captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshr tonight, the f.b.i.'s deputy director steps down amid mounting criticism fr congressional republica and president trump. then, as the scope of sexual assault by gymnastics doctor larry nassar becomes clear, a and, five months after hurricane harvey ripped through houston, why thousands of texans are still in temporary housing and waing for recovery. >> it's a catastrophe whether it be private insurance has taken forever. mortgage companies won't release checks or fema or the federal government not moving fast enough. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160ye ars. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping uild immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. rsd by contributions to your pbs station from vieike you. thank you. >> woodruff: a shake-up at t f.b.i. today, as its second-in command, deputy director andrew mcca, steps down.

he's come under fire from president trump, and his decision tspeed up his retirement raises new questions. mr. trump did not respond when asked about mccabe today. and white house spesperson sarah huckabee sanders insisted the president had nothing to do th mccabe's departure. >> the president wasn't part ofa this decisiong process. i would refer you to f.b.i. for that. >> woodruff: mccabe was expected to retire when he became eligle in march. instead, he'll take leave,iv effeimmediately, but remain on the b.i. payroll until then. mccabe has been a target of president trump's anger and tweets, in recent months, with.

ump suggesting that he is politically motivated. o mccae oversaw an investigation into hillary clinton's use of a private email server, though no charges were filed. mr. trump falsely claimed that coincided with mccabe's wife's failed bid for a virginia senate seat in 2015, when she was backed by a pro-clinton group. this past week, mr. trump denied e reports he had asked mccst may how he voted in the 2016 election. >> did you ask mccabe who he voted for? >> i don't think so. no. i don't think so. >> you don't. >> i don't know what's the big dseeal with that, becau would ask you who you voted for, who did you vote for? >> woodruff: all this, on the heels of new questions aboutro special counsert mueller, after last week's "new york times" report that mr. tmp wanted to fire him last june. on sunday, republicans were split on whether they should intervene to protect mueller's

job. senator lindsey graham: >> i think mr. mueller is the perfect guy to get to the bottom of all of this. and he will. and i think my job, among otcers, is to give him the s to do it. i intend to do that. i have got legislation otecting mr. mueller. and i'll be glad to pass it tomorrow. >> woodruff: republican house leader kevin mccarthy disagreed. >> would you support legislation to proteueller? t >> i donnk there's a need for legislation right now to protect mueller. so we're raising an issue that's no >> woodruff: as mr. trump gets closw to a potential intervie with mueller, some house republicans turned their focus the controvey continued over whether to publicly release a memo written by house intelligence chairman devin nunes. it reportedly claims the department of justice is rigged against mrtrump in the russia investigation. all u.s. house members can view that memo, and more than 200 already have, according to the house telligence committee.

e white house addressed calls from republicans to make the memo public. >> one at the white house has seen the memo. it' mhard for us e a decision. if and when it's time to weigh in, we'll do it through proper protocol. er>> woodruff: but in a leo chairman nunes last week, the department of justice warned it would be "extraordin reckless" to release that information without proper review. the house intelligence committee was expected to meet today to discuss that memo, and a competing one written by democrats. in the day's other news, president trump called for bipartisan action on imgration. he's offered a plan that protects young immigrants, theda so-calle recipients, but also limits legal immigration and includes money for a border wall. >> we're going to get something done. weope. it's got to be bipartisan because threpublicans really don't have the votes to get it done in any other way. so, it has to be bipartisan but, pefully, the democrats will

join us, or enough of them will join us so we can really do something great for daca and for immigration generally. >> woodruff: mr. trump spoke at the swearing-in for alex azar as secretary of health and human services.re vicedent pence administered the oath of office to the former drug company executiv he previously served under president george w. bush. afghanistan has suffered its fourth terror attack in the past nine days. this time, 11 were killed at a te in kabul, where both taliban and islamic state extremists are waging a violen new campaign. john yang has our report. >> yang: the afghan capital was still reeling from a talibanat ck that killed more than 100 people on saturday, when islamic state militants struck this morning five heavily armed fighters stormed an army outpost near afghanistan's main military academy on the western outskirts of the city. police say two gunmen were

killed in the ensuing shootout, two others blew themselves up, and one was captured. they struck just 48 hours after taliban suicide attackers a detonateulance full of explosives on a crowded street in central kabul. at least 103 died, with another 230 wounded. >> ( translated ): bodies were everywhere, near the hospital and everywhere.an >> a week earlier, taliban militants assaulted kabul's intercontinental hotel, killing 22 people. and last wednesday, an isis attack killed six at a charity office in the jastern city of labad. president ashraf ghani vowed today the attacks will be avenged. but that did little reassurance kabul residents.at >> ( tran ): look at what is happening to this nation, when you are not able to control what kind of government and ministry is this? you are not even able ure the city, how can we complain about the government securing the provinces?

