captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> sreenivasan: good evening. i'm hari sreenivasan. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: facebook under fire. a data firm linked to the trump campaign exploits millions of users' personal information during the presidential election. then, the latest on congress' massive spending bill. lawmakers push to avert another government shutdown, as disputes carry negotiations to the 11th hour.an surviving boko haram. two women describe the horrors of living under the insurgent group's control, and their harrowing escape. >> ( translated ): i never thought i could escape, but it was the best thing to do at that moment, because i was ninent pregnant. i felt iay die in the process of giving birth, so i better die ile escaping. 's sreenivasan: all that and more, on tonight pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pee newshour hasprovided by: ♪ ♪ >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. e >> sreenivasan: th investigation of apparent serial

mbings in texas shifted today. there had already been four bombings in austin, that killede two pe overnight, a package exploded at a fed-ex shipping center just outside san antonio. one worker suffered minor injuries, and the site was cordoned off for a painstaking, all-day search. >> we're still searching theht packages row to ensure that there is no other devices there. so, we're just asking people just to be patient, they know of something-- definitely callour local f.b.i., your local a.t.f. or your local police department and report it. we need the public's help right now. >> sreenivasan: the package was sent from austin to an address in austin. the investigation now includes more tha500 law enforcement officials. a high school in great mills, maryland is the latest to suffng a fatal shoo a 17-year-old boy with a handgun wounded two other students today. then, he was fatally shot in a confrontation with a deput stationed at the school. one victim, a girl, was in critical condition. the local sheriff said it appears she previously had a relationship with the shooter. president trump called russian

president vladimir putin today, to congratulate him on his reelection. the white house said he did not ask putin about russia's meddling in the 2016 u.s. election. mr. trump confirmed the call as he met with the saudi crown prince. he said a face-to-face meeting may be coming. >> we had a very good call. and i suspect that we'll probably be meeting in the not- too-distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control. but we will never alloody to have anything even close to what we have. and also, to discuss ukraine and syria, and north korea, and rious other things. >> sreenivasan: republican senato the call.in criticized he said in a statement, "an american president does wt lead the frld by congratulating dictators on sham elections."li the senate intnce committee is calling for major new efforts block russian meddling in the mid-term elections this fall. reheblicans and democrats on panel urged a series of measures

today. they include updating election equipment and impring communications between u.s. intelligence agencies and states, among other things. 23 russian diplomats left britain today, expelled over the poisoning of a former russian dole agent. vans carrying the diplomats and their families departed from the russian embassy in london, formo flights back tow. the british said they are, in fact, spies. russia has denied trying to kill sergei skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent, anas, in turn, expelled 23 british diplomats. in china, president xi jinping sounded warnings today to opponents at home and abroad. he told the national congress that chinese citizens must follow the absolute, unquestioned leadership of the communist part and, he told taiwan not to formally declare independence. >> ( translated ): safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity is in the fundamental interest of theon chinese na

any actions and tricks to split china are doomed to fail, and will face the condemnation of the people and the punishment by history.iv >> srean: xi's tough talk comes days after the rubber- alamp parliament abolished term limits, effectivelwing him to rule indefinitely. back in this country-- new legal action involumng president former playboy model karen ffmcdougal says she had anr with mr. trump. now, she's suing to void a deal withhe "national enquirer." she says the tabloid paid $150,000 for her story in 2016, but never ran it. and, a judge in new york ruled that summer zervos, a former contestant on "the apprentice," may continue her defamation suit against mr. trump. he has said r claim that he groped her is fiction. a federal judge in mississippi has temporarily blocked the state's new law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. ure governor signed the me into law yesterday, and state's sole abortion clinic quickly filed suit. today's ruling suspends the new law until the case is cided.

on wall street today, stocks made back some of monday's losses. ce dow jones industrial average gained 116 points se at 24,727. the nasdaq rose 20 points, and the s&p 500 added four. billionaire and former commerce secretary peter g. peterson died today.or hed in the nixon cabinet and became a leading voice for entitlement reform. blackstonefound group, one of the world's largest private-equity firms. pete peterson s 91 years old. and, the last male northern keite rhino has died of old age, at a conservancy ia. the 45-year-old animal, named sudan, was euthanized monday. sientists hope his storeden can be used in two surviving females and save thepecies from extinction.rh the inos had fallen prey to warring armies in bieir african t, and to poachers. still to come on the newshour: privacy concerns raised, aftermp a y collects data from 50 million unwitting facebook users. ngress races toward another deadline to pass a spending bill. an abortion case before the

supreme court. and, much more >> sreenivasan: facebook has been a powerhouse and a corporate giant for years now. smnight, it's facing criti and concerns about privacy and security at a whole new level. the company is pointing fingers at the political firm, cambridgr analytica,isusing its data that firm suspended its c.e.o., alexander nix, today. but facebook's own decisions around safeguarding data and other recent scandals are front and center, as the company takes on its own reviews of what went wrong. john yang begins with this report. >> reporter: growing questions and criticism swirled around facebook in the u.s. and britain today, as officials questioned how data was used to influence elections. the british-based research firm, cambridge analytica, has been accused of harvesting data from0

