captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> sreenivasan: good evening, i'm hari sreenivasan. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, the new tax law and its impact on tax deductions in states with high property taxes. then, on the leading edge of science with a doctor on a professional and personal journey to find solutions for america's addicts. >> the first thing that you do when you feel that problem is there, please don't judge. recognize that that person inside of that addiction is still your son or daughter or brother. and they have behaviors that they can't control. >> sreenivasan: and, the year in technology: we review a turning point in our lives online and in social media >> i think we got justifiably a lot less optimistic about tech, and a lot more worried about the

implications of a few big tech companies taking over much of the world. >> sreenivasan: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention. in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: a cold wave kept the nation's midwest and northeast in the deep freeze

today. wind chill warnings and advisories stretched from north dakota to new hampshire, as arctic winds dropped temperatures to 20 degrees below zero in some places. officials warned of the risk of frostbite with less than 30 minutes of exposure, and they went on alert. >> anytime that we have an extreme in weather, be it cold or hot, it taxes the e.m.s. system as a whole. look for people who may need assistance maybe before they're so bad off that they require an ambulance to go to the hospital. and, they'll get them services like a shelter, a detox, things like that. >> sreenivasan: as the cold set in, erie, pennsylvania declared a state of emergency, with a record 65 inches of snow. more snow was falling today. in syria, critically ill patients are finally being evacuated from a rebel-held area near damascus. hundreds of sick people in eastern ghouta have been unable to get treatment at area hospitals. but now, government troops are letting aid groups evacuate nearly 30 critically ill patients.

in return, the rebels want a like number of captive fighters released. also today, russia declared the main battle with the islamic state in syria is now over. foreign minister sergei lavrov said the syrian army and its allies must turn their focus to hunting down the nusra front group, linked to al-qaeda. russian leader vladimir putin has officially registered to run for his fourth term as president. in moscow today, putin handed in his papers in person, to the nation's election commission. early polls show he's likely to be re-elected in the march vote. opposition leader alexei navalny is urging a boycott of the election after he was banned from running. today, he called for nation-wide protests next month. >> ( translated ): let's come out to the street! for yourselves, for your rights, for your future! for the fact that we do not want to lose another six years. we will start a big campaign, on one hand, to persuade everyone to participate in the boycott and not to take part in the election, and on the other hand,

to count how many people really come to the polling stations and not to let putin fabricate that number. >> sreenivasan: putin is 65 years old and has already led russia as prime minister and now president for a total of 18 years. former president obama is urging leaders to be careful in their online statements. he spoke with britain's prince harry in an interview that aired today on the bbc. the former president did not directly mention president trump, but he did voice concern about social media's effect on politics. >> all of us in leadership have to find ways in which we can recreate a common space on the internet. one of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities they can be just cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases. > sreenivasan: mr. obama also said he considers the affordable care act, widely known as obamacare, one of his greatest achievements. the library of congress says it will no longer archive every public tweet, including the president's. instead, starting in the new year, it will be more selective.

the library cites the growing volume in tweets and the increase in characters, from 140 to 280. the national archives keeps all presidential tweets, and will continue to do so. and, on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 28 points to close at 24,774. the nasdaq rose three points, and the s&p 500 added two. still to come on the newshour: should you pay your property taxes early? we look at the pros and cons under the new tax law. a nation divided, a review of the year in politics from the right and the left. america addicted: a doctor's personal loss to opioids, and much more. >> sreenivasan: the new tax laws are set to take effect on monday. given that the president and republicans in congress just passed and signed the legislation days ago, some taxpayers are scrambling to try to squeeze in deductions, some for next year, before 2017 ends.

that's especially true in a number of municipalities where people are standing in line to pre-pay their property taxes for 2018. let's look at what you need to know, and begin with this field report by brenda flanagan of new jersey public television. >> reporter: while republicans celebrated and called their tax bill historic, homeowners panicked and called their accountants in high-property-tax states like new york, california and new jersey. >> phones and emails have been going off crazy, because a lot of people are hearing about the real estate tax deduction, hearing about all the changes and wanting to know what to do. >> reporter: that's because in 2018, the republican bill will cap property tax deductions at $10,000. but in jersey, average property taxes exceed 10,000 in four counties. in fact, homeowners here pay the highest property taxes in the nation-- more than $8,500, on average. >> anyone in new jersey, that's got to be scary.

