ng sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> brangham: goollevening. i'm m brangham, judy woodruff is away. on the "newshour" tonight... the f.b.i. raids the office of president trump's long-time lawyer, seizing many of his legal records. then: >> we're talking about humanity and it can't be allowed to happen. >> brangham: president trump threatens action in syria afr taother chemical weapon atck draws condemnation across the globe. then, some facebook users are notified that their informatned was breach, as c.e.o. mark zuckerberg arrives on capitol hill ahead of a hearing 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 coally what's going on, they had a place that they uld bring people and they could be evaluated. >> brangham: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> consumer cellular.ll >> consumer cear believes that wireless plans should

reflect the amount of talk, text and data that you use. we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for people who use their phone ale lia lot, or anything in between. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. t >> a william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing suppor of these institutions: and foundations.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributns to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> braham: 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 o weekend stria damscus suburb. special correspondent jane ferguson in beirut beginour 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 mbinet room thning, president trump said there would be a price to pay for saturday's apparent chemical attack >> we'll be making major deo sions over the next 24 t48 hours.

>> ferguson: footage from the damascus suburb of douma showsty huma under siege. en children were spared from the latest atrocity. asked if he would answer the attack with air strikes, president trump had this t'ssay: >> nothiff the table. >> ferguson: the u.s. denied responsibility for hir strikes th a syrian base near homs early this morning. russia and syria said israel launched the strike; an israeli spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny it. as news of the suspected gas attack spread yesterday, president trump reacted on twitter, calling out russian president vladimir putin bname for backing, "animal" assad. in moscow, foreign min sergei lavrov insisted the russian military had found no signs of chemicals in douma and >> ( translated ): the syrian government a that-- a serious provocation aimed at accusing damascus once again for using chemical

poisonous substances against civilian populatn. >> reporter: t images of the carnage in douma were searing-- but familiar last april, a sarin gaattack on the town of khan sheikhoun, in syria's north, killed more than 80 people. president trumordered 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. ckbut after a nerve gas atn 2013, instead of launching air strikes, mr. obama instead struck a deal with russia to remove syria's stockpilef chemical weapons-- or so they thought.si e then assad's regime has continued to douse rebel enclaves in chemicals dozens of ften 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

pivotal moment: just last week,n prestrump said he wanted to get out of syria entirely. >> i want to bring our troopse. back h it's very costly for our countrs and it hther countries a hell of a lot more than it helps us. so, we're going to be making a decision. >> ferguson: republican senator john mccain waed against pulling out the roughly 2000 u.s. tros, based largely in syria's northeast. he tweeted that the president's "pledge to withdraw from syrialy has mboldened assad, backed by russia and iran, to commit more war crimes in douma." at a u.n. security council meeting this afternoon, syria's representative denied any complicity. nikki haley sharply condemned the attack, and the regime. >> who does this? only a monster des this. we must not overlook russia and iran's rol in enabling the assad regime's murden.us destructio >> ferguson: but the u.n. man

rights chief had tough words, blasting wld powers for their, "collective shrug" in the face of the syrian regime's brutality.r e pbs newshour, i'm jane ferguson, in beirut >> brangham: i spoke with jane ferguson a short time ago.t jane, presidump today strongly suggesting that he is going to militarily strike syria for this laticest ch weapons attack. how are those threats beingar where you are? >> in the region, william, nobody's really responding definitively yet to those words from president trump and that's largely because no one knows yet sponding to.ll be of course, as you say, it sounds like a clear threat for militari , but it's not really a wecific one. >> brangham: the a counterstrike that happened earlier today and many believe israel perpetrated that counterstrike. if it was israel, th may not be a retaliation to the chemical weapons attack, it may be more about israel's concern over ira in syria. is that right? >> that's much more likely,

william. for the israelis, their main concern for the last few years basically since an has been involved in this war, since 2013 when wstarted to see hezbollah, the militant group from here in leban move into syria, the israelis have been concerned about mang sure they n't build their capacity just across the israeli border into syria. israel is worried about iran building permanent andomplex military presence across the border, and also that iran could essentially get a land boundary going acs the middle east from iran through iraq, through syria and lebanon to their thtellite group hezbollah don't want them moving weapons, and we've seen tese sorts of strikes from the israelis. they almost never publicly acknowledge it's them, but these strikes happening that are preventing weapons or weapons convoys from getting to hezbollah or tryg to it and basically mana iran's military capabilities across the border

