captioning spoored by ns newshour productions, llc >> brangham: good even i'm william brangham, judy woodruff is away. on the "newshour" tonight... the f.b.i. raids the office of presidt trump's long-time lawyer, seizing many of his legal records. then: >> we're talking about humanity and it can't be allowed toha en. >> brangham: president trump threatenaction in syria after another chemical weapon attack draws condemnation across the globe. then, some facebook users are notifiedhat their information was breached, as c.e.o. mark zuckerberg arrives on capitol hillhead of a hearing on his company's privacy policies. also ahead, training police to understand mental health-- what's changed in missouri after police are given new methods to deal with the mentally ill. >> the idea was to create sort of a no wrong door, particularly for police officers, you know,

where when they're not sure a place that they could bringd people and they could be evaluated. >> brangham: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >>ajor funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our enomy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> consumer cellular. >> consumer cellular believes that wireless plans should

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>> this program was made possible by the corporatn for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brangham: president trump will soon decide what the u.s. response will be to the latest alleged use of chemical weapons in syria by the assad regime; the u.s. suspects a nerve agent was used. mr. trump consulted his national security team and with allies today, all this following a weekend strike on a damscus suburb. special correspondent jane ferguson in beirut begins our coverage and a warning: images in this report will disturb many viewers. >> it was an atrocious attack, it was horrible, you don't see things like that, >> ferguson: in the cabinet room e is morning, president trump said there wouldprice to pay for saturday's apparent chemical attack >> we'll be making majoron deciover the next 24 to 48 hours.

>> ferguson: footage from the damascus suburb of douma shows humanity under siege.hi not even cren were spared from the latest atrocity. heasked if he would answer attack with air strikes, president trump had this to say: >> nothing's off the table. >> ferguson: the u.s. denied responsibility for air strikes that hit a syrian base near homs early this morning. russia and syria said israel launched the strike; an israeli spokesperson would neideer confirm no it. as news of the suspected gas attack spread yesterday, president trump reacted on twitter, calling out russian presidt vladimir putin by name for backing, "animal" assad. in moscow, foreign minister d rgei lavrov insisted the russian military und no signs of chemicals in douma and >> ( translated ): t syrian government also spoke about that-- a serious provocation aimed at accusing damascus once

again for ing chemical poisonous substances against civilian population. >> reporter: the images of the carnage in dma were searing-- but familiar. last april, a sarin gas attack on the town of khan sheikhoun, in syria's north, killed more than 80 people. president trump ordered air strikes on the base where the attack was launched. in 2012, president obama said any use of chemical weapons by assad would be a "red line" for the u.s. but after a nerve gas attack in 2013, instead of launching air strikes, mr. obama i struck a deal with russia to remove syria's stockpile of chemical weapons-- or so they thought. since then assad's regime hasue contto douse rebel enclaves in chemicals dozens of times, often using chlorine gas, which wasn't included in the 2013 deal. as subsequent attacks have made clear, syria did not disclose its entire arsenal. the latest assault comes at a

wepivotal moment: just las, president trump said he wanted to get out of syria entirely. >> i want to bring oroops back home. it's vercostly for our country and it helps other countries a hell of a lot more than it helps us. so, we're going to bmaking a decision. >> ferguson: republican senator john mccain warned against pulling out the roughly 2000 u.s. troops, based largely in syria's northeast. he tweeted that the president's "pledge to withdraw from syria has only emboldened assad, backed by russia and iran, to commit more war crimes in douma." at a u.n. security council meeting this afterno, syria's representative denied any complicity. nikki haley sharply condemned the attack, and the regime. >> who does this? okly a monster des this. we must not overussia and iran's roles in enabling the assad regime's murderous destruction. >> ferguson: but the u.n. human

rights chief had tough words, blasting world powers for their, "collective shg" in the face the syrian regime's brutality. for the pbs newshour, i'm jane rguson, in beirut >> brangham: i spoke with jane ferguson a short time ago. jane, president trump today strongly suggesting that he is going to militarily strike syria for tis latest chemical weapons attack. how are those threats being heard where you are? >> in the region, william, nobody's really respondingde nitively yet to those words from president trump and that's largely because no one knows yet whey will be responding to. of course, as you say, it sounds like a cler threat fo military action, but it's not really aic specne. >> brangham: there was a counterstrike that happened earlier today and maniebel israel perpetrated that counterstrike. if it was israel, this may not be a retaliation to the chemical weapons attack, it may be moreco about israel'cern over iran in syria. is that right? >> that's much more likely,

