captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: deadly mudslides slam into southern california, leaving rescuers to search for survivors amid the destruction. then, i sit down with u.s. senators from both sides of the aisle to discuss bipartisan efforts to protect future elections against foreign meddling. >> 42 states haven't upgraded their election equipment in over a decade. and russia knows it. >> woodruff: and, after being hit with extreme winter flooding, boston plans for the promise of more storms to come. but, will it be enough? >> in the future, when we have three feet of sea level rise, this is going to happen on, let's say, a monthly basis. so this is really a snapshot of what the future looks like if we

don't get our emissions under control. >> woodruff: 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. >> do you have the papers? >> the white house has been lying about the vietnam war for 30 years! >> what's next?

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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. >> woodruff: they're still digging tonight in southern california, where huge mudslides wiped out at least 100 homes early tuesday. authorities have confirmed 15 deaths. another two dozen people are missing, in a disaster zone that covers 30 square miles. home after home destroyed-- filled to the roofs with mud or ripped from foundations. >> i would say it's apocalyptic. i had no idea this devastation was like this. >> woodruff: splintered remains

and a river of mud now cover much of montecito. the small, coastal community in santa barbara county suffered the worst of the damage. people say they woke in the middle of the night monday to the "roar" of a torrential rain storm. it pounded some parts of the region with more than an inch of rain an hour. >> it sounded like a hurricane or freight train coming through. i can't quite believe it. is that a house behind us? is that a house? >> woodruff: the deluge overwhelmed the nearby hills, that had been burned bare of vegetation just weeks ago by the largest wildfire in california's history. soon, fast-moving mudflows carrying large boulders tore through the wealthy neighborhood of 9,000. they had been ordered to evacuate, but many refused, or left too late. >> i panicked. i mean, they were both asleep. and i was in my boots, and i just said "there's mud in the driveway, there's mud in the driveway!"

>> woodruff: today, rescue crews kept digging through mud and debris in search of survivors. more than 50 people have been rescued so far. many, including this family of five, were airlifted out, plucked from their rooftops by the coast guard. and, crews from the santa barbara county fire department pulled a 14-year-old girl from her destroyed home in montecito on tuesday. she had been trapped there for hours. robert riskin was still looking for his mother late yesterday, as he searched through her home. >> it's my mom. and i'm fighting with all my heart to find her. but, like, i can't focus too i've just been clawing through the mud. and it's hard to hold hope when the mud is so deep. >> woodruff: it is believed hundreds are still trapped or missing around montecito. the storm also triggered mudflows and flash flooding across parts of nearby los angeles and ventura counties this week, submerging highways and cars.

officials say there's no telling how long the region's recovery will take, as crews try to clear away mud and debris. >> you're going to follow my treads, okay? you got six to eight, to 12 inches of mud out there. >> woodruff: for now, travel in the area is near impossible. parts of the coastal 101 highway are still closed, covered in several feet of mud. for more on rescue and recovery efforts in the flood and slide areas, and how residents are coping, we go to sharon mcnary of southern california public radio. she is in montecito, and joins us by phone. so, sharon, tell us -- thank you for joining us. tell us, exactly where are you? >> i'm on highway 1 19 192 whics the dividing line between the voluntary and the mandatory evacuation just on the outskirts of the mud zone, and there's just a top of act -- a ton of activity going on including military helicopters overhead.

>> woodruff: and what is it, sharon, about this mud that is making it so difficult to remove? >> when you get a heavy rain on burned soil, the lower layer bakes hard and all the topsoil on top of it gets all this water in it and makes it slow down. it also makes it sit in a very viscous, watery layer and the mud will take the boots off your feet. with 20 people still unaccounted for, they're being very careful how they dig. >> woodruff: sharon, were these towns prepared for this? >> i would say the government did as much preparation as they could but they had so little time between the end of the fires and the beginning of the rain, it was probably difficult to put enough protection in place. the citizenry, people had the mandatory evacuation orders above highway 192 where i am.

below, it was voluntary, and people had been out of their homes for nearly a month, so you had evacuations setting in and people might have taken comfort that this is an evacuation warning, not a mandatory evacuation, and might have accounted for people being in their house when it was unsafe to be there. >> woodruff: and these people, as you say, have had so much to deal with. so perhaps they didn't take these warnings seriously. >> i think it's more that people are very unfamiliar with what happens when you have a mud debris flow. you can be in a place that looks perfectly safe, that looks kind of flat. you cannot imagine what it's like to be at the bottom of a funnel of literally acre feet of watery mud, an it comes very, very fast. i was in a mud flow yesterday and it went from a wash channel being 6 inches of water to being 10 feet of water full of boulders. you just don't understand how fast it can can come on you.