>> reporter: so many homeowners, like wayne defeo, are meeting with c.p.a.'s and looking to pre-pay next year's property taxes, to take advantage of the full deduction before it expires. it's kind of a loophole. >> if i could prepay half of my property taxes for next year, to take advantage of it for this tax year, based on what my accountant's told me, is i would save almost $1,000. and that goes to my pocket. >> it's up to each and every taxpayer to make a decision how comfortable they feel, paying real estate taxes in advance. but you should look at it. everyone should look at it. cause it's a one-time opportunity. by december 31st. it's a lot of money to leave on the table. >> reporter: how much? say you're single, with no kids, making $75,000. your property taxes are 20,000. we figured that for 2017, you'll owe the i.r.s. about $8,500. but prepaying the first two quarters of your 2018 property taxes could knock that i.r.s.

bill down to about 6,000. you'd save almost $2,500. but accountants advise it won't work for everyone. >> for people that make more than 200,000, they're caught up in alternate minimum tax, which basically disallows income and real estate taxes to get you back to a minimum level. >> reporter: c.p.a. dan connolly also warns some people may be tempted to borrow money to make those pre-payments. >> some people are going on credit lines to pay for them, and then they're going to have to pay interest on the money that they borrow to prepay the tax. so the calculation is not that simple. >> reporter: regardless, municipalities from elizabeth to alpine, and here in the shore town of belmar, report residents are showing up with checkbooks to prepay at least the first two quarters of next year's property taxes. >> we're walking them through the process of pre-payment. we have our staff ready to accept those prepayments, process them properly, make sure it's all documented for anyone who comes in, so they're able to take advantage of the deduction

this year, in 2017. >> reporter: mayor matt doherty's prepaying his taxes. but, besides working the loophole, lawmakers in several states are also looking for other ways to soften the blow. here in jersey, one bill would increase property tax deductions for homeowners. but it'd cost the state $170 million in revenues. >> well the bill would allow full deductibility of homeowners property taxes on their state income taxes. and that will cut in half for most people the hit they're gonna get by the trump bill, which doesn't allow deductibility for property taxes over $10,000. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm brenda flanagan, reporting from elizabeth, new jersey. >> sreenivasan: some more questions, and perspective, about the changes to the tax code and end-of-the-year decision on property tax deductions. mark steber is a c.p.a. and chief tax officer for jackson- hewitt tax service a mark, what are some of the factors that should go into figuring out whether you

should make these payments now versus late sner. >> well, your piece was excellent and spot on with several of the observations from some of your professionals. basically don't think that one size fits all on this opportunity it certainly works where it works but where it doesn't, it can have the benefit of biting you pretty badly on the back end. so the two things i'm telling folks on this property tax acceleration idea is one, make sure you have the money, borrowing money to do a tax planning idea that might change even after the first of the year, not my best advice. and the second thing is watch out for that alternative minimum tax. your other featured speaker said that these taxes are not deductible when you go in and compute that, as are not mortgage interest and a whole host of other items that you do to calculate that, so if you make this accelerated deduction it throws you into alternative minimum tax and you don't get a benefit, all might have been for naught, so have the cash, watch out for alt min but we are telling, to consult with your

tax advisor, they know your facts, circumstances, what to watch for and what your tax profile will lack like for 2017 and for 2018 even given the new limitation on the property taxes. there is a lot to look at and you certainly don't want to file with the benefit you might need next year even if you are in a high property tax area. >> sreenivasan: one of the things we heard is this will affect states like california and new jersey but this isn't a blue state red state thing s it? >> no, it's not, that is really as mischaracterization, those states do have high property taxes but i'm from florida and have friends in all the different states and many of them have high property tax locations. so it's really for anybody who has high property taxes, they should look at. this but they should also look at their other factors as well. but there is not solely a new jersey issue or a california issue or a new york issue. it's a whoever has property taxes more than $10,000, the new limit, that is where this is kind of applicable because that is where you will get capped out in 2018. >> sreenivasan: what about the possibility that congress could

move forward to tray to close this loophole retro actively, everybody that went out of their way to stand in line and pay these now might not tallly see the benefit. >> yeah, that is certainly a possibility with the correctioners bill that will come in after the fact, to tweak up some of the areas that were not absolutely looked at in totality when they passed the law. but i really wouldn't worry too much about a retroactive change unless there is a great deal of abuse. i think once folks take a a look at this and see what some of the risks are, what some of the costs are, i don't see this really being an overwhelming opportunity, it is a lot of money up front for a tax benefit arguably in 2019 when do you your taxes. you really have to have a compelling set of facts and circumstances to do that. and you know some will do it and it will make sense but most people are taking a cautious look at the idea. but will it make sense? it makes sense but it's not for everybody. >> mark stebber of jackson-hee wit, thanks so much.