ewilliam. for israelis, their main concern for the last few years basically since iran has been involved in this war, since 2013 when we started to see hezbollah, the militant group from here in lebanon move into syria, the israelis have been concerned about making sure they don't build theirapacity just across the israeli border into syria. israel is worried about iran building a permanent and complex military presence across the border, and also that iran could essentially get a land boundary going across the middle east from iran through iraq, through syria and lebanon to their satellite group hezbollah, they don't want them moving weapons, and we've seen these sorts of strikes from te israelis. they almost never publicly acknowledge it's them, but thesp strikes ning that are preventing weapons or weapons convoys froinm geto hezbollah or trying to limit and basically manage iran's military

capabilities across the border from israel. >> brangham: president trump seems to be giving two different messages, threatening strikes today against syruiat just yesterday talking about the need it's time for the u.s. to go ome and leave syria. do these strikes against assadth do ag to deter his behavior? >> it doesn't seem to have so far. of course, that strir ago now that president trump authorized after the use of sarin gas against the civilians by president assad has clearly not deterred him from using emical weapons, and we've seen the chlorine gas used again andb agai it's also important, william, to point out that assad has alsoived through president obama's red line years ago. of course, we hear these strong words coming out of the white 'thouse, but it doe appear to be deterring president assad who is, of course, gaining e upper hand and has been for years now. >> brangham: special

correspondent jane ferguson, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> reporter: f.b.i. agents today raided and seized communications from president trump's long-tine personal att michael cohen. in a statement, cohen's lawyered cahe seizures "completely inappropriate and unnecessary." he confirmed federal prosecutors had obtained aeries of search warrants, upon referral from special counsel robert mueller, who is leading the russia probe. multiple news outlets report that ants seized records related to payments cohen made to an adult film actress-- known as srmy daniels-- she claims she had an affair with mr. trump in 2006. eric tucker covers the justice department for the associated press and is covering this story. eric tucker, welcome to the "newshour". i wonder if you could tell us what else do we know about these raids today? >> we know they ok place at his office in manhattan and they seized records relating to multiple different topics including, as you mentioned, records relating to the $130,000 that michael cohen has admitted making the payment to stormy

daniels. >> brangham: i'm no lawyer, but thidea of attorney-client privilege is an incredibly sacrosanct part of american law so what that would prompt attorneys to be investigated like this, to have the raids conducted? >> that's a great question. procol and manuals lay outmake nism by which you can seizerd refrom an attorney and, so, what it real will you does suggest is this process that went through multiple roval innd layers of app order to get the action that we saw today. so, you know, in an ordinary jarch warrant, obviously, you have to go to audge and you lay out probable cause that a crime was committed a that the records that you're going to be obtaining will bear out evidence of a potential crime. so one can imagine that the government heare must relly think they have that sort of evidence. >> brangham: help et understand sng that seems a lit confusing on the surface. if this was a referral from

robert mueller, yet its relating to stormy daniels and michael cohen's interactions with her, how does that work? as far as we kow, mueller wasn't necessarily looking into the stormy daniels issue.th >> a great question. we know based on on the record statements from sam nunberg that among the questions he was asket befo grand jury were questions that related to themy staniels payment, he was aaround during the campaign and says he was asked about that, so it doesappear that special counsel mueller is taking his mandate serisly saying i'm responsible for investigating certain elements of president trump and his campaign and not others, and, so, he is empowered and indeed authorized to encouraged to make referrals to other entities within the justice department when he sees activity that might fall outside of his mandate. >> brangham: eric tucker of the associated press. thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> brangham: in the day's other news: president trump pledged to "make it up" to farmers who could suffer from china's proposed tariffs on pork and soybean imports. beijing threatened them in response to planned u.s. tariffs on chinese goods. ttoday the president call farmers "great patriots," and acknowledged the hardships they face from china's retaatory moves. >> the farmers will be better off than they were, it'll take a little while to get there, but it could be very quick actually. but i say it's not nice when they hit the farmers specifically because they think it hits me. >> brangham: in beijing, chinese officials blamed the u.s. for the escalating trade tensions, and said negotiations would be impossible under the "current circumstances." >> ( translated ): the trade conflicts are unilaterally started by the united states, so the responsibility rests entirely on its side. its actions have violated international trade rules, dented the multilateral trade system, and breached its own promises as well. >> brangham: on sunday,tr presidenp predicted china will ultimately ease trade barriers because, "it's theth righg to do."

