ctaptioning sponsored by newshour produns, llc >> yang: good evening, i'm johng yang. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, walluf street takes another plunge: a volate day leaves the stock market down more than 1100 points, the largest one-day point drop ever.ts then, republicans are split on what the nunes memo means for the russia investigation, while we take a look ahow russia's cyber tactics played into calls for its release. sus, five months after hurricane harveylammed into houston, city officials face the task of rebuilding the city t withstand the next storm. >> we need to turn this area into much more green space. sometimes you have to look at mother nature and say mother nature wins. >> yang: all that and more onan tonight's pbs newshour

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language, like spanish, french, >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.m y and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.cautn >> yang: it's been a long, w strange day l street. the sell-off that hit friday, n.whipsawed the market ag in one furious, 15-minute

stretch, the dow industrials dropped, then couped 700 points. it ended with a loss of 1,175, to finish at 24,345. that's more than 4.5%, the most since 2011. the nasdaq fell 273 points, and the s&p 500 gave up 113. we try to sort some of this out now, with gillian tett, u.s. managing itor at the "financial times," where she is also a markets and finance columnist. and diane swonk, chief economist for grant thornton in chicago. thank you both for joining us diane, let me begin with you. what happened today? ing tol, what we're star see the reality finally starting to hit in the fact the markets were priced to perfection and the economy is not perfect. we saw a euphoria almost likee 1999 out there with this roaring stock markut we've got a

21st century economy, an economy that's doing well but it also has a price to stronger growth and that's higher interest rates. that's something markets hadn't counted on is not only are we goeng to inflation going forward but with the warming trend in wages, we will also see higher long-term interest rates and that's a cost of a better economy. >> yang: gillian tett, reality setting in? >> absoluty. i was inhe world economic forum a few days ago in davos talking to c.e.o.s andhedge fund traders and they said this cannot last, it's too good toto have the market rallying day after day and to have the volatility so incredibly low. what sparked the latest selloff really was a realization on friday that we're just startingn to see the first signs of inflationary pressurreeping into the u.s.in economy, and tht left many a trader thinking,a ually, these extraordinaryor

conditions that have been supported by cheap money from ntral banks, thatan't go on forever. >> yang: but we've seen the employment numbers getting better, wages getting a little better and, last month, the big tax bill being passed. we knewhere was going to be a lot of borrowing ahead. why did it suddenly come into focus now? >> well, i think there's a lot oyot things. one is that emnt report on friday. today is thert report on the service sector doing as wll as it has sinceo fievment those things altogether suggest the economy is finally experiencing a warming trend, th the goldilocks scenario that the world would be forever with lowe ist rates and no wages for wall street, now we're shifting the baton to main street a bit, although i think the wes are still a hope, we still need sustained wage gainsut there but the reality set in. this is a global phenomenon. other economies are also picking up, andou're seeing other central banks not only lift

their foot off the accelerator but talking about hitting the break. this is a big scheft for what we've seen from r in the last eight to nine years.. >> yang: the selling increasedas in the afternoon, slacked off a bit, atd increased at the close. is this an indication of program tradtrading? >> absolutely. one of the really important things to understand is that, right now, almost all u.s. equity funds are in passive funds. it's computers that managend th. on any given say, about two-thirds of the market can be driven by computerized traning a lot of the computerizedd programs are set up to sell when conditions get choppy. everybody talks about self-driving cars. what we're seeing is self-driving markets where a lot of computer programs are jumping in.o inned additionhis, there is a particular trade that's been incredibly unpopular fo the

last few months, trading on volatility, basically placing betsy devos thatolatile is going to be carrying on in the markets. what hpened in the last few hours and continuing now is a lot of the bets went badly wrong and there's a type of fund which is borrowed heavily to place these bets which is really sfering no just as in previous market crashes and swings, we've seen some hedge fundsand funds being knocked out by these peculiarmo ments. that's going on now and making the trading doubly peculiar. >> yang: diane, the u.s. markets have been very high for a while now. has the market -- the market seemed to be looking for a bottom. has it found it or do you think you will see the sellingng pressure continue? >> it's hard to say because we d are stilling with this reality. it's interesting the reality is

feds raised the interest rates, interest rates are going higher. we have a lot of debt treasury,r going to have to issue more debt because of tax cuts to financece the tax cuts. i think all of that comings togethermportant and it hits the stage for more volatility going forward. i agree that the volatilityil comments we heard out there that gillian pointedt are very important. what's also important ise saw no one hedging their downside. we said many were on wrong side of the bets. people were driving without a seat belt, they were confident it's always going to go up. eces that mean we're done with the coon?rr i don't know if i would own an island in a place tt has hurricanes, but the economy is solid. we're talkng about a baton that handed the baton to main street finally. that will be good for the economy. we see self-feeding momentum out there and that's something we welcome. >> yang: late today the white house put out a statement ecoing