more thaillion facebook users, misleading facebook about it. through an outside researcher, they paid users to take a personality qu and download an app that collected infor ption from thefiles and their facebook friends. then, cambridge analytica was hired by the trump campaign for the 2016 presidentiaelection. >> have you met mr. trump? >> many times. >> reporter: today, britain's channel 4 news broadcast exclusive secretly filmed vio of alexander nix, the firm's now-suspended c.e.o., discussing their work. >> we did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting. we ran all the digital campaign. the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy. >> reporter: in another video, nix belittled the house intelligence committee members he met with in 2017. >> i went to speak to them, and the republicans asked three questions. five minutes, done.

the democrats asked twohours of questions. and you had to answer everything? >> no, it's voluntary. but i did because i'm trying to help them. we have no secrets. ney're politicians, they' technical. they don't understand how it they donerstand, because urks. the candidate never, is never involved. he's campaign team. by the >> reporter: the furor began over the weekend, after a former cambridganalytica employee, chris wylie, said the company used the information to b influence voteavior. yesterday, he spoke with nbc news' "today" program: >> this data was used to create profiling algorithms that would allow us to explore mental vulnerabilities of people, and then map out ways to inject information into different streams or channels of content online, so that people started to see things all over the place that may or may not have been

true. >> reporter: the "new york times" reported thatacebook failed to inform users whose data had been taken for as long as two years. facebook has pushed back, saying "the claim that this is a data breach is completely false." the company said users chose to share information. it also said it has hired auditors to make sure the data has been destroyed as promised. in now-deleted tweets, the company's chief security officer, alex stamos, admitted a researcher "lied" about how he would use the data. according to the "times," stamos plans to leave facebook later this year. the social media giant was already facing pressure over the use of its platform to spreadsi russian ormation and fake news during the 2016 election. today, the white house stopped short of calling for facebook m c.e.k zuckerberg to testy before congress. w >>ithout knowing the diecifics, it's difficult to tell whether an indual should testify, but we do support the privacy of american

citizens. >> reporter: but some, including connecticut democratic senator rieard blumenthal, took a m aggressive stance. >> privacy is clearly at risk in america, and muck zuckerberg ought to be before the judiciary committee in public, under oath, to explain how 50 million americans and others were put at risk and still have no nice of who they are so they can better secure themselves. >> reporter: this afternoon, the house energy and commerce committee said it will hear from facebook representatives tomorrow. and the federal trade commission is opening an investigation. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> sreenivasan: for more on this, i'm joined by roger mcnamee. he was one of fabook's original investors, and a mentor to its founder and c.e.o., mark zuckerberg. he's now the co-founder of elevation partners, a private equity firm in california, and co-founder of the center for humane technology. roger, one of the things that any has said today is that we are-- the entire company is outraged and we were

deceived. yet, you were pointing out some things similar to this before the election in 2015 to ckmark berg and cheryl sandberg. what were they? >> beginning in 2016, i started to see th ngs going in the facebook platform that suggested that bad actors were tang the tools created for advertisers and using them to harm innocent people, and i saw them in several different yays. politics was one. but alsosi hou and areas related to civil rights. i raised the issue inob oct of 2016 with mark zuckerberg and cheryl sandberg and i said, "guys, i think there's a systemic problem here." i wasn't surprised that the, didnu know, jump right on it. but i was disappointed because they treated it like a public relations problem, rash a business problem. nd so i spent three months trying to persuaem before i realized that they were just determined to say-- toide behind the legal notion that they were a platform, not a media company, and, therefore, not responsible for what thi

parties did. >> sreenivasan: but you're saying something fundamentally is wrong with the business ofis s the output. >> indeed. all of this is traced to the business model. the incentives created by an advertising business model are to essentially addict people psychologically to your producth an to cause outrage cycles. you want to feed them stuff that either makes them afaid or angry, because when they're excited by low-level emotions like that, they share more stuff. they're more active. theypend more time o the site. and see more ads. they're just more valuable to them. and facebook turned that into a fine art. and if you think about politics, some campaigns are full of outrage, and other campaigns are tnot. and i sais in brexit, which was the british campaign to lewhe the european unionre one side was totally about outrage and they won because facebook. >> sreenivasan: we're weir not necessarily theustomers, the users. the customers of facebook are the advertiser. >> that's right. >> sreenivasan: so is there kind o anherent tension or conflict there on what we get