president trump also confirmed r day that his meeting with north korean leam jong un will take place "in may or early june." that comes after it was widely reported north korea confirmed with the wte house that it's willing to discuss potential "de-nuclearization". but it'snclear what the north believes that would entail hungary's prime minister viktor orban has won third term, after running on a deeply anti- immigrant platform. the right-wing, nationalist leader celebrated his swn ping re-elect budapest sunday. orban repeatedly criticized the european unions' more op border policies during his campaign. his ruling party also secured a two-thirds majority in parliament, and vowed to unveil legislion cracking down on immigrant rights groups. back in this country, the congressional budget office is projecting that the u.s. budgetl deficit each at least $1- trillion by 2020. it's director-- keith hall-- said the deficit will surge to about $804-billion this year, largely due to president trump's

tax cuts and the newly-passed bi-partsan spending bill. and by 2028, the deficit will be approaching 100% of g.d.p. by 2028. >> our forecast beyond ten years does nothing but sw rising debt to g.d.p. ratio and we anticipate within the next decade after that we're going to break the record, under current law, d g.d.p., so we're getting to quite high levels and there's no trend path under current law to fix the problem. >> brangham: it is assumed the tax lawsill expire a written down but if confirmed the det will be >> brangham: the teacher strikea in oklahomnow entered its second week-- with no end in sight. hundreds of educators and their supporterslooded the state capitol for another day, demanding an increase in education funding. the state's two largest school districts-- oklahoma city and tulsa-- have already canceled

class for tomorrow as well.et bill cosbyned to a pennsylvania court today, for the retrial of his sexual assault case. this one, now occurrg in the middle of the "me too" movement. cosby was heckled by protesters as he walked into the courthouse. the 80-year-old codian hasil pleaded not gu to three counts of aggravated indecent assault. a prosecutor revealed cosby id nearly $3.4-million to andrea constand, the woman he's charged with sexually assaulting. that amount had previously been confidential. on wall street today, stocks erased an early rally after news d one about the f.b.i. r president trump's attorney's office. the dow jones industrial average climbed 46 points to close at 23,979. the nasdaq rose 35 points, and the s&p 500 added 8. myand democratic senator t duckworth of illinois gave birth to a baby girl today-- makingev her the firs u.s. senator to give birth while in office.wo duh is a 50-year-old veteran who lost both her legs in the iraq war. o she's one y ten women to

give birth while serving in congress. stilto come on the "newshour facebook under fire: scrutiny oi the al media giant ahead of its c.e.o.'s cgressional testimony.d oprsus ownership: the "denver post"'s editoriapage takes on the paper's owner. a close-up look at how kansas city is working to improve its treatment of the mentally ill. and much more. >> reporter: facebook and its founder, marzuckerberg, are expected to face a grilling on capitol hill-- starting tomororw. zuckerberg, who began meeting with lawmakers today, will appear before senate committees on tuesday and a house committee onednesday. the company has been in damage control mode since news broket abmajor breach of facebook users personal information. zuckerberg apologized again today in remarks released in

advance of his testimony, and ht sa company did not take a broad enough view of its responsibility-- until now. he also pointed to other changes being made.da toy, for example, users found today, for example, users found messages showing them hoe to find out mout the apps they use on facebook, and what information is being shared by, those apd how to remove them. we're going to hear from a critical voice about all this in a moment. but first, hari sreenivasan reminds us of what's happened up toow, and what's at stake. >> sreenivasan: in 1994, it was big tobacco c.e.o.'s in front of congress. in 2010, it was big oil c.e.o.'s answering questi gs after the ulf oil spill. in 2011, the c.e.o.'s of major banks were at the tables, but that will change for a big player of the tech sector this week when facebook c.e.o. and founder mark zuckerberg testifies before lawmakers on capitol hill tomorrow and wednesday. it comes after the company atmitted it had not adequately protected the prdata of as many as 87 million users. in fact, faceboosays that

information was improperly sold to a political consulting firm, cambridge analytica. then in rn, the data was eventually used by candidate donald trump. cambridge analytica says its k to success is the use of psychographics; breaking people down based on their personality traits, and attitudes. at a conference in 2016 their c.e.o. alexander nix explained that voters shouldn't just be targeted based on race, gender or geography. >> its personality that drives behavior and its behavior that influences how you vote. >> sreenivasanhere's the key part of his pitch as it relates to why facebook is on capitol hill. >> by having hundreds hundreds of thousands of americans undertake this survey, we're able to form a model to predict the personality of every single adult. >> sreenivasan: you might not remember taking that survey but deout 270,000 people downl a facebook app and took a personality quiz called thisisyourdigitalife. the terms of the app also allowed it to download the

information of all the survey taker's friends, which meant the information of as many as 87 million people couldave been harvested. here's alexander nix again wf h an examplew psychographic targeting works when crafting gun rights messages: >> for a highly neurotic and conscientious audig ce, you're go need a message that is rational and fear based and emotionally sed. in this case the threat of a burglary and the insurance policy of a gun is very persuasive. conversely for a closed and agreeable audience, these are people who care about tradition, and habits and family and community. >> sreenivasan: the trump campaign employed such sly, talking about these values will be much more effective if communicating your >> sreenivasan: the trump mpaign employed such microtargeting on an unprecedented scale, creating