i don't think people were careless. i think they lacked understanding of how serious this was. >> woodruff: i think really hard for people to imagine if they're not part of it. just very quickly, any estimates on how long this is going to take, this rescue and recovery? >> i have not heard one. i can't imagine it would be any less than just days to dig it out. >> woodruff: sharon mcnary southern california public radio, we thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump sharply criticized a federal judge who blocked his decision to end the daca program. it protects young immigrants, brought here illegally, from deportation. in a tweet today, mr. trump said, "it just shows everyone how broken and unfair our court system is." federal immigration agents showed up today at nearly 100 7-eleven convenience stores nationwide. they ran checks on employees' immigration status and arrested 21 people. u.s. officials say it was the

largest such operation since president trump took office, and they say, "the first of many." there is word that president trump will not re-impose broad- based sanctions on iran-- at least, not yet. the associated press and others are reporting that he is expected to announce the decision by a friday deadline. and that's despite his criticism of the 2015 nuclear deal. but, the reports say he will restore some targeted sanctions on specific businesses and individuals. a new diplomatic effort on north korea appeared to gain momentum today. both president trump and south korean president moon jae-in said they are open to direct talks with north korean leader kim jong-un. in seoul, moon said mr. trump's tough stance led to yesterday's north-south talks, and could yet pave the way to a summit with kim. >> ( translated ): i think president trump deserves big

credit for bringing the inter- korean talks. i keep myself open to any meeting, including the summit with north korea, if it's helpful for an improvement of south-north relations or a settlement of the north korean nuclear issue. >> woodruff: in washington, president trump welcomed yesterday's north-south meeting and said, "who knows where it leads?" the white house said that u.s. talks with the north are possible, "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances." senate democrats are out with a report that warns russia is intensifying efforts to undermine democracy in the u.s. and europe. it argues president trump has offered no response, and declares, "never before has a u.s. president so clearly ignored such a grave and growing threat to u.s. national security." we will discuss election security with two leading senators from both parties, later in the program. another u.s. house veteran says he will not seek re-election. california republican darrell

issa announced today that he'll retire after nine terms. he had once chaired the house oversight committee, and was a dogged critic of the obama administration. so far, 35 republicans and 16 democrats have announced that they will leave congress, or seek other offices. new york city today sued five oil giants over global warming. the suit named b.p., chevron, conoco-philips, exxon mobil and royal dutch shell. mayor bill de blasio said the city wants to recoup billions of dollars in costs related to climate change. and on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lost 16 points to close at 25,369. the nasdaq rose fell ten points, and the s&p 500 slipped three. still to come on the newshour: two leading conservatives react to the fallout of the explosive book, "fire and fury." bipartisan efforts to protect the next election, after last

year's russian interference. a vulnerable boston tries to protect itself from additional extreme flooding. and, much more. >> woodruff: we begin tonight with politics. after holding a cabinet meeting this morning, president trump joined norway's prime minister, erna solberg, for a joint press conference in the east room. the president took questions from reporters, but would not say if he would sit for an interview in the russia investigation without condition if special counsel robert mueller asked. >> it's a democrat hoax, that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election. that frankly, the democrats should've won, because they have such a tremendous advantage in the electoral college. so it was brought up for that reason. but it has been determined that

there is no collusion by virtually everybody. so we'll see what happens. >> would you be open to-- >> we'll see what happens. i mean, certainly, i'll see what happens, but when they have no collusion and nobody's found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview. >> woodruff: this appears to contradict what mr. trump had said earlier this year. in june, he told reporters that he was "100%" willing to testify under oath to special robert mueller, about conversations he held with former f.b.i. director james comey. in that same answer, mr. trump today also brought up the f.b.i.'s investigation into hillary clinton's email server. >> hillary clinton had an interview where she wasn't sworn in, she wasn't given the oath, they didn't take notes, they didn't record. and it was done on the fourth of july weekend. that's perhaps ridiculous. a lot of people looked upon that being a very serious breach, and

>> woodruff: and while it is true that mrs. clinton was not under oath or recorded, notes were taken, and they were released by the f.b.i. afterward. to sort through the president's remarks today, as well as the continued fallout from a scathing new book, i'm here with matt schlapp, chairman of the american conservative union. he also served as white house political director for president george w. bush. and chris buskirk, radio talk show host, and editor of the online journal, american greatness. thank you both for being here. we wanted to hear from both of you tonight. we have been hearing a lot of criticism of the president lately. we had former vice president biden on the program last week, we interviewed michael wolff about his book this week. we want to hear your perspective. i want to start, matt schlapp, about asking what we just heard from the president. how much is this russia investigation defining his first year in office? >> well, i think it took up a lot of the time and a lot of the coverage.