from the convenience of being part of this community, and, perhaps, all the good in finding people that we are care about and kannship groupd so forth, and the fact that we are the product at the end of the da pthat is beickaged and sold. >> hari, that is such an important point. i love facebook. i love the way it allows me to stay in touch with people. i have a rock 'n' roll band. i communicate with our fans over facebook. the problem is that the advertising business model, as implemented by facebook today, creates incentives to do thingse that underll of the good. and as we're seeing with cambridg cambridge analytica, k has made some choice where's essentially-- they were operating under a consent de, where they were to make se they had affirmative knowledge and support for any sharing they did of people's information.20 and betwee1 and before they c yientdnsent decree, and 2014, they had many, ma applications that harvested data-- apparently

in contravention of thensent decree-- including the one that cambrialytica caused. >> sreenivasan: if you had their ear now, what do you want them to doi the first t i want them to do is cooperate with the investigators. let's make sure we know everhing that happened in 2016. then, secondly, i want them to reach out to the 126 million people on facebook and 20 million people on instagram, who are touched by the russian interference and explain expwhapped say, "this is an foreuntry. they're interfering in our most basic democratic process. and the onlyay you as citizens, we as citizens can fight back, is if we vote. we may not-- they may not be perfect for us, but the only way to prevent interference is to recoize the people interfering are trying to suppress our vote. they're trying to make us angry at democracy, and we can't let them do that. >> sreenivasan: what can weal ac do? there's been this idea of you can just get off facebook. >> that's not realistic for mt people. >> sreenivasan: for most people this is part of their community now, and even if i was

to take myself off, there's sch ata coming from my friends, they can kind of be interpolated or triangulated. >> my basic advice to people is to recognize that there are a lot of people on facebook who artrying to baiyou, to get you angry, to get youy emotionagaged, so that you will spend more time on there. but more importantly, they're trying to make you, you kno in politics, feel bad about the political system of the united states. uthey're trying to make angry about things like whether it's vaccination or whther it's contrails or whether it's pizza pizzagate. they're creating all of those phony issues. and i think people need too recognize therces on social media are terrible, and we should recognize that thingske newshour" or "the new york times" or, you know, "the wall street journal," those are good sources, and that's where people should try to get iformed. >> sreenivasan: all right, roger mcnamee. also in the interest of full disclosure. are you not in a short position. are you still long on facebook. >> i amtill an investor so i got creamed with everybody else.

>> sreenivasan: thank you so much for your tim >> my pleasure. >> sreenivasan: as congress negotiates a $1.3 trillion government spending bill before the friday night deadline, local transportation project in new york and new jersey is causing a major holdup in the process. david cruz of member station njtv reports. >> reporter: when sandy, a once-in-a-lifetime super storm, slammed into new york and new jersey in 2012, it causedhi storic damage to the region's infrastructure, including theds river tunnels. but even before sandy struck, amtrak, whose critical northeast corridor service from d.c. to ston is dependent on the aging ewfrastructure, had begun planning for the g project, a $29 billion plan to ace the existing tunnels and the portal bridge over the hackensack river, which feedsin

almost 500 t and out of those tunnels every day. leaders from new york, new jersey and the obama administration all agreed to share the cost of the t. late last year, a bipartisan show osupport as leaders broke ground on the $1.5 billion portal bridge project. but, soon thereaft, it all began to fall apart. no one is exactly sure why. most speculate a personal feud with new york senator chuck schumer, but the president announced in december that he would not support funding for gateway, and the $900 miion down payment became a sticking point in the current omnibus spending bl negotiations. transportation secretary elaine chao pushed back against lawmakers trying to pin the administration down on funding. >> a campaign is being waged in the public arena to bully the department, to pressure theve federal ment to fund these projects.

>> do you think the gateway project is a good idea? >> we are not arguing about whether this project suld go forward. >> reporter: new jersey senator cory booker says it could leadto an economic cataclysm if one t both of the current tunnels has to be taken service. >> if the untry is the body, the jugular vein, when it comes to transportation, is theid northeast co. it's right here, running through our state. to severhe jugular here, would do undo damage to the entire country. >> reporter: last friday, the portal bridge got stuck again, cag,ing a massive, hours-lon rush-hour backup of new jeamey transit anak trains. for supporters of the project, whicincludes all of new jersey's republican congressmen, including the chairmanf the appropriations committee, rodney frelinghuysen, it was right on cue. for the pbs newshour, i'm david cruz in kearny, new jersey.

>> sreenivasan: the gateway project is just one sticking point in the frantic negotiations on capitol hill, as lawmakers scramble to avert ath d government shutdown this year. lisa desjardins has been following the negotiations, and joins me now. let's top big picture-- omnibus. we hear it every one in ahile. what does it matter? >> first of all, this is ans r bill that i think has been off the raid, probably because congress makes it seem very complicated b actually it's very simple. let's do an omnibusap opriation 101. it's a noun from latin. it's basically a sweeping bi it combines every congressional spending bill in one. now, this year's bill is expected to be $1.2 trillion with a "t." it's important because this is going to include a large spending increase, one of the largest recent times. and more than anything, also, harry, this bill is seen as essibly, very probably tast major bill this congress will pass. it's oany march, but that me if you want to get anything else done, people are trying to stack it into this bill.