>> yang: in washington, president trump condthe he dismissed any direct peace talks with the taliban, who >> they're killing people left and right. innocent people are being killed left and right, boin the middle of children, in the middle of families, bombing, killing all over afghanistan. so we don't want to talk with the talin. there may be a time, but it's going to be a long time. >> yang: instead, mr. trump y uted the administration's more aggressive militrategy. it includes deploying some 3,000 additional u.s. troops. new reports say 1,00are readying to deploy as s this spring, to advise and assist afghan infantry on the , ont line for the pbs newshom john yang. >> woodruff: in moscow, the kremlin today dismissed opposition leader alexei navalny as a possible threat to president putin's re-election. a spokesman said it's unlikely anyone can compete with putin.

on sunday, navalny orgized nationwide protests, charging the march vote will be rigged. poce grabbed navalny, forc him into a bus, and held him until late last night. russia's paralympics team has been banned from competing in the upming winter games in south korea, for doping. hostead, about 35 russians can prove they're not using perfornce-enhancing drugs will be allowed to compete. the president of the international palympic committee made the announcement today in bonn, germany. >> we often said during our y,deliberations last saturan we look in the eyes of the athletes, all of them, and say that we are doing everything that we can to guarantee a level playing field? and the answer wasyes'. so, we are not rewarding russia, but we are allowing athletes that we believe are clean to compete under a neutral flag >> woodruff: the doping crackdown has also barred russia

from competing olympic games. back in this country, the cleveland indians announced they're removing the "chief wahoo" logo from their uniforms next year. it follows decades of complaints that the cartoonish image is racist. the indians say they will continue to sell "chief wahoo" mercndise, so they don't lose ownership of the trademark. on wall streetstocks pulled back from record highs, as apple led a tech slump, and oil prices slipped. the dow jones industrial average lost 177 points to close at ,439. the nasdaq fell 39 points, and the s&p 500 slid 19. and, bruno mars was the biggest winner at last night's grammy's, with six, including album, record and song of the year. the night had a decided political flavor.

abuse survivor kesha lead a tribute to the "me too" movement. and, hillary clinton appeared on screen for a skit lampooning president trump. the tv audience fell below 20 million people, down from 26 million last year. still to come on the newshour: a member of the senate intel committee on the latest shakeup at the f.b.i. fitness apps revealing sensitive information about military bases. texans still displaced five months after hurricane harvey, and much more. >> woodruff: we return now to the shakeup at the f-b-i, and whate know about the state o the investigations into the president and the f-b-i itself. this evening i spoke with the vice chair of the senate intelligence committee, mark warner about his reaction to deputy director andr mccabe

stepping down earlier than expected. >> i'm concerned. i'm concerned because there seems to be this pattern that anyone that's involved inhe investigation into russian interfering, impossible llusion with the trump organization seems to end up losing their job or getting denoted. we've seen f.b.i. director comey fired, we've seen the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein appear to be under attack from the white house. we've seen the president's own attorney general, mr. sessions, reports being the president is angry about his recusal and then you heard earlier reports about the desire to get rid of mr. mccabe. now, i don't know what the basis g down mccabe's steppin early is. i need to hear that from the f.b.i., but, boy, oh, boy, it seems anybody who gets close to

this investigation, it's not good for their long-term job security. >> woodruff: i noticatyou said, s, in an interview over the weekend that you are thankful the f.b.i. director christopher ray had what you called a backbone to stand up to pressure in recent months to fire mccabe, but just now the "new york times" is reporting that christopher ray was indeetd g pressure on andrew mccabe, that he suggested he move to another position which would have been a demotion rather than stay wheree is. >> again, i'm not sure i know the basisf that "new york times" reporting. i think that's why, at least in our investigation, the lastpa remaining isan investigation, you know, i want to hear from director ray. i want to hear why mr. mccabe stepped downarly, before i weigh in. >> woodruff: what does it say to you that tde pre has been either critical of or

actively trying to fire the very top officials at the justiceth department an f.b.i.? >> frankly, judy, it's unprecedented. w went through that litany before, whether comby or rosenstein, his concerns with sessions, now mccabe, individuals connected to the investigation don't se to last very long, but what is even as troubling if not more troubling -- and this we see more from some of the president's allies in the hous-- is that people are willing to go out and basically impugn the very integrity of the whole f.b.i. and, for that matter, the whole department of justice and that gets us in uncharted territory and dangerous areas where the integrity of our law enforcement agencies are being called into question when it appears they're just doing their job. an>> woodruff: senator, i to ask you about something