i think, initially, the white house didn't exactly do helpful things, but i think, as the year went along, most democrats i talked to, judy, believe that there really was no evidence that was ever presented or leaked and, by the way, this whole investigation, there's always been a lot of leaks. there doesn't seem to be any hard evidence that there is any collusion. most democrats i know have moved on to trying to attack clearly his mental fitness, that's now the new theme. they've moved on to these other themes and they're hoping special counsel can snag the president on anything, and i think the american people are pretty fair. if he doesn't find evidence of the underlying charge of collusion, i don't think the rest of it is going to matter. >> woodruff: chris buskirk, has the president let the russia thing get under his skin too much? >> i don't think so. he had to fight with the media in 2017 and into '18. there have been times people said he overreacted, and i think

that's not who donald trump is, but this is an attempt to undermine and overturn the last election and, so, donald trump's sense is that, he says i'm going to push back on this. this is not only on attack on me, it's an attack on the office and the process, so i'm going to go back at this full force. >> woodruff: as you know republican senators including james lankford whom i interviewed today at the capital said there are real questions about what the russians did and this investigation is legitimate. so even republicans are saying that, is my point. >> and i think people like devin nunez have been on this russia thing since the last election and making sure that russia are not doing things they ought not do in our elections is something everybody agrees on. >> woodruff: let's move to the book "fire and fury." >> what book are you talking about? (laughter) >> woodruff: not that there hasn't been a lot of conversation about it. michael wolff has pretty strong criticism of the president from people inside of the white house calling him everything from an idiot to a dope.

>> right. >> woodruff: much of it is coming from steve bannon but others as well. is it your contention that everything in book is wrong? >> no, but the hard part is this, i chair the ac which puts on c-pac. there's an entire chapter on c-pac. he didn't call me, he didn't call anybody on our team or anybody else involved in c-pac. he has tons of errors in that chapter alone. he says general kelly has a job he does haven't and secretary ross has a job he doesn't v. he has error after error. you have to ask yourself, off the journalists covering, the if there are this many errors on little things, maybe he's sloppy on big things. >> woodruff: he acknowledges some errors but his point is the bulk of the book reflects generally what people told him after living -- he basically lived in the white house six or eight months. >> that's the odd part of the whole book, leaving aside the contents of the book is why he was there for so long. i don't think michael wolff was setting out to do a piece of

serious history or journalism. this was a way to sell books, so you make it as sensational as possible and he said it in the dedication to the book that, well, you know, you can't expect it all to be accurate, i'm just putting it together the way i understood it. >> woodruff: one of the outcomes in this book, certainly, matt schlapp, is the departure from trump world of steve bannon, who was the president's chief strategist, at the president's side, was the tribune of the meaning of trumpism. i think we're left wondering what is the difference now between trumpism and bannonism and what now is gone from those voices around the president? >> steve bannon is a very talented guy, but over the course of the last several months, it has been painful to watch him make very big mistakes. one of the mistakes that he made here, obviously letting michael wolff into the white house, if he did, talking to him too aggressively or too casually, and in leaving the inference that he believed things that i

know he doesn't believe in conversations i've had with steve, h he doesn't believe for instance don, jr. is a traitor. these are things he was misquoted on or got sloppy on. so i think when it comes to what conservatives and trump supporters are, where are their hearts, they're very happy with what the president's done in his first year. there's no separation. this will have no impact on the support of president trump. >> woodruff: what do you think the absence of steve bannon means for donald trump. >> i think it strengthens donald trump's hand as president. this is donald trump's party who won the election. there's not another power structure outside of the white house, i think that's good for republicans. it allows republicans to have the serious debates that republicans need to have about policy and about idea, that's good, but they always know that the head of the party is the president. >> woodruff: but who now articulates what the president believes? because one of the things that comes through in this book is

that steve bannon was there to basically express a vision for donald trump. that's not there anymore. >> i never heard steve bannon compared to a pope, so that was interesting. but i think it's also a mistake donald trump is his own best spokesperson. people assume who don't believe he has the intelligence or experience, they assume someone has to feed him these ideas. i knew donald trump before he was president. he's been talking about these issues for a long time. nobody really feeds him. he doesn't need a guy like steve to tell him what to think. he needs people to help him organize the process of government to get it done and that's what they now have around him. >> woodruff: do conservatives believe donald trump is conservative? >> conservatives believe -- they do now. conservatives believe crump is doing something that's been necessary for a long time which subpoena dating what it means to be a conservative. ronald reagan did the same thing in the '80s bringing in a new set of policies that upgraded the party.