nearly six million versions of different advertisements for different audiences. the company says they are changing their policies so leaks ga personal data through apps can never happen. >> this was a major breach of trust and i'm really sorry that this happened. you know we have a basic responsibility to protect people's data and if we can't do that then we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people. s enivasan: it is not the first or second or third time the company hafemade promises to guard the information of their users. in 2007, zuckerberg apologized for oversharing the peonal information of users through a product called beacon. in 2009, it revealed information users thought was private without warning. these and other actions led to a 2011 consent decree by the federal trade mmission, to protect user's privacy. until now, the company has taken a defensive posture, saying that all users are aware of wt they're sharing and with which apps, that users are in essence

granting informed consent. but most users never bother to go into the privacy settgs and adjust the levels of visibility on the informationhey generate. accessing information about user's tastes and preferen is core to the company's business. in a nutshell, here is how the company makes money. en we like or love or share a video or an article or a brand on facebook, we're generating information that fills in a profile. facebook helps advertisers reach very specific audiences based od those tastesreferences. whe facebook users may go online to share information with their family and friends, the data they generate and in turn the advertisers who target based on that data is what helped the compy earn $40 billion in revenue just last year and has it valued a nearly half a trillion dollars. for the pbs newshour, i'm hariin sreenivasaew york. >> brangham: joining me to tscuss these latest facebook scandals is zeynek-she.

she is an associate proffesor at the university of north carolina, chapel hill, and she studies the way we interact with tenology professo welcome to the ewshour". you know mark zuckerberg is meeting on capitol hill with senators and will testify tomorrow. is there anything he can sayyo o who have been a very strong critic of this company that facebook gets this problem andin they're to solve it? >> well, the problem we're facing isn't whether or not facebook gets the problem or what its ins entie, even. the problem is the waw they set up their busiss and ar used to and allowed to harvest our data and use it foargeting pits its incentives against the innocent it was of its 2 billion users at times, definitely sreates distortions in the public sphere, all these harms for politics. so rather than ma zuckerberg telling us something, the thing i really wish to see is our

legislators and lawmakers stepping up and doing their job and bringing somige ove to this so that facebook's incentives are better aligned with ouinterests i the healthy public sphere. >> brangham: so you believe the problem th facebooks much broader than cambridge an e analytica and this most reent election? >> absolutely. in fact, cambridge an analyticap is barely oblem considering everything that's been going on. i first wrote about the dangers on information on facebook in 2012 when there was no cambridge alytica because it was already evident that things could be targeted iways that were misleading to people and already obvious the fast hoarding of data, when you collect this much data and that's held people's attention on this platform using to profile them to third parties

has all sorts of digs torsions. so even if cambridge analytica didn't exist and had neverob happened, the m would remain. facebook is a surveillance machine that is using this tnormous amount of data its collecting from just the two billion users, it also creates shadowrofiles of people not on the plat fortunately and uses all the data to infer things about us computationally to figure us out and sells this kind of targeted access to whoever is paying them. so that's unhealthy. so cambridge analytica is not the core problem here, it just allowed uso see how the machinery operates and to have a broader conversation about it.o >> brangham:t's talk specifics. let's say -- i mean, facebook is not goi anywhere as you admit and there are many great things about the platform itself. >> i use the platform all the time. i'm not telling people it's not a good platform. >> brangham: very

specifically, what would you like to see canged? >> i would liked all data collectionino be op. i should affirmatively ackively consent to the wayt daa is collected about me. the data shoizd be min the function. it should be collected for whatever i want it to be collected for rather than just harvested and used for whatever. it should come with an piration date. if i allow the company to have the data for a while, it shouldp dir when my consent to its use is done. the thing i fear is that the stimony just turns into congressional speacle, that lawmakers yell at zuckerberg, and mark zuckerberg apologizes, and it would feel cathartic but that's not the problem. a this isnout personalities. and facebook keeps saying it's an idistic company. it's a giant company without the trillion dollars in

capitalization. it's about protecting our data and our public sphere. >> brangham: zeyne tufekci, thank you so much. >> thank you for inviting me. >> thank you for inviting me. >> brangham: newspapers around the country continue to face steep problems. in many cases-- especior mid-size papers-- layoffs and buuts are far from over. this weekend, journalists at the "denver post" sounded the alarm with a blistering stop-the- presses-style editorial that took the paper owners to task. amna nawaz looks at why editors there took this most unusual step. >> reporter: the front page editorial came aft years of devastating cuts ordered by alden global capital-- a new rk city hedge fund that stepped in to buy the paper in 2010. in it, the editorial page editors referred to alden as "vulture capitalists" and wrote: "denver deserves a newspaper owner who supports its newsroom. if alden isn't willing to do good journalism here, it should

