captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> yang: good evening, i'm john yang. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, florida in darkness-- irma leaves flooding and more than half the state without power as officials assess the damage. then, we get the latest on the investigation into russian meddling in the u.s. presidential election. and, reviving west virginia-- as coal mining jobs disappear, a look at why focusing on education may breathe new life into the mountain state's economy. >> i can still pay my bills, i'm getting the education that i'd never thought i'd get, i never thought i'd be in school, and never dreamed i'd have a 4.0 g.p.a. >> yang: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> 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. >> yang: the somber tallies keep mounting tonight in the aftermath of hurricane "irma". the death toll has risen to 48, many thousands are struggling to get home across florida, and officials are rushing aid to the state's hardest-hit sections. p.j. tobia begins our coverage. >> reporter: roads leading to

the shattered florida keys reopened early this morning. people lined up in cars, anxious to return to their homes, or whatever remains of them, and tensions were running high. >> right now we don't know where to go. >> reporter: some found lawns filled with debris, siding ripped off their houses, trailer homes and boats knocked over like toy models. governor rick scott flew over florida's coast on monday. >> the negative is, if you were in the keys, you've seen the pictures, the trailer parks-- it's like everybody just tipped everything over. you're just praying that everybody is alive. we're still having in the keys, issues with getting the water started back up, sewage and their power back up. >> reporter: scott says the bridges linking the keys do not appear damaged, but he urged caution, as engineers make inspections. >> even though you can see that people are traveling, you're not sure that on the bridges, they can take any significant weight. >> reporter: in washington, the head of the federal emergency management agency, fema, gave a

somber assessment. >> of the houses initially have been destroyed and 65% have major damage. basically every house in the keys was impacted in some way or another. this is why we asked people to ave. >> reporter: all told, 6.5 million floridians were asked to leave before the storm, one of the largest evacuation orders in u.s. history. today, many who were part of the mass exodus out of the state sat in lines of traffic on their way back in. some are returning to beachfront homes beyond repair. nearly all will find they have no power. millions lost electricity during the storm, and florida's main power company says they'll have to wait longer before it's restored. >> the eastern portion of florida had less damage in some respects than the western side of our state. so along the eastern seaboard, if you will, the eastern portion of our territory, we expect to be essentially restored all customers by the end of this coming weekend. as far as the west coast of florida, if you will, we expect

to have all of our customers essentially restored or be essentially restored by friday, september 22. >> reporter: flooding has compounded the woes, especially in jacksonville, in northern florida. after the st. johns river and its tributaries overflowed onto main roads yesterday, parts of the city were still submerged today. >> i'm a born and raised native of jacksonville. we've never had anything like this in the park. i survived hurricane dora in 1964. we had canoes, people in canoes, going up and down the street, because there was flooding, but never anything like this in our city, ever that i've ever seen. >> reporter: under water and without electricity, many jacksonville area residents are worried that the area's frequent high tides could mean waters like these stick around for sometime. flood waters inundated neighborhoods in the town of middleburg today, a half hour from downtown jacksonville. some residents returned to save their pets. adding to the region's misery: life without air conditioning,

in 80-plus degrees. >> it was pretty hot. i think in the next couples days it's really going to test our patience. >> reporter: in many places, as in daytona beach, the water has receded, and homeowners now confront the hard work of recovery. >> and all this was like a river, everything was like a river. and even my backyard. it was bad. it was probably the worst one i've seen and i've been here for 15 years. >> reporter: meanwhile, miami beach reopened today despite widespread power outages, and flights resumed at airports across south florida resumed flights. states up the coast also face major cleanups and recovery. as "irma" passed yesterday, charleston, south carolina saw everything from waterspouts off the coast, to storm surge flooding downtown streets. flooding and power outages also plagued parts of georgia, but the governor lifted a coastal evacuation order today. here in north florida recovery from hurricane irma has just begun, but local officials have told me that it could be as long as three days before

floodwaters, like those behind me, even begin to recede. earlier today president trump said he'd be coming to the state on thursday to survey the damage himself. john? >> yang: p.j., if the center of the storm went up the west coast of florida, why is there so much flooding and why was flooding so bad on the east coast where you are? >> that's a good question. i'm about 30 minutes right now southwest of jacksonville, so, yeah, on the eastern part of the state. the way that irma's wrath was primarily felt here was as a rain event, although there was quit a bit of wind knocking down power lines, which is the reason so many are without power tonight, but there was so much rain, many inches, historic highs in some places. so rivers and creeks just burst their banks. this part of florida, like much of the state, is lowcountry, so folks are used to occasional floods a few times a year. most of that is tidal flooding. when the tide comes in there may be floods. when it goes out, the water quickly recedes. but add in all this rain and you have water that sticks around and sticks around for a long