donald trump brought in new policies that go back to the first principles but talking about policies relatively in 2016-2018. >> woodruff: what do conservatives think about the president, he may not withdraw from the iran nuclear deal after all, he's going to switzerland to be with a group of people who believe in a lot of globalist philosophy. >> we call it global baloney. >> woodruff: seriously, who is this donald trump? >> it's the psalm guy,ish it's the same guy. the question is can he be successful in militia. in -- successful in politics. the conservatives felt there had to be abrupt change to the order of things in washington to have a chance to reset things. he's doing that effectively. they are happy with what he's done on iran and climate change. they knew he was going to hob knop with global elite at davos.

probably makes him nervous. that press conference in the cabinet room probably made them nervous. >> woodruff: the president was talking about daca and saying we can do a dreamers deal and worry about the rest later. conservatives said what about the border wall. >> is this good for them. that's what they should be doing. donald trump has clarified some of those statements. he wants a wall. nothing more associated with trump's candidacy than build the wall, that's the phrase. i think what he was doing was political theater and negotiating, too. we have to see what the final legislation looks like that will come from the senators and representatives in the room. the conservatives in that room, it's up to them to write a bill that is consistent with what the president has outlined. >> woodruff: prediction quickly from both of you, matt schlapp. how is this second year of the trump presidency going to differ from year one? >> it's going to be much more orderly. he starts out the year with a

team that feels like it's starting to hit its stride. they're working more as a team in the white house. they're working better with republicans on the hill. i think what you will see is less unforced errors. it started off with some bipartisanship. >> woodruff: we're reading, chris buskirk, a lot of people in the white house and the administration are leaving. >> no, that's true but that's okay, the key players are there and the key player is the one sitting behind the resolution desk. there are people now coming into the white house, there is stricture and order that wasn't there a year ago and what's going to happen in 2018 is we'll see people come together both in the white house and congress and focus on the election in november. i think that's going to be something stat brings them together and unifies them in a way we didn't see a year ago. >> woodruff: it will focus a lot of minds. >> yes. >> woodruff: chris buskirk, matt schlapp, thank you both. >> thanks. >> woodruff: appreciate it. >> woodruff: with primary voting

set to begin in just two months, a bipartisan effort to secure the nation's voting system is underway on capitol hill, led by senators amy klobuchar and james lankford. democrat and republican. i spoke with them on capitol hill today about their effort, about president trump's call for republicans to take control of the russia investigation and about immigration negotiations. senator amy klobuchar, senator james lankford, thank you very much for joining us. i first want to make sure my eyes don't deceive me, there is actually a republican and democrat sitting next to each other for an interview. >> that actually happens more often than is captured by camera. >> it does and even from oklahoma and minnesota, so. >> woodruff: there you go. we appreciate you talking to us. let's begin by talking about the legislation that the two of you are backing having to do with election security. normally, senator lankford, people think about ballots and

how they're counted. it's mechanical. why is that a priority right now? >> it's a priority because, in 2016, the russians tried to interfere in our election. we watched them try to be able to probe through different election systems, to be able to try to reach out to different secretaries of state offices in different states and to be able to determine how they're doing voter registration, what voting machines are they using. we should take that as a good fair warning that we should be aware that there are outside entities that do mean to do us harm and try to interfere in our democracy and we should be better prepared for that in the future. >> woodruff: senator klobuchar, what are you trying to do with this bill? >> we're helping the states shore up their election commitment. this was basically a cyber attack from russia and we know that. our intelligence agencies have very strongly, under both president obama and president trump, made it clear that they tried to get into our elections. 21 states including the two of

our states, there were attempts made to hack the states. what we do with the bill is this -- first of all, better sharing of information. it's unbelievable to me that it took months for state election officials to find out that a foreign government had tried to hack in. so this bail says you've got to share that information, have someone designated in the states that can get this classified information and, secondly, giving them some resources to scan for vulnerabilities, to get the right election equipment and also back up paper ballots which i think would be very helpful for a lot of these states. 42 states haven't upgraded their election equipment in over a decade and russia knows it. >> woodruff: i think, senator lankford, a lot of people think paper ballots and that's the way it used to be. are you talking about going back the way it used to be? people are thinking hanging chards in florida. >> we should be able to audit an election, that after the election is over we should be able to evaluate, if we find out some outsaid entity was trying

to interfere in the election, everyone will middle east back up and say, did they get in? so there has to be a way to verify that. it could be a paper ballot, optical scanner, a digital machine that you punch in your ballot and prints a piece of paper to confirm is this what you really voted? you push yes and it locks a paper ballot as well as electronics. there are lots of ways to do it. the states run their own elections. we're just saying there should be a way to audit an election after it's over to make sure we can verify if they were attacked by a cyber means, there is a way to verify and we have an accurate results. >> woodruff: we're a couple of months away from the first primary election voting in this country, just ten months away from the general election in midterms. can this happen in time to make a difference? >> not for 2018. that's the unfortunate part. a lot of work has gone into it to evaluate what d.h.s. is

