captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> yang: good evening. i'm john yang. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: hurricane irma plows ahead, on track for a direct hit on florida with 155 mile per hour winds, forcing mass evacuations. pin a century rocks mexico,ake toppling buildings and killing dozens. >> ( translated ): once we went downstairs, it shook even stronger, and it felt like we were being wrung like clothes in a washing machine. that was terrible. >> yang: and, it's friday. mark shields and michael gerson take on the week's news, including president trump's surprise deal with the democrats. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> yang: tonight, the state of florida is bracing for what could be its worst hurricane ever. while irma's sustained winds have dropped a bit, it is still a category 4 storm, with at least 22 dead and a trail of destruction in its wake. p.j. tobia begins our coverage, from cocoa beach, florida. >> reporter: snaking lines of traffic and clogged highways-- floridians, escaping a storm that's targeting the entire state.

irma blew toward the florida keys today. the storm's center is on track to turn north and make landfall on the mainland by early sunday, then plow the length of the state, and beyond. heavy winds battered the islands of turks & caicos today, and along the cuban coastline, thousands of tourists were evacuated from beach towns. streets were submerged in the dominican republic after irma's passage. the governor of puerto plata says some were caught off guard. >> ( translated ): we need to find the people who left the shelters because they thought there was no hurricane, that nothing was going on. we can't allow people who were ignoring what was happening to be surprised in the middle of the hurricane, so we have to go out and find them again. >> reporter: at an airport in the netherlands, the military loaded planes today with badly needed supplies, and the french navy sent water bottles and other relief by ship. badly damaged barbuda was also greatly in need of aid. this woman searched in vain for her two-year-old, missing since the storm struck.

>> can't find my son and my other friend. i cn't deal with this no more. we did not expect anything like this. in all my life i have never seen a concrete house, crumble under a hurricane. >> reporter: but the islands will barely have a chance to begin the long slog of recovery before another major storm rolls in. hurricane jose powered up to category 4 today, with sustained winds near 150 miles an hour. it could blast st. martin, antigua and barbuda on saturday, before it heads west into the atlantic. with an eye on the damage irma has already done, and plenty of warning, florida has been making preparations for days. many areas across central and south florida are already under mandatory evacuation orders. here in brevard county, that means homes and businesses boarded up early against the elements. but, manufactured homes like the ones behind me are often most susceptible to hurricane strength wind and rain. in the coastal town of cocoa beach, many secured their homes before heading inland.

>> i think everyone is more alert and just stocking up more. we're really going to prepare and go. >> reporter: despite the traffic backups, and gas shortages, governor rick scott urged people to leave while they still can. >> evacuations not convenient, but they are absolutely meant to keep you safe. i'm glad so many are driving to a safe place. >> reporter: scott also pledged police escorts for gas station workers who stayed on the job, to get fuel to as many people as possible. meanwhile, fema says up to 100,000 people might need shelter in florida once the storm hits. this center in orlando cares for homeless people with special medical needs. its manager says all of the challenges posed by a monster hurricane are that much harder for those without homes or good health. >> sometimes they can't handle the crowd, or they're on medications and they're on insulin and so, keeping that cold-- all of these things start to play into it. >> reporter: and so they choose to ride the storm out on the street?

>> yeah, they sure will. i don't think so many are this time. there is truly a sense that this is bigger than what we've seen in the past. >> reporter: this man says some of his homeless friends and family will be weathering the storm in the open, and, if it weren't for the facility, he might be doing the same. >> chances are, i'd rough it out in the wilderness. my brother right now is out there. he's taking care of my tent, and making sure it's all wrapped up in canvases and tied everything down and make sure everything's secure. >> reporter: in georgia, governor nathan beal is still urging 540,000 people living along the coast to evacuate, but the center of the state may be hit as well. as of 3:00 p.m. e.t., most of the barrier islands in this area, including right here in cocoa beach, went under mandatory evacuation orders. that means residents have 24 hours to pack up and leave. after that time period, emergency officials told us today they're not sure they will be able to respond to emergency calls or life-threatening

situations. john? >> yang: p.j., what's the situation in terms of preparations down there? >> reporter: prepare, prepare, prepare is the word of the day down here and really the last couple of days. folks have been really boarding up their houses, buying supplies. there's not a lot of water left on store shelves, there's not a lot of gas left at what gas stations that are still open, and residents tell us that's because of the memory of hurricane matthew which is a storm that hit her last year and did a lot of damage. never made landfall, just stayed off the coast a couple of days. they're worried this storm that will be making landfall and coming through this area could be much worse. of course, there's the memory of hurricane harvey that just damaged houston. no one wants to see that kind of destruction here. >> yang: p.j., you mentioned an evacuation order for where you are. in florida, there's only one way to go. that's north. how are the evacuations going?