>> sreenivasan. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: taxes were just one of the top political stories of 2017. john yang now takes a deeper look at president trump's first year, and what's in 2018 from two different perspectives. >> yang: hari, we are joined by karine jean-pierre, who is senior adviser to moveon.org and contributing editor to the online women's magazine, bustle. she also served in the obama white house. and chris buskirk is a radio host and editor of the conservative blog, americangreatness.org. thanks for being with us, chris, i want to start with you. you talked to folks out there on your radio show every day, as we end the year, what is the, sort of the state of the trump base, of trump supporters out there now? >> well, a lot happier than i think folks were maybe even two, three weeks ago. i think the fact that the tax

bill passed was a welcome drk dsh at the end of the year, there are two elements to that. one is that people generally supported the tax bill. they think it was good policy. and that's a big part of it the other part is just seeing a republican congress for whom so many trump voters have very, very high hopes at the beginning of this year and seeing that congress actually do something, you know, i called it a do nothing congress for months and months and months primarily because of a do nothing congress but they did something. i think it was good policy from our perspective and as we are rapping up thier here the trump voters are looking and saying you know what, the president did a lot of things he promised to, now we are actually seeing congress get on board too. >> karine, you point out a lot of unhappiness about congress, people were still supporting the president and blaming congress for inaction, has this solved all that? and also has the gap between the president's supporters and for a lack of a better term the

elected officials in washington, the speaker ryans, the leader mcconnells, have that been healed over by this? >> i don't know if it heeled over but st a good start. i guess i would put it that way. there has been a sort of changing of the guard going on on the american ride among conservatives in the past year or two or three if we go back to 2015. is everything brushed under the carpet? no. but you know what, that is okay. what is important here from my perspective, i think from a lot of people's perspective on the right is that different factions within the republican party are figuring out number one that they need to work together, number two how to do it. and so as we go into 2018, that is a reason for people on the right to have some optimism. >> karine, con versely what is the state of the loyal opposition. >> con versely indeed. look, i think that republicans passed an unpopular bill now that they have to go into 2018, and not only that they have a

president that is historically unpopular. the republican congress is unpopular so they are facing potentially a blue wave next year from the democrats and i just don't understand how they even think this is a good thing when you see the polling after polling that says people hate the gop tax plan. and also the intints. there is an intensity on the democratic side that we have not seen in a long time. they are unified, they are energized. democrats won a senate seat in the ruby red seat of alabama that is unheard of. people would say we have no business even going into that state and trying to fight and win that race. and so i think that republicans have a tough fight gensz them, ahead of them in 2018. and i just don't see how they even stop that, union fying right now, doesn't even make sense either because they have an unpopular president. congress sun popular.

let's not forget there is daca that needs to be taken care of, there is chip that needs to be rized both bipartisan programs that are popular. >> chris what about that, the democrats, there is a lot of talk about whether the democrats, there is an enthusiasm gap with the democrats, that they are more enthusiastic, more fired up go ing into 2018, going too the mid terms, what about that? >> well there is something to it, there really is. i think this is going to be a hard-fought election year there e american people in 2018.orey

but you know what, you have to make the case. that will be the challenge for republican candidates all over the country next year because there is a lot of enthusiasm on the left. so i say let's have at it. >> that is making a case for the republican ins 2018. for the democrats, do they have to say, i mean what is the better politics for them to stand and say no to the president, to be the opposition, literally the opposition or do they look to work with him on the issues you talked about, daca, the dreamers, the children's health insurance, infrastructure. >> right, so what i say to daca and chip is that look, it is a bipartisan support, it is very popular with the public. so it should be able to be fixed easily. it's not very difficult. and not only that republicans

control all three branches so they should be able to do that. if they don't it's not the democrats fault t is the republicans fault that is that point there. but i do agree that democrats need to not just be anti-trump, they need to also offer something as well which is okay, let's list minimum wage, fight on that, be sure to expand 34ed care, expand medication, expand social security, be about something, not just anti-trump. >> chris, are there places where republicans can work with the democrats in the next year before the elections? >> yeah, i will tell you what, this is a place i'm really interested in. i think there are two big areas where republicans and democrats hopefully will be able to find some common ground and come together. number one is infrastructure. this is something that has been talked about by people like chuck schumer and nancy pelosi for a long time, also something that has been talked about by donald trump where he actively on the campaign trail was talking about a big infrastructure bill. i think that would be more than appropriate, more than welcome in 2018. i would hope there would be some