sell the 'post' to owners who will." st today, two dozen more staffers left th"post," the latest in a series of layoffs that have taken the 125-year-old paper from a newsroom of 250fe journalists, tr than 100. the post's parent company is one insthe biggest newspaper c in the country, with more than 90 papers in cities like st. paul, boston, and san jose, and several of their newsrooms have gone through staff reductions. but none, so far, have done what the denver post has-- publicly calling out their owners and begging to be sold. joining me now, chuck plunkett, page editor of "the de post," who co-wrote the editorial. welcome. i want to begin by just asking you why, why take this extraordinary move? why a this particular waynd why now? >> well, you know -- and thanks for having me -- newspapers hae

a proud dition of calling out the powerful, being the voice fo vtheoiceless, and we even have a tradition that we runto letterhe editor and op-eds written by outsiders who are critical of our work. e on theditorial page, we are critical of government and n'tvate businesses who we d feel are living up to the job that they are supposed to perform td, in this siuation, we believe that our owners are failing their readers, nojust in denver, colorado, but in ther many holdings across united states and it was only proper to call them out and ask for better. >> but this is a pretty drastic move, i think it's fair to say, an extraordinary step. help meli understand a ttle bit more about what exactly is at stake. >> well, we're under extraordinary conditions. when i first joned "the post" midway through 2003, it was at its peak. there were more than 300 journalists. five mountain bureaus. we had a large political team. over the years, that haso

downsized, som that is because of market forces which i totally understand, but we have seen that cities that are our size and larger or smaller, i mean, our size or smaller population have news rrms that are much largerha tn "the denver post," even when we were at where we are presently todayh wh just under 100, these cuts, when they're completed, will be closer to 60. that seems like the death nail, the final cut so it was either stand up now, ask things change and take a stand for the cmmunity and journalism and what we should be doing as a newspaper or facing the prospect of writing our ohno pitch ware in a fewrs yemaybe as few as 3. >> what do you feel would be lost if the denver post wee not allowed to continue to thrive with the staff you think it s needs? >> tha great question. you know, a city -- a paper of record like the denver post, the biggest news room a a state,

should be en as a public institution. it is the kind of entity that has p uniquition that, because of its reporting ability and becausof itsditorial ability, are able to call balls and st kikes, we're able toeep things on a level playing field and help monitor a situation soh a city and a community and a state and a region can enjoy and become what they are capable of so th can be at their potential. if you don't have a strong journalistic team trying to meet those goals, so much is lost 's incalculable. >> so what would you like to see from your parent company either say or doca ho the denver post be saved? >> it would be great if they would invest in the news room again. we lost ourpl accher earlier this year. has not been repced with someone who spends time day in erd day out in the de community, and the problem i'm beginning to see is we have ana absenteedlord tape

situation. if alden and digital media want to reinvest and prop up that piece of the business, that would be great. short of that, i think they should try to look for -- i hope they would look for communitywh memberare able to afford and desire to have the public institution that is the denver post. >> do you believe it can be saved? i believe it can be saved. since alden has taken the reins denver, colorado, this city has grown by over 100,000. the city limits are more than00 70 we're in a metro area of more than 3 million. it's a young, hypereducated, affluepl bunch of pewho live here, it's entrepreneurial, hard-charging and a city and town and state on the make. amazon is considering put its second headquarters here. we're considering a bid for the winter olympics and on and on. i cannot imagine, with the enegy that's here, with t people here, the potential readership that you have here, that if you have a reallyoo

quality newsputting out good journalism day after day, that you won't have a market r that. >> chuck plunkett of "the denver post," thank you for y time. >> thank you so much for having me. >> brangham: stay with us. coming up on the "newshour," amy walter and tamara keith analyze the attack in syria and escalating trade tensions. and a personal take from author frankie thomaslen the value of ning latin >> brangham: each year, an estimated two-million people suffering from mental illness are booked into county jails.po ce, emergency responders and courts are all looking foray betterto handle these individuals-- in some cases by diverting them from the criminal justice system in the first place. john yang visited one such effort in kansas city, missouri... pa of our ongoing series o "broken justice".