that that the long-term fund mendells of the economy remain skong. diane sw and gillian tett, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> yang: in the day's other news, a new, bipartisan immigration bill was floated, but president trump quickly shot it down. republican john mccain and democrat chris coons called for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants illegally brought here as children.nc they alsoded better border security but not funding for aa border wall. the president said any deal that doesn't include a wall "is a total waste of time." former sports doctor larry nassar was sentenced today, for a third and final time. he was ordered to serve from 40 to 125 years in prison forst mog girls and young women at a training club. nassar appeared in courtn lansing, michigan after listening to dozens of victimsvi speak lasteek. before the judge handed down the sentence to him, nassar read an apology. t words expressed by everyone that has spoken, inluding the parents have

impacted me to my innermost core. with that being said, i untrstand and acknowledge t it pales in comparison to the pai trauma, and emotions th you all are feeling. it's impoible to convey the depth and breadth of how sorry i am to each and everyone involved. >> yang: nassar is 54. he's already been sentenced to up to 175 years in another sexual abuse case, and a separate 60-year term for child pornography. pope francis faces new questions about his insistence that no n victims of a pedophile priest in chile ever came forward, to denounce an alleged cover-up. p the associatss reports the pontiff received a letter in 15 detailing "sexual a psychological abuse" by the priest and accusing a bishop of. hiding e juan carlos cruz says hwas a victim of the abuse, and the author of the letter. >> to hear him say that nobody

had ever approached him or let him know about this is pretty incredible. i was saddened and i couldn't believe that someone so high up like the pope could e about thi >> yang: last week, pope francis sent the catholic church's top sexual abu investigator to chile, to look into claims about the bishop. the vatican said "new " information" had emerged. in iraq, u.s. troops areni beg to withdraw, now that baghdad has declared victory over the islamic state. an iraqi government spokesman and western contractors say ameran soldiers are being shifted to afghanistan. as of late september, some 9,000 u.s. troops were in iraq. a senior iraqi official says about 4,000 will be to left to train iraq's military. back in this country, jerome powell was sworn in today as the 16th chairman of the federal reserve. the form investment banker and fed board member succeeds janet yellen.on

she serveterm, but president trump declined to offer her a second. and, the philadelphia eagles returned home from minnesota today, with their first super bowl trophy, ever. they beat the favored new england patriots last night, 41 to 33, to claim the national football league championship. we'll have a full report, late in the program. still to come on the newshour: what is computational propoganda? and how it is central to russia's information warfare. five months after hurricaneaf horvey, is houston prepared the next big flood?ig and much more. >> yang: thpolitical fight over the russia investigationga rages on. democrats pushed today for the use intelligence committee to release their answer to a republican memo. and the president traded jabs

with a top democrat. bite house correspondent yamiche alcindorins our coverage. >> reporter: president trump was supposed to be focused on tax cuts.su instead he started his day by going after a leading critic on the russia investigation. his target: california democrat adam schiff, ranking democrat on the house intelligence r committee.te in early morning tweets, the dapresident said: "little schiff... is one of the biggest liars and leakers in washington he also accused schiff of illegally leaking confidential information. schiff fired back, saying: "instead of tweeting false smears, the american people ould appreciate it if yo turned off the tv and helped solve the funding crisis, protected dreamers or... really anything else."he president made no further mention of schiff or the russiaf probe, during his visit later t blue ash, ohio.e, the day's dust-up followedth friday's release of the nunes memo, written by rep licans on the house intelligence tee. it alleges the f.b.i.nd

justice department "omitted" vital information to obtain a special surveillance warrant for then-trump campaign adviser cartepage. today, the housintelligence chairman, devin nunes, defended his handling of the issue: >> we enjoy the critism. because when you're being criticized like this by all major networks, being attacked by the left, we know we're getting cser to the truth. >> reporter: and over the weekend, mr. trump claimed the memo is "vindication" for him i specunsel robert mueller'sun investigation. but on sunday, several republican lawmakers, including tchris stewart of utah ay gowdy of south carolina,a disagreed. >> i actually don't think it has any impact on the russia probe, mo has frankly nothing at all to do with a special counsel. it would be a mistake for anyone to suggest that the ecial s ounsel shouldn't complete his work. >> reporter: democrats readily agreed. senator kamala harris of california:

>> the significance of the memos really is the disintegrationth really of our process. people are playing politics with our ocess, and when it comes to classified information, we have to understand we should not be weaponizing it, that we have ll reporter: late this afternoon, the inence panel met to decide whether to release the democratic rebuttal of the nunes memo. de for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> yang: the attention on this nunes memo goes back two weeks, even more. and therere questions about whether some of that attention, at least on social media, has been coming from real users, or edwhether it's being ginup artificially.ng william brangham has more. >> brangham: in the days leading up to the release of that controversial nunes memo, there was a hashtag on twitter called #release-the-memo that became hugely popular. it was used by conservatives and allies of the president who hoped the memo's release would

undercut special counsel robertu mueller's investigation. but a series of recent reportspo indicate that some of those twitter accounts promoting release-the-memo were fake, and some of them were linked to russian interests. thomas rid is at johns hopkins chool for advanced international studies and he's been examining how twitter and otr online platforms can b used by these so-called fake "bots" to spread information online. i welcome back to the bewshour". >> hi. ngham: so as i was describing, the #on twitter called #release-the-memo became popular on twittr. life humans were releasing the #because they wanted the memo to out but allegedly some were promoted by these bots. can y explain what we know about these bots and how they might have been connected to russia? >> so a bot is an automated twitter account that dhasn't e a real human being behind it but just a program and,

indeed, it seems that some automated accounts and some fake real human beings that aren't actually who they pretend to be use the #release-the-memo hashtag -- a hashtag is a way ti make aer tweet circulate fore -- use that hashtag to give it some really it's very difficult to distinguish between these real conservative activists and politicians -- >> brangham: real people. -- real people and fake tosonas that may be linked russian interests and that is a problem in itself.f. >> brangham: explw n ishi would actually work. for those who don't use twitter or understand the mechanics of it, basically, i choose who i want to follow, some 5 million5 different voices, and i get messages from those peoe directly in their twitter as they tweet out messages.es if i don't follow these why do i care what they are or are not saying?

>> so indeed, a lot of users on twitter think they don't follow any bots, and they mayua aly not follow any artificial accounts thatumre not and, therefore, think that doesn'tes concern me, this problem. t that's not how this works. for example, imagine you see a tweet, a post on twitter, and that has been retweeted or liked, thousands, tens of thousands of times. you never check whether thse retweets, which make something appear very important and viral, ether they actually are real or not. sosi it's pe to give actual messages, like a hashtag, to give i l moreft and weight through automation and through automated abuse. >> brangham: it's like fake apn.lause for a comed he plants people in there to clap or laugh extra hard and its mim seem funnier, at least to ther, audience, than he realy might be? >> absolutely, except it's not just the specific line that the comedian talks about that can be

amped up and amplified, it can be other messages that sort of filter up very schoal out of the vastness of all the twitter posts and twitter messages. so twitter, iact, is a huge part of this problem here. >> brangham: kellyanne conway and the white house havethsaid wasn't about a hashtag on twitter. this was a vote in the houseinus lligence committee. they're the onesen who released this memo. what is the evidence that exists, if any, that this was some coordinated campaign by non-american actors? >> so russia in the cold war, it was siet, of course, including east germany and others' information operation, active measureswas the term of art, always exploit exist co conflic. they employment existing cracks in ourystem and exacerbate the cracks and drive wedges into

them. >> reporter: so some question as who r to whether "black lives matter" were also attacked by the bots. >> not just bots but sometimes operators and contractors. operators had a history of exacerbating racial tensions. they would pose ase tue clucks qulan and sometimes american activists.

>> twitter refuses to make the distinction and refuses to point out abuse, the fake bot accounts to its own users. it's impossible to, f example, opt out of bot traffic, to opt out of messages from bot and retweets from bot. >bot. >> brangham: you argue twitter could easily do that to identify the fake from the real. >> exactly, that is not a big problem. twitter claims they can recognize bots automatically but, at the same time, the bots mitter appear larger and more engaging than it actually is. twitter has never made money, and that a way for th to appear bigger than they actually are. >> brangham: thomas rid, thank you very much. .