getting a lot of attention, the memo prepared by the chairman of the house intelligence committeu devis about raising questions about the kind of investigative work done by the justice department. that memo has not been released. we know it's classified, but there is discussion right now this afternoon about whether ith ld be released. you've called it fabrications. how concerned are you that it may be releated? o you see as the significance of it? >> well, judy, i've read the underlying intelligence that was the basis of thi memo. i've not seen this specific memo. i've not seen it. my republican counterpart richard burr has asked to see it. he's not seen it as well. we truth in you go on the intelligence committee, the first things you learn is toot t classified information. the fact that a small subgroup made up only of one party went out and created this product,

and now we're kind of ban din bg it about really bothers me and, on top of that, when the president's department of justice saying ts memo shouldn't be released, i actually hope there is a way to get fithe clastion issue dealt with that it does getbe releaseduse having seen the undlying documents -- >> woodruff: you've seen there were significant rev laws in many new documents that have been made available to the senate intelligence committee. where did that information come from? we continue to get additional comets, we continue to schedule more witnesses, and the challenge in this investigation has been there always appears to be new threads coming up, and all of these have got to bell ed to its conclusion. >> woodruff: and when you said "new revelations," y mean

information that is different from neg that's been in the public arena before now? >> i mean, judy, that we have been worng at this for a year, and we have a lot of items that still remain to be cleared up, some of which we may never be able to fully clear becau they would fall more in the realm that mr. mueller, the special prosecutor who's looking at criminal actions, may take on. but we owe it to fellow senators and we owe it to the american public to conclude this as quickly as possible and get as many of the facts out as quickly as possible. wanted to make sure that w knew what happened in 2016, but equally important to make sursie that r and for that matter any other foreign country doesn't inrvene again thi massively in our elections. >> woodruff: do you know how much longer this means the investigation will go on? >> i hate to speculate. listen, we want to get d ite. the chairmn and i have talked about getting this done as

expeditiously as possible. the sooner we get these witnesses i the soon we are get a chance, for example, to get back some of the principals like mr. kushner and donald trump, jr. and michael cohen and the sooner we get done. >> woodruff: back on andrewmc be, do you plan to ask f.b.i. director ray about how this came about? >> yes. the short answer is we need to find out why mr. mccabe, a career f.b.i. officials, stepped down early, particularly in light of some of the press sties about mr. mccabe over the last couple of weeks. >> woodruff: senator mark warner, vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee, thank you very much. >> thank you. of peopleff: million around the world wear devices or have apps on their smart phones

that track how much they pexercise. john yang explores whether that data, from the fitbits some of you are wearing right now, and other apps, also reveal sensitive national security information. >> yang: judy, a 20-year-old student in australia took a close look at data posted late last year by strava, a website and bile app that tracks millions of users' athletic activity. the international security student discovered that these so-called heat maps, fro trillions of g.p.s. points, not only show mundane g-city jogging routes, they also reveal the locations of bases where military forces and intelligence services exercise. here's a map he poed that he says shows where soldiers jog along the beach in madishu, somalia, near what is likely a reported c.i.a. annex. this is a map of the bagrham airfield in afghanistan. and here's a map showing where

turkish forces patrol north of manbij in syria. for more on all of this we turn zack whittaker, the security editor at zd net, a website that covers technology. zach, thank you so much for joining us. help us understand exactly what information has been apparently inadvertently disclosed here that might beto of us enemies of the united states. >> so a lot of data, really. your fitness trackng ta from when you're walking, cycling, doing cross fit sports, all this data is obtained by the fitness tracker in your phone,ocket, on your wrist, and it goes to an app driver and uploaded to their systems. the point of the app is to help you to cpete with peo who you work with, who you're friends with so you can run a competition with yr friendo see who can cycle or run to work the fastest, and this kind of data is tracking your location from point a and point b. >> yang: the map of bagrham,

everyone knows where bagrham airfield, is but the specific locations showing where people are running or walking, how can that be of u to the enemy? >> this information is available on the internet as a map to anyone and they can see areas, for example, if they're an enemy of the states, they can look at their nearby location, they cane see wherle are walking and moving with a fitness tracker in their pocket.s and this i quite obvious when people are nearbin especiall situations where they're in the military and military bails in the middle of the war zone. they can use this data to build a profiop of who are in the military base in a government facility, for example, and they can use it to plan attacks, if need be. >> yang: today the pentagon urged defense department personnel to place strong privacy settings on wireless a