currently doing to help states. we are encouraging them to engage which they have. d.h.s. is good with engaging with our states to provide resources and communication, bejust think there's more to be done. the states already have their election equipment now for the 018 election. they won't change it. but we can be prepared for the next presidential election and start cooperation sooner. >> one point, the two things that could change immediately if we could get the bill done in the omnibus or quickly would be one that could get money for screening for vulnerabilities of their existing equipment an, two, as james just pointed out, the sharing of information and just putting the stamp of congress on this and saying you just do this, you've got to share this information and it has to happen now. >> woodruff: but it sounds like bottom line is the state election systems are vulnerable this year to russian hacking or hacking from other countries. >> 21 states. i mean, that's a lot. >> we don't necessarily know the

level. obviously 21 states were probably, most states the russians were not successful getting to the system. they were trying to. oklahoma is one. they weren't able to penetrate the system. we're better prepared and aware we're not just trying to protect information after its over, we have to be prepared beforehand. our states will be better prepared next time. we want to make sure they are actually better prepared. >> woodruff: but not completely safe there interference this year. >> we know in illinois they did get into the voter data. but what the information we have so far is that this didn't change votes, but they simply attempted to get into the data, and we don't want it to go the next step in the next election, and that's why, remember, while we're doing this, the states are doing a lot of things on their own, but this has to be a national priority. >> woodruff: but you're saying, this year, states are vulnerable? >> states are vulnerable if they don't do the work they need to do ahead of time 1 states cannot

audit their elections and that's one of our challenges. they may not be vulnerable at all, but if there is a question after the fact, they can't audit the elections to verify that and we think that's very important. >> woodruff: russia a big part of this conversation. they were the ones behind what happened in 2016. they are still active. the president today is tweeting that the russia investigation which is connected to this in a way because the russians ended up trying to help his campaign, that that investigation he's calling it the single greatest witch hunt in american history. he's calling on republicans to finally take control. in other words, get this over and done with. >> first of all, i look at it as a truth hunt, and every time we get a question that starts with the president tweeted today, there's a pause. but in this case, he said this before over and over, so this isn't new news. he said it's a wish hunt. i think it's a truth hunt. mueller is someone who's first

been appointed by a republican president, has broad support and is simply trying to do his job. i think it's important for this country that we get to the bottom of what happened, regardless of what the president tweets. >> woodruff: but when the president says republicans finally take control, how do you read that? >> you know, i don't know how to be able to read what he means by that. i would say serve on the intelligence committee. my responsibility is not try to be a partisan in that is to go after the facts. the facts go wherever they go. we need to follow the facts to get out as many as we can to run down every lead to establish some sense of bipartisan support. we've looked at everything and this is where we are now. >> woodruff: immigration. senator klobuchar, the president had a remarkable session at the white house yesterday, senator lankford was there. but what i want to ask you is the president said at would be point in that meeting that he thought there should be a movement to address daca, the measures to protect young people

who came to the united states without documentation. that should be dealt with and then comprehensive immigration reform. how did you interpret what he said? >> to me the immediate emergency is daca whom 97% of those kids work and are in school in this country and then you can go to comprehensive immigration reform so i view it as positive. >> it has to do with border security. even the president yesterday said he's not talking about a 2,000-mile wall but there are sections we should have authorization for. frankly, most are authorized now. 650 miles of wall currently exist that was authorized in 2006. >> woodruff: senator klobuchar, is that going to fly? >> i think there will be some negotiation on border security. wouldn't surprise me there would be something with border security. the wall along with the whole border, there are a number of republicans opposed to it. there are issues with that. what i found remarkable about yesterday was just the openness to a discussion, but this focus

also on comprehensive reform. >> woodruff: are we going to see more republicans and democrats working together on other issues? >> we should. have a lot of fun doing it. >> there are a lot of areas of common ground. my great frustration in the senate is we're not voting on a lot of legislation. so many nominations are taking so long, we're not getting to any real voting on other legislative issues. there's so many issues of common ground that we have that, if we had the opportunity to cover the floor, debate it out and have a vote, they'd pass with 70 or 80 votes, but it's just getting to the point to get us back of voting again. >> pharmaceutical issues, price of prescription dwrution, issues with apprenticeships, so much be doing and i would like to go there as well. >> woodruff: we appreciate you talking to us. >> but we won't talk about college football versus the vikings as well. >> woodruff: thank you both very much. appreciate it. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: voter rights come into question, amid ohio's voter purge. and, using cameras to see how animals like raccoons are impacted by urbanization. but first, science correspondent miles o'brien looks at how conditions during the recent cold snap in the eastern u.s. sometimes came together in unfamiliar ways, and what one city is doing to try to cope. it's the latest installment of "leading edge," our weekly science series. surprising as it seemed, the experts saw it coming. an epic nor'easter, a full moon high tide and a rising sea all conspiring to swallow up swaths of boston with an icy cold winter flood. it got wall-to-wall, live attention on the local news. >> this was the one rescue that