>> reporter: officials have a fades zone evacuation system. this is zone one, right on the water, that means they're the first to evacuate. litter it will fold into zone two further inland and possibly zone 3 if it comes to that. still, as we've all seen, lots of traffic on the roads, lots of jammed highways heading north out of the sunshine state. >> yang: p.j. on what is now a calm coast in florida, stay safe. >> reporter: thanks, john. >> yang: while the exact path of irma remains uncertain, one thing is clear-- florida is set to get hit hard. miami is right in the crosshairs. it's also home to the national hurricane center. we turn again to its acting director, ed rappaport. ed, thanks for joining us again. what is the latest on the track of irma? >> we can see irma off to my ean part of cuba.

as we stayed in the past few days, we think the track along the coast will continue but then will turn towards the north and where that turn occurs will be critical in terms of tim pacts we'll see in south florida. one of those impacts we're most concerned about is storm surge. i have the video of that behind me that shows what storm surge is and what it can do. at this point, what we're concerned most about is surge along the southeast coast, florida keys and the southwest coast in this area that's colored with 6 to 12 feet of storm surge possible in the southwestern part of florida and 5 to 10 feet along the coast in southeastern part of florida and the keys. >> yang: and given the physical size of the storm and the physical narrowness of florida, does any possible deviation in the track make much a difference in the storm surge and what florida will get hit with? >> it doesn't change the amount

of storm surge much but will change what people experience in terms of wind. we have the forecast for the center which is these dots coming up on the southwest part of the peninsula. any shift one way or the other makes a big difference in terms of the winds. at this point, the shifts that we've had today have been -- made it worse for the florida keys in terms of the expectations and have increased the risk for the southwestern part of the florida peninsula. >> yang: so it's getting worse. the changes so far have made it worse? >> in terms of the change of the track today is worse for the florida keys. it's also worse for southwest florida because the track is closer to them. there is some potential that the worst of the weather will not hit southeast florida but we're still expecting hurricane conditions there overnight saturday and into sunday. >> yang: once it gets over land and starts moving up the florida peninsula, will winds

diminish much as the storm goes over land? >> yes, typically the winds do diminish very gradually but, in this case, because hurricane force winds extend so far that even when they drop a bit, we'll still see the winds covering all of the florida peninsula. at least the southern two-thirds will get potentially hurricane-force winds. >> ed rappaport at the national hurricane center in miami, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> yang: staying in miami, shelters today were rapidly filling to capacity, as officials stressed the importance of making plans ahead of irma's arrival. a short time ago, i spoke by phone with major hector llevat of the miami-dade police department. major hector llevat of the miami-dade police department, thanks for joining us. i want to begin by asking you about the evacuations. i know there are about 680,000 people in miami-dade under evacuation order right now. how is that process going? >> well, the good thing is that, early on this week, the county

government here was urging those that had plans to relocate as part of their hurricane plan to go ahead and initiate those plans ahead of time and not wait for the evacuation order. obviously, you know, the layout of florida is a long distance before you can get upstate and out of the state if that's your desire, so we put those messages out early, and people have been slowly trickling out. obviously, it's difficult to measure numbers, but the information that we have been getting from people that we know and what we see here on local tv is that a lot of people have decided to go ahead and either relocate or seek shelter, but so far it's been orderly. we have been working with the florida highway patrol and other agencies to help the traffic flow, the governor has to spend the tolls and things to make the process smoother -- suspend the tolls. >> yang: landfall we expect sunday morning. we're a little bit out from that. what's your biggest concern

right now? >> well, the biggest concern right now, before the storm, is really to urge everybody to prepare, to get those preparations in place. obviously, the window is closing quickly. make those final arrangements, make sure you decide what it is you're going to do so that when it's time to bunker down and shelter in place that everybody's in a safe location. and that's really the thing that we're focusing on now. the other side of that as an agency is make sure our employees are prepared and their families are prepared so that they can turn and serve the community in the time of need, making sure our equipment is ready. we're ready to mobilize our department, so we're working two shifts now, the half to have the department in the day shift and the other half on the evening shift. 12-hour shifts, obviously days off have been canceled till further notice, and we are ready to go. >> yang: do you get any sense in any difference in the public response? we've always heard of people talking about riding them out. are fewer people talking about it this time?