>> reporter: so some question >> yang: next, the long roadas h back from hurricane harvey.he when the powerful storm hit the texas coast last augu r dropped more than 50 inches of rain across houston, the most ver recorded from a sing storm. harvey was responsible for atcl and an estimated $125 billion in damage, makinger it the second costliestan hurricaine in u.s. history after katrina.ar mha fiths later, people arean still trying to get their lives back to normal. for the next story in our series "after trms," harito sreenivasan breaks down the problems exposed by harvey'sngs riaters. >> sreenivasan: what's it like to see your house like this? >> it is disturbing. i guess i've gotten used to it. >> sreenivasan: kathle and nat pacini lived here, in the meyerland area of houston, on he city's southwest side but on a saturday night in late faugust, the rain began l, and didn't stop until it had dropped more than four feet of water on the city. >> i came to the back door and it was rushing up the driveway

like a wave from the bayou. >> sreenivasan: within minutes, the water was inside their house.en a neighbor called and told them to get out.a they rushed three houses down to jenna and chad arnold's home. they had recently raised 18 inches above ground and itec bame an island in the riverin that was n their neighborhood. >> honestly we just thought we were going to you know get a little rain. little more than usual and idn't realize it would be 50 some odd inches but we really you know we didn't feel like we needed to evacuate. we decided we were elevated. we felt safe. we decided to stay. >> sreenivasan: the arnolds used a sailboat and kayaks to travel back and forth between houses to rescue other neighbors andcu gather up what belongings they pld left. at one point 19 pwere huddled in their home. >> i was shivering and i really think it was shock. and a feeling of helplessness there was nothingrn a while we stuck there. there was nothing i could do.>do

>> sreenivasan: the pacinis had flood insurance-living in a federally designated floodplain, they were required to. 'sow it works: the federal emergency management agency draws flood maps across the country. a 100-year floodplain, seen here in blue, means that each year there is a one in 100 chance your home will be flooded.dpth a 500-year floodplain, the area in green means one in 500, orar 0.2% chance for the area to be flooded in any year.oo if you live within thnes, you must purchase flood insurance, though it's at a government-subsized rate. and yet, just outside the 500-si year floodplain, in the city's northeast, live jackie and michael white.qu they weren'ired to have flood insurance, and yet, like tens of thousands of others, they flood, too. >> if something we wrong, theng maps were wrong. if you have three 500-year ents in two years that must mean your 500-year definition is

rong. >> sreenivasan: ed emmett is the dgrris county executive. they're called in texas. he's in charge of the more thanq 170re miles that 4.6 million people call home. eresays the fema maps clearly wrong. and in fact, as many as half of the flood insurance claims after harvey came from propertiesy .outside of the flood pla emmett says the maps need updating, because extremeo weather is acoming more common. >> i hate to use the phrase, but we have a new normal. we now have to assume that thesn kind of flood can occur. >> sreenivasan: he points out that while harvey made national diadlines as the worst flooding inu.s. history, it was by means the first to hit this region in recent years. in 2015, inches fell in 10 hours over memorial day.6, in april 205 inches fell in 24 hours, in what became known as the tax day flood. for each of these, the federal government diributed hundreds of millions of dollars in

emergency relief and aid. >> i'm not denying climate change. i mean all you have do is look at the satellite photos of the arctic or look at glacier national park. i mean clearly something is going on. >> sreenivasan: sam brody studies flooding and flood risk reduction at texas a&m.dy we're walking along the bray'ss bayou, where during harvey the water level was well above our heads and into the surrounding streets. i he saysaddition to outdated flood maps and changing weather patterns, the problem of flooding here has been greatly exacerbated by development. >> the normal of 10 years ago and certainly 50 years ago it's noalthe normal moving forwar not just because climate is changing precip patterns or changing sea levels rising but the way we're building andui s edefining these landscand fragmenting natural drainage

structures is a even gger problem >> sreenivasan: houston is the fourth largest u.s. city in terms of population, and at 627 square miles, it's larger than new york, chicago and los angeles.p reting for this series, we drove through seemingly endless miles of highways, oe parks, strip malls and nehborhoods. and it keeps growing farther and farther out. >> this is a fast growing area and so more and more land is being taken up by development, and it's no secret anytime yout wn concrete or you put down rooftops somewhere then yo have to offset that. >> sreenivasan: the pacinis lived in meyerland, blocks fromi bray's bayou aa floodplain, and yet they were surprised when water entered their home. >> our house had never flooded. i had no reason to think that it would flod. >> sreenivasan: harvey's rains were historic.

but sam brody saywhat's happening way out in katy, texas, 20 miles west, where prairielands are being turnedto inubdivisions, full of road rooftops and sidewalks, has an effect down in houston. >> i don't want to suggest that there would have been no flooding in harvey iad developed differently. there was a tremendous amount of water. th're in a low-lying coastal area bayou system oorly drained, naturally poorly drained soils.ra but the impact could have beenve less if we had made different decisions upseam, for example. >> we need to turn this area into much more green spac sometimes you have to look at mother nature and say mother nature wins, rather than try ans enivasan: and yet, in a city famous for its lack ofer zoning, with individual counties acting in their own self- innerest, and in a state kn i for championing individual rights, that won't be easy.