time, as so many officials fear. >> yang: p.j., you're up near the georgia border, but you've been running into a lot of people who evacuated from the florida keys. what have they been telling you? >> yes, central and north florida were considered a place of refuge for folks from the keys. we were in orlando yesterday. don't forget, orlando's five hours or more from some parts of the florida keys. so in the hotels and restaurants while they were open, you'd see these folks, and at first late last week and over the weekend, they were just happy to be out of the storm's wrath, better safe than sorry, they told me. but now that they're seeing the pictures from their hometowns and folks who remained are calling them, i spoke with one who said she's angry. she said she heard her properties were more or less okay and she desperately wants to get back to the keys to check them out to, clean up any debris, to see if there is any damage to the roof, to prevent any further damage if it rains more. there's quite a bit of anger

that they left and now they may not be able to get in because bridges may be out and roads may be closed. >> yang: the folks down there in florida have been on edge about this storm for more than a week now. what's the mood like? what are people feeling in. >> people are definitely getting a bit cranky. the storm came this weekend, so folks have been without power in some cases for a few days. only a very few restaurants and gas stations are open. so getting something to eat or filling up that gas tank can often be an hours-long affair. people are pretty tired of eating granola bars and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. and so there's that, and then in addition, you know, public security officials, disaster rescue, first responders are exhausted. they've been on call, some of them, for more than a week. today we actually encountered a convoy of boats and other shallow-water craft coming from neighboring states like louisiana and mississippi to help give some relief to those first responders who have been doing so much to try to help their communities.

they can go home and check on their own homes and their own families, john. >> yang: a lot of hard work down there, including you, p.j. tobia, and producer steve morris. thank you so much. >> thank you, john. >> yang: city officials in jacksonville have many immediate concerns, but the flooding presents long term challenges to the city. we explore the path ahead with jacksonville mayor lenny curry. mayor curry, welcome. can you tell us, what's the latest situation in jacksonville right now? >> well, we're now in recovery mode. yesterday turned into rescue day all day. so we knew this was going to be a serious event. i issued mandatory evacuations, in fact, voluntary evacuationings started last wednesday. we told people they would be mandatory by friday, and we did that. we knew even though it was moving west it was still going to be furious. we told our people it would be major event, and what happened yesterday morning is we

recognized with new information that we had category 3 hurricane-type storm surge coming even though it was a tropical storm that went through, so we had the move quickly yesterday morning and have people that did not evacuate call us. we asked them to put white flags on their doors somewhere where we could visibly see them from the road. our rescue crews went in with the help of state agencies, as well, and saved over 300 people yesterday. >> yang: you say you're in recovery mode right now. what's the biggest problem? is it the water, the floodwaters? is it the lack of power in. >> the water has started to recede. power, getting power back up and running, we have an independent power utility here, the j.e.a. a. they are working to restore power. some of their challenges are downed trees blocking roadways some there are cutting crews clearing roads so they can get up and restore that power. >> yang: what's your biggest

concern right now, and what's your most pressing need? >> we've got a lot of needs. i want to ensure that our people have water in the time of waiting to get their power restored. most important thing is i want the get people's electricity back up and running. then we have to rebuild. we're going to have infrastructure issues. but we'll get through all of that. the most important thing is individual lives and the best of our best stepped up yesterday, first responders including neighbors that helped each other, and, you know, you recognize the simple things, the ability to have a cup of coffee with someone the care about or spend some time with them is what matters. we want to get power restored and get everyone's life back to normal. >> yang: how long will it take to get all the power back? >> they're working aggressively. they haven't put a specific deadline on that. we did secure nighttime construction lights. i called the governor before the storm for the big lights on the

interstates when they're doing roadwork. we secured a number of those before the storm so our crews could work at night, and the utility secured additional assets, additional manpower and trucks in place. and we're just going to push them hard, push each other hard, grind it out to get people back up and running. >> yang: mayor lenny curry of jacksonville, florida, we wish you well on the road to recovery. >> thank you. >> yang: we turn from jacksonville down to the florida keys. the string of islands are devastated. david ovalle of the "miami herald" has witnessed the damage first hand. >> it was very hard to tell the extent of the damage because there was still a lot of areas you could not get to. but certainly it looked like a war zone. trees down everywhere. there were boats flipped up on the road. there were trailer parks that were completely demolished that

looked like they were just smashed by a bomb. but there was also a lot of neighborhoods, even near the epicenter, even at cudjoe key where the eye wall came across the florida key, there were neighborhoods that were intact. there were these big concrete structures basically on stilts. it was designed for the storm surge to passes through. so it's still hard to see the extent of the damage. certainly almost every house is damaged, but i think it's too early to say if they're actually obliterated. >> yang: what are conditions like? was there water? i doubt there was power. >> there's definitely no power in the keys. there's no cell phone service. for the perhaps 1,000 people that are still in the -- 10,000 people still in the florida key, it will be a very uncomfortable weeks. there are a lot of worried residents worried about their

homes and their families. so it's going to be a long, hot slog for a lot of people, and officials are telling people not to try to come back too soon because they don't need any more mouths to feed. >> yang: did you have any trouble getting up u.s. 1? officials have been talking about they're worried about the conditions of the bridges, which are essentially the entire length of u.s. 1. >> we didn't have any real trouble getting up. a couple hours after the storm, we couldn't get past a certain bridge i believe after the keys because there was just too much debris. but by the morning they had already started clearing the system. so we had to maneuver around a lot of debris. there are just levels of seagrass that are just clogging up the roads. so we had to be very careful. we ended up bursting a flat as we were going back up. but we did make it back.