consensus on that. and the other part is, and this really is big picture but i think it's important, and that is returning the power to legislate, to make laws back to congress. i think congress needs to take some of that power back from the executive branch. i think all together too much, lawmaking power resides in the agencies and the departments of the executive branch. and in i think particularly now with trump in the white house, this might be a time when democrats and republicans in congress can say you know what, we need to go back to doing the job the institution give-- constitution gives us which is being the legislature, being the one that makes the laws. >> chris, karine, thanks for being with us. >> thanks. >> sreenivasan: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: a treatment to eliminate a female medical problem and, with it, a cultural taboo. the year in tech, when social media companies came under scrutiny. and from the newshour bookshelf,

the real life story of the infamous miami drug war. but first, we continue our second look at a special series america addicted on the opioid crisis and its enormous toll. tonight the story of a doctor who suffered a devastating personal loss to opioids exactly one year ago. but now he's doing everything he can to keep other families from suffering the same fate. miles o'brien reports that at the same time, he's also concerned about a backlash where some patients can't get the pain treatment they need. this is part of our weekly leading edge science series. >> reporter: spend the day with physician jim baker, and you will understand america's opioid crisis in a uniquely professional and personal way. he lives in holden, massachusetts, a norman rockwell town just north of worcester. idyllic as it seems, there is death all around. >> in that time it took us to go around this block, of a minute,

including my house right there, four deaths and one person in recovery. and so, this is holden. >> reporter: less than a year ago, death by overdose came to his family. he lost his son max, or macky, as his family called him. he was 23. >> mackey was a sensitive, caring, warm, brilliant young man. he was so smart, it was scary. >> reporter: he always enjoyed music? >> yeah. he started playing seriously when he was about ten, and he would play every day, multiple times a day. >> reporter: and because he was the drummer, the band played here. jim baker can remember the night things changed. >> i was up in this room. they did the first half of their set, which was clear and strong music. then they took a break.

when they came back, the timing was off, the changes weren't right. i thought, "what happened?" i found out later that they had got a hold on pills. and within a year, he had moved on to heroin. how that happened, i still don't know. >> reporter: and so began a downward spiral. he was flunking out of school, losing friends and his music deteriorated. >> he had the deepest desire to stop. he said, "if i don't stop, it's going to kill me." but he couldn't do it on his own and i couldn't find treatment. >> reporter: he was trying to find a fellow doctor willing and able to give mackey treatment with suboxone, a combination of two drugs: one answers an addict's craving for opioids; the other blocks the high. but precious few doctors provide the treatment. >> the sad truth is, they say," i don't want those patients in my office" or in more private

conversation, "it takes too much time, i don't want to deal with it." i have heard people say, "our group talked about it, we voted against it. there is no reimbursement." >> reporter: jim baker spent many years as an emergency room doctor, and now works for hospice. he makes house calls to people who need opioids to manage their pain. today, he is checking in on bob hopwood. >> do you feel like, when you use it, if you just had a little bit more would help you? >> reporter: he works hard to insure his terminally ill patients avoid unneeded suffering with pain. >> physicians are over-tuned to this. and what's happening now is, physicians are responding by saying, "i am writing for fewer opioids. i don't write for opioids anymore." and it is having a negative effect for people who have real pain and who need relief.

now they can't find it. the pendulum has definitely swung back too far, and now people who really have pain cannot find relief. >> reporter: but he understands all too well the crisis that has caused this over-reaction. as his son's journey into the darkness of addiction worsened, jim baker felt he had no choice. he told macky to leave the house, which prompted this letter: >> i said, "macky, you can call me anytime, 24 hours a day no matter where i am. i will help however i can. just stay with it. i love you so much. dad." >> reporter: he did stay with it. he finally found treatment, and he got off the heroin. >> he was able to maintain sobriety for two years or so, and he was doing great. he was in college. he had fallen in love. >> reporter: he and emma were

planning on getting married; a storybook ending. it seemed like he had beaten the odds. and then thanksgiving last year; a horrible twist of fate. >> it was late at night and coming down this road. his impact was right here, right we guess just didn't see him coming because of a bush or house there. he fractured and deformed his right hand, his drumming hand, his writing hand. and he was bruised up in his chest, his face. he was beat up pretty good. >> reporter: as he went into surgery, macky told the anesthesiologist not to give him opioids. >> but, i found out later, she was injecting him with fentanyl. and when he came out of the operating room, the first thing he said with glazed eyes is, "i need drugs." >> reporter: addicted, once again.

a month later, he got the call he had been dreading for years. >> this is the road i was driving to when his brother called me and said, "dad, mackie is unconscious." and i was coming up here hoping and hoping, "please, mackie, please." he couldn't get the door open and i'm asking him, "is he breathing? is he responding?" and the answers were really scary. >> reporter: he was gone. one of 33,000 americans who die each year because of an opioid overdose. >> so we're coming up upon a cemetery. the field right above that is where he learned to play tee-ball. hey, mackie, dad is here. just want to tell you, i love you, pal.