technologi applications. with fit bit and things like that, how easy is it to doha >> it's relatively easy but the problem most people have been finding with this ishey didn't realize the data was being uploaded in the first place because the privacy settings on the "strava" app iifcult to figure out how the data is uploaded in the first plau . ve different privacy settings that, when abled, they don't seem to stop the data flow in the first place. so it's very difficult and confusing to the average perse n liked you to figure out how to turn this data off in the first place. >> yang: this points out the differences between opting in and out of privacy, of sending this infor ytion. h, and the problem with this app is it appears to be opt out rather than in. whenever you upload this app, you're uploading your information, geolocation or at thatta points to the clouds and it's very clr from the map how

precise this information is. >> yang: are there privacy concerns for average people ldyond military services that average people she worried about with all this information being sentudp into the c in. >> the foremost priority is for people in the military, t government, the sort of people who might be targeted by foreign intelligence agencies who are conducting espionage by trying to turn them to a foreign power. if you know when someone is leaving and entering work and going back home, it's easy to identify people. it's very possible that ordinary people could face reprisals from this as well. you hav w people are victims of domestic abuse and people who are concerned about stalkers and situations like that and their privacyan easily be undermined by this. >> yang: zach whittaker of zd net, thank you so much for ining us tonight. >> thanks.

>> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: ciwhat michigan state offis knew about the doctr who abused more than 150 female gnasts. and one year into the trump administration, the government jobs that still have not been filled. but first, hurricane harvey hite s last summer with 130 mile- per-hour winds and torrential downpours, forcing scores of people from their homes. five months later, more than 33,000 are still displaced and living in temporary fema housing. hari sreenivasan recently traveled to houston for a seriea of storiut what things are like after the storms. we start with a look at what's keeping people from still returning home. "is story was produced in partnership with txas tribune."

>> sreenivasan: this is home >> sreenivasan: this hotel room is what jackie white and her husband michael have been staying for the past monthed. they mere from another hotel, and for three months before that slept on their daughter's floor, which given jackie's arthritis, was not easy. >> this is more than enough for anyone to worry with and stress with. >> sreenivasan: their ordeal icbegan in august, when hue harvey swept into houston, then stopped and dumped more than 50o inchrain on the city. at its peak, about a third of the unty was underwater. at least 30,000 of the city's homes were flooded. white's was one of them.da >> mhter came. she and my son in law, they rescued us out of the house because we couldn't get out. >> sreenivasan: days later, white returned to find her home white had worked for an insurance company, but she did not have flood insurance-- she says as a retiree, she just couldn't afford it. >> i had everything i needed. except flood. no flood insurance.

>> sreenivasan: 80% of hurricane harvey victims did not have flood insurance, like jackie white.t she was quired to because her home is not in what federal yemergency management age considers floodplain-- an area likely to flood. but fema has proded white money to replace furniture, make basic repairs to her home and one of her cars, and for temporary shelter. >> in the city of houston theree about 4,30le that are still in hotels at some point that's going to end. so housing becomes a critil concern. >> sreenivasan: houston mayor sylvester turner. >> in large part we're still waiting on funding to come from the federal level to the state and then down to the local level. >> sreenivan: is that frustrating? >> yeah it's frustrating, because you know we all have to move with the degree of urgency. you know people need housing. 's my number one priorit >> my brother is still living in a trailer in his driveway after r five six feet of water in his house for 12 days. >> sreenivasan: republican congrssman john culberson represents houston and says he

understands the needs his constituents are facing. >> it's a catastrophe whether it be private insurance has taken forever. mortgage companies won't release checks or fema or the federal government not moving fast enough. it's intensely frustrating for my constituents and top of my list eveday all day. >> sreenivasan: still, he says, getting money and resourceto the people who need them takes time. >> you have to have an accurate count of how much pr was damaged and how much money then is going to be necessary based on that count. >> sreenivasan: more money is in the pipeline. the u.s. department of housing and urban development has set omide $5 billion to repair and businesses damaged by harvey. houston isikely to get about half of that. pe u.s. house of representatives alsed an $81 billion disaster aid bill in december. assuming the senate passes that measure, houston will get a rtrtion of that as well, along with florida and prico. but for white the help is not coming fast enough. >> i'm struggling because i can't get the assistance i need from fema.