you can do it, but certainly they need to make sure 100% for all the supplies they have to bring in. >> yang: and what were the people who rode out the storm, who stayed in the keys during the storm, what were they telling you? >> a lot of the people who stayed in the keys are very independent-minded. they're very strong. they don't want to be away from their businesses. they don't want to be away from their homes. they felt they could do it. there are is many hurricanes that have come past the keys, and some of them hit. most have not. but i think a lot of them thought, hey, you know what, i'm going to ride this out, and frankly there are a lot of people of low economic means, people who are elderly, people on fixed incomes, immigrants who work in the hospitality service, people with dogs, a lot of people just didn't feel they could get out, and they ended up riding out the storm as last redisrtd. -- resort. >> yang: david ovalle of the

"miami herald," thank you for sharing your experience. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> yang: across the northern caribbean, the president of france and the british foreign secretary visited the region today, as aid from europe and the u.n. poured into a string of shattered islands. one of the hardest hit is the british island of anguilla. that's where alex thomson of independent television news is. >> reporter: with the plane loaded with as much aid as she carried, we approached anguilla. irma's passing, starkly obviously from the moment you hit the tarmac in anguilla. douglas biggs somehow survived irma inside this, it was once a house, his house. you keep smiling, you look happy. why, after this has happened, why are you happy man? >> because i am alive. that's why i'm happy. >> reporter: because you're alive. >> yeah, >> reporter: suddenly at the air strip an r.a.f. transporter arrives out of the blue raising hope that a serious aid delivery at last is coming to anguilla. what you're seeing behind me in

this r.a.f. transport plane is essentially the first major delivery of aid from britain to anguilla. and people on this island are asking why it has taken six days to achieve that. >> we are not here to spend time talking about responses and times. we are here to start talking about the recovery, making people, making sure that people are taken care of. we can talk about that after, the post-- can deal with those issues. but for now, we are concerned about getting things started. >> reporter: on the streets though, a very different assessment. long queues at the three functioning petrol stations left here. and short shrift for the british response. >> they haven't done nothing for me as yet. but i'm hoping and i'm looking out for something to be done. >> reporter: what do you need? >> i need a roof. >> reporter: low on water, food, fuel, no electricity and many homeless in heat and humidity. the mood is fragile.

critics say this whole disaster is a chance to re-examine the island's relationship with london because over there, they say just 18 minutes away by boat things couldn't be more different. st martin, behind me, as part of metropolitan france as they get exactly the same from the central government in terms of spending, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of the whole relationship as they were a part of mainland france. but, if you come back here onto anguilla, things are totally different. the french are getting more services than you're getting here. are they getting a better deal from paris than you're getting from london? >> oh good, no comparison. >> reporter: no comparison. >> no comparison. the french take full responsibility for their territory across the water. >> reporter: and the british don't? >> never, never does.

i think britain must now wake up to the fact that we are no longer a dependent territory. we are a british overseas territory. we are british, completely british. >> reporter: the anguillians welcome the british foreign secretary to this battered island tomorrow. across the island today, on st martin, the dutch monarch, king alexander arrived. and on the french side of the island they welcomed their president. back on anguilla they wait any head of state or government in vain. the electricity system here totally wrecked. the ferry terminal a world away from functioning. tourism, the main stay of the economy, of life here, ripped apart. dusk falls over the biggest private employer in anguilla, the four seasons resort. they say it will be six months minimum before they reopen. >> yang: that report from alex thomson, of independent television news.

in the day's other news, north korea rejected a new set of u.n. sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs. the security council banned the north's exports of textiles and capped its imports of crude oil. in response, pyongyang warned today that: "the u.s. will suffer the greatest pain... in its history." at a white house meeting with malaysia's prime minister, president trump played down the vote. >> i don't know if it has any impact, but certainly it was nice to get a 15 to nothing vote. but those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen. >> yang: the trump administration had pressed for much tougher sanctions, including a total oil embargo, but china would not go that far. the government of bangladesh pressed myanmar today to end the violence against rohingya muslims. some 370,000 have fled across the border in less than three weeks. today, the prime minister of bangladesh visited camps sheltering the refugees. she called for an end to atrocities, and said myanmar should take them back soon.