the r word isn't very popular here, regulations.y. >> no it is not. now houston has always been a very ee market city. it's been one of our great strengths.. >> sreenivasan: tory gattis works at the center for opportunity urbanism, a think tank that focuses on how cities can encourage economic growth. he agrees that changes are needed, including stricter building codes and better flood- risk disclosure. but he's also afraid of throwing the development baby out with the hurricane bathwater. >> if we just start nning development in large swaths of the region i think that could be very oblematic for houston's long term future. because it will affect housing supply which will afousing prices and affordability, and really hit the middle class and they won't be able to afford a a home. >> there is not one simple solution that many people would >> sreenivasan: sam brody says many decisions, by individual homeowners, developers, officials at the local, stateayu and federal levels, made over the course of deces, have added up to an overall increased risk of flooding for the greater houston area.

getting out of this mess will similarly require greatdi cotion, and resolve. >> hurricane harvey's devastation was a surprise to a lot of people, but we've been i talking abofor decades as a problem and one of my bigger worries is what happens whenve halike storm hits and 20 years from now it's going to be th much worse because we continue to put more people in harm's way and not tbout the ramifications over the longt term. >> sreenivasan: inur final story, we'll explore some of the solutions brody and others areme proposing, and who should pay for them. i'm haripbs newshour sreenivasan reporting fromor houston, texas. k yang: tomorrow on faceb 1:00 p.m. eastern. we'll host a live discussion with the non-profitews organization the "texas tribune" and answer your questions about hurricanharvey recovery forts. wi

>> yang: stay th us, coming upe on wshour, an effort top showcase more femalee playwrights. and the philadelph eagles finally celebrate a super bowl victory. but first, we return to the divide between the white house to talk about the political fallout aret of the current economicndscape is "politics monday" team, amy walter of the "cook political report" and o tamara keit npr. tam, let me start with you. recently, you bore the statee of the union dissected donald trump's speeches.ec he likes to talk about the stock market when it was going up, bu today he had the very awkward situation of being live in cincinnati, giving a speech with the box in the corner on cab television showing the dow dropping, dropping, dropping. r he atsk here? >> till the cable networks cut

speechtirely from h and just went to coverage of the dow. the interesting thing is that, up until thursday of last week, president trump was very regularly in his speeches talking about the amazing wealth growth that has happened as a result of the markets since his election. afterec thursday, no more mentis of the stock market. that's the thing, talking about the stock market was never a great idea for a politician because stocks and markets are volatile and they aren't the economy. arket isear, the stock not the economy. today, the white house put out a statement essentially sayingat just t that the stock marketoc is not the economy, the fundamentals remaintrong,tr ich is true, that job growthh has been strong and wages even grew quite significantly in the last month.. >> yang: political peril talking about the markets?? >> tam summed it up. that's the danger, that's whyev

y economist and political person tells you don't put a lot of stock in the stock market in terms of a talking point. >> yang: i see what you did there. >> the issue really, now, for i2018the state of the economy. how do people feel about the the economy, and do they feel as if the tax cuts republicans say has en part of the reason for the recovery of the economy as well as the deregulatory efforts, do voters give them credit for those, do they give the president credit for the improving economy? right now the country, not surprisingly, is pretty divided on this, youha still more voters than not saying they believe it's barack obama'som ec right?, he should get more credit than trump although that as been narrowing. on the issue of taxes and whether that is playing a role, the country, again, is not quite as convthat that is partt of the debate.te they areon still split whetherer the tax cuts are a good or bad thing. they believe the economy i doing much better, but, again, very polarized.ri

you ask demoats how the economy is doing, they are not as optimistic as republicans about the economy. so your views on the economy, different depending on your partisan standing, and they also are different from your view of the president and of republicans. >> yang: let's talk about the tax plan. thereas an. monmouth university poll. we have some numbers. in december the disapproval was 47%pr e 26. the president is out there selling the tax plan again today over the weekend hou speaker paul ryan got a little blowback on twitter for touting -- a school secretary, ik, it was, ut ting a $1.50 a week benefit from this tax cut. will this help or hurt in the midterms some. >> that tweet was not a great anecdote. that tweet is not how they wanti to be s this tax plan.

however, the president -- i mean, today, is not a gre example because he went very far off scriptin while out tto sell the tax plan, but republicans believe that the path in 2018 is a strong economy, that theirto ability sort of overcome the typical thing that happens in a mid-term year, which is that they'll just get wiped out, their path to overcoming that is selling this tax plan, having people believe that it's working for them, and selling it in a way that democrats in 2009 didn't reallye sell stimulus.th you know, by the end of 2009, most people believe tha their taxes had gone up, even though they had a tax cut in the stimulus, and republicans do not want to make that same mistake.e >> yang: they're obviously out there pushing this still. t is this k the republicans for the midterms?