and they are not coming across with the help that i was expecting them to give us. >> but we have to manage their expectations of what the federal government can do. >> sreenivasan: kevin hannes is fema's point person err harvey recefforts. he says there are about 365,000 people registered with fema and so far, the agency has distributed $1.5 billion in grants-- not including insurance payments or loans. hat's an average grant o about $4,000. now many have received more. some have received less. but it's really that seed monit to get starttheir work their recovery. >> sreenivasan: jackie white is trying to use the money she gotf froma to get her life back to normal but it isn't easy. she has regular doctts's appointmenor herself, her diabetic husband and her brother, who is partially paralyzed.no there's an added commute between her hotel and her damaged home. in this sprawling metropolis, the car is king, but hers was

soaked in three feet of water. it still smells of mold. >> reach out and touch. >> sreenivasan: she does have some hope from a local non- profit west street recovery. the group rmed during hurricane harvey, when andrew cobb and two of his friends rescued neighbors from their flooded homes by boat. a >> we becaood distribution hub and a clean up distribution hu and then we've just kind of followed the stages of the disaster recovery process. >> sreenivasan: today cobb and his volunteers are finishing the drywall in what wncase jackie white's kitchen. his group is trying to get three inoms ready so she can mov as soon as possible. the rest of the house will be fixed up later on, when jackie can afford the repairs. >> the best strate we've come up with so far is to what we call unstick people. if they just need money to help pour a concrete foundation fo if they need materials siding or if they need us to

hang three rooms and drywall then we try to we try toick off those smaller projects and >> sreenivasan: this nehborhood in northeast houston was hit particularly hard during the storm. becky selle is working a few houses down. >> the entire front of the house had fallen off of the foundatiof as well as parhe back of the house. and there is a lot of wood that was damaged and no floors. the electricity was damaged.pr this ity typical. >> sreenivasan: deanna adams is jackie's case manager from west street rovery. they're working with about 180 clients. >> the neighborhoods that we focus on are northeast houston is because it's historically been underserved. historically, i mean as you can see here there's not been a lot of cleaning up the drainage or maintenance of the drainage, maintenance of the homes in some cases have been difficult because ofreinances of the dents. >> sreenivasan: a flood doesn't care if you're rich or poor.

but it seere that yoaying that people who are already poor are getting doublyveurt in the re. >> honestly i beg to differ. a flood es care if you're rich or poor because if you live in certain areas that are more flood prone and there hasn't been zoning to say that either you can't live in those areas or if you do we're going to make sure that your houses up to a code where it won't be devastated absolutely makes a difference. >> sreenivasan: as for wte, she knows the clock is running out on her hotel stay. after extending the deadne several times, hannis says fema will ctinue its temporary hotel housing program at least until march, but..>>. ransitioning that program becomes very difficult the longer it goes on i. now from a state perspective as well as a federal perspective we want to try to end that program as soon as possible. >> sreenivasan: that's fine with white. she wants to move back into her house as soon as she can. but with great hesitation. this isn't the first time she's lost everything to a flood.

in 2001, tropical storm allison flooded this same home. >> i have no places to go. thisl i have to call home. i don't have anywhere else to go. >> sreenivasan: there's an inherent tension. on the one hand you want to get people back into t quickly as possible so they can get on with their lives. on the other, whatf u are putting them back in homes that are likely to flood again? we'll explore that in our next report. for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan in houston. >> woodruff: online another, smaller tourist town itexas was hit hard by hurricane harvey. now it's trying to make a comeback. read that at pbs.org/newshour.

>> woodruff: with larry nassar now sentenced to life in prison for his sexual assault of countless young female athletes, much of the focus has been on what officials at usa gymnastics knew, or should've known, about nassar's crime but, as william brangham reports, there are new questions about what was known at michigan state university, where nassar worked for almost 20 years, and where many of his crimes occurred. >> brangham: larry nassar joined michigan state university in 1997. he was already a physician and trainer with usa gymnastics at the time. as the allegations against himca widely known in 2016, .s.u. officials claimed initially to havhad no prior knowledge of his behavior. but several reports, lawsuits and victim's testimony allege the university didga know of alons against nassar for years. in just the past week, the university's president athletic director have resigned. and today, the state's attorne general, bill schuette, said he

wants documents, texts and emails from the university about what tnspired there. joining me now is matt mencarini, who's been covering the nassar case for a year and a half for the "lansing state journal" in michigan matt, thank you ry much for being here. let's just start at the beginning here. in 2016, the indy star publishes an exposeé largely focused on u.s. gym knacks and how they overlooked allegations about nassar's behavior. the focus was on them at the time. ce remind us what michigan state university said they knew at the time about his behasavior? >> the they new little initially, that hay field the complaint and a new police report had been filed alleging sexual assaults dating back decades. they soon fired him several days after e first iy star story. one of the reasons they fired