in syria, new claims of victory today by allies of the government. russia's military reported "85% of syria's territory has been cleared" of rebels and militants. the leader of the lebanese group hezbollah went even further. he declared: "we have won in the war in syria." bashar al-assad's regime was on the brink of losing the war, before the russians intervened two years ago. back in this country, the justice department has decided not to bring charges in the case of freddie gray. his death in police custody sparked riots in baltimore, two years ago. three police officers were acquitted on state charges last year, and cases against three others were dropped. u.s. household incomes are finally recovering from the great recession. the census bureau reports the median household last year earned just over $59,000-- that's the best since 2007. in addition, the percentage of americans without health

insurance dipped below nine percent, the lowest on record. on wall street today the dow jones industrial average gained 61 points to close at 22,118. the nasdaq rose 22 points, and the s&p 500 added eight. and, two deaths of note: gay rights activist edith windsor died today in new york. it was her lawsuit led to the supreme court's landmark 2013 legalizing same sex marriage. it led to the 2015 decision that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. edith windsor was 88 years old. and, one of the great, early disney animators has died. xavier atencio helped bring to life two disney classics: "pinocchio," the first animated feature to win a competitive academy award, and "fantasia," which has been preserved in the national film registry. later, as a disney "imagineer", atencio helped design rides for "disneyland" and co-wrote lyrics

to the theme song for the "pirates of the caribbean" ride. >> ♪ yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me ♪ we pillage plunder, we rifle and loot ♪ drink up me 'earties, yo ho we kidnap and ravage and ♪ don't give a hoot drink up me 'earties, yo ho ♪ yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me ♪ >> yang: xavier atencio was 98 years old. still to come on the newshour: congressman mark meadows on the divisions in the republican party. the latest on the investigation into whether the trump campaign colluded with russia. combating lyme disease with genetically engineered mice, and much more. >> yang: divisions within the republican party only deepened after president trump sided with democrats on the debt ceiling deal, angering many on the right. one of those critics was

representative mark meadows of north carolina, the chair of the conservative house freedom caucus. he was one of 90 house republicans to vote against raising the debt ceiling, funding the government and passing hurricane harvey aid. i spoke with representative meadows a little while ago and asked him if the president's deal means he'll bypass republicans on the hill to get things done. >> well, i think that any time you draw that conclusion you're extrapolating out perhaps a scenario that is not justified in this particular case, but the president is going to make a deal, and he's going to make a deal with anybody who can actually put legislation on his desk. the republicans have not been exactly stellar in that particular category, and so for us i don't see it as a trend as much as it is a necessary evil on this particular time. we had a debt ceiling that was coming up. harvey relief had to pass because of the devastation there

in texas, and so as we see this, i am not too concerned. i think we need to negotiate in good faith. i talked to the president about not only that vote but about what he wanted to see for the remaining months here between now and january, and he's all focused about tax reform. so he was seeing it as clearing the deck for tax reform. we look forward to working with him and even our democrat colleagues on that measure. >> yang: let me ask you about something the "wall street journal" editorial page wrote last week, and i suspect you know what's coming. they described the freedom caucus this way, "claim to be cooperative, to be working constructively toward legislative compromise, but then at a criminal moment, raise its demand, vote no, and blame leadership." what's your response? >> it would be real nice if the editorial board actually talked to me. i have been in congress over five years. john, i have now talked to you more than i've talked to the

editorial board with the "wall street journal." they never called. they never reached out. so to quote six unnamed source to, lay out narrative that was not only false but dreadfully false, i can tell you that we're there to try to get something on the president's desk. you might remember that it was tom macarthur and myself working with moderates and conservatives that actually put forth an amendment that got the bill out of the house and sent over to the senate on the healthcare debate. so i don't know that, well, i can just tell you the "wall street journal" editorial board took great liberties without even giving us a call. >> yang: do you support speaker ryan? >> certainly we support speaker ryan. we have meetings with him on a weekly basis, multiple meetings. it's all about getting things done. you know, this is not a question about about leadership. it's a lack of results. you know, one of my favorite

quotes is, "no matter how beautiful the strategy, you must occasionally look at the results." i would say that when i was back home in north carolina during the month of august, there weren't a whole will the of results we were getting applauded for, in fact, quite the opposite. so it's time we get some things done, put it on the president's desk and be searious about this administration's agenda. >> yang: well, let's talk about results then. you talked about taxes. that's what the president is focused on between new and january. >> right. >> from your point of view, from the freedom caucus point of view, what's going to define victory on the tax legislation? >> well, on the tax legislation we need to make sure that on the personal income side of things, the hard-working american taxpayers, your viewers, that they actually get more of their money in their pocket and they get to keep more of it. and then so really being very aggressive and making sure that those rates are lower. additionally, it's all about making sure that we're competitive, and the president talks about a growth agenda.