they had to actually go through several hours ago here at atlantic and states. >> i met nasser brahim in the same place on the boston waterfront near the new england aquarium. >> water was probably right around to here. there was a little bit less than a foot of flooding at the station entrances. >> brahim is a senior climate change planner for kleinfelder advising the city on ways to advice against the imact on climate change. he says the storm was a classic hundred-year flooding event today but a much more common occurrence a century from now. >> in the future when we have three feet of sea level rise, this will happen on a monthly basis. so this is really a snapshot of what the future looks like if we don't get our emissions under control. >> for new englanders, the term nor'easter is familiar, but this time a new moniker entered the popular lexicon. >> it's called a bomb-o-genesis,

basically a bomb cyclone or a snow hurricane, snow cyclone, there is all kind of names for this thing. >> leslie hudson, the digital meteorologist for the weather app my radar. researchers coined the term bomb cyclone in 1980, a non-tropical winter storm that rapidly intensifies, specifically air pressure that drops at least 24 millibars in as many hours. >> most common from october to march. so this bomb-o-genocies making all kinds of headlines across the northeast and mid atlantic is expected to tump a lot of snow. >> it's the result of a clings between warm air over the ocean and cold air from the arctic. these types of storms are not uncommon, but there is reason to believe climate change may make them more likely to occur in the northeastern united states. radley horton is a climate scientist at lamont-doherty earth observatory.

>> it's early in the research but some suggestion that loss of sea ice in the arctic and extreme melting of snow in may and june in the high arc tech may be shifting the claimant climate in a way that's weakening the jet stream and making it prone to meanders. >> a jet stream is a river of air flowing west to east across north america. it is created by the temperature difference between warm air at the equator and cold air in the arctic. some scientists suspect that, as climate change has warmed the arctic, the temperature difference has reduced causing the jet stream to weaken and wander. this would allow arctic air to move farther south and linger there, creating the record cold temperatures recently in the u.s. the arrival of the warm, moist air from the south provided the missing ingredient to create a bomb cyclone. the other factor at work here in boston is sea level rise. >> we've had about eight or nine inches of sea level rise since,

say, 1900. thathat doesn't sound like much, but it's already leading to much more frequent coastal flooding than what you had in the past. >> and the sea level will continue to rise. the mid-range estimate is more than three feet by the end of this century, spending on how much humans do to curb the production of grouse gases. >> even if storms remain the same, we're going to have much more frequent coastal and damaging coastal flooding because of the higher baseline. >> human beings have built civilizations during a 7,000 year period of unprecedented climate stability, but since the industrial revolution, the rate of climate change has far outstripped the pace of adaptation. kerry emanuel is a professor of atmospheric science at m.i.t. >> if the sea level rose over the next thousand years by five or six meters, we wouldn't even notice. the problem i think for civilization is the high rate of change of the climate and the

question is can we adapt without serious consequences. >> in boston, they say they are serious about doing something to build in resilience against the effects of climate change. >> the concern is that we want to make sure that we can get boston back to normal as quickly as possible. >> austin blackmon is chief of environment and overspace for the city of boston. land phil built to stay dry against the high tides to have the 18th and 19th century. what does that mean for the 21st century? >> by the end of the century we're expecting $80 billion of assets to be in the fema floodplain. if you analyze the risk, it would be $1.4 billion of annual damage if we do nothing. >> they have drafted a plan to protect this low lying city. climate-ready boston envisioned strategically placed flood walls, berms, waterfront green

staysspace and elevated streets. but cities can only do so much to fight something that is, after all, global in scale. >> i worry sometimes are we creating islands of resilience and seas of rigidity. >> stephen flynn, northeastern university. >> where the real challenge lies is cities don't control entirely their destinies. they rely on transportation, energy networks, communication networks that sprawl across the country and borders. so it's so important to have national leadership and in some cases to take this on globally is because the systems we rely on have to be able to built resilient across multiple jurisdictions. >> hello, everybody. in washington, there is much talk of a huge investment in infrastructure medicationwide. >> -- dramatically reform the nation's badly broken infrastructure -- >> but in august of 2017, president trump undid an obama era order that the federal government account for climate

change as it designs public works projects. >> it's an act of recklessness, frankly. we are investing as taxpayers in assets that we want to be around the entire life span. >> if it doesn't meet environmental safeguards, we won't approve it, very simple. >> it may be reckless and human nature. this is where scientists look to the humanities for answers. >> i ask historians this question, can we find examples in human history of a whole generation consciously doing something for the benefit of more than one generation downstream that doesn't benefit that generation itself? it's very, very hard to find examples of that. not sure we ever have. >> the experts who saw this storm coming say much more of this lies ahead. a time bomb for our children and grandchildren to diffuse. in boston, i'm miles o'brien for the pbs "newshour".