>> a lot of people are choosing to not be here when it comes. i think part of it is what we saw in texas recently which is obviously a tragedy and is on everybody's mind and, on top of that, recently, we had the 25-year anniversary of hurricane andrew, which is something that south floridians remember quite well, and it was a devastating storm, and this storm, by all accounts, is much stronger. >> yang: for those people in miami-dade who may be listening right now, what's your message? >> our message right now is to follow the instructions that you're getting from government officials to visit the official web site which is miami-dade.gov/emergency where we have updated information on shelters and many of the topics people are searching for answers for and follow us on social media at miami-dade p.d. across the major platforms and we'll be sharing information as much as

we can throughout the event. >> yang: major hector llevat of the miami-dade police, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you very much. >> yang: in the day's other news, late today president trump signed the bill to spend more than $15 billion in harvey relief. the house had given its final congressional approval earlier in the day. the legislation also raises the federal debt ceiling and funds the government through early december. it's part of a deal president trump made with democrats earlier this week. and much of southern mexico spent a tense day after a powerful earthquake struck in the middle of the night. it hit the pacific coast, killed at least 60 people and sent hundreds of buildings crashing down. nick schifrin has our report. >> reporter: in the dead of night, the ground shook so hard, the centuries-old buildings crumbled. this was once juchitan's city hall.

it's now cut in half, and collapsed. old structures stood no chance against the strongest earthquake in more than a century. rescuers frantically tried to save victims, and beneath all that rubble, survivors were trapped alive-- at least four under this building alone. city councellor pamela terán begged for help. >> ( translated ): please, the most pressing need we have right now is to assemble enough people to help us. we need volunteers to come and help us. we need more people to come and help. >> reporter: the nearby hospital also collapsed. doctors triaged victims in the streets, and used the lights of cell phones to stitch up the wounded. by dawn, heaps of rubble had replaced a once proud neighborhood. the mayor called this the city's most terrible moment. the 8.1 magnitude quake struck just before midnight off mexico's pacific coast. hardest hit were nearby oaxaca and chiapas states, but the ground shook as far as the capital, mexico city, more than 650 miles away. there, tremors lasted for nearly a minute.

panicked residents huddled in open streets. >> ( translated ): you could >> ( translated ): it was horrible. i never felt something so ugly. it was small at first but then it started shaking a lot. once we went downstairs, it shook even stronger, and it felt like we were being wrung like clothes in a washing machine. that was terrible. >> reporter: already there have been at least 20 small aftershocks. and, mexican president enrique pena nieto warned of even larger aftershocks to come. >> we have asked the population to be on alert. it's probable there will be a another. >> reporter: the earthquake preceded a natural disaster mexico could forecast, and is bracing for: hurricane katia, and its 110 mile an hour winds, are expected make landfall early saturday. back in juchitan, the damage is daunting. but even as the destruction was still fresh, a resident found a

mexican flag and made sure it could still fly. a city whose center has been destroyed, is now promising to rebuild. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> yang: in myanmar, there is word that in the past 24 hours, another 100,000 rohingya refugees fled into bangladesh. the u.n. reports that makes 270,000 in two weeks. they're running from army attacks in mostly buddhist myanmar. today, thousands of muslim protesters gathered in jakarta, indonesia, demanding that myanmar's government stop the violence. hundreds more in the philippines demonstrated outside myanmar's embassy in manila. the u.s. supreme court will have to decide if grandparents of people already in the united states are exempt from president trump's travel ban on visitors from six mostly muslim nations. the administration has interpreted an earlier high court ruling to mean that grandparents and other close relations are not exempt. but on thursday, a federal appeals court in san francisco disagreed.

and on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 13 points to close at 21,797. the nasdaq fell 37 points, and the s&p 500 slipped three. for the week, the dow and the s&p lost a fraction of 1%. and nasdaq was down a little more than 1%. still to come on the newshour: wildfires blazing through the western united states. mark shields and michael gerson on the week's unexpected political news. inside a renowned glass blower's studio. and, much more. >> yang: the digital age has made our lives easier in many ways-- from banking to shopping, to staying connected with loved ones across the country.

but it's also made it increasingly difficult-- if not impossible-- to protect our personal data. major breaches in recent years at places like target, home depot and j.p. morgan have exposed tens of millions of individuals' information. but equifax's announcement yesterday might be the biggest and most significant yet. one out of every two americans stands to be a victim. some 143 million consumers' sensitive data is potentially compromised by a security breach at the credit reporting agency. our own william brangham learned he was one of them-- as did i. william, i am very interested in what you have to say. what does equifax say happened here? >> brangham: what happened was, seems that from mid may to july of this year, there was a vulnerability on their web site software and that allowed hackers to get in during that period of time and access 143 million americans' information. the company found out about this breech, they closed the loophole

that allowed the hackers in but not before this data got out. >> yang: what kind of data are we talking about? >> brangham: everything in your credit report -- social security number, fame name, address, driver's license number, employers, payment history, what bank accounts you have. if you were an identity thief, it is a gold mine or the holy grail. the thing a thief could do is to hack into your existing accounts once they have all that information, they could also set up new once pretending to be. >> yang: or. >> brangham: instead of new accounts and rack up big charges on those. so the great irony here is that equifax is a company that actually sells identity theft protection, and here it is they've theoretically allowed a huge breech that could trigger a ton of identity theft. >> yang: what are we supposed to do? >> the main advice is not to