so it's making sure that our companies and our multinationals can compete globally, but also making sure that what we do is make sure that our tack rate is competitive with the rest of the world. so it's being very aggressive. we support or i have supported a 15% to 16% corporate rate. it doesn't appear we'll be that low, but at the same time we need to be aggressive and make sre we put americans back to work. >> yang: the president also asked congress to do something about the dreamers to, protect these young people who were brought into the country illegally when they were children. >> right. >> yang: what would you be willing to support in that area? >> we're working right now on legislature. one of the things when we deal with the dreamers or daca issue, as you might mention, it really all starts with a secure southern border, something that behaven't had. today we're talking about some 800,000 dreamers that would qualify under that deferred action plan. but if we don't secure our

southern border, how many are we talking about? a million, two million, five million, what's the number? so if we're going to address it, we need to address it comprehensively. i spoke to the president on this very subject. what it is is working with our colleagues, both democrats and republicans, to find a way to not only have a secure border, for national security purposes, as well as immigration, but also to look at how to do it in fair and compassionate way. you know, i've challenged my staff as recent as this morning for us to look at it and see how we can work together. i think you'll see legislation coming out in the coming months. obviously well ahead of this six-month deadline that was put forth in his executive order. >> yang: does that necessarily mean a wall? you said border security. >> it could define a wall. i think for a lot of the trump voters, it does mean a wall. but really it's more about a secure southern border. how do we regulate and monitor who is coming to our country and who is not? i get the talk to some of my

colleagues in border states. they have great ideas, and some of their ideas do not include a wall, so it's all about making sure that we can do what's best for the national security of the american people and hopefully we can get there and be prudent yet prompt about getting that done. >> yang: representative mark meadows, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, john. good to be with you. >> yang: the recent string of natural disasters and political divides in washington, have overshadowed developments in the russia investigation. but the probe is far from over and in many ways just ramping up. william brangham is here to bring us up to speed. >> brangham: that's right john, there have been several recent developments on the russia probes. some reveal tools russia used to meddle in the election, others provide new information about mr. trump's business interests in russia before he became president. and there are also fresh clues

about where those various investigations are going. earlier today, i talked with our own nick schifrin, who's been reporting on all this. i began by asking him what we know about who is actually the target of these probes. >> so when we talk about the target of these probes, we have to know special council robert mueller is not talking. we know this from the targets themselves. target number one seems to be paul manafort, form chairman of the trump campaign. and we know that f.b.i. agents raided his home in late july and reportedly a pr firm connected to him has also been subpoenaed. target number, two michael flynn, retired general, former national security adviser, we know that a lobbying firm connected to him has been subpoenaed. and target number three, donald trump, jr., the president's son, recently testified to congress about a meeting he had in trump tower last summer that turned out to be with a russian lawyer who has some vague connections to the kremlin, and in a statement from donald trump, jr., to congress, he said, "i did not collude with any foreign

government and do not know of anyone who did," but he admitted that he was willing to collude. "to the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character, or qualifications of a presidential candidate," hillary clinton, "i believe i should at least hear them out." now that meeting is part of the investigation. >> brangham: so those are the targets. second avenue has questions about the president's business interests. there have been some reports out that the president, while he was running to be president, wanted a hotel deal in russia. tell us about that. >> those reports are true. the trump organization admits that while trump was the candidate, they were considering the possibility of building trump tower moscow, sorry, while he was running for president. trump met three times with his lawyer, michael cohen, and the second time that they met, they signed a letter of intent. that letter included details like the hotel, residential space, commercial space, even details about a high-end spa, and cohen has released a

statement saying this was one of many development opportunities that came through the trump organization, and cohen says he terminated it in late january 2016 because it was not feasible and he terminated himself and didn't ask trump first, but nonetheless, certainly part of the story, because they were considering that while trump was saying nice things about russian president vladimir putin. >> yang: as you well know, the question in washington is always, is the cover-up worse than the crime. the question that's been swirling around the president in this regard is whether obstruction of justice was going on here. one of the main ways they talk about that is the firing of james comey. i want the play what steve bannon had to say about the firing of comey. let's look at that. >> i don't think there's any doubt that if james comey had not been fired we would not have a special council. >> reporter: someone said you described the firing of james comey, you're a student of history, as the biggest mistake in political history.