we're going to keep on fighting, >> reporter: on this night, they gathered at a health club in holden. they pedaled hard to raise money for the max baker foundation, and they heard jim baker's talk, poignant and practical. >> my goal is to have everyone here know more about opioids than they did when they came through the door. >> reporter: he told a rapt audience what to look for: slurred speech, pinpoint pupils and long sleeve shirts. >> the first thing that you do when you feel that problem is there, please don't judge, recognize that that person inside of that addiction is still your son or daughter or brother. and they have behaviors they can't control. >> reporter: he told them to get narcan, an over-the-counter drug that can instantly counteract an overdose.

>> it's one of the few miracle drugs i've ever seen. a person is blue, not breathing, dusky, even cool, dying, and get narcan in and three, two, one, they sit up and go, "what? where am i?" >> reporter: and he told them to get a sledge-hammer. >> and if i hear a funny sound in the bathroom, or a thud, and knock, knock, knock, and there is no answer in there, i'm going to pick this up and i'm going to whack that door handle and then i'm going to whack that hinge. i'm going to bust down that door and get in. >> reporter: this is jim baker's mission. his way of channeling profound grief. >> i feel like, what would it mean to me, had someone who is suffering done what it took-- done what was necessary to help macky? and i would be forever-- i can't really talk about it, but the most meaningful thing i could ever ask of someone.

but it's now my turn to do it for somebody else, and i know that's what he'd want me to do. >> reporter: max baker is no longer with us, but his father is spending his days hoping to make sure his son's life has enduring purpose. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in holden, massachusetts. >> sreenivasan: tomorrow, a report on the impact opioid addiction is having on the american work place. find all of our stories from the seires on line at pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: next, one effort to address a humiliating medical injury that afflicts perhaps one million women in the developing world who lack access to safe medical facilities. fred de sam lazaro reports from kenya. it's part of his agents for change series. >> reporter: in a new hospital

in eldoret, kenya, these women are awaiting surgery to fix a condition that's widely misunderstood and reviled. one that's made them outcasts, often in their own families. it's called obstetric fistula, an injury to the birth canal caused, in most cases, by prolonged labor that leaves a woman incontinent. perhaps one million women in the developing world suffer from fistulas, a condition virtually wiped out in industrialized nations with better access to prenatal care and medical facilities. at least once a week, these patients hear a message of hope from a woman who knows all too well their suffering. 41-year-old sarah omega was just 19 when she was raped and became pregnant. >> i was so scared. i didn't want to secure an abortion because of my faith, so i kept the pregnancy.

>> reporter: omega eventually spent 38 hours in a difficult labor, much of it at home. in the process, the baby died, and she suffered a large fistula. for 12 years, omega says she was subjected to isolation and shame. >> i attempted suicide twice. every night i would go to bed and i would say to god, "please don't allow me to see tomorrow." because my tomorrow-- every day, i would wake up, see the sun and i would cry because i knew it was another day of pain, of humiliation, of suffering in isolation. >> reporter: that anguish landed her in a psychiatric ward, and it was there that a visiting doctor came to her bedside. >> he assured me that my problem was going to be fixed. and i remember that day he told me, "i'm seeing a lot of hope in you. i want you to get healed."

>> reporter: that doctor was 49-year-old hilary mabeya, a gynecologist and surgeon who has devoted his entire practice to women with fistulas. this 88-bed hospital was built for his use, as part of a broad campaign by the california-based fistula foundation. >> these are patients who need care, they need support and they need a lot of counseling. they suffer so much because of society, because of their condition. >> reporter: it's difficult to pinpoint how many women suffer from fistula in this country. in part, because most of them are kept isolated by their communities and even their families. but in recent years, since the campaign began to raise awareness of fistula, that it is treatable, some 7,000 women have emerged from hiding each year, seeking surgery. fistula awareness groups have taken to the streets to educate

others about the condition, and where to get help. we watched as these women-- many of them survivors themselves-- fanned out through the western city of mumias, and encouraged women suffering from incontinence issues to get a free screening offered by the campaign. organizer habiba mohamed said people still have many misconceptions about fistula. >> maybe she is bewitched. maybe she was promiscuous and had a relationship outside marriage when she was pregnant. >> reporter: mohamed's group, wadadia, recently arranged the transportation and treatment for 35-year-old rachel juma wasamba, who lives in a remote village in western kenya. wasamba was lucky. her husband stayed with her throughout her condition and treatment, even taking over many husbands abandon their wives in such situations. amina mushele says that's what happened to her.

