. and i would do the best i could to relate. i thought it meant leaning into the other person's face, so i was sort of stooped over most of the time. but little by little, i began to learn that you can connect to someone on stage even if their back is turned to you-- they're you pick up whatever clues you can, and when you don't have clues to pick up-- you can estimate what they're probably thinking by virtue of what's been said. what you've said or what you've just written them. you can picture what the reader is thinking, with each sentence you put down. it really affects all forms of communication. >> brown: in several chapters of

the book, you describe these training sessions that you had with scientists for many years. but then you talk about improv classes, right? improv, we think of as comedy. >> yeah, i know. most improvisation that people are aware of is comedy improvisation. but that's not what we teach. we teach a much purer form of improvisation in the form of exercises. and they're all designed, one on top of the other, starting with a very basic kind of exercise that enables you to do the next one, and they all put you in touch with the other person. you have to observe the other person, and really care for them, to improvise. i have to know, from your body language and your face, what you're doing and what you're thinking. i'm reading your face right now. it's really fun. >> brown: what's going on? >> yeah, well, i hear you following me, and then i hear you thinking, "what do i want to ask next?" >> brown: really? you can see that? >> yeah. mostly when you look down at the

paper. >> brown: that's a dead giveaway. >> yeah, but i'm picking it up. you know, it's so funny, once in a while i'll be talking to somebody and i'll think i'm connected to them. and i'll say, wait a second-- in my head, i'll say this-- what color is his eyes? what color are his eyes? what's the shape of his nose? >> brown: and then you realize that you're not really paying attention. >> i realize when i think back, that there's been sort of a blob where your face should be. >> brown: i hope i haven't dissolved to blob-ness. >> no, you're not blobby at all, no. >> brown: that's good to know. and also good to see an attempt to bridge the worlds of science and the arts. >> well, they didn't used to be kept apart so much. science and art, or the arts and humanities, were, in the greek times and later, were considered to be different aspects of the

same inquiry-- of the same exploration of being alive in the universe. and i think they're long lost lovers, yearning to be reunited. they should be reunited. we're reuniting them with this work in communication, because it's both an art and a science to figure out what's the best way to learn to communicate better? >> brown: all right, alan alda's book is "if i understood you, would i have this look on my face?" it's quite a title. >> well, you have quite a face. >> brown: thank you very much. >> thank you. >> brown: nice to talk to you. >> sreenivasan: and to our "newshour shares:" something that caught our eye, that may be of interest to you, too. this year marks the 60th anniversary of the debut of a musical oddity: "the great stalacpipe organ" of virginia's luray caverns.

newshour recently got a behind- the-scenes look at the one-of-a kind instrument from those who know it best. cavern historian john shaffer starts us off. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: luray caverns is home to the largest musical instrument in the world, the great stalacpipe organ. and it plays the stalactites. the organ was created by leland w. sprinkle. mr. sprinkle toured the caverns in 1954 with his young son, and at that time, the guides would tap stalactites to show that the different sizes give off different tones. >> what he did is take rubber mallets and a concept of an organ and put it all together into an instrument. i'm larry moyer. i am operations manager for the great stalacpipe organ. you're actually standing inside

the organ as it plays, because the stalactites cover over three and a half acres. basically, we call it like a player-type piano. so, the sheet of plastic is your song, and as the drum rotates, the metal brushes fall into contact through holes in the plastic and sends the notes out. >> reporter: and on occasion, we will have an organist present. >> a pipe organ produces its sounds by forcing air through columns. what we are doing here is, we are actually playing a 37-note percussion instrument. my name is otto pebworth. i play the organ here at luray caverns, and i've been playing pipe organs now for close to 30 years. it's very settling, very soothing. i just have a chance to let everything stop and go quiet and make music. and that's what makes it the nicest thing.

a room like this lends itself more towards the more peaceful things like "moonlight sonata," or some of the bach preludes. the stalacpipe organ is a totally unique instrument unto itself, and because of that, you can just hear something that is just totally natural and totally special. can't be duplicated. ♪ ♪ >> sreenivasan: on the newshour online right now: jellyfish have fascinated beachgoers and aquarium visitors for generations. we visit a "jelly expert" at the national aquarium to learn six facts you might not know about the beautiful ocean oddity. all that and more is on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. as we say good night, here's a look at the congressional women's softball game, pitting

members of congress against members of the press. we're proud to have a number of newshour staffers on the press team. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour-- on and off the field-- thank you, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at www.rockefellerfoundation.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 >>

>> goldberg: welcome to the program. i'm jeff goldberg of the atlantic sitting in for charlie rose. we begin with politics with shannon pettypiece. >> world war 3 will probably be announced over twitter by this president as a main means of contact at this point. >> goldberg: we continue with mark bowden of "the atlantic." his new cover story for the magazine is called "how to deal with north korea." >> north korea has been a very dangerous player for a long time. they sunk a korean ship a few years ago, killed 70 or more sailors on board. they shelled an island and practically leveled it and killed a lot