>> that would probably be too bombastic even for me, but maybe modern political history. >> brangham: so is mueller investigating whether the firing of james comey was, in fact, obstruction of justice? >> we know mueller is investigating the process we which comey was fired, and we know that because he asked for and received a letter that the president and his aides wrote that justified comey. this was the original draft of the letter according to a senior administration official. that official tells me that letter was not that monostrablly different from the final letter, which was written by deputy attorney general road rosenstein who was overseeing the investigation. but a reminder that it the president's own words that the people who are asking about obstruction site. he told nbc's lester holt that it was the russia investigation he was thinking of when he fired jim comey, and not as the letter said about hillary clinton's e-mails. >> brangham: with regard to this investigation, it's not just collusion. it's not just obstruction of justice. it's also what role did russia

actually play in our election and how and whether they meddled. facebook said they have a piece of this puzzle. explain. >> sreenivasan:>> this is the mf the investigation. facebook got $100,000 from a trl farm in russia in ad sales. it just so happens i've been to the building where we believe that trl farm is. it's called the internet research agency. it's in st. petersburg. i talked to former trolls about how they were given instructions on how to denigrate the u.s. and celebrate russia. now, facebook says these ads, bought by the internet research agency, were designed to "amply phi divisive social and political messages," so facebook is not saying what the ads were, but u.s. intelligence says the person who funds the internet research agency is a businessman. he's got a catering firm and he's so close to russian president vladimir putin he's known as putin's personal chef. >> brangham: nick schifrin,

thanks for keeping us up to date on all these different threads. >> thanks very much. >> yang: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: retraining coal miners to be builders, managers and farmers. houston's goal to become a model for keeping pets safe in natural disasters. but first, lyme disease is on the rise. it's being spread by a growing tick population and has become a particular problem for the massachusetts islands of nantucket and martha's vineyard. but an m.i.t. scientist thinks he might have a long-term solution, from where you might least expect it. from pbs station wgbh in boston, cristina quinn reports. >> reporter: on the island of nantucket, people walk their dogs and runners weave their way down the trail of ram pasture. it's a popular spot, and it's easy to see why. hundreds of acres of untouched

conservation land surround the trails. it's a peaceful setting where deer are often spotted in the early hours, grazing. it's also lush territory for ticks. >> yes. if you're in an area like this you want to stay on the beaten path to stay away from the tall grass. right now it's a nice, cool day. we had rain last night. it's perfect tick questing season. >> reporter: roberto santamaria would know. as director of the health dept, he's familiar with the concerns of the community. 40% of nantucket's 10,000 year round residents have either had lyme disease or are currently afflicted. >> it's become part of their daily life here. every time you go out, you go to a pasture. you go to a hike, you go to the beaches-- into the dunes, even, you want to go home and do a tick check. tick checks are pretty arduous and they take a while and even then you don't even catch all the ticks. so it's a big burden. >> reporter: the problem isn't unique to nantucket and martha's vineyard. a study last year from the centers for disease control

illustrates the spread of the tick population nationwide over the last two decades. the northern part of the u.s. has seen a significant spike. and m.i.t. scientist kevin esvelt says the solution may start with one of the main culprits-- mice. >> mice are a problem. you might say what do mice have to do with lyme disease. well, ticks aren't born infected. they get infected when they bite an infected host, which is usually a mouse. >> reporter: the white-footed mouse, to be exact. scientists aren't sure why but these northeast natives are more susceptible to contracting lyme disease than any other animal around here. they are also abundant. esvelt's solution? genetically engineer them so that their immune response prevents them from being infected. >> so our idea is well how about we take mice that are naturally immune. identify the d.n.a. in their genomes that makes them immune. and then take the best such elements and put them all into one engineered strain of mice? >> reporter: he and his team would do this using gene editing technology.

but to really make a difference, it's going to take a lot of mice. >> so we're talking maybe up to 100,000 mice on each island. >> reporter: the idea is that when the genetically engineered mice mate with the native mice, their offspring would also be immune to lyme disease. over time, this would reduce the prevalence of the disease. but how do nantucket residents feel about releasing 100,000 genetically engineered mice onto the island? for longtime resident and town selectman, jason bridges, his initial reaction was one of disbelief. >> it sounded like a bad sci-fi movie and people kind of laughed. but the more presentations that we have in front of the board of selectmen, articles in the newspaper, people like oh this is a really-- this is a real thing and so i think everyone is getting used to the idea. but the initial visceral reaction was serious? are you serious about that? >> reporter: if all goes as planned, it will be seven years until these resistant mice are released. but the town is so serious, it has formed a steering committee to work closely with esvelt on best practices. esvelt expects there will be opponents along the way, but he

welcomes skepticism and says he thinks major scientific endeavors like this need to be as transparent as possible. >> i'm particularly passionate about that because i view this as an opportunity to work out how we, as a society, are going to handle these technologies. i mean we've certainly been able to engineer the environment before. it's just we tend to do it with bulldozers or spraying lots of chemicals. >> yang: now, we return to our rethinking college series. this week we take a look efforts to help unemployed coal miners earn community college degrees and get on-the-job training. hari sreenivasan has our report, part of our weekly segment, making the grade. >> sreenivasan: in the heart of appalachia, generations of coal miners have lived through good times and bad. >> we'll have some early tomatoes, middle tomatoes, late