him is he did not follow protocols after a 2013 title nine investigation and had not ld the university ten years before that he was investigated for a sexual assault allegation. those are the two times the university acknowledged awareness of sexual assault allegations of him will have the indy star and rache. >> brangham: tell us what the investigation was triggered by and how theve uity responded. >> in april 2014, a woman who at the time was a recen graduate reported to a university doctor that during an appointment the month prior, a few weeks prior, that nassar sexually assaulted he that prompted the university to start an investigation and contact the university's police department to conduct a separate criminal investigation. the universits title nine

investigation concluded about whree months later and determined tha nassar did was not in fact sexual assault, that it was an illegitimate sexual procedure. they reached that conclusion from medical experts who worked for the university with close ties to nassar. when that wrapped up in july the police investigation dragged out another 16 months during whichiv the rsity allowed him to see patients borthe prosecuting attorneys office decided to charge him in 2015. >> brangham: the people they consulted, those friends were friends or colleagues or nassars td they were the ones verifying this was okay university's investigation? >> they were colleagues or very good friendsa mixture of that, had known him for a long time, were familiar with the procedures he performed. a key detail about the 2014

report and investigation is that one of the few reported to police or in lawsuits without anyon penetra that changes slightly some of the context that it's in and the answers and the input that those four experts gave to the university about what nassar said he wasoing and what the woman said he did to her. both of their accounts were pretty similar to each other and, so, tts exp were kind of trying to determine if what he was doing couldbe medical procedure, the title nine investigator determined based on those conversations with those experts that it was and that this woman misinterpreted what happened to her as sexual assault when infact it was a medical procedure.m: >> brangand you and others reported that the university put out its title nine report and gave that to the victim herself, but then the universityad a separate version that had a lot more detail in it, that was somewhat more damning.

can you explain? >> that's one of the new r revelations from the last couple of weeks. friday i was able to obtain a full title nine support that had more detai of t university's analysis of what happened in the medical appointment. it hadge str language, it found significant problems and found nassar's conduct could expose fieshts unnecessary trauma in perceived sexual misconduct. the woman had a 41 word conclusion section that just said thank you for brig yours concerrward, it allowed us to look at ways to change policies within the medical clinic. >> brangham: we know two ials at the university resigned, we know the state attorney general is now launching an investigation. what is thing in the community itself on the university and amongst officials about do they believe the university has done enough, i doing enough and what's the sense there?e >> teaf is the word or the

phrase thrown out a lot leading up tohe sentencing hearing which dragged into two weeks, that was what was described. u've seen that start to changed as the sentencing hearing hit day, five, s seven, quickly followed by a couple of resignations from t university. the response publicly and in the area, there have been concerns about questions andneasiness with the way the university has handled much ofhis case since the first report by the indy star in september of 2016. >> brangham: matt mencarini of the lansing state journal. thank you very much our time. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: the departure of f.b.i. deputy director andrew mccabe opens up yet another high-level government post under president trump. in his case, it's being filled by the #3 ranking person at the f.b.

but as our own lisa desjardins reports, there are still qui few other posts in the president's administration, that remain emp, one year in. >> desjardins: let's start big: the fedel government now has close to two million civilian workers nationwide. now let's focus. on the biggest bosses. there area few hundred key positions appointed by the president and approved by the senate. these arethe people who run our government day to day. and one year into the trump esidency, many of those posts are still empty. let's take 630 key jobs, all of them filled by presidentialo nomina and tracked by the partnership for public service. of those 630 top jobs, about 240 of them, right now, have no nominee. another 140 or so jobs have nominees, but they're still waiting to be shnfirmed. the t? more than half of key positions are unfilled. what are these jobs exactly? the top jobs. agency heads and the second-t nd

third-highnking rungs directly underneath. what do they do exactly? a lot. things like keeping roads safe. the national highway transportation safety administration does not have an administrator, its top job, right now. nor anyone to head its legal, financial or enforceme divisions. that reporfrtedly has ozen several new safety standarse. something ffected: the opioid crisis. the white house drug contr office meant to work on the issue has no director, and has seen several other appointees leave. and there is a log list of other vacancies. top spots at the pentagon and at e state department. at the agriculture department, the offices overseei s national foety. and, at the energy department, severakey nuclear oversight jobs are all unfilled. and that's just to name a few. so who's running things? a change in federal law that went into effect just last year allows atemporary acting replacement in these jobs. but only for 300 days.