this story was done in partnership with the pr center on crisis reporting. >> yang: wednesday morning in a kansas city courtroom -- >> you're entering a plea of guilty to a shoplifting matter -- >> yang: inmates appear be a county jail. one is agitated, refuses to cooperate. then as another sentences handed down. >> a sentence of 90 days in jail - >> typically, the people we see on the custody docket, they have a complex array of problems, it's not just behavioral health, mental health and substances abuse s but homelessness, a history of trauma, no family social supports whatsoever, no job skills, no sociaskills. they'll cuss at me in court. >> yang: josisep the senior judge on th ben. >> if the conditions of

probation are followed, at the end of the year te case is closed and off your record. >> yang: he estimates a third of the defendants who come before him have some sort of mental health issue. >> it's pretty much obvious to everyone in courtt these are people that it's hard to determine what's wrong because they are saying nonsensical things, and their lawyers are going, like, i don't know what to do here, and that's sort of symbolic of the entire community, wdon't know what to do here. >> yang: this is where manynd ofs with drug abuse problems or mental health issues end up, the county jail. but here in kansas city like in other places around the country, they're looking for a better way to get those people the help they knead and back on their feet. >> he was staying in an abandoned house. >> yang: the net morning, community health workers cheryl reed and kansas city police officer eric anderson search for a manuel known to police. >> the number of police contacts triggered us to gd out an see

him because there's enough reports madeon him detalling that he was mentally illthat .e had a basis to talk to him >> yang: their first stop, an abandoned house where he often stays. >> he told us when we had contact with him on tuesday, he said that he wuld like us to take him to one of the community mental health centers. >> yang: anderson is of the police crisis intervention team, trained to teal with those suffering from meant illness and substance abuse does orders, the goal is to intervene before minor violations like disturbing the peace, trespass or drunkenness land them in jail. so this is crime prevention. >> it is but non-traditional crime prevention. >> yang: they come up emptyv and on toot case, a young

man anderson spoke to a few weeks easier. >> he probably starting to have delusions, probably his first psychotic break that himo is putting cameras up in his house to look at, watch him. >> yang: they meem at a convenience store near a r.mmunity health cen he was told he would have to wait till june for an appointment. >> i will drive you. the crisis center isight here on prospect. >> yang: so he agrees to come. here the kansas city assessment and triage center. >> so we'll stop right here again. >> yang: this crisis center opened in late 2016, funded by the sale ofo two nnprofit hospitals along with money from the city, local hospitals, the missouri department of mental health and the state legislature. before police androther fist responders essentially had two options when dealing with someone suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, the jail or emergency rom.

stephanie boil is the program manager. >> the idea was toat crea no wrong dofeor plarl for police officers where when they're not sure what's going on that they would have a place to bring ople to be evaluated and we could see how we could helpin them, whatof service they might need to get into, you know, if they neemedications, things like that. >> yang: three-quarters of theen pa are homeless men. most have both mental health and substance abuse disorders and no insuranc here they sober up, have a meal, sleep. nurses and counselors fill in gaps in their mental health care, directing them to the help they need. it's all voluntary. they can leave any time they want. they have to leave afer 23 hours, a limit that allows the center to operate as an c outpatieter and help as many people as possible. >> everything we do here is to really brie them into whatever that long-term need is.

so we'll continue to provide whatever it is that they neede, during that tihether it's medications, case management, housing, whatever it might be, working with an employment agency, if their goal is to get a jobwhatever it might be for that person. >> yang: after leaving, case workers follow up on those needs, in many instances helping place them intransitional housing, a critical need. >> i was wor tthless onhem streets, i mean i n't know the words. one officer called me a bottom feeder. that hurt. >> yang: 61-year-old jam butler said he spent nearly 35 years on the streetskidr and using cocaine, suffering from undiagnosed schizopeenia. about months ago a police officer picked him up. butler assumed he was heading to jail -- again. >> the next thing i know, i'm pulling up at 12th and

prospect to the crisis center, which i didn't even know that's what it was. >> yang: after being evaluated, a case worng directed him to a bed at a sober home for men. >> i during myself in that gutter, what i call a rut. now i quit digging that rut. i'm slowly filling it back in and feels good to have people smile at you instead of step out of the wy. it really feels good. i couldn't have done it, i'm not going todid you, without this place, without help. >> good gir >> yang: not far away, cassie leaper has a house, job, three boys and a puppy. a year ago, things were different. >> i had a mess. my kidwere taken and put into foster care. i was facing a court case in different counties. >> reporter: addicteand suffering from depression, she went to the only place she knew. >> i went to the emergency room at truman medical center and

told them what had been going on. i had be an emergency room prior to that and they couldn't do anything.t they ally paid for me a cab and sent me to the crisis center. >> yang: is this the right place for those people if they're having an acute emergency, an alute mental break, then, yes, we're equipped to deal with it and take care of it. >> yang: kevin works the overnight shift at truman. >> for most patients these are chronic problems that need intensive resources, need case management, need housing, need help with their medications, and the emergency department we ae ill equipped to help those chronicroblems. >> yang: kevin also points out e.r. visits are very expensive. sending people to the crisis center could reduce costs by 50% %. 75 it's too soon to know whether kansas city's crisis center is actually saving money or reducing the number of people receiving care in the countyge jail or emy rooms. in some ways, it is highlighting