>> woodruff: the supreme court heard arguments today in a case challenging the removal of hundreds of thousands of people from voter rolls in ohio. in a moment, jeffrey brown will talk to marcia coyle of the "national law journal" about the questions the justices asked inside the court. but we begin with a report from karen kasler of pbs's ohio station ideastream about what's at stake in the buckeye state. >> reporter: u.s. army sergeant joseph helle was in iraq in 2006 and 2007, and in afghanistan in 2009. but when he came home to ohio in 2011, he found a battle he didn't expect. helle showed up to vote that fall, and found his name had been removed from the voter rolls. >> i started crying. it was heartbreaking to be told that one of those fundamental

rights that i put my put my life on the line for, raised my right hand for, that i wasn't allowed to exercise it. and i was protecting it for others, but others weren't able to protect it for me. >> reporter: helle, who is now the mayor of oak harbor, a small village near toledo, has joined the coalition of mostly progressive-leaning groups opposing the two-pronged approach ohio has to maintaining its voter rolls. if a voter doesn't cast a ballot for two years, a postcard is mailed to the address listed on the voter's registration. if the voter doesn't respond and then doesn't vote for another four years, the voter is removed from the voting rolls without further notice, whether the voter has moved or not. more than 4.6 million of those mailers have been sent to voters since 2011, the year helle found out he was removed. at least hundreds of thousands of voters have been removed, but it's unclear exactly how many. republican secretary of state jon husted says the two-year window and the mailers are part of the state's legal obligation to remove the names of dead,

imprisoned or otherwise ineligible voters. >> it's us trying to say to the voter, "gee, have you moved? do you want to update your information?" it's done to try to be helpful to the voter, and helping them update their information, and also to make sure that we maintain the voter rolls, which is another piece of the law. so you have, in the end, a six- year period to interact, to vote, to let us know that you still want to be on the voter rolls. >> reporter: but those challenging the process say voting is not a use-it-or-lose- it right, and that voters choose not to cast ballots because of illness, apathy, or other reasons-- not just because they've moved. >> failing to vote is a very poor proxy for someone moving. close to 50% of ohioans don't vote in every given election. but not close to 50% of ohioans have moved. the number is much closer to 2%. so the secretary is purging vast numbers of completely eligible

voters just to try to target a small, tiny handful of people who may have moved. >> reporter: but husted says this method of voter roll maintenance has been in place ohio since 1994, with virtually no problems, until the lawsuit was filed in 2016. >> this process has worked very well in ohio under democratic and republican administrations. nobody in ohio has expressed problems with this. it's only out-of-state folks who seem to have trouble with how to we are implementing the laws in ohio. >> reporter: but those challenging the state, led by the a.f.l.-c.i.o.-affiliated a. phillip randolph institute, say they're doing so on behalf of ohioans like larry harmon. the northeast ohio man is featured in a video produced by the a.c.l.u., another plaintiff in the case. harmon says that after several years of not voting, he discovered he'd been removed in 2015. that was the same year that many ohioans who registered in 2008,

when barack obama won the state, also found they had been erased from the rolls. the plaintiffs won an appeals court ruling that resulted in more than 7,500 ballots cast by voters who'd been removed must be counted in the 2016 presidential election. last august, the justice department under president trump reversed the position it had taken under president obama, and filed a brief to support ohio's case. seven states are using a process similar to ohio's, so millions of voters around the country are potentially affected by the court's decision. for the pbs newshour, i'm karen kasler in columbus, ohio. >> brown: marcia coyle covers the high court for the "national law journal," and she was in the courtroom, as always, as the justices grappled with this potentially far-reaching dispute. marcia, start with the argument against ohio's law, howfsz it made in court today, what laws were they looking at? >> okay, really, there are two laws that are at the heart of the dispute here, the national

voter registration act and the help america vote act, which followed the national act. both were designed and intended by congress to make voting easy and accessible. the challengers to ohio's system represented by paul smith today argued basically the same argument that they had won in the lower court. ohio is -- >> brown: they were the winning argument. >> absolutely. ohio is going wrong with its system for removing voters from its registration roles. >> so what kind of reception did they get from the justices? >> i would say the justices seem divided, but you never can really tell what's going on till the decision comes out. >> brown: to say they're divided is not a surprise. >> that's right. it's a safe prediction, too. >> brown: yeah. justices kennedy and breyer, for example, they spoke to the concern that states have about maintaining the integrity of voter registration roles. that is something that states