>> ( translated ): my husband couldn't take it anymore, so he left me to marry another woman. >> reporter: she had surgery one year ago, and now makes and sells goods in the town marketplace, using skills she got from a training program sponsored by wadadia. the training, ranging from hair styling, to seamstress work, and computer skills, helps reintegrate women back into their community. >> the moment that we see someone has been treated and she has healed, you can be able to see a significant change in her life. not only in her life, in her family, in her children. it has a ripple effect to an entire family and entire community. >> reporter: back in eldoret, dr. mabeya is kept very busy, at one of the few places where fistula surgery is performed and offered free of charge. working six days a week, he operates on 45 women a month. since that's just a fraction of the new cases, he is also training other doctors in the

region, and he is working to prevent fistulas in the first place. >> fistula is almost 100% preventable. in developed countries, it's not even there. >> reporter: he says fistula can be avoided if adequate prenatal and emergency care is made available when complications arise during pregnancy. more than half of all kenyan women still deliver their babies at home. for her part, sarah omega says her healing became complete when she able to give birth to a health baby daughter, jade, who recently turned two. >> she means just the whole world to me. i remember at some point i would pray and say, "god, if you will give me a baby, that baby will erase the pain i have gone through in this life." >> reporter: and omega continues to help other women erase the pain of fistula. >> i decided to change the pain i had gone through into something beautiful, something

that will help me reach out to other women, something that will allow other women to live a normal life like me. >> reporter: she travels frequently to talk about her experiences, but more regularly, her advocacy happens at the bedside of women at the new fistula hospital for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in eldoret, kenya. >> sreenivasan: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. >> sreenivasan: technology has traditionally been seen by the public, and many in the media, in a more hopeful light. but 2017 felt different-- a year that frequently cast technology, and its unintended consequences, in a much harsher light. in a moment, we'll have a conversation that i recorded last week in new york. first, a quick reminder about some of the major problems. russia used facebook and social

media to try and influence the 2016 elections. the revelations reverberated throughout the nation's capital this year. as congressional committees detailed, russian operatives bought ads that sought to capitalize on racial, religious and political divisions in the u.s. just 120 fake accounts posted on facebook 80,000 times and reached as many as 126 million americans. facebook's c.e.o., mark zuckerberg initially doubted that the platform could have influenced the election, but later pledged to make political advertising more transparent. >> not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser's page and see the ads they're currently running to any audience on facebook. >> sreenivasan: members of both parties were angry at the company's slow admission but the focus grew beyond just one company to other tech giants since russian agents used twitter, google and youtube too. the senate intelligence committee grilled top lawyers

for the companies. >> many of us on this committee have been raising this issue since the beginning of this year, and our claims are frankly blown off by the leaderships of your companies-- dismissed, so there's no possibility nothing like this happening-- nothing to see here. >> sreenivasan: hacking, a perennial problem, took on new urgency this past year. the ransomware cyberattack called "wannacry" temporarily crippled computer systems in hospitals, banks and companies around the world. more than 230,000 computers in 150 countries were affected. just a week ago, the trump administration named the country it says was responsible. >> after careful investigation the united states is publicly attributing the massive wannacry cyberattack to north korea. we did not make this allegation lightly, we do so with evidence and we do so with partners. >> sreenivasan: hackers also tore into equifax, one of the largest credit bureaus. stealing the personal information of more than 145

million people. they got social security numbers, birth dates, addresses and drivers licenses. the tech industry faced a new conversation on inequality by race and gender. susan fowler, a former engineer at uber, published a damning account of a harassment filled workplace culture. uber fired 20 employees and eventually fired the c.e.o. she told "time" she was amazed by the reaction to her essay. >> i expected it would be like a 24-hour viral thing, but it didn't slow down at all. and i was reading through all of these things and i thought, oh my gosh, i'm not alone. >> sreenivasan: others, like ellen pao, who filed and lost a gender discrimination case against a powerful venture capital firm, said change was needed. >> well, i think if playing along means participating in sexist and racist jokes, that expectation has to change. >> sreenivasan: the year ended with a divisive decision by the fcc that many fear will lead to

the end of net neutrality-- the idea of treating all content on the web equally without charging more or blocking your ability to see other content. for a closer look at the potential turning point of 2017 is shaping up to be for the most well-known tech giants, i'm joined by two people who follow that world closely, farhad manjoo writes on how technology is changing society and business and david kirk patrick is a technology journalist and author of the pacebook effect. thank you for joining us. farhad let me start with you. how did tech shift in our perception this year? >> yeah, i think we got justifiably a lot legs optimistic about tech and a lot more worried about the implications of a few big tech companies kind of taking over much of the world, much of our communications, much of how we kind of learn and experience the world, all of our personal