>> absolutely. ey are counting on the optimism americans have about the country. the challenge is one person who is supposed to do the selling and a -- has certainly promoted himself as one of the best salesman all time is not particularly a disciplined alesperson. number, two views of the tax plan line up pretty directly with your views on president trump. the reason that you saw thoseer nu climb in that poll that you showed from monmouth, you also should show that the president's approval rating rose from december until this month. so, if you like the presidentsi right now, you will like the t plan. if you don't like the president, you don't like the tax plan orid are und on the tax plan, and that's the group of voters inw both sides are fightingin over.

act, democrats, too, are a little bit concerned. now, a lot of democrats werewhoc convincen this vote was happening that they were going to be able to cast thiss a corporate-only plan that was going to hurt the middleat clas. now that you have the economy doing well, b gnuses areing out to people, and whether it'so $1.$200 coming back, that's a very good message for republicans to sell.o i'm hearing now from sme democrats who worry, no, we need to do what republicans did 2009 and 2010 to obamacare, which isin to co to put it in a negative light and make our messagingtick young tam, today the hoime voted unsly to release the democratic response to the nunes memo. it now goes to president trump who has to decide whether or not he wants to declassi that. is there pressure on him, having said he's doing this in terms of transparency, to release andde assify the democrats' memo as well? >> there is absolutely a

pressure on him, and he hasth a five-day deadline, just liket with the republicemo. the president has said that the republican memo vindicated he has been just talking up this memo, loving this memo,nd really taking hits at the democrats on the committee. so it's going to r tough him to want to declassify it. but the white houseit insist will be reviewed through the same process. theti qu is, the republican memo was fully declassified, noa ions. what will the democratic memo look like in five day if they agree to let bit released?se >> yang: less than 30on s.. i think fundamentally we'll find outllay in a couple of weeks whether this was another party skirmi which there have t been plenty of within this committee, or whether we're having a substantive move hereer and al re break between thee esident ons and this issue.su walter, tamerar, keith, thanks for being here. >> you're welcome. ng

>> turning from the political theater of washington to the dramatic stage.o most two dozen theaters around d.c. are producing the second.c women's voices theater festival. jeffrey brown sat dow three of the playwrights to discuss why this effort is meaningful, particularly now. >> brown: a play about a young erican moving with her family to nigeria in the 1960s, byn calnnette jennings. >> what's wrong with this. auntie gave it to me, she bought it in london.n. >>isas progressive as theatr in many ways in the united states, there's still somethingg around the edges that says women's stories are maybe more precious, less edgy, less intellectually challenging, there's sort of an ugly cloud

that hangs over it, and i thinkk this is aay to dispel all of those notions. >> brown: a 17th century comedy becomes a story of ricpoor in america today, in the hands of playwright theresa rebeck. >> the fact is, women do tell stories in a different way and ere are mighty stories out there waiting to be told. rodon't believe that playwriting is a gene on a y some. none of us believe that, right? >> bwn: a personal historyl that's also an unsettling piece of american and cherokee tribal history, by mary kathryn nag.d women face rates of domestic r violence and sexual assault higher than any other

part of the population in the united state part of dehumanizing a peoplele is silencing them, and i think the more women's stories aret told on stage, the more ourear culture will to shift. it's not a coincidence that weat face such high rates of domestis violence aual assault and at the same time our voices have not been presented on the american stage.>> rown: these are just three of the plays and playwrights of the "women's voices thear festival," a month-long, 24- theater project now uy in washington, d.c., with all new plays, including 13al premieres. it's the second such festival here, the first held in 2015, and the largest of its kind in the country. and it's taking direct aim at a fact of life in american theater: the paucity of productions by female writers; around a quarter of plays across the untry, according to several studies.ev at arena stage, one of the originating companies heading the festival, i talked with three women whose work is on display. caleen sinnette jennings, a

professor of theater at american university, took part in the l.rst festi she's back with a sequel to her earlier play, both based on her own life. the new one is titled "queens girl in africa." >> it's semi-biographic, and soa nobody else could tell the story, but what's importanist the fact that the story is wort telling, and the story is worth seeing. i think, particularly women of my generation wrestled with that thought, and it's good to see younger women coming alongisin saying, whhis even a question?io of course your sto is worth telling, now more than ever, so >> brown: are you surprised, though, that it's stilhea thing? that would be a need for a festival of women's voices?> tiw >> no, because racism is ill here, sexism is still here, everything is still here, justth wearing different clothes. so, it's all here. >> brown: pulitzer prize-nominee theresa rebeck, aeteran of