panic. there are several things you can do. you can set up fraud monitoring on many of your accounts so you get an alert, text alert, phone call, email if suspicious activity apeels pierce. several major consumer groups urged people to freeze their credit accounts. that basically means it does not allow any person to set up a new bank account in your name, a new mortgage in your name, a new loan in your name without you being alerted to it. you have to contact not just equitax but the other two major credit reporting agencies to let them know about this. and you're supposed to basically just monitor your bank and credit card and look for suspicious activity. >> yang: there's a question about how equifax handled all, this isn't there? >> there is. they found out about this on july 29, and we only found out about this breach this week. you're supposed to, in these kinds of cases, immediately jump to do something about it, and it seems like they did not give

consumers much time. there was a long period of time this information might have been out there. secondly, several executives at the company, after they found out about the breach, sold about $18.8 million worth of stock in their company before this news got out. the implication being they didn't want their stock to tank and their stock to lose value and sure enough their stock value dropped about 13%. as one person said to me today this "stinks to high heaven." >> yang: and equifax is offering to help consumers like you and me but with strings attached, right? >> that's right. you can go to equifax's web site, and if you put in your name and 6 digits of your social security number, they'll tell you if they think you might have been compromised, and you can sign up for one year free fraud protection from them. the problem is that many of these problems -- i mean, once your social security is out there, that's not a one-year problem, that is a very, very long-term problem. so it's a solution that also, if you sign up for it, you give up

your right to potentially sue the company. any argument you have with them has to be settled by arbitration which almost always goes in the company's favor. >> brangham:, more to tuck about this in the days to come. thank you so much. >> yang: we turn our attention now out west, where a wet winter and spring had brought hopes for a quiet wildfire season. it's turned out to be anything but-- and in fact, could be one of the worst in american history. more than 80 large wildfires are burning in ten western states. at least nine firefighters have died. newshour special correspondent cat wise reports from the front lines of the nation's highest priority wildfire, about 40 miles outside portland, oregon. >> reporter: the eagle creek fire has charred some 30,000 acres in the heart of oregon's scenic columbia gorge.

it isn't the biggest blaze crews are battling in the u.s., but today, it's considered the most threatening to public safety and property. and the small town of cascade locks has been square in the path of the flames. >> we've been trying to make a donut around town of burnt vegetation, so the fire can't come into town on its own power, working under our conditions, rather than its own. >> reporter: u.s. forest service division supervisor eric risdal has been overseeing crews working around the clock to protect the community and surrounding areas. >> we've made a tremendous amount of progress with the few resources we have had, and i think the danger to cascade locks, we're lessening that every day. >> reporter: yesterday, after smoky conditions eased, helicopters began attacking the fire with massive buckets full of columbia river water. it's only 7% contained, but improving weather conditions are slowing its spread. the fire began over labor day weekend. bone-dry vegetation and high winds pushed the flames about

13 miles in just 16 hours between monday and tuesday. traci weaver is a public affairs official for the u.s. forest service and the bureau of land management. >> we have seen some really explosive fire behavior. a couple days ago, we reached historic peaks for a lot of our fire season, which is incredible, because it's really fairly late in the season for the pacific north-west. usually we're on a serious downturn by early september. >> reporter: earlier in the week, the fire dumped ash on portland, and much of the region has been blanketed in a smoky haze deemed "unhealthy" to breathe by state officials. the blaze also closed a stretch of one of the state's main east- west interstates where crews are now trying to clear 2,000 trees. only a small number of homes and buildings have been destroyed so far, but hundreds remain evacuated, including 75-year-old sally king. she left her home in the middle of the night on monday and came

to this red cross shelter in gresham. king has volunteered for 30 years at a historic building overlooking the columbia gorge, and she expressed the collective heartbreak of millions of oregonians. >> we have visitors from all over the world coming and they are just amazed at the beauty here. it just seems to be a magical place. all sorts of things to do. there's a lot of hiking. >> reporter: were you surprised at how quickly the fire spread? >> yeah, yeah, it did spread very fast. but we had a very wet winter and that makes grasses grow and then the rain stopped and everything went dry, and tinder dry. oregon is well known for its rain. people are thinking, "you want more rain?" yes, bring it on, lord. thank you. >> reporter: the red cross is currently sheltering about 200 people who have nowhere else to go, according to monique dugaw, an organization spokesperson. >> our resources are all over the state.

we've had a shelter open for almost four weeks at the chetcobar wildfire in southern oregon. we have two shelters open for this gorge fire. we have another one in the eugene area. our folks have been going literally nonstop from one wildfire response to the next. we are preparing for this to be the norm. >> reporter: an investigation into the fire's cause is ongoing, but authorities believe a teenager tossed fireworks into the woods. the eagle creek fire is just one in a handful of blazes currently burning across oregon. altogether, the state's wildfires have scorched more than 1,000 square miles. that's about one third of all the land burning across the united states. the blazes throughout the west have drawn 26,000 firefighters, backed by upwards of 200 helicopters. back in oregon, the focus remains on keeping the gorge fires contained, but officials-- and the public-- are already sizing up the seemingly lasting damage.