information. and i think the tech companies responded to that. they started to notice, i mean after the questions about the russia hack, after questions about sexual harassment, they started to respond to these criticisms. and i think the key thing they made was a lot of these, a lot of the big tech companies started at first grudgingly and then more willingly, i think, they started to accept that they have some responsibility to the rest of the world, that their technologies aren't necessarily kind of neutral platforms. and that they have some responsibility to kind of police what happens there. how that plays out i think will be the big question of 2018. but this year i think that the big changes, in the past technology companies who have thought of themselves as kiep of neutral and i think that has started to change. they are less neutral now. >> david kirk patrick what happened to make silicon valley less the sort of darling of, well, washington d.c. as well as

wall street? >> well, if there is one single thing that changed the situation, i would say russian fake news affecting the election in the opinion and the desire of russia to alter our electoral process and using facebook and google, but facebook in particular as a key means of doing that. and i think what that concern at a national level did was draw attention to the extraordinary social, cultural and informational weight of these companies. and then caused a lot of people to start asking bigger questions about what it meant that these very small number of tech giants have had such a monumental impact on our social dialogue. and in effect have become the central platform for social dialogue, and increeing-- increasingly inn many ways for political we maffier as well. >> sreenivasan: mark zuckerberg said it is a crazy idea they would have had any impact on the elections but since then made statementeds

that walked that back. >> he said that to me at my stage in two days after the election which by the way i asked himmed him in facebook had special responsibilities because of its scale and he essentially demurred on that. so again, while i agree with what farhad said t is really notable how much he has changed since then. >> i think is he right, mark zuckerberg has changed in a way that i have been surprised by. when he started facebook the main sort of idea behind facebook was he wanted to kind of connect the world, connecting the world he argued was enough. and that was kiepped of the general feeling mock others in the tech industries, that just sort of building the technology, the technology itself would kind of help people, would dem october rattize the world, and now the thing that mark zuckerberg talks about is not just connecting people but creating meaningful connections, this is-- meaningful is word he has been using more often lately. what that means exactly is not clear. but they plan to change the

facebook news feed to address some of these concerns. both the fake news concerns but also this idea that facebook might be kind of putting us into echo chambers, kind of splintering much of our dialogue. >> sreenivasan: farhad how much of this has to do with who is designing the underlying technology in the first place? >> this say big problem for them to solve. the big 2ebg companies are all based on the west coast of the united states, several here in california and a couple in seattle. they are sort of workforces kind of look the same. they are not very diverse, they are not gender diverse, they don't have a lot of minorities. they are not-- diverse or gee graphically diverse. and they are increasingly gatekeepers for information for not just the united states butted entire planet. and so you really have this question where there are a small number of people who are essentially homogenous, kind of making decisions for the rest of the world. >> david kirk patrick what is

the likelihood then of these technology guests ak tag the problems underlying this, the diversity, the lack of transparency and the ultimate consequences of the tools that they build? >> well, i think there is no question that there is a major shift under way in the mindset of the silicon valley workforce and the leaders of these companies that they have to do that. however, as farhad has written and as i firmly believe, st an extremely challenging project to understand the true rate of these massively important systems in our society, and how to actually more effectively manage them. i mean it is a question of governance, in effect. the reality is when the public square is in effect dominated by commercial enterprises, who should regulate that is entirely undetermined. clearly these people are starting to recognize if they don't take actions that appear to be in the public's benefit they will become regulated by a

government both in the united states and abroad and that process is happening much more in europe already. they want to desperately avoid that. on the other hand ideas aren't really even there on their part as to what really could be done to properly regulate the flow of information given their fundamental goal of selling advertising to make money on these services because advertising effectively requires eyeballs and attention and they still are more in the mindset of drawing attention than they are of doing the right thing in my opinion. >> sreenivasan: david kirkpatrick and farhad marjoo, thank you both. >> thank, good to be here. >> thanks. 54 go live 6:30 >> sreenivasan: finally, in the latest addition to the newshour bookshelf, jeffrey brown examines the wild west that was miami beach where cocaine cowboys played and died. >> brown: al pacino's gangster

snarl in the film "scarface," the oh-so-cool undercover detectives in "miami vice," the popular culture images of miami in the 1980s when cocaine drug lords helped make it the murder capital of america. the real life story is told in the new book "hotel scarface." author roben farzad is a business journalist, host of "full disclosure" on npr one and occasional contributor to this program and it's nice to talk to you roben. >> so nice to... >> brown: we usually talk about economics, but here we are. why this subject? why did you want to go look at this story? >> my heart has been with this in the 22 to 23 years since i left miami to go to college. when cocaine came to town it was so ridiculously profitable, it was so seductive, it made people do such crazy things in the name of money and power and bloodlust that you had something approximating a failed state by