from israel. >> brangham: president trump seems to be giving two different messages, t today against syria but just yesterday talking aboe the ned it's time for the u.s. to go ome and leave syia. do these strikes against assad do anything to deter his behavior? >> it doesn't seem to have so far. of course, that strike year ago now that president trump authorized after the use of sarin gas ainst the civilians by president assad has clearly not deterred him from using chemical weapons, and we've seen the chlorine gas used again and again, but it's also imptant, william, to point out that assad has also lived through president obama's red line years ago. of course, we hear the stron words coming out of the white house, but it doesn't appear to be deterring president assad who is, of course, gaining the upper hand and has been for years now. >> brangham: special

correspondent jane ferguson, thank you very much. >> thank you. ts>> reporter: f.b.i. agenoday raided and seized communications from president trump's long-time personal attorney, michael cohen. in a statement, cohen's lawyer called the seizures "completelyp opriate and unnecessary." he confirmed federal prosecutors had obtained a series of search warran, upon referral from special counsel robert mueller,i who is l the russia probe. multiple news outlets report that agents seized records related to payments cohen made to an adult film actress-- known as stormy daniels-- she claims she had an affair with mr. trump in 2006. ceic tucker covers the jus department for the associated press and is covering this story.er tucker, welcome to the "newshour". i wonder if you could tell us seat else do we know about the raids today? >> we know they took 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 the idea of attorney-client privilege is an incredibly sacrosanct part of american la, so what is it that would prompty attoto be investigated like this, to have these raidsd? conduc >> that's a great question. protocol anda mnuals lay outmake nism by which you can seize records from an attorney and, so, what it real will you does suggest is this is a process that went through multiple levels and layers approval in order to get the action that we saw today. so, you know, an ordinary search warrant, obviously, you have to go to a judge and you lay out probable cause that a crime was committed and that the records that ou're going to be obtaining will bear out evidence of a tential crime. so one can imagine that the government here must really think they have that sort of. eviden >> brangham: help me understand something that seems a lit confusing on the surfa t. s was a referral from

robert mueller, yet its relating stormy daniels and michael cohen's interactions with her, how does that work? as far as we know, mue wasn't necessarily looking into the stormy daniels issue. >> another great question.n weow based on on the record statements from sam nunberg that among we questions h asked before the grand jury were questions that related to the stormy daniels payment, he was aaround duri the campaign and says he was asked about that, so it does appear that special counsel mueller is taking his mandate seriously saying i'm responsible for investigating certain elements of president trump and his campaign and not others, and, so, he is empowered andndeed 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 asciated press. ank 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. today the president called the anfarmers "great patriots, acknowledged the hardships they face from china's retaliatory moves. >> the farmersill 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 spinifically because they th it hits me. >> brangham: in beijing, chinesi ofs blamed the u.s. for the escalating trade tensions, and said negotiations would be impossible under the "current circumstances." >> ( translated ): the trade conflicts are unaterally started by the united states, so the responsibility rests entirely on its side. its actions have violated international trade rules, dented the multilaterae system, and breached its own promises as well. >> brangham: on sunday president trump predicted china will ultimately ease trade barriers because, "it's the right thing to do." president ump also confirmed

today that his meeting with north korean leader kim jong un will take place "in may or early june." that comes after it was wily reported north korea confirmed with the white house that it's willing to discuss potential "de-nuclearization". but it's unclear what the north believes that would entail hungary's prime minister viktor orban has won a third term, after running on a deeply anti- immigrant platform. the right-wing, nationalist leader celebrated his sweeping re-election in budapest sunday.t orban rely criticized the european unions' more open border policies during his campaign. his ruling party also secured a two-thirds majority in parliament, and vowed to unveil legislation cracking down on immigrant rights groups. back in this country, the ressional budget office projecting that the u.s. budget deficit will reach at least $1- illion by 2020. il's director-- keith hall-- said the deficitsurge to about $804-billion this year, largely due to ptasident trump's cuts and the newly-passed

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

class for tomorrow as well. bill cosby returned to aan pennsy court today, for the retrial of his sexual assault se. this one, now occurring in the middle of the "me too" movement. eosby was heckled by protesters as he walked into courthouse. the 80-year-old comedian has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated indecent assault. a prosecutor revealed cosby paid nearly $3.4-million to andrea constand, the woman he's charged with sexually assaulting.at mount had previously been confidential. on wall street today, stocks n early rally after news broke about the f.b.i. raid on president trump's attorney's rifice. the dow jones indu average climbed 46 points to close at 23,979. the nasdaq rose 35 points, and the s&500 added 8. and democratic senator tammy duckworth ofllinois gave birth to a baby girl today-- making her the first-ever u.s. senator to give rth while in office. duckworth is a 50-year-old veteran who lost both her legs in the iraq war. she's one of only ten women to give birth while serving in