that's to give presidents time to make nominations. but mr. trump hasn't made nominations for hundreds of these jobs, and the 300 da clock has run out. that's creating an unprecedented situation-- those acting in these jobs do not have legal authority anymore. one othernc reason for vacaies: more workers ae leaving. th"washington post" reported more than 70,000 federal workers quit or retirehe first six months of the trump administra on. that is % increase over the same perioamd for president overall, president trump may not see any of this as a proonem: >> so we need all the people that they want. you know, don't forget, i'm a businessperson. i 'tll my people, when you d need to fill slots, don't fill 'em. >> desjardins: the president wants to shrink governme. and that includes at the top. mr. trump has fewer slots filled or nominaed than any president in 25 years. what we don't know: will this make government impressively

more efficient, or dangerously less functional? for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: late today, the inlligence committee in the u.s. house of representatives voted in favor of releasing a controversial memo crafted by republicans that alleges anti- trump bias at the justice department. the committee also voted not to release a separate memo crafted by democrats. the president has five days to review the republican memo. he can intervene to block its release which the justice department cautioned last week would be, "extraordinarily reckless." and now to our regular "politics monday" duo:my walter of the ok political report and tamara keith of npr. welcome to both of you. so i was going to start, tam, by talking about the andrew mccabe announcement, the fact the number two person at the f.b.i. has announced he's stepping up hisnd retirement there are all sorts of reports

and questions about how much pressure he was under the do that, but i first want to ask you abo this new information we just got that the hou intelligence committee is going to release that classified memo that they put together which alleges bias at justice. whatoes this mean? >> and as you say, the presideny has five to review this. the white house says they're in favor of trance prarnsy. th sets up another fascinating instance of the justice department or parts of the justice department and the white house at odds with each other and the presntident polly making a decision that is against what the senior people to have the justice department would wan >>oodruff: and, amy, partisanship -- i mean, you have thblican memo being released, but the democratic response memo won't be. >> right. the interesting thing, we call this, in broad terms, the rsia investigation. i don't know the last time we

talked about russia. we spend a lot of time talking about the.b.i., robert mueller or, in this case, now, we have this report, the so-called "memo." we don't spend a whole lot of time talking about thes underlying iss there, and it is, to your first question about theartisanship, it is really polarized now. if you are a republan, you'reless likely to trust the f.b.i. than you were back in 2014, back in 2014 gallupound the approval rating of republicans for the f.b.i. wpo 14 ts higher than it is today. if you're a democrat, you feel better about the f.b.i. than you did when obama was there by about nine points. so what we're seeing happen on capitol hill is also happening with voters. they're picking their sides, picking their lane, and wha we're going to find, ultimately if there ever is an answer to the question about what happened in the russia investigation d, wh russia actually do or not do, voters are already now

pre-conditioned to trust or distrust the source. >> let me just add numbers to that because why not. our recent pbs "newshour" andol npr found 72% of democrats think that the ssia investigation is fair while only 26% of republicans think the russia investigation is fair. a simlar breakdown with views of robert mueller. so what's happening here, as amy said is, it is becoming partisan. and thehi is, robert mueller is a republican. but republicans don't think tt he can be fair. >> woodruff: what sort of damage does it do to r institutions to have this kind of partisanship, this kind of divide over whether people trust these institutions to d the jobs they are asked t do? >> i am very curious/worried about what happens when there is a significant crisis, whether it is we're going into a situation where there's a war or a terrorist attack, who are you

going to trust? are you going to trust intelligence? are you going to trust the president? are you going to trust the media? and all of those will be bumping up against each other. it's pretty clear, since 9/11 and the war in iraq, there were already questions being raised under the bush administration about trusting intelligence, but now i think we have gotten into a very different territory, where it is if your side doesn't like the outcome, even before the outcome comes out, going to undermine the actual institutiof:n. >> woodrnd, tam, there have been always been little questions bubbling beneath the surface. robert kennedy was attorney general when his brother was the president of the tited states, those have been fairly low level. it seems to have explode into the open. >> well, there are direct attacks coming from the president of the united states against people like andrew mccabe, who is this deputy director of the f.b.i. who is now out. when you have the president of