>> sreenivasan: big, complicated things, like immigration. we even saw a roundtable today about sanctuary cities. they were trying to figure out if there was legislation they could get i>>to this. s late as this weekend, hari, the president was trying to get a deal over daca d his border wall into this bill. he wanted border wall money in change for a temporary daca fix. democrats say that's not good engh and it looks like neither of those things will be in this bill. that means daca could remain in limbo for quite se time. >> sreenivasan: what else is at stake? >> let's talk about gubz. that's aer vy important bill right now. there is a bill that would shore up the background system. it has 76 sponsors in the senali. if the repns wanted that in this omnibus bill. it's not clear it will go i because conservatives want other things as well on guns. also, health care. many republicans in a bipartisan effort want to try to bring back the su dpeers insurers and insurance that they think will stabilize the market. that's something on the table right now, but it also looks

like it might not make the bill recause of a debate ove abortion and how those subsidies pay for or don't pay for abortion coverage. guns and also health care-- if they don't make this bill, those are two ithat may not see the light of day again this year >> sreenivasan: how about how agencies are funded. is this part of it? >> that's a huge, huge issue. this will be one of th largest spending increases we have seen in years. who gets that money? o which agencies and what hey use it for? some of it we know. $6 billion for opioidfor the opioid crisis. where does that go exactly? we'rwaiting to find out. will any agencies see cuts in this year of a ending increase. republicans want to cut some things but we don't know, hari, because we haven't seen the bill. >> sreenivasan: let'k about a timeline. whons what's in the bill now, and who wilknow what's in it-- >> i will check my phone and see what emails i have gotten in the last two minutes. there was a meeting at 1:00 ttoday among staffers fo big four leaders in congress. they have been meeting since

1:00. they haven't finished meeting. they are the only people who ow what's in this bill, including chairmen and chairwomen in the commitez. they don't know what's decided yet. they're trying toize the outstanding,some of of which we just talked about. they want to do it by midninight t. that would allow the house to live by their own rules and vote by thursday. they tant to haveechnically three days to vote. right now, hari, very few people know tbhoos this bill. it's in the outer screen zoen. it's a masive bill, still not written. >> sreenivasan: the only time legislators are going to be informed on this is, let's say, so time beore midnight tonight, when it hits the system. they're going to have read-- >>pa 1,00ges. >> sreenivasan: 1,000 pages. figure out if they're for it or against it or we head for utdown? government sh >> that's right. they need to get this bill done by friday night. at's when government funding will run out. it's possible the house votes thursday, the senate friday, if they dot make it they will

pass probably another short-term spending bill and work this weekend. but it's very much a matter of stay tune >> sreenivasan: lisa desjardins, thanks so much. >> sure thing. >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: an ohio school that's taking steps to keep chronically absent students in the classroom. and, the harrowing story of two nigerian women who survived being kidnapped bliy the nt group boko haram. but first, abortion and free speech collide at the supreme court today. william brangham takes a look at arguments made before the nine justices this morning. >> brangham: the case before the court involves so-called "crisia pry centers"-- these are clinics run by anti-abortion groups-- and whether a californ centers to more fully disclose what they are, and what serviceh do and don't offer. marcia coyle was in the

courtroom for today's arguments. she is chief washington correspondent of the "national law journal." hi. >> h>> how are you? rangham: great. so tell us a little bit more. what is this case allbout? this is a first amendment claim that was brought by an organization that represents many of these crisis pregnancy centers. and they aat contending under the first amendment, these notices are-- amount to compelled speech, that they are being compelled to speak a ssage that is against their religious beliefs or their beliefs, perd, about abortion. the law itself vides notice-- would require them to provide notices of a range o services, not just abortion-- family contraception, prenatal care, and abortion services. they raised their challenge in the lower federal courts. they lost, and they are the the chalengers who brought the to the supreme court today for the oral arguments. >> sreenivasan: s the law in

california said, if someone walks into ana crisis pry center, which have been accused of sometimes misleading people. >> yes. >> brangham: into thinking you might be getting birth control or abortion-related services, the law saysou hav to say to people, "we don't have medical doctors here," or you have to tell them, "if you do want an abortion, there are services provided by the state of california," and that's what they object to. >> there are really two times of notices. one for unlicensed ceters. they simply have to say that they are not licensed medical facilities, and they have no licensed medical provider on the premises to supervise wh they're doing. if you are a licensed center, then you have to provide a notice that says there are low-cost, free family plannin abortion, prenatal care, contraception servicesnd available,nclude a phone number that would allow the woman to access those services.