>> it's going to be a long, slow recovery process. nature has evolved with fire, it will recover, but we just, as humans, need to be patient with it. >> reporter: in the days ahead, crews will be especially focused on protecting an area of forest called the "bull run" watershed, which supplies portland's drinking water. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in cascade locks, oregon. >> yang: from wildfires to hurricanes-- natural disasters have drawn the country's attention away from the political storms in washington this week. but rest assured, we'll bring you up to speed now, with the analysis of shields and gerson. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "washington post" columnist michael gerson. david brooks is away. gentlemen, welcome to you both. we had the unusual scene this week of a bipartisan leadership

meeting in the oval office, and the president cuts off his own treasury secretary as he's making a recommendation and agrees with the opposition party on this debt ceiling on a short-term c.r. michael, what do you make of all this? >> it's a massive shift. not long ago they were talking about putting a wall on the debt relief. so it's a huge change. i think that, you know, the art of the deal is easy when you surrender. that book wouldn't sell very well, but it's true, and he signaled surrender not just on this issue but somewhat on daca and somewhat on the whole issue of debt -- the debt ceiling, trying to get that out of american politics. so it was a fire storm for republicans. they're wondering, is this the new world. >> yang: mark? i'm not sure it's the new world, but i am sure, if i were mitch mcconnell, i would be seething with anger, the

republican senate leader, because what donald trump did to him and paul ryan the speaker is cut them off at the knees, they had to go back to their respective caucuses and tell them know, they weren't going to tathe position they endorsed and told them they were going to take on the debt ceiling and continuing spending resolution, but in fact were going to follow the advice and embrace advice by chuck schumer and nancy pelosi. so if you're mcconnell, just taking it from his perfective, he's trying to hold on to a senate majority going into head winds of 2018 which does not look like a good republican year, and he's got a president who is not helping him in that sense. he's got to have something he can point to that the senate has accomplished. the last best hope or only hope actually is probably tax cuts for their supporters and their admirers, and without the president, he can't do that. so he has to bite his tongue and

lip and any other part of his facial extremity that he can and swallow hard because he just -- he was really diminished by this. >> i think we republican leaders look pathetic, though, in a certain way. they were lived according to reporting on a three-month debt increase. they weren't lived on nativism. they weren't lived on misogyny, they whether or not lived on serial lying. i think it makes them look like they have kind of a moral center problem that this is what the final straw is, is the difficulty. also, they've given a lot. they've given their standing, they've given almost their political character for nothing so far. >> i agree. mean, they've literally gotten nothing, and tax reform may not even happen, and if it happens, it might be a scaled-back version. so they've give an whole lot for very little in return. >> you're absolutely right,

michael. i would just add that one picture that came out of that meeting of donald trump and chuck schumer each with their hands on the others' lapels and shoulder, you could almost see them kind of -- trump was in his element trash talking to schumer -- i knew you, you were from james madison high school in brooklyn -- and schumer saying something like this to him, donald, you're from jamaica plains, who are you kidding? there's not coning relationship but there's a chemistry there that isn't present with mcconnell or ryan. ryan is a choir boy to donald trump. he's the darling of the "wall street journal" editorial page. he's never had a relationship with mcconnell. i agree, but i agree with what michael's point is. what were the words of charlie, the republican talk show host from wisconsin who's a friend of paul ryan's, quoting "man for

all seasons," paul, you know, for whales you've traded your soul, but for a tax cut you've traded your soul and i think there's a lot of truth to that. >> he's a diminished figure, yeah. >> yang: chuck schumer who we call the chief clown. >> exactly. >> yang: and mitch mcconnell who invited the cabinet and spouses to camp david, one who declined, mitch mcconnell. how much was a shot across the bow at the republican leader and was it his intent to diminish them and how much was situational? he saw a deal he could take with the democrats and, so, he took it? >> i think it's always the latter with him,, and what's remarkable was he was delighted was the president in getting favorable reviews in the press that he hates, that he diminishes, that he denigrates on a regular basis. the "new york times," "the washington post," and so thrilled was he he actually