the united stategatweeting ve things about a very ng person at the f.b.i., when you have the president, when he was campaigning, saying he didn't thinthinvestigations could be fair because, basically, now you have a situation where, when a personnel change takes place, you have to ask the question, well, was there undue pressure from the president othe united states? this is a sort of separation that typically that question wouldn't even come up. >> woodruff: yeah, we are in a dierent time. only a few minutes left but i do want to bring up immigration,am the president released his proposed immigration reform plan last week. that's going to congress. you're already heari complaints, criticisms from the left, criticisms from the right. not jue what are prospects for his proposal but what are the prospects for any sort of immigration? >> it sure doesn't look very good because the president of ute united states comesnd says these are our four

requirements and, again, it's not just rethat democrats saying we don't like this, folks on the right, especially from the world of breitbart, laura ii thinlauraingram, the hard liners amnesty, the challenge pufor icans is if you want to do something to support the daca repients, you need the president to be leading on this issue, and i don't know how many of them feel 100% confident that the president is going to take the heat for them,ven though he said previously i'll take thatti csm, will he, if the right comes out, those on the right, more anti-immigration stance, come out and saying this bill the president is sporting as amnesty, go out and say, you guys, don't worry about it. republicans, i'm going to go ecght for this will and convince the public elly on the republican side this is the right thing to do.

if i were a republicanember of congress, i would not be confident he would do that for me and he could change his mind any moment in the process. >> meanwhile democrats are not saying thank you so much president trump for this amazing compromise you've offered. the white house is saying, hey we're offering a path to citizenship for 1.8 million people eligible for the dac program, and democrats are saying you are using these people as pawns so you can change a legal immigration system that has been in place for something like 50 years. so he's getting hit from the left, from the right, anit's not -- it's not clear that there's a coalition of enough people wh think that thishing that the white house has offered is the right path. >> woodruff: whoa, we have aid political d >> what do you know. >>a woodruff: tam keith, amy walter, "politics monday," thank you both. >> you're welcome.

>> woodruff: it's an athletic and funky style of dance that started in the 1970's. now break dancing has expanded to a competitive level, that may send some ofhe best dancers to the youth olympics. from pbs station wgbh ar boston, tinain recently attended a competitive breakin' leae division championship >> reporter: this is 11-year- old dante graziano. >> today i am going to be break dancing and me and my broaver gusinto ha bunch of routines. the routines are pretty basic but we put our on flavor into it and we make it nice. >> reporter: they look a little more than basic, but graziano- who has been dancing sie he was four. he makes it look easy, and in january, he faced off against dancers his age from all over new england. antonio castillo, a 20 year eteran himself, started the national competitive

breaking league in 2014, and since then its had about 1,000co etitors from ages five and up. >> thkie competitive br leaguhee is similar to otr sports, n.f.l. and n.b.a. our goal is to create a platform that is just as professional as those entities so that kids can have oran opptunity to go to college and me it a career if they o.choo >> reporter: castillo has made it a career. he travels across the country looking for the best dancers. >> its nothg different, a gular sports league where you have kids who go to competitions they qualify for another and you create a ladder where the top kids are going to be the ones representing ouolcountry at the pics. >> reporter: righnow the comptitive breakin' league is not a youth olympics qualifying organization, but castillo is working on it. and just like the olympics, judge alex "el nino" diaz pays close attention. >> footwork, power moves, top

rock, and freezes. and of course since it is a battlwee a competitio looking at charisma and things like that. >> reporter: diaz has traveled the world break dancing and start0 ed judging aboutars ago. don't be fooled by the smile-- he's pretty toh. >> so when you freeze it's like, lets say if you're spinning on your back or spinning on your head the freeze is when you catcha almost like a yogse or something like that. so when you see an ice skater jump aupnd spin and if they fall on the ice it's the same exact thing. >> reporter: the dancing is fun, but inners take home real prizes, too, like gold, silver and bronze metals along with cash and some fancy foot wear. and it's that cash part that has 11-year-old dante graziano onriouslysidering his future. >> itits fun ansomething and could be something you could do for a living. >> ree porter: looks like hhas a pretty good chance he and his brother won te gold metal and are headed to washington, d.c.

to compete in the u.s breakin championship title in the youth division in may. for the pbs newshour i'm tina martin in everett, massachusetts.>> oodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. jo us online and again here tomorrow evening for special coverage of the president's state of the union address. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and finan literacy in the 21st century. he

>> supported byohn d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more inrmation at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of thnsese institutio >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to y fr pbs statim viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," julia and br share the secrets to perfect boston cream pie, adamhows julia his top pick for silicone spatulas, and erin makes bridget foolproof chocolatsheet cake. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen." "america's test kitchen" is brought to you by the following. -i've always been a big believer