congress. still to come on the "newshour," infacebook under fire: scry of the social media giant ahead of its c.e.o.'s congressional testimony. op-ed versus ownership: the erenver post"'s editorial page takes on the pap owner. a close-up look at how kansas city is working to improve its treatment of the mentally ill. and much more. >> reporter: facebook s founder, mark zuckerberg, are expected to face a grilling on capitol hill-- sta.ing tomororw zuckerberg, who began meeting with lawmakers today, will apeear before senate committ on tuesday and a house committee on wednesday. the company has been in damage control mo since news broke about a major breach of facebook users personal information. zuckerberg apologized agn today in remarks released in

advance ofis testimony, and he said the company did not take a broad enough view of its responsibility-- until now. he also pointeinto other changes g made. today, for example, users found today, for example, users found messages showing them how to find out more about the apps they use on facebook, and what information is being shared by those apps, and how to remove them.ea we're going tofrom a critical voice about all this in a moment. but first, hari sreenivasa reminds us of what's happened up to now, and what's at stake. >> sreenivasan: in 1994, it was. big tobacco c.'s in front of congress. in 2010, it was big oil c.e.o.'s answering questions after the b.p. gulf oil spill. in 2011, the c.e.o.'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 hilldnomorrow and day. it comes after the company admitted it had not adequately protected the private data of an many as 87 milsers. in fact, facebook says that

informat to a political consulting firm,n cambridgytica. then in turn, the data was eventually used by candidate docald trump. ridge analytica says its key to success is the use of psychographi; breaking people down based on their personality traits, and attiredes. at a cone in 2016 their c.e.o. alexander nix explained that voters shouldn't just beed targeted bn race, gender or geography. p >> isonality that drives behavior and its behavior that influences how you vote. >> sreenivasan: here's the key part of his pitch as it relates to why facebook is on capitol hill. >> by having hundreds and hundreds of thousands americans undertake this survey, we're able to form model to predict the personality of every single adult. >> sreenivasan: you mighnot remember taking that survey but about 270,000 people downloaded 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 could have been harvested. here's alexander nix again with an example of how psychographic targeting works when crafting gun rights messages: >> for a highly neurotic and conscientious audience, you're going to need a message that is rational and fear bad emotionally based. in this case the threat of a burglary and the insurance policy of a guis very persuasive. conversely for a closed and agreeable audience, these are people who care about traditionn habits and family and community. >> sreenivasan: the trump campaign employed su obviously, talking about these values will be much more effective if communicating your >> sreenivasan: the trump campaign employed such microtargeting on an unprecedented scale, creating

s nearly six million versi different advertisements for different audiences. e company says they are changing their policies so leaks of personal data through apps can never happen again. >> this was a major breach of trust and this happened. that you know we have a basic wsponsibility to protect people's data and can't do that then we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people. >> sreenivasan: it is not the first or second or third time the company has made promises to safeguard the information of their users. in 2007, zuckerberg apologized for oversharing the personal information of users through a product called beacon. 2 9, it revealed information users thought was private without rning. these and other actions led to a 2011 consent decree by the cyderal trade commission, to protect user's pri until now, the company has taken a defensive posture, saying that all users are aware of what thch're sharing and with whi apps, that users are in essence granting informed consent.

but most go into the privacy settings and the levels of visibilit on the information they generate. accessininformation about user's tastes and preference is core to the company's business. in a nutshell, here is how the company makes money. when 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 hps advertisers reach very specific audiences based on those tastes and preferences. while facebook users may go online to share infoation with their family and friends, the data they generate and in turn the advertisers who target based on that data is what helped the company earn $40 billion in revenue just last year and has it vald a nearly half a trillion dollars. for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan in new york. >> brangham: joining me to discuss these latest fk scandals is zeynap tufek-she.

she is an associate proffesor at the university of nocah lina, chapel hill, and she studies the way we interact with technology professor, welcome to the "newshour". you know mark zuckerberg is meeting on capitol hill with senators and will testify tomorrth. is there ag he can say to you who have been a very strong critic of this company that facebook gets this proand they're going to solve it? >> well, the problem we're facing isn't whether or not facebook gets the problem or what its intentions are, even. the problem is the waw they se up their business and are used to and allowed to harvest our data and use it for targetings pits i incentives against the innocent it wasf its 2 billion users at times, definitely createsioisto in the public sphere, has all these harms for politics. so rather than mark zuckerberg telling us something, the thing i really wish to see is our