television and film as well as the stage, decided to re-do an english restoration-era medy, "the way of the world," written by william congree. >> if you're hideous looking -- you're not!li >> it's no i looked at that play and said, i want to do a feminist retelling of theke congreve play. but there is no mistaking that a woman wrote it, thafei inhabit thle characters in a completely different way than what congreve did. point of view is one of the tools you have as a writer, andt this is the point of view of the woman. it's not an agenda, it's the truth. if our agenda is always to tell the truth, the truth out of a woman's mouth is going to sound different than the truth out of a man's. >>anrown: mary kathryn nagle enrolled citizen of the cherokee nation, also advoces full time on behalf of tribal rights as a lawyer. p hy, "sovereignty" presents another window into that world,

and is set in the past-- andrewe jackson is one of the characters-- and in the present day supreme court. andrew jackson's efforts have been good >> when yone tells me that some plays are political and some are not, i think it's all political.it we can sa just art, but i think we're political beings,ut we're humans, right, and i don'n see any art in this world as apolitical. ge affects our lives in such profound ways aning to see that on stage is exciting. >> brown: do you think ofr t yourself as a woman playwright?s >> i do, yes, and i also think of myself as a cherokee playwright. i and i think the combination is terribly exciting. and new, right? >> i have to say , when i was just starting out a playwright, like ages ago, i had a mentor who taught me, who sid to me "you've got to be careful

not to let them categorize you as a woman playwright," he sort of said, as a kindly meant advice. and i, in my youth i was like, a "i am a wom i am a playwright, so it's unclear to me why that would be something i need to be carul about." cl brown: during the recentth women's marches, e to 100 theaters in more than 30 states hosted readings of new works by women. the washington, d.c. festival was planned well before thenn explosion of the #metoo movement. i asked the playwrights if they were surprised by recent events. >> art mirrors reality, and we are in an extraordinary time in our history, something major happened in our lasirtdi uguration, and i think this groundswell comes from that. so i think theater has often challenged the norms andhe artists have stepped up and ledn the wave of , but it's not

surprising to me that this is happening now.e, >> all these women coming esorward with stories, it t surprise me that the stories exist.s i knew they existed, i've donest work >> yeah, we all knew. >> we all knew. >> people saying "we didn't know!" right, that's shocking, the people who claimhey didn't know, that's shocking to me and in fact, thankfully i think a lot ofen are now coming forward to say, well, i knew, but you know, how could i take down this man in power, because my career was depending upon him accepting me.n i don't understand why this doesn't feel better, and i think that must be because i don't believe thatcoeal change is ng. >> brown: onhis issue of how rd it is just to make it as a playwright-- how hard is it? >> it's really hard.n:> i've been through so many ups and downs that they ly, the drama guild, they do a little magazine, and they put me on the cover of the issue about survival.pu i was like, "i am the poster child of survival!"

>> brown: what you hope comes rom this festival? >> i think there is, "oh, it's a and i hope this model will be replicated all over the country. theater is also a very important place because you hold twoant s, we are all the same. yes, we're incredibly different. but that difference need not frighten you, that difference need not be a mysterythatbe difference should be something you walk towards in order to build that empathy. >> brow the women's voices theater festival runs through february 15. for t pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in washington, d.c. >> yang: finally, super bowl is now in the books and the

philadelphia eagles have their first nfchampionship since 1960, before the super bowl wasl created, after beating the new england patriots. >> for the philadelphia eagles, the long drought isver. >> yang: it was a victory w ecades in the making. the undeog eagles jumped in front of the reigning champion patriots, right from the start. just before halftime, they added to their lead with a trick play, a touchdown pass to qrterback nick foles. foles also threw for three scores, making him the first player in n.f.l. history to both throw and catch a super bowl touchdown. then, with two minutes to go and the eagles up 38-33, tobrady was sacked and fumbled, shredding the patriots' hopes for a late comeback, and a record-tying sixth championship.

the eagles added a field goal to win 41 to 33. was an improbable victos after starting quarterback carson wentz was sidelined by a knee injury in december. b >> a part of the philadelphia eagles first e championship, we've all waited a long time, to be in thisc and i know there's gonna be a lot of celebrating tonight. >> yang: even as foles spoke in minnesota... >> e-a-g-l-e-s!erlee >> yang: ...the celebrating began in philadelphia, as thousands flooded broad street. gravity was no match for determined fans who climbed light poles, even though police had athered them in greas thme even tried to live oueng ffam's , "fly, eagles, fly," diving oawnings. d a victory parade is set for v thursday. we are now joined by bob ford, an award-winning sportsco mnist for the "philadelphiaoror inquirer" and the "philadelphia daily news."