tomatoes... >> sreenivasan: when coal miner chris farley was laid off two years ago, he began growing food on his grandmother's west virginia lot to feed his family. >> i'm a telling him, you've got to grow what you eat, you've got to survive, and in this area, most of all, you have to eat. >> i got laid off, and there was no jobs around here to be found. went from jobs everywhere to nothing. and i was actually at the point of going from door to door with my neighbors, seeing if they needed grass mowed, or weeds cut, or just any odd jobs to try to pay the power bills. just anything, whatever it took to provide for my family. >> sreenivasan: between 1980 and 2015, the number of coal jobs fell by 60%, due to automation and competition from natural gas. >> bees are workin' good granny >> sreenivasan: but even before the decline, bertha farley had lived through many coal industry downturns. >> my daddy got laid off and i had five brothers, they all had to leave here, no work.

>> sreenivasan: still, her son floyd and grandson chris both became miners. >> my dad, he, when he got old enough he went to the coal mines, so i followed his footsteps, and went to the coal mines. >> sreenivasan: it was not a choice floyd farley wanted for his son. >> i wanted him to go to west virginia university. i tried to explain to him, you don't have to be like you're old man, you won't have be be out here, breathing this dust. you can sit in an office somewhere. i said it sure beats the heck out of coal mining. >> sreenivasan: but in 2002, when chris farley graduated from high school, working at the coal mine meant top wages. >> i made over $50,000 a year as soon as i started out, straight out of high school. no college, nothing. >> sreenivasan: some believe the high wages created an unhealthy dependence on coal jobs. >> you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket, which is the mistake that west virginia made with the coal industry. >> sreenivasan: brandon dennison grew up in appalachia but left to study social

entrepreneurship. after earning his masters, he returned to retrain displaced workers. >> the moral arguments i'm not interested in, on coal, but it's like investing your money, you never put it all in one investment account, you spread it out, you diversify. >> sreenivasan: in 2010, dennison formed a nonprofit called the coalfield development corporation. with financial support from the appalachian regional commission, the nonprofit launched new businesses that dennison believes will generate sustainable jobs-- everything from furniture making and solar installation, to home building and agriculture. >> what we need is a diversified economy, with lots of different businesses, and lots of different opportunities for all different types of people. >> sreenivasan: coalfield crew members are paid $11 an hour and given 33 work hours per week, an amount that doesn't come close to their former coal job wages. thy must also attend three hours of life skill classes, and six hours of community college. money to pay crew members comes

from sales, contracts, and private and public funders. >> we are not just creating a job for these folks, many of whom still need a lot of job training, but we're also enrolling them in the local community college. and then we're providing three hours a week of personal development to figure out how business works, and to be successful. >> sreenivasan: chris farley is now an honors student working toward his associates degree in applied science and agriculture. >> i can still pay my bills, i'm getting the education that i'd never thought i'd get, i never thought i'd be in school, and never dreamed i'd have a 4.0 g.p.a. >> the bottom line is, if you look at states with low numbers of higher education attainment, like we have, there are not a lot of jobs. and if you look at states and communities with high numbers of people with degrees of higher education, you see a lot more jobs.

>> sreenivasan: one project, called refresh appalachia, brings former coal miners like chris farley back to a mining site. >> we have all of these mine land sites that we've got to do something with, right, these are massive former mountaintop removal sites, that are sitting there kind of not being used productively. >> sreenivasan: on this mountaintop in mingo county, dennison's workers are transforming a former mine into a farm that serves local markets. >> we're planting all this different types of berries, pawpaw trees, and we're going to have a big orchard, different stuff to sell, goji berries, blackberries, raspberries, elderberries. >> sreenivasan: james russell is the farm's crew chief. >> we have lots of interest with restaurants for our meat and eggs, and our berries also also. >> come on. >> we have goats, pigs, and chickens, and they give back to the land, and the pigs tear it up. it's a good combination of fertilizer when you mix the three together. after a couple of years of working the soil, you can grow anything you want.

>> sreenivasan: crew member jared blalock worked for six years in the mine industry. >> running a dozer on the coal pile, taking care of the stacker belt, shoveling, greasing, just your everyday labor. >> sreenivasan: now he's refurbishing old buildings for a coalfield development project called restore appalachia. as part of his employment, blalock is working toward his associates degree in management. he says he'd go back to the mines if a job was available, but worries about the instability of the industry. >> i don't have anything wrong with coal mining, coal mining is a great industry here, but you don't know, that's the thing about it. that's why i'm doing this right now, because i felt i needed to take advantage of my opportunity. >> sreenivasan: so far, 23 crew members have completed their degrees and have been placed in full-time jobs. 55 are currently in the program, and 15 are on the waitlist. chris farley hopes to use his degree and work experience to start a business of his own.