legislators and lawmakers jobping up and doing the and bringing some oversight to this so that facebook's incentives are better aligned wi our interests in the healthy public sphere. >> brangham: so veu bel the problem with facebook is much broader than cambridge an c analytica and this most recent election? >> absolutely. in fact, cambridge analytica is barely a problem considering everything that's been going on. i first wrote about the dangerso on informati facebook in 2012 when there was no cambridge analytica because it was already evident that things could be targeted in ways that were misleading to people and already obvious the st hoarding of data, when you collect this much datathat's held people's attention on this platform using to profile tem to third parties

has all sorts of digs torsions. so even if cambridge analytica didn't exist and had never happened, the problem would remain. facebook is a surveillance machine at is using this enormous amount of data its collecting from not just the two billion users, it also ese shadow profiles of people not on the plat fortunately and uses all the data to infer things about us computationally to cigure us out and sells this kind of targeted s to whoever is paying them. so that's unhealthy. so cambridge analytica is not the core problem here, it jus allowed us to see how the machinery operates and to havdea brconversation about it. >> brangham: so let's talk specifics. let's say -- i mean, facebook is not goingywhere as you admit and there are many great things about the platform itself. >> i use the platform all the time. nm not telling people itt a good platform. >> brangham: very

specifically, what would you like to see changed? >> i would liked all data collection to be opt in. i should affirmatively ackivel nsent to the way data is collected about me. the data should be minimized the function. it should be collected for whatever i want it to be llected for rather tha just harvested and used for whatever. it should come with an expiration date. if i allow the company to have the data for a while, it should disappear when my consent to its use is done. the thing i fear is that the testimony just turns into ngressional spectacle, that lawmakers yell at zuc and mark zuckerberg apologizes, and it would feel cathartic but that's not the problem. this isn't about personalities. and facebook keeps saying it's an idealistic company. it's a giant company without the trillion dollars in

capitalization. it's about protecting our data and our public sphere. >> brangham: zeynep tufekci, thank you so much. >> thank you for inviting me. >> thank you for inviting me. >> brangham: newspapers around the country continue to facems steep prob in many cases-- especially for mid-size papers-- layoffs and buyouts are far from over. this weekend, journalists at th "denver pounded the alarm with a blistering stop-the- presses-style editorial at took the paper's owners to task. amna nawaz looks at why editors there took this mostal step. reporter: the front pag editorial came after years of devastating cuts ordered byal alden glapital-- a new york city hedge fund that stepped in to buy the paper in 2010. 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." just today, two dozen more staffers left the "post," the latest in a series of layoffs that have taken the 125-year-old paper from a newsroom of 250 journalists, to fewer than 100. the post's parent company is one of the biggest newspaper chains in the country, with me than 90 papers in cities like st. paul, boston, and san jose, an several of their newsrooms have gone through staff reductions. but none, so far, have done what the deer post has-- publicly calling out their owners and begging to be sold. joining me now, chuck plunkett, page editor of "the denver post," who co-wrote the editorial. welcome. i want to begin by just asking e?u why, why take this extraordinary m why in this particular way and why now? >> well, you know -- and thanks for having me-- newspapers have

a proud tradition of calling out the powerful, being thevoice for the voiceless, and we even have a tadition that we ru letters to the editor and op-eds written by outsiders who are itical of our work. on the editorial page, we are critical of government and private businesses who we don't feel are living up to the job that ty are supposed to perform and, in this situation, we believe that our owners are failintheir readers, not just in denver, colorado, but in their many holdings across the united states and it was only proper to call them out and ask for bette >> but this is a pretty drastic move, i thit's fair to say, an extraordinary step. aclp me understand a little bit more about what ey is at stake. >> well, we're undern extraordinary ditions. when i first joined "the post" midway through 2003, it was at its peak. there were more than 300 journalists.b five mountaieaus. we had a large political team. over the years, that has

downsized, some of that is because of market forces which i totally understand, but we have seen that cities that are ourge size and laor smaller, i mean, our size or smaller population have nes rrms that are much larger than "the denver post," even when we were at where we are pesently today which is 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 community d journalism and what we should be doing as a newspaper or facing the prospect of writing our ohno pitch ware in a few years, maybe as few as 3. >> what do yousteel would be f the denver post were not allowed to continue to thrive with the staff you think it needs? >> that's a great question. you know, a city -- a paper of record like the denver post, the biggest news room in a a state,

should be seen as a pubstlic ution. it is the kind of entity that has a unique position that, because of its reporting ability and because of its editorial ability, are able to call bal and strikes, we're able to keep things on a level playing field and help monitor a stuation so that a city and a community and a state and a region can enjoy and become what they are capable of so they can be at their potential. if you don't have a strongst journa team trying to meet those goals, so much is lost it's incalculable. >> so what would you like to see from your parent company either say or do? how can the denver post be saved? >> it uld be great if they would invest in the news room again. we lost our accomplisher earlier this year. has not been replaced with somee who spends time day in and day out in the denver community, and the problem i'm beginning to see is we have an absentee landlord tape