called nancy pelosi and chuck schumer to bask in it and tell them the good reviews they were getting. i mean, this is not a matter of strategy, a conviction. it's a matter of -- >> it's not a violation of his convictions. i'm not sure he has any. he has a set of instincts which are nativist and nationalist but i don't think he has a set of economic or political or philosophical conventions on spending or other issues so when he makes this kind of turn i think it's relatively easy for him. >> yang: do you think we'll see more of it? >> i think he likes basking in this corks but you can't underestimate these democratic leaders would impeach him with the drop of a hat. they're not allies. they want higher taxes, not lower taxes. so i think that there are some fundamental conflicts of interest here that emerge very quickly. >> democrats are not record faving tax cuts, steve

schwartzman and other billionaires who back donald trump, wilbur ross. no, i think both chuck schumer and nancy please where are pretty clear-eyed people, and they know that there are no permanent alliances here. i mean, it's a matter of temporary interest, and plus the fact they can't get too cozy with him for the simple reason he is the earn gyres for 2018 for the democrats if they hope to win back the house and maybe even make a dent in the senate. >> yang: one of the issues he appears to be working with the democrats on is what to do aboutt the dreamers. he rescinded daca earlier in the week. but by the end of the week, he seemed to be arguing with himself about whether this was a good thing to do. >> i agree. i mean, the strength of donald trump as a candidate -- and i'm not in any way defending the moral convictions or anything of the sort, was he says what he means, you know where he stands. on dak arks you have no idea

where he stands. he has a great heart, as he tells us, then turns to give the bad news to jeff sessions. he wants them to stay. he gives the congress that hasn't voted for 16 years to give justice to these folks who were brought here as children, six months to do it, and then adds at the end, well, if they don't do it, i might have to act myself. i don't know where he stands. it must be terrible to live in that suspense. >> it's a pretty obvious legislative deal here that they could do. you could do stronger border security, not the wall, but stronger border security and take care of the status of the dreamers, that would be obvious. i'm not sure whether he preemptively conceded that this week or not, whether or not that's the option. does he have the leverage to engage in that kind of deal, i'm not sure because of the confusion here. >> you were going to call earlier this week on this topic

that he felt that executive action was wrong on the dreamers, but he didn't feel that way when he put in the travel ban on people from mostly muslim nations. >> yeah, this is not a consistent belief in the limits on executive authority, that's not a trump-like belief. it's a consistent belief he wants to get the outcomes he wishes. but that was deeply inconsistent. he was not deferring to the congress or others when it came to the travel ban, the early version of the travel ban which the court struck down, like some elements of daca, the extension of daca was struck down during the obama administration. >> votes are not there in the house to do it, let's be very blunt about it, unless paul ryan wants to violate the great republican rule which is to pass it with democratic votes. donald trump wreaked a whirlwind in 2016 by his anti-immigrant rhetoric. the republican party are far

more polarized on this issue than it ever was before, and the democrats lost a number of people from jay rockefeller, max baukus to mary linder to voted for it and have been replaced by people who are opposed. so i'm not sure that the votes are there to even act if paul ryan decided it was the right thing do. >> you talk about members of congress who were turned out by the voters. we're seeing some members of congress vonl material retiring themselves. yesterday charles dent of pennsylvania, moderate republican, said he's not going to run for reelection. you had two others, i think you can fairly say centrist republicans, were getting into that season where retirements come because the party's got to get other candidates to run. why do you think or do you think we're going to see more moderates, more centrists like these people, centrist republicans saying that they just don't -- they're going to

go home? >> the fundamental reality here is that you've had the ideological sorting of the parties. the republican party has become more conservative, the democratic party has become marginally more liberal. there's no more ideological overlap in either house of congress. that leaves moderates homeless. we've had a hollowing out of the middle in the u.s. congress. there's less opportunity for compromise. dent said that they've taken it to a new level of dysfunction was his statement, and that he was not having fun anymore. he also faced a likely primary challenge which would have been nasty, so i think you make a decision, you know, do i want to go through all this for essentially, you know, a useless outcome. >> every member of congress has at least 250 people in his or her district who wants that seat. to be a member of congress, you have to get elected.

you have to be good at that business. and they have an extra olfactory nerve. they can smell the political winds that are blowing. in 2006 when the democrats won back the house and republicans, twice as many republicans retired that year as did democrats, and i think what you're going to see is a number of republicans, you've already seen some who are trying to run for governor and statewide office of the senate because, you know, it doesn't look like it's going to be a great year. not that they themselves -- it is no fun to be in the house with the minority. all the power is with the majority and with the speaker of the committee chairs. michael's points are valid but it affects whether you want to stay. >> they're smelling the house could be in play? >> i don't think there is any question it has to be part of

the equation, yes. right now you would have to bet that if it's going to be a referendum on donald trump, if he's sitting at 33%, 34% favorable. >> a 35% base going into the midterm election, i think it's pretty disastrous. >> michael gerson, mark shields, thank you very much. >> thank you, john. >> yang: turning glass into art has been dale chihuly's passion for more than 50 years. working with such a fragile medium requires brute strength and a delicate dance, as jeffrey brown found out when he visited chihuly at his seattle studios. >> reporter: it's the white hot center of an art world phenomenon: the "hot shop" of chihuly studio in seattle, where glass is heated, blown, and shaped into sculptures that