>> brangham: so the state of california is saying this is just, in essence, truth in advertising, that if you walk ngto a center, you should know what you're getwhen you walk into that place. >> absolutely. in fact, the state feels that it's finlling an iformation gap. the state has been expanding its health carevi sers, and claims that there are a large number of low-income pregnant women who aren't aware of the services th they can get for free at low cost if they're eligible. they don't see this as targeting crisis cregnancyenters, although, the centers feel that they are being targeted. >> brangham: and what was your sense from listening to the arguments today, how the justices came down on this? >> my sense was that many of the justices seem to be leaning against the la almost all of them voiced some concern,ome more substantial than others. for example, jusce alito sai that the law has so many

exemptions, that when you finally put aside all the exemptions, the only ones who seem suspiciously to be targeted are these antiabortion centers. justices sotomayor and kedyn raised some concerns about even the unlicensed center notice, that if you advertise as an have toed center, y put in large print that you are not a licensed medical facility, and you have to put that 13 different languages. at the same time, justice sotomayor said that she had gone on the web to look at some of these centers to see how they severtise, and even though the unlicensed centers claim they do not provide medical services, she id some of them are showing women in nurses' uniforms in frontf ultrasound machines, in an examining room-- which could be quite misleading. on the other hand, justice kagan

point out what california's law here is doing is almost the flip side of what the supreme court has said states can require doctors who peroform abortions say to their clients. she noted that some of he statements that state require those doctors to give to women have virtually nothing to do with the abortion procedure itself. picking up on that, justice breyer said, well, you know in the law what ishauce for te goose is sauce for the gander. >> brangham: in other legalne today, a defamation suit that was brought by a former contestant of "the apprentice"-- this was donald trump's former show-- has tried to se the president for defamation. according to a new york rule i because president doesn't mean he doesn't get out of this potential case. explain what happened. >> it seems to me what happened here is the prede's lawyers were relying on a supreme court decision, "clinton v. jones." >> brangham: the famous

"clinton v. jones." >> yes, and oddly enough it seemed to work against theen presbecause the supreme court held that president clinton could be sued forexual harassment claimed by paula jones. but the court did not well, the court explicitly said that it was not deciding whether a suit in state court could go forward. it was onl- y addressinis was a suit against president clinton that was brought in federal court. so i think the trump administration is-- or president trump's lawyers are relying on that opening in that decision to carry for pward, andbably within wan appeal. but the new york state court ruling tod was basically on the supremacy clause, saying that nobody is above the law, and so, this suit could go forward in atstcourt. so we'll have to see what happens next. >> brangham: marcia coyle, asal ys, thank you so much. >> my pleasure.

>> sreenivasan: missing a day of school here, two days there, may not seem like a big deal. but before long, those days add up, and students aren't learning and they're struggling to keep academically. seven million children in the u.s. are consired "chronically absent"-- that means missing 10% of the school year. states are beginning to take the problem seriously. for the last few years, schools in cleveland, ohio have made a big effort to encourage students to get to class every day. special correspondent kavitha cardoza, with our partner "education week," found steady progress there, but also a long way to go, for our weekly segment, "making the grade." >> good morning! >> reporter: it's 7:00 ind, clevelhio, and it's dark, cold and snowing. the kind of day when it's difficult to get out the door. >> snow is real hard.te >> rep but amanda watkins

prides herself on her daughters' perfect school attendance. >> i can't miss a day! it's my perfect atevndance, not hers! >> reporter: in cleveland public schools though, that kind of attendance record is not pical. a couple of years ago, school system leaders found more than half of their 40,000 students a were chronicalent. the problem starts as early as ndergarten. >> oh, careful now! >> reporter: principal brittany anderson at patrick henry school greets every child as they come in-- and their parents. >> we appreciate you keeping them safe. >> reporter: a lot of parents expressed that they didn't feel welcomed in the school in prior years. so once a week, she sets outie coffee and pas >> at first, it was a way to get them in. but then, coffee clubs turned a intoay for the parents to talk to teachers. that way, we can have these conversations with our parents without it feeling formal. ( laughter ) >> reporter: diamond gadomski has three kids in the school. she appreciates the warm welcome. >> when you come in, they

smiling and friendly faces with stuff to give to you, hot treats or whatever, it makes you feel good! >> all right, s.p.o. meeting tomorrow. >> reporter: anderson says building good relationships with parents makes it more likely they will bring their children to school, even on a day like day. >> if our scholars are not hereo then they arlearning. >> reporter: students who miss a lot of school are more likely to drop out.a robert balfanzsearcher with johns hopkins university, found a direct link between attendance and academics in florida.en >> eally, we found that each additional day of missed s schoolindents had one fewer point on the state test. miss ten days, lose ten poin, . miss 15 dase 15 points. >> reporter: but because schools used to track attendan differently, balfa says, until recently, states didn't even realize there was a problem. >> traditionally, schools have measured average daily attendance, which is how many kids are in the building on a given day, and except in the most extreme cases, that's almost always in the 90s.