the extent of the need, the big cracks in the long-term mental health care syste already, critical funds that allow case workers to place people in transitional housing, get medications and follow-up care have been cut in half by republican governor eric gretens. >> althe funding streams are in jeopardy, so it comes down to a matter of showing statistically that we're helping this population, keeping these people inment and out of the judicial system and out of the hospitals in order for those funding sources nuto con >> yang: everyone we talkedd to -- the , doctor, police, the head of the crisis center, the patients -- say treopating with respect is key to changing beh >> that's what turns people around, like me, is finally seeing that people out there do have a heart, and i've found out -- i'm still searching for who i am because i've never ben

clean and sober or wanted to be. it's amazing. it puts a smile on my face every day, and i've got a future coming. >> yang: one he and those helping him hope far different from his past. for the pbs "newshour", i'm john yang in kancisaty. joining me to talk about everything is tamera keith of npr and amy walr of the "cook political report." ladies, we were sitting, waiting

to come on to the set when we saw president trump take to the air waves to talk about the search executed the f.b. on his personal lawyer michael cohen. lehs go to some tape of the president just said. >> it's a disgrace. it's frankly a real disgrace. it's an attack on our counta in ue sense. it's an attack on what we all stand for. so when i saw this and when i heard it, i heard it like you did. i said that is really now a whole new level of unfairness. >> whole new level, words we keep repeatedly saying this time with this term of offe. tim, the president went out of his way to criticize special unsel mueller and his own attorney general. what do you think he was trying to do here? what does this mean the president having this rather unusual defense of his own attorney? >> well, and he alcriticized the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, so you essentially

have everyone even remotely involved with the mueller investigation, and the interesting thing here is it's not entirely clear that the search of cohen is dirtly related to the mueller investigation, it was a referral from mueller's office according mp his attorney. but president tthis was a meeting with military leaders out the sittion in syria, and he opened it up, he was upset, he was clearly upset, visibly bohered by what he believes happened to cohen, and the way he talked abut it was he really -- he is clely bothered by this. cohen is someone who's worked for him for a very longi tme, who he's close to. he's not just his lawyer, he's his fixer. >> amy, see this conflict heating up phenand again, the president versus his own justice department. but here, what do you think the president is doing, as mueller seems to be referring this case to another prosecutor.

>> right. ui mean, the fact that th.s. attorney in new york was the one who conducted this raid suggests that mueller is not making this a part of the overall final investigation. in other words, if he's doing an investigatan into the rus collusion and comes been something that is not related but still may have ciminal component, then you refer it to somebody, whoever that is, who can address that. so geit sugs this isn't as much about miewcial as it is about this is what happens when you start ging into stuff you never know what you're going to be able to find. but it is going to raise the question that seems to be raised in this town every two or three weeks, maybe now every two or three hos, about, is the president getting ready to either fire someone in the justice department, or is this just going to be aother instance where the president blows off steam, shows his anger

at folks who does not feel are protecting him adequately but then continues to move onnd not do anything about it. de and he was asked whether he was conng firing mueller, and he said the thing that he says about a lot of things that sounds very ominous but doesn't always mean he going to do anything at all, he says we'll see what happens. he has said w'll see what happens, and people have been fired. he said that about james comby, the f.b.i. director. he said it about a number of people who have been fired, but he also says itut abo lot of things where that sort of ominous outcome never materializes. >> i think we have have very clear team today and th past weeks at least, we see a president inasingly express frustration and anger. that's not new to this president bupiwe see him ra it up. and we want to talk about another subject that hits this area, tariffs. the president is obviously taking on china. is that a risk? who is it in trump world of his

voters that likes that idea andh who is i might be concerned about that idea? >> the trump we're seeing now thate saw on display most recently in the cabinet meeting with his armcrossing, this a witch hunt, is the same trump we saw on the campaign trail -- he believed hillary clinton should be investigated, he believed she was the one doing e wrongdoing, and anythi about what he was doing was certnly off limits and/or there was no collusion, as the president likes to talk about. but what he talked a lot about on the campaign trail wasking america great again and china is making suckers ofs, taing jobs from us, the trade is unfair, that has been a nsistent them not just during the campaign but really pretty much his entire time in the public spotlight. to the fact he is encouraging tariffs on china should not be surprising. to your question, though, what do people think about this and,