1981 in miami. >> brown: the epicenter is this hotel. you nickname it scarface hotel right? but it's the mutiny, was the real place. >> that's right. it was called the hotel mutiny at sailboat bay and the first three floors had a club, a private discotech, a restaurant, a lounge, a tiki bar and it was just infamous. all the celebs who would come to miami, fleetwood mac, the cars, crosby and nash recorded a song about the place, neil young would be there. it was kind of the closest thing to miami's studio 54 at the turn of the decade 1979, 1980, well before south beach had arrived on kind of the global hot spot scene. >> brown: so the celebrities were there but it's the drug lords and the gangsters who are, that's where a lot of the action is. >> it's the ecosystem of all that money that was there. money and sex and cocaine and aspiration. in the case of the cuban exiles who came to this country penniless who really wrested control of the cocaine trade by

the late '70s, and didn't mind being seen with the most gorgeous models and playboy casting calls and powerful housewives and richard nixon's friends. everybody largely left everybody alone until all of miami blew up >> brown: your book is filled with all these colorful characters, colorful, but violent characters. pick one just to give us an example of somebody that grabbed you. >> i, like many people in miami, are haunted by the specter of one. ricardo monkey morales. monkey was his nickname. this is a guy who worked for fidel castro, became disillusioned with the violence and the revolutionary cause, ostensibly flipped by the c.i.a., brought to miami in the anti-castro cause, and was really raring for a rematch and when we had the bay of pigs invasion and that fell through, literally all of exile miami thought it was fait accompli that kennedy would finish the job. but then kennedy didn't finish the job and kennedy dies and l.b.j. is looking at vietnam ultimately and so we have all

these orphaned people, all these bombers and mercenaries and c.i.a.-trained people like monkey morales who are kind of rudderless for the '60s and '70s. and first pot happens, and it's child's play to move marijuana because the c.i.a. trained them to know evasion on the coastline better than anybody else. and cocaine is multiples as profitable and even though morales passed away in about, he was shot and killed at about christmas of 82, he keeps popping up in headlines if you his ghost lingers and i think he is a metaphor for everything that went wrong between cuba and the united states. this was a person who was a romantic, he read history books, quoted casablanca, he cried whenever it came on, but he also knew how to strangle people he got away after shooting and killing several people. he was an informant, he hunted down nazi fugitives helped the mossad, imagine his linkedin profile. >> brown: i was thinking, if i asked you about surprises you found along the way, maybe frame it in terms of those cultural references we started with. do they get it right when we

look at "scarface" or "miami vice?" what did they get right? what did they exaggerate? >> what's shocking to me is you can be meeting with ex-cons, people that have spent upwards of 25, 30 years in prison and they've now reintegrated back into miami and like and they're having early bird dinner with you on coral way, somewhere in little havana and they're like, 9 out of 10 times, "you know, tony montana is based on me." the town completely rebelled against this entire concept of "scarface" coming there to film in '82 and '83. they saw it as an affront to the exile community until it became this pop culture totem, right? and then everybody after the fact was like it was me i had a leopard, no it was based on me look his throne looked like mine.

almost like finding scarface searching scarface and i believe he was a composite that oliver stone and de palma saw at this hotel. >> brown: what ended it? i mean what brought this era to an end? >> it just became so violent by 1981, it was fun in games and the sexy and swinging '70s, people got along. e colombians came in with a shot across the bow and 1979 the the dadeland massacre and then once the mariel boat crisis happened and you had 120,000 refugees end up in south florida maybe 10,000 north of them are criminals, many violent criminals. it was every man for himself and, it became a national security concern for jimmy carter and than ronald reagan deputized george bush sr. with its south florida drug task force, so when the feds got serious about it, i think all the fun in games and the hyperpally of it was shut down, but what's amazing to me is that diaspora of this hotel and club. if you talk to people in colombia, panama and venezuela who still remember their >> brown: alright, the book is "hotel scarface," roben farzad,

thanks very much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: online, author roben farzad picks three essential books to understand miami. that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. clar if i kaition and followup to the tax story courtesy of the national taxpayer advocate, nina olson, the irs announced today taxpayers will only be able to deduct their property taxes on the coming year on their 2017 returns if and only if their 2018 taxes have been assessed by their local government. if taxpayers make payments on unassessed taxes they will not be able to deduct them. and that's the newshour for tonight. and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, maine voted to expand medicaid, their governor remains opposed, a story on the conflict. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.org

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

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