nkand we're hardwired to t0, a, good! but it turns out, you can have an average daily attdance in the low 90s and still have a quarter of your kids missing a month or more of school. >> reporter: chronic absenteeism affects all students, says hedy chang with the nonprofitan atte works. >> a teacher now is faced with the choice of repeating lessons or keeping going on for the kids who have been there. and that churn slows down the ability of an entire classroom to move forward. >> reporter: a new federal education law signed into effect by former president barack obama goes into effect this year. now, all states will be required to track chronic absenteeism. it's typically considered missing 18 school days or more, but cleveland leaders found even thmissing just one day a m made a difference. so they started a public relations blitz. the slogan, "get to school, you can make it!" was on billboarder po magnets, t-shirts, even grocery store bags.el

everyoned staff a daily phone bank-- board members, prinpals, bus drivers. they made 16,000 calls the first year. >> the reason for the call is, jaylen has missed four more days of school. >> reporter: keisha bullard is a kindergarten teacher. >> is there anything we can do to assist you? in the past hour, for instance, i think that i've aled maybe 20, 30 numbers. >> reporter: low income families, in particular, face many challenges. >> with the weather being like it is, it's asthma. most of the time it is transportation or iless issues. da reporter: lorri hobson, who's in charge of atte for the district, found lots of kids miss school simply because they don't have clean clothes. >> we provide uniforms to any family who needs a uniform, and what we discovered was, attendance improves for as much as six weeks after receiving a uniform. >> reporter: cleveland schools

partner with severalon organizatito help provide families with everything from a bus pass to emergency shelter to legal help. this makes sense, chang says,us bea school district can't solve deeper, social problems on s own. >> when you haveigh levels of chronic absence, often it means there are these bigger challenges, and you really need to have a community approach to address it. >> reporter: in cleveland, it's an all-out effort. a community college offers scholarships as incentive, locau nesses check attendance before hiring, and the cleveland browns players visit schools regularly. >> whenever you are late, that means you don't have respect for the other person'sime. in the n.f.l., you get fined. so, our fine, i think,u miss a meeting, might be like $10,000. >> wow! >> reporter: some districts do use punishments such as fines, jail time and taking away drivers' licenses, but cleland schools have found focusing on

positive messages far more effective. >> we show up every day, and so should cleveland students, even when it's cold outside. get to school, we know you can make it! >> reporter: in the last two years, cleveland's chronic absenteeism rate has dropped from 50% to 30%. at cleveland high school for digital arts, principal smine maze and a local radio celebrity are hosting a surprise celebration, because students have made their attendance goal. >> you never know when dj incognito's going to show up and just come here and throw up a party! >> it's crazy in here!or >>ter: ninth grade is another year when students are most likely to miss school.ve but today,one is glad they're here. >> that's the icing on the cake z 10ing here! >> it's cool because it brings teeryone together! >> i think it motikids to come to school, because they don't want to miss stuff like this. >> reporter: erigordon, the roe.o. of cleveland schools, says they've movedm rewarding perfect attendance to

recognizing studentsolho come to scegularly. someone watching might say "really? a rty just for coming to school? isn't that what kids are supposed to do?" >> yes, it is what kids are supposed to do. i would chalnge people to look at their own workplace environments, though, where compans give bonuses for all kinds of things, including high attendance, where they have parties for their staff performing well. incentive is part of how you createehaviors. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: in cleveland, thousands more children now attend classes regularly, but a third of the district is still missing 18 days or more days of school, and gordon says it willt continuetake a lot of effort. for pbs newshour and "education week," i'm kavitha cardoza in cleveland, ohio. >> sreenivasan: one update to our education story from af coupleeks ago, on the teacher's strike in west virginia. it ended after more than a week, but our colleagu at "education week" report, that emboldened teachers to push for pay raises

in other states, includingok homa, arizona and kentucky. in oklahoma, there could be a walkout in early april. >> sreenivasan: boko haram has oucut an infand deadly reputation for itself in nigeria, and a particularly cruel taic of the islamist militant group is every parent's worst fear: the kidnapping and killing of children.'l in a moment, yhear testimonials from two young women o survived that experience. but first, some background on the group, and the fight against it. boko haram's near-decade-long campaign of terror and violence has killed tens of thousds and displaced two million people. their main focus: to overthrow nigeria's government and hatablish an islamic state forbids western-style political and social activity. boko haram translates to

"western education is forbidden." the group has carried out attacks in cameroon, niger and chad, all from its base in remote, northeastern nigeria since 2009, the militants have terrorized africa's most populous country with bombings, assassinations and abductions. just last month, an isis- affiliated faction of boko haram kidnapped 110 girls from a s boardiool in northeast nigeria-- some as young as 11 years old. last week, the nigeriantt government sed boarding schools in the northeastern state, and sent drones and jets to search for the girls. boko haram often marries the captives off to fighters; they've also been used as suice bombers. in 2014, the mitants abducted nearly 300 students from a school in the village of chibok, prompting an international campaign to free them. more than 50 girls escaped.