among republicans, there's not unity on this. a whole bunch of congressional republicans would rather spend the next few months bere the midterms talking about the things they've done, tax cuts, and talking about the booming they worry tariffs could hurt the booming economy and take the focus off their tax cuts. theoretically the folks who could get harmed most autohe tariffs are those who are the strongessupporters, those in red states very agriculture dependent, but these aso some of the president's strongest supporters, and i think he has a lot of rope with them. i think they're going to give him a lot of the benefit of the doubt on this. thear it from people k to in that part to have country saying, you know what? i'm worried abut commode us the prices but, at the same time, i trust the president will do the nright thing, he's otiate, a businessman, he knows what he's doing. t >> we're goiwait and see. the congressional budget office, i love their repor, they came out seeing they see a sea of red ink, increased

deficits, trillion-dollar this is happening under republican government. how did we get here? is there a risk or dopu icans not vote on the deficits anymore? >> trillion-dar deficitan as far as iee, were a big talking point for the tea party. but w that president trump is president of the united states, amazing thing, that rept came out at the white house briefing today, not a sing quell about it, maybe tom >> a concern but not a day-to-day issue in washiton. amy walter, npri, tamera kth of "cook political report," we thank you >> brangham: therere many benefits of learning a foreign language-- it opens up work and travel opportunities, and studies have shown that it might even slow the onset of dementia. but what about a language that is rarely spoken in conversation anymore, never used in business

transactions, that most people would consider dead? night writer frankie thomas shares her humble opinion on why it's time to learn latin. if you can possibly get away wit, you should study latin. okay, hear me out. yes, any modern language offers nore practical benefits tha latin, but latin offers more fun. it has all the pleasures of pausal, a time capsule and secret code. you say dead language, i say ghost hunting. my favorite thing about latin is all its native speakers are dead. you will never have to talk to them. this makes latin the perfectbj t for introar verts. there's no pressure to becomeco ersationally fluent, and no latin teacher will ever force you to turn to your classmate riptedve an awkward sc conversation about your winter break, unlesbeginners spnish or french which teach you to say i would like a saladand where is the library, beginner lati teaches you to talk like a super

villain. the standard at the col level teachous to say the following sentences: you are all to blame, and tomorrow u will pay the ultimate price, and our army is great and because to have the number of our arrows, you shall not see the sky, and human life is punishment. how can you not love a language that immsous in this epic world of war and gods andrs gladiawhere every sentence is fraught with pore tense and someone is usu tally abo get murdered. my middle school textbook had a passage about a barber wo accidentally cuts his customers' throats. t his day we learn to say in latin, "mu blood flows." by the standards of middle school entertainment, beat "dawson's creek." the barber was real,ived in pompeii, as the characters in the textbook. the other vocabulary words it taught us, volcano, torupt,

ashes, to be in despair. did mitch all native lat speaker are dead, many buried h.rribly in volcanic as which is why which know much about them today. you can't talk to them directly -- what would we talkr about, winreak? but they have a way to get into your head with their beautiful useless words no one speaks orla needin anymore, yet here we are, here i am, watching my favorite sitcom, mentally translating the dialogue -- (speaking latin)em -- and rering that nothing the permanent, not emperors, not , not even me. so that's how studying latin will change your life. you might never get a chance to use what you've learned, but it oryl live in your mem forever, and in that sense, here's the secret of latin, it's not really a dead language at

all. >> brangham: on the "newshour"ht erline row, there's a new music video from hazard, he's the world's only crooning alwboy who sings exclusively about economics- known as harvard-trained investment manager jon shayne. he's a clip from his lates ditty about self-driving trucks. culiar sightwful it looked like a truck ♪ where the driver had disappeared ♪ i'd never seen a rig with an unmanned wheel ♪ was that a mirage or was it for real? ♪ >> brangham: find the full video, and much more, at pbs.org/newshour. and an editor's note before we go: on friday when we reported the death of u.s. senator daniel akaka of hawaii we incorrectly statede was the first native american senator. he was the first ever nativeha iian senator. we regret the error. and that's the newshour for

tonight. i'm william brangham. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the "pbs newshour,"hank you and goodnight. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. tilanguage app that teaches real-life conversaons in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. b >> abnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology,r and imoved economic performance and financial21 literacy in th century. ♪ ♪ jo supporting social >> supported by th d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation.

committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of thesenstitutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public brocasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

tukufu: we're thehistory detectives, and we're going to investigate sfrom america's past. wes: does this watch celebrate the most famous gunfight of the old west, the shootout at the o.k. corral? elyse: is this photo evidence at some of the civil war's bravest soldiers were women? tukufu: and are these inison-camp pangs evidence f of one oe worst civil-rights abuses in american history? elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't begoounded 'cause he'no heart ♪