have made dale chihuly internationally renowned, for re-imagining what glass can do. off-kilter baskets, giant chandeliers, installations with hundreds of parts, vibrant colors. what is it about glass that you love? >> it's the only material that light goes through. >> reporter: the work here takes great skill and it's thrilling to watch. the heat is intense-- more than 2,000 degrees in the "glory hole," or furnace-- the pipes are heavy, the action is fast. it seems to me like a million things could go wrong. >> well, mostly it could get too hot and touch back. >> reporter: the glass "moves," as we watched master gaffer jim mongrain spin out this experimental piece, and things can and occasionally do go awry.

whoa! >> now you see what can go wrong. ( laughter ) >> reporter: dale chihuly lost vision in his left eye in a 1976 car crash. physical injuries long ago forced him to stop blowing glass himself. at 75, he heads a multi-million dollar enterprise employing at least 100: craftspeople; designers; marketing, sales and exhibitions teams, and others. and he's a man obsessed when it comes to collecting: sheets of stamps, books on van gogh, toy soldiers, pendleton blankets, on and on, housed in his boathouse building. chihuly has long had his critics, who see more commerce than art. but the public loves chihuly, and even by his lofty standards, 2017 has been a banner year, with major exhibitions including the buffett cancer center in omaha, crystal bridges museum in arkansas, and the new york botanical garden, where his

plant-like works amid the natural flora and fauna are attracting huge crowds this summer. if there's a motto here, it's "think big." >> i do think big. usually, i try to work big. and, in terms of the exhibitions, the bigger the venue the more people that see it and, i like to bring the work to people. >> reporter: why is that important to you? >> well, it makes me think that, you know, people will probably be happy when they see my work. and that makes me feel good. >> reporter: but even as crowds continue to come, including at the museum under seattle's space needle that's dedicated to his work, this may also be the most difficult moment in chihuly's illustrious career. amid renewed questions over, as a recent "new york times" article asked: "who is really making 'chihuly art'?" >> i didn't like that headline. ( laughs ) but i had to live with it. >> reporter: that hurt you?

>> reporter: it's a good question, you know. if you answered that, the answer to that question was, "a team." i don't think it was the best choice of words for the headline. >> reporter: the trouble began earlier this summer, with a lawsuit by a former contractor who claims he helped create paintings by chihuly, but was never paid or properly credited. court documents portray a contentious back and forth: a man named michael moi claiming he "participated in myriad clandestine painting sessions," including when chihuly himself "contributed little to the conception or creative process." chihuly denies all of moi's claims about the work, saying moi was nothing but a "handyman" who "observed some of dale's struggles with mental illness" and threatened to make them public. citing ongoing litigation, chihuly declined to discuss the specifics of the case, but he did speak of his approach to making art, and of suffering for decades from bipolar disorder and depression. do you know what triggers the depression? >> no, no idea.

no idea how long it's going to last, or when it's going to happen. >> reporter: and you can't really function during those periods? >> well, i function. i mean, i still come into the studio every day. i just don't function as well. >> reporter: how much has that been a factor in your life and in your work? >> it's certainly been a factor. i mean, when i'm on the upside, i've got a lot more ideas and a lot more energy. and when i'm on the downside, you know, i don't feel that way. i'm more depressed. but fortunately i have that team, that can kind of carry on with what i was doing when i'm on the downside. >> reporter: that team approach, he says, also applies to his painting. in a session we were allowed to film, assistants had already prepped the canvas-- in this case half-inch acrylic-- while chihuly spent minutes on each,

squirting paint, pounding on splotches in quick gestures, toward flower designs. >> i like to work fast! and i don't have to do a lot of the steps that somebody else might want to do. >> reporter: chihuly cites other artists who've had a workshop to carry out their vision. so then, how do you define your own role? >> i define it as, let's say, the director of a movie. you know? think about the making of a movie, and how many people it takes. and that's what the director does. not that they all work exactly the same. or maybe think of an architect. think of frank gehry. what does frank do, exactly? and how many people are really involved in making one of his extraordinary buildings?