about 100 more were freed last year, after the nigerian government paid a nearly $4 million ransom.me ad been forced to convert to islam and sold as sex slaves. they were beaten, starved and sexually assaulted. recently, judy woodruff sat down with two young women who were abducted in 2014, and escaped. yakaka was 15 when taken; hawa: 14. they were brought to the u.s. by a non-profit called "too yng to wed," dedicated to protecting young girls and ending child marriage. and a warning: their accounts are harrowing and disturbing, and will upset many viewers.uf >> woo yakaka, i'm going to start with you. tell us what happened to you. >> ( translated ): i was living in b-- >bama, my home town,and boko ha.

they took us to the forest, and up till now, there's no news about them. >> woodruff: what about your parents? >> ( translated ): i am together with my parents. >> woodruff: when they took you away, what happened? how long were you there and how were you teated? >> ( translated ): i had been with them for a long time. we suffered a lot. it was rough treatment every day. my first husband amonthe insurgents was one of the people that abducted me. after having sex with me, d woend me out naked into the camp. other insurgents would dreg me and havewith me. when i returned, he knew exactly that his own fellow shaergz had sex with me, but he flooding me for wasting time. that was my daily life. i delivered a babboy before i escaped with three other abductees. >> woodruff: did you believe you would escape when you were being held? >> ( translated ): i never thought that i would escape because they took us far into the forest and there was no indication that they would ever take us back into then.

>> woouff: and hawa, you were just 14 when you were abducted. tell ud what happened to you your family. >> ( translated ): in lived bama, along with my parents, before the advt of boko haram. i was a student going to school, no problem. boko haram came and invaded boama. on the third day of the invasion, a childhood friend to my senior other, who had joand boko haram, led other boko haram men to ou house loking for my brother. he could not see him, so he said they're going with me to the bush to go and marry me. my father objected. they held him, and in my presence, they used a knife to ice his throat and kill him instantly. my step-mother also protested. they also held her and killed her. fortunately enough, my mother was not at homtoe, so theok me away. >> woodruff: i can't even imagine. and you were helfor how long? and how were you treated?

>> ( translated ): i got pregnant in their custody, and my pregnancy was abo nine months when i escaped. i can't say precisely the as unt of mon stayed in their custody. one day i brvegged they were not paying attention in the night when they were in the mosque. i succeeded in escaping. >> woodruff: did you blieve you would be able to safely escape? >> ( translated ): i never thought i could escape, but it was the best ting to do at that moment because i was nine months pregnant, no support from anywhere, no arrangement to take care of me, nobody to help me out, no experience. i felt i may die in the process of giving birth, so i better die while escaping.o >> wdruff: and what has happened to your child? >> ( translated ): i escaped from the camp. i was trekking in the bush. on the seventh day, i got to a v desertlage, where i found an old woman that was there. she saw my condition. she send me, kept me in her house. d o days later, i delive

baby girl. the old woman helped me. she supported me. after a few days, when i got a littlewe stronger resolved that i should leave because if the insurgents came to find me in her custody, they will kill both of us. sowehe shome the road to bama. i kept trekking. on the third day in the night, my daughter became ill, and she died. st first i thought she wa sleeping, but later i realized that her hands became very stiff. i co even move them. then i knew she was dead. there was a rag donated to me by the old woman. i us it to wrap the corpse. inside, i dug a hole, buried the girl, and proceeded. >> woodruff: i am so sorry. and you were alne through this whole thing, through this journey? and yakaka, how did you finally escape from boko haram? >> ( translated ): i joined three other ladies to escape along with them because we could not number situation.

the suffering was becoming too much. so we left the cmp in the night when most of the soldiers were sleeping. we escaped through the bsh and trekked to maiduguri. a military truck picked us uanp dropped us close to a camp. >> woodruff: i understand you went to a cap or a place for displaced persons, people. and there, you were also treated badly. is that right? >> ( translate t): the soldiehat took us in their truck dropped us off at the lorry camp. it was a large ca with a lot of people. the feeding was a problem. you hardly get food to eat. sometimes went for two days thout foo yes, there were some aide workers that were sharing food, but i never benefittedhe i watched red cross twice distributing such aid materials, but it got finished before reaching my turn. and another problem we usually had in that camp was that once it wasvening, allhe aid workers left the camp, leaving us with soldiers and other security agencies. soldiers went to our various rooms, demanding for sex, and was better to accept it, or you

would be intimidatednd dealt with. so when i discovered i had left the problem and i had jumpedin another problem, i i decided to leave the camp to another community where my child fell ill. and because i had n accesto medication, he died. l, that was how i lost my son. >> woodruff: we we can't even begin to imagine the sadness and the hardship that you've lived thrgh. and i know everyone hearing your story is in awef you and your strength and being able to tell these stories today, in hop that thungz will change. hawa, how have you bee?n treat how has your life been since you escaped? and how hard is thifor you now? are you able to put that behind you and think about the future? >> ( translated ): at the time i escaped and get toid, guri, i didn't know anyone.