have to do. justice breyer said, for example, if you can't use the fact that a voter hasn't voted in two years to send out thesenotes, what can you do? >> brown: they're in essence supporting the ohio -- >> well, sound as if they're raising one of the major concerns here of ohio. and mr. smith said ohio is really only one of eight states that uses the process it uses. it's the most aggressive. trr other ways. i learned through this case that there is a national change of address database that keeps track of changes of address that are sent to postal offices. and he said states can compare their registration addresses with that database. so there was this concern about how can states maintain integrity. >> brown: and where did the challengers get their support from? >> justices sota my yore and kagan, justice sotomayor is concerned about what she says

appears to be the disproportionate impact of ohio's process on cities and neighborhoods that have a high percentage of low-income workers who work odd shifts, have difficulty getting to the polls, and also on minorities, she pointed out there have been a number of new voter restrictions put in place by states that create even more obstacles. justice kagan looked at ohio's argument that, no, it's not the trigger, the two-year trigger that removes voters, it's the failure to respond to our confirmation notice that removes voters. she looked at it and said, what it looks like to me is failure to vote, failure to respond, failure to vote. >> brown: yeah. and he didn't quite agree it was the cause of the removal was the confirmation notice. >> brown: so briefly, there's a lot on the docket for the court this year, the voting rights and redistricting. >> yes. >> brown: but the political implications perhaps of this particular case? >> well, as you probably know, ohio sative a battleground

state. >> brown: i do. in national elections. so the number of voters who are purged from the rolls could make a difference in a close election, so it's being closely watched. you're right. the court has two partisan gerrymandering cases. it may well see "partisan gerrymandering case out of north carolina. it voter i.d., the whole election landscape is alive with these types of cases. >> brown: to be continued. marmarcia coyle. pleasure as always. >> my pleasure, jeff. >> woodruff: now to a "newshour shares:" something that caught our eye, that we thought might be of interest to you. in seattle, trail cameras in urban parks are giving researchers new insights into how coyotes, raccoons, and other carnivores are thriving in the harsh environment of big cities.

from pbs station kcts in seattle, eric keto sent in this nocturnal story. >> we get some photographs that are just amazing, like the raccoons posing in front of the camera or the coyote at the waterhole. all sorts of cool things. i'm mark jordan, associate professor of biology at seattle university, and i am a conservation biologist. the big picture question i'm interested in is: how does urbanization affect wild mammals, in particular predatory mammals that are higher up on the food chain? is it that way? we'll try that way first. we're using camera traps to identify raccoons and opossums and coyotes in the parks in seattle. >> yeah, here it is. >> understanding the wildness that surrounds us, i think, is very valuable for us deepening our understanding of the natural world. 2,321 pictures! from last summer, we have 50,000

photos to go through, and we put out a baited station, so we get about 100 to 150 hair samples. my students right now are working on a project where they're coming up with a genetic way to identify the species that left a hair sample, to try to figure out, how does urbanization affect their ability to move around the city? i would argue that the city is as much a natural area as what we call more wilderness areas. now, the physical environment itself has been changed, but the general rules of ecology still apply. the species out there are still interacting with each other. they're coming into interactions with us more frequently, and one of the really interesting insights has been: as you increase urbanization, you actually get an increase in the

detections of raccoons. so within a square kilometer of seattle, you might actually find more mammalian carnivores than you would in the same square kilometer out in the forest. we've gotten at least one photograph of a raccoon in every single park that we've sampled. oh, that one's missing a tail. there are a couple hypothesis. one is that in urban areas, things like mountain lions in particular are not competing with or eating raccoons. also, of course, we have a lot of trash, we leave out food for our pets, all sorts of resources that these animals like. any pocket park in a neighborhood, look for a big tree. raccoons do kind of a daily commute, especially in the summer when the moms have their kits. you can hang out at the base of the tree and see them coming up and down. we create conditions for raccoons that tend to make them quite happy. nature doesn't stop at the edge of the city.

>> woodruff: the things that go on at night. that is the newshour for tonight. tomorrow, the latest on the deadly mudslides in california. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> funding provided in part by 20th century fox. "the post," in theaters everywhere january 12. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> bnsf railway. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.

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

how did this fragment of film spark a moviemaking revolution? you're a gentleman of brains, but you don't use them. wes: what role did these unusual drawings of giant gold nuggets play in one of the largest mass migrations in american history? these are so indescribably rare. tukufu: and how did this twisted fragment of metal spark a communications revolution? it was the moon shot of the mid-19th century. elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ it's just like watchin' the detectives ♪