he's in minneapolis, where the game was layed last night. bob, thanks for joining us. j what does this mean for philadelphia? this is a citywith a storied tradition in football, but not a t of trophies. >> yeah, they he wide aspirations and narrow trophy cases in fissley and, as you suggeste the last previous championship for the eagles was in the final month the eisenhower administration, six years beforeon the super bowl ev began, and here they are in the 52nd super bowl finally2n breaking through. so it's fair to say a certainou of civic impatience had taken root over that time and, as i said, to finally break through with the super bowl championship means an awful lot and the city is very happy today. >> yang: a lot of people may not realize the story of nickle the quarterback who led

the eagles to this victory. he's been a backup for a long time and actually contemplated retiring not too long ago. >> yes, he was originally drafted in 2012 by theaes. not a high draft pick. he was taken in the third round, 88th overall, but i can guarantee you none of the 87 ahead of him were m.v.p. of the super bowl last night. he had a bounce around career at the vy start with the eagles. he got a little chance to be the number one, g did well for a season, chip kelly, the then tach, thought he wanted go in another direction, he wanted a mobile quarterback. nick is notsarily that. he was traded to the rams, did not do well, lost as a starter, lost the job. was a backup and to the chefs next year and continue pated retirement. he said i think i just might hang itp, this i not why i got intol. footbal

he was lured back to the eagless by a friend who coached before when he was with the eagles. he said i'llive it another chance. he said this is a place where i could at least enjoy the game p and theple. there was p certainly no idea he was going to become a startingin quarterbac again eagles have a fine young quarterback, second year pyer carson wince, but december 10 he tore his acl and suddenly nick foles was in the spotlight again. >> yang: and i heard theag s playoff hopes or supere bowl hopes died when carson went out. um thees because carson was an enormous part of getting the eagles in posihaonio to a post season run. he had a wonderful season. phaps a most valuable player quality season. nick, as we know, had a very spotty mystery and no one thought he would be the kind of guy who would be able to pick up the team and carry them in the way carson wince had, but i guess we were a in for bit

of surprise.ri >> yang: now you have a quarterback who led his team tou ther bowl championship and is likely not going to be the starting quarterback next year. >> that's an odd circumstance the m.v.p. doesn'have a starting job the next season. but carter will come back from the acl news surgery, it's expected he had been lack at the the start of the season, nickk will be b the sideline and wearing a baseball cap and applaudin he's under contract to the eagles. if they want to keep him, they can. hetdzent have a lot of choice there. but it is an odd circumstance for someonhe who did what did last night in the super >> i guess the victory was fitting because they were not favored. they were going up against a team that had won theuper bowlbo a number of times. does it fit with sort of the underdog mentality of philadelphia sports?or >> yes, and it fits also with the city's perceived persona as that sort of rocky characterai

punching up ast, you know, the bigger foe. when you look atew thengland patriots and tom brady and bill belichick, they had become a .lmonolith in the n won five super bowls in 17 years, this is a time you don't beat lightly. so i think people do like that sort of thing and it fits in with tye way the feels about itself. it's stuck between the glitz of new york and the power ofwaof ington and the snootiness of boston and where does philadelphia fit into that scheme? they have to be the blue-collar underdog. so this wasu a pretty good outcome for them. they wear that coat pretty well. >> yang: big nightfor b philadelphia,ob ford, philadelphia inquirer, philadelphia.com and theanly philadelphia dews.ws thanks for being with us. >> my pleasure, john. >> yang: a news update before we go: actor john mahoney has died. he was best known forole as the father on the tv show "frasier."

mahoney was also in ths "moonstruck" and "say anything," among others. he was 77 years old.. on the newshour online, the 2018 winter games open friday in pyeongchang, but you can test your olympic knowledge right taking a quiz onig our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm jo yang. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. 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 teanves real-life sations in a new language. ap >> consumer cellular.

>> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performancliand financial racy in the 21st century. t cent. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarth foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. usce information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions e utns >> this program was made possible by e corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.am cti y nk. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.orgby

♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "america's test kitchen"... dan makes bridget perfect porchetta. jack challenges julia to a tasting of ricotta. lisa reveals her top pick for wine coolers. and erin makes julia the ultimate parmesan farrotto. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen." "america's tt t kitchen" is brough you by the following. ♪ -i've always been a big believer in kning