i had no one to stay with. community and hos stayed with some people. but nobody wanted me around. nobody was happy i was living there because they all called me the ex-wife of boko hram. they were all calling me names. i had only one dress set.me any wanted to go out or do something, fiwanted to wash myress, i had to remove my dress, wash it, dry it off, and find somewhere to hide nude until the dress dried off. "too young to" wedovide me with dresses and re dresses andn one of the best schools. i had to lat area i was living in as a richer person to another part where they do notkn much about me. and now they see me as well to-do in this ciety. before i reconnected with my mother. >> sreenasan: yakaka, how hard is it for you now, and what do you want to do now? what do you want to do ithe future? >> ( translated ): my major

oblem is when i go out in the streets of mai gd,uri, and i see survivors who have been not been ab to access any help. they live out of school. i pray they geth te type of assistance i got, be in school, change their status, get good dress, be acceed by the society and whenever they finish school. i am hoping in my own case, whei sh school, i will come back and assist other growing ildren from my community that have been neglected. i also want all others to get the same treatment. >> woodruff: hawa, what do you want american tons about the future possible for peoples like-- for young women, for people like you and yakaka, and other children of nigeria, who have had this terrible thing happen to them, and many of whom are still at risk? what suld americans know? what do you want them to be about the future that you want? >> ( translated ): i am pleading with the people ofth

america an government to please assist us. there are thousands of other children thahave no scrois, that are abducted in the foresto dy is talking of them. let the u.s. government put pressure where necessary. the government and all the relevant agencies should e that a lot of efforts will be put towards recovering these people, put them in schools, so myat they can save generation. >> woodruff: finally, let me ask both of you, do you have ago feeling about your own future? yakaka, do you feel you will be able to fulfill and have the t lit you want to have? >> ( translated ): yes. my future is bright.i m a student of western education, and i know the value of a western education. through, that i can have a brighter future. >> woodruff: and hawawhat, about you? what do you think not only the future is for you, but the other young people of nigeria in thet part oe country where you're from? >> in my own case, so logae remain in school other my future is bright. but at the same time, i request

that oth children should live like me or even better than me. let the entire world devise varioumeans of recovering all the kidnapped children, send them to school, and let thm develop once more a hope in their lives. >> woodruff: well, we are moved by your we are very sad with you on the loss of your falyembers, and your loved ones, and wert nly wish for you the very, very best. thank you for coming and talking with us about what happened. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. r >>eenivasan: amnesty international reported the nigerian security forced were alerted but failed to act lasntt against bokamo har militants. they captured 100 che.dren th s

enivasan: finally tonight, sad news from the newshour family. betty n bowser, long-time correspondent for the pbs newshour, died friday night at her home in ajijic, mexico. she was 73. betty ann was a proud virginia yarnlg, starting her career in 1985 at wavy. eight years later, she was working for cbs news during the walter cronkite era, eventually becoming the coanchor of a news magazine program "30 minutes." >> the recovery is still in its early stages. >> sreenivasan: she began filing stories for the "newshour" as a correspdent in 1986, covering stories like the oakes city bombing, 9/11, and a long list of natural disasters. she spent time getting to kw victims of those tragedies, and she wasn't afraid to push more well-known public figures for answers,a was the case when shen sat ith donald trump in

1992. >> reporter: are you a republican or democrat? >> i probably a republican, but-- >> reporter: an economic republican? a social democra >> but i'm really for an individual more than i am for a party. >>ivasan: she always kept digging, asking civil engineers why the levees failed after hurricane katrina. >> they knowingly built a levee below their own standards in ths place? >> and that's correct. >> and now they're building it back to what it was before, and didn't work. >> and that's correct. >> sreenivasan: shortly befor the passage of the affordable care act in 2010, betty ann was named health correspondent for thenewshour." she took viewers to the front lines of the raging health care battles and far beyond the beltway, where she trd convey the daily challenges americans faced. >> if you live inan lamber you need groceries, your only option is this convenience store. >> sreenivasan: we'll remember betty ann for hir tenacity and wit and for the many complex stories she helped us tell. lawyer

on the newshour online right now-- six months after hurricane maria, whole towns in puerto rico still remain without power, but some communities are getting assistance setting up renewable energy sources. can solar power light up the island's recovery? we explore that and more on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. 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 haseen provided by:

>> bnsf railway. >>onsumer cellular. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york.or sung innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peacend security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this prograwas made

possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.tr and by cutions to your pbs thation from viewers like you. k you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

a chef's life is made possible in part by biltmore. there was a time when the earth yielded its fruit. wine flowed. and life was a continual feast. there was such a time. it wt weekend at biltmore. applegate, makers of natural and organic meats. commited to raising animals humanely on family farms. applegate is proud to support a chef's life. an by: north carolina pork council. lenoir county committee of 100. blue cross blue shield of north carolin sc carolina wild ine juice. no and the h carolina department of agriculture. got to be nc wine.