>> i would like to actually start my own restaurants, called homegrown home cooking, my little girl, she's going to help me with the farm, my wife is going to help me start our own little business. >> sreenivasan: for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan. >> yang: along with the mass evacuations of people from hurricanes harvey and irma, there have been some compelling images of other kinds of evacuees, feathered and furry, from zoo animals to personal pets. in houston, emergency service groups are trying to figure out the best way to protect pets

during natural disasters. in fact, they want to set a new standard for sheltering animals. houston public media's tomeka weatherspoon has the story. >> reporter: in the aftermath of tropical storm harvey, houston has been molding a new national model. >> this has never been done before. >> reporter: they're crafting a template for how to shelter animals during a natural disaster. literally. after an estimated 170,000 pets either died or were left behind in hurricane katrina, groups across the country began disaster planning for animals. when harvey hit, folks like evelyn cutt with the no-kill animal shelter, friends for life, started managing a large number of pets rescued with their owners. >> on the first two days we counted almost 700 dogs, probably, and two baby squirrels.

>> reporter: they came to the george r. brown convention center one of houston's largest emergency shelters during the storm. it housed thousands of evacuees. >> a lot of people arrived at the convention center, not allowed to bring their pets in. and then we put together the plan on how we were going to serve this large group of people. >> reporter: the plan includes dedicating a section of the emergency shelter for owners to live with their pets. evacuee larry daniel resides within that area with his eight- week old chihuahuah, snickers. they haven't been parted since

being forced to leave their home during the storm. >> all i was able to get was him and the clothes on my back, and that was... i mean, from then on it was, to be honest, a nightmare. he was in my arms the whole time. >> how different do you think it would have been if you weren't able to take him with you? >> it would have been awful lonely. >> reporter: for owners unable to take care of their pets, or stranded animals, there's a foster care system that's also a part of the plan. pets go to someone willing to take them in temporarily. atalie walding regularly fosters. >> with all these animals displaced because of harvey, they need a place to go. >> reporter: so you are a foster parent. who is going to be coming home with you today? >> the mom, her name is sparkles, and then there's one mom.

>> how many are there? >> there are seven puppies and one mom. >> >> reporter: folks willing to be foster parents are one of the biggest needs right now. but there are a lot of moving parts that keep the plan going. now, they're taking notes as they go: how to check in families with pets, how to start setting up medical records. but a crucial component to all of this is to stay organized. which during a natural disaster, can seem nearly impossible. composing a how-to guide while the crisis is still ongoing is tricky. but evelyn cut says as soon as things slow down she'll help write the manual. >> it's been evolving every single day. we're managing. that's going a hundred miles an hour right now. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm tomeka weatherspoon in houston.

>> yang: later tonight on frontline, the story of a small bank in new york's chinatown caught up in the 2008 financial crisis. "abacus: small enough to jail" chronicles the fight by the sung family to clear their names after becoming the only u.s. bank prosecuted after the crash and the first bank indicted in new york since 1991. >> today we are announcing the indictment of 19 individuals on charges including mortgage fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy, as well as the indictment of abacus federal savings bank, a federally chartered bank that has been catering to the chinese

community since 1984, if we have learned anything from the recent mortgage crisis, it's that at some point these schemes unravel and taxpayers can with left holding the bag. >> the d.a. made it such a big parade, bringing people from washington, all these tough law enforcement officers, and making such a big announcement that we are part of the cause of a major crisis of 2008. it's almost laughable. >> mr. sung is entitled to his opinion, but in abacus' loan department, mortgages were based on false documentation. we have evidence of conspiracy, larceny, and systematic fraud. [speaking chinese] >> if that prosecution goes through, that bank is going to go out of business, there's no question about it. they're going to lose their charter, and it's going to enormously impact that immunity.

too big to fail turns into small enough to jail. abacus is small enough to jail. >> yang: frontline airs tonight on most pbs stations. and two news updates before we go: in a victory for the trump administration, the supreme court ruled late today that the ban on refugees can stay in place for now. the justices blocked a lower court's decision to ease a restriction on refugees entering the country that would have allowed 24,000 into the country in coming weeks. next month the supreme court will hear arguments on the broader constitutional merits of the trump administration's travel ban. and seattle mayor ed murray has announced he is resigning, after 5 men accused him of sexual abuse going back decades. he denied the allegations, but said he does not want the issue to hinder the public's business. murray's first term as mayor expires at year's end. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm john yang.

join us online and again here tomorrow evening, when judy is back. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ - today's show is all about switching things up. so instead of cooking a chicken in a very hot oven, we're going to take a tip from canton in china, and we're going to use simmering water with some ginger and scallions. it makes great homemade chicken stock, and you also end up with perfectly cooked chicken every time. and then we're going to go visit our friend fuchsia dunlop in london. she's the author of every grain of rice. and she's going to give us some cooking tips from szechuan, including flash-cooked greens with chilies, scallions and ginger.