>> reporter: so a lot of people have the romantic idea of the lonely artist, struggling alone. >> absolutely. >> reporter: that is not you? >> that is not me. >> reporter: can you separate the art from the business? or is it all of a piece of what chihuly is at this point? >> it's hard to separate it, you know? i mean, we do big projects that involve a lot of money, and i can't say that i, you know, that i'm not interested in that. >> reporter: because it takes a lot of money to keep this place going, i would think. >> a lot. >> reporter: and a lot of energy, which chihuly claims he still has, as well as a firm grip on the creative vision for his studio. >> i haven't decided to retire yet! >> reporter: so the suggestions of a weaker dale chihuly, a less in-control-- those are wrong? >> yeah, we haven't decided to do that. the first indication would be fewer people working for me. >> reporter: and that hasn't happened? >> and that hasn't happened. >> reporter: i'm talking to you in a year where i see you have,

i don't know how many major exhibitions. so it, it's been a good year. >> yes, it's-- it's not a retiring year, let's put it that way. >> reporter: and even in the shadow of the lawsuit, chihuly glass is being blown for projects lined up for years to come. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in seattle. >> yang: the days of employees working with one company for their entire career are long gone. in today's economy, most workers bounce around a lot. that's true for carlos watson, now the c.e.o. of a digital media company. tonight, he shares his humble opinion on the importance of one skill you need wherever you go. >> there's a big push in schools right now to get american kids to learn how to code. the thinking is, good jobs are hard to find, robots may soon take away many blue collar jobs

that haven't gone overseas, and that learning how to program computers and create apps is a bulwark against that tide. look, while i agree that coding should be a central focus in education over the next decade, that won't work well without an equal emphasis on teaching the skills needed to turn ideas into money: sales. the most innovative software can amount to little more than a good idea if the coder fails to convince investors to back it. this is even before getting customers to try it-- and then, getting them to buy it. despite the critical nature of sales, it's still treated like a dirty word. you know, in fact, when i suggest they learn to sell, most people crinkle their noses or quietly look askance, replying"" sales is about tricking people." "it's dishonest." once upon a time, i agreed with them. but i now realize that sales skills are critical, and will become even more so as our workforce becomes more fluid and

frankly, more unstable. many more of us are becoming entrepreneurs and small business people, either for a short time, or the long haul. in this new economy, we are consultants, service providers, you name it. we have side hustles and second jobs, whatever you want to call them. each requires sales in order to flourish. when i started my first business, an education company, i did not want to "sell." but a mentor gave me advice that propelled our flailing startup into a multi-million dollar business. he said "carlos, the only thing that matters is if can you sell. if you expect your good idea to sell itself, you are believing in a fairy tale." after that i began requiring every staff member to take sales courses, from the education counselors to members of the finance team, because every job has a sales component. recruiting top talent? guess what? you better be able to explain why your company is the best. getting a reluctant student to properly prepare for the s.a.t. exam? you're going to persuade her with a story that connects college to a career and to a broader success.

look, many students are just settling in for the start of school, and i am sure their math and computer science teachers have a number of terrific lessons planned. i hope in addition, there might be some consideration on helping students attain the sales skills that i think will be just as critical to their success. >> yang: carlos watson is also the host of a new program on pbs, "third rail with ozy," which premieres tonight and airs at 8:30 eastern and pacific time, right here on most pbs stations. >> yang: on the newshour online right now: our hurricane coverage continues, including the story of why many on this florida island plan to ride out the storm despite a mandatory evacuation. find that and more on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and robert costa is preparing for "washington week," which airs later tonight. robert, what can we expect?

>> donald trump arguably had one of the best weeks of his presidency. he averted a government shutdown, raised the debt ceiling, and signed off on a multi-billion dollar hurricane aid package. but his legislative victory may come at a price. could the president's decision to align with democrats spark a republican revolt? we'll have answers and analysis, later tonight on "washington week." john. >> yang: i'll be watching. tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend, continuing coverage from on the ground in florida, as the state braces for hurricane irma's landfall. also, as tensions with north korea rise, there is a renewed focus on u.s. troops stationed in japan. >> reporter: marine lieutenant general lawrence nicholson is the highest-ranking u.s. military officer on okinawa. he says today's global threats make the mission here as relevant as ever. >> we have china, north korea, russia and the violent extremism that is occurring today in mindanao of the philippines. the location here, a couple hundred miles south of japan,

puts us centrally located to be able to respond quickly. >> reporter: okinawa's location-- within two hours flight time to the korean peninsula, three hours to russia-- make it both vulnerable and valuable to the u.s. >> yang: that's saturday. and we'll be back, right here, on monday. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm john yang. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> 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

. >> rose: welcome to the program, tonight we begin with a bipartisan deal in washington that keeps the government funded until december. >> there was this sort of third way message to his campaign. an one could think that that was how he was going to govern. or what i think this reflects, which is not a real independent third way governing strategy, it is situational governing, in the moment, cut a deal with this one. trying to get work with the republicans to get health-care reform passed, i will cut a deal with the democrats. at's not clear what he is getting beyond a few good news cycles am i do not think this helps president trump in the long run. >> we continue this evening with jake gill engsh gsh gillen hawl, his new film is called stronger about a young man who lost both legs at the the bombing at the boston marathon. >> i think it's