situation. if alden andd digital meia want es reinvest and prop up that piece of the bus that would be great. short of that, i think they should try to look for -- i hope they would look for community members who are able to afford and desire to have the public institution that is the denr post. >> do you believe it can be saved? >> do i believe it can be saed. since alden has taken the reins in denver, colorado, this ci has grown by over 100,000. the city limits are moreha tn 700,000. we're in a metro area of more than 3 million it's a young, hypereducated, affluent bunch of people who live here, it's entrepreneurial, hard-charging and a city and o town and sta the make. amazon is considering putting its second headquarters here. we're considering a bid for the winter olympics and on and on. i cannot imagine, with the energy that's here, with the u ople here, the potential readership that ve here, that if you have a really

quality news room putting out go journalism day after day, that you won't have a market for that. >> chuck plunkett of "the denver post," thank you for your time. >> thank you so much for having me. >> brangham: stay with us. coming up on the "newshour," amy walter and tamara keith i analyze the atsyria and t escalatide tensions. hod a personal take from a frankie thomas on the value of learning latin >> brangham: each year, an estimated two-million people suffering from mental illness are booked into county. police, emergency responders and courts are all looking for better ways to 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... part of our ongoing series on "broken justice".

this story was done in partnership with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting. >> yan wednesday morning in a kansas city courtroom -- >> you're entering a plea of guilty to a shoplifting - matt >> yang: inmates appear before a county ja one is agitated, refuses to cooperate.n then as aother sentence is handed down. >> a sentence of 90 days in jail --al >> typ, the people we see on the custody docket, they have a complex array of problems, it's not just behavral health, mental health and substance abuse issues butsn homels, a history of trauma, no family or nocial supports whatsoever, no job skills, ocial skills. they'll cuss at me inourt. >> yang: joseph is the seior judge on the bench. >> if the conditions of

ion are followed, at th end of the year the case is closed and off your record. es a thirde estim of the defendants who come before him have some sort of mental health issue. >> it's pretty much obvious to everyone in court. these are not people that it's hard to determine what's wrong because they are sayingl nonsensicahings, and their lawyers are going, like, i don't know what to do here, and that's sort of symbolic of the entire community, we don't know what to do here. >> yang: this is where many offenders with drug abusems probr mental health issues end up, the county jail. but here in kanns city like i other places around the country, they're looking for a better wa to get thople the help they knead and back on theiret fe >> he was staying in an abandoned house. >> yang: the next morconing, unity health workers cheryl reed and kansas city police officer ric anderson search fo a manuel known to police. ntacts number of police co triggered us to go out and see

him because there's enough reports made on him dalling that he was mentally ill, that we had a t basis talk to him. >> yang: their first stop, anab doned house where he oft stays. >> he told us when we had contact with him on tuesday, he said that he would like us to take him to one of the community mental health centers. >> yang: anderson is part of the police crisis intervention team, trained teal with those suffering from meant illness and substance abuse does orders, the goal is totervene 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 comempty and move on toot case, a young

man anderson spoke to a few weeks earlier. >> he is probably arting to have delusions, probably his first psychotic break that his mom is putting cameras up in his house to look at, watch him. >> yang: they meet him at a convenience store near a community health center. uld have to he wait till june for an appointment. >> i will drive you. the creisisnter is right here on prospect. >> yang: so he agreeto come here. the kansas city assessment and triage center. >> so we'll stop right here again. >> yang: this crisis center ened in late 2016, funded by the sale of two nonprofit hospitals along with money from the cy, local hospitals, the missouri d epartment ofmental health and the sate legislature. before police and other first responders essentially had two options when dealing wih someone suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, the jail or emergency room.

stephanie boil is the program manager. >> the ia was to create a no wrong door plaferl for policefi rs where when they're not sure what's going on that they would have a place to bring people to bed evaluated a we could see how we could help them, what kind of service they might need to get into, you know, if they need medications, things like that. >> yang: three-quarters of the patients are homeless men. most have both mental health and substance abuse disorders an no insurance. here they sober up, have a meal, eleep. nurses and cous fill in gaps in their mental health care, directing them to the help they need. it's all volunthry. ey can leave any time they want. they have to leave after 23 hours, a limit that allows the center to operate as an outpatient center and help aspl many pas possible. >> everything we do here is to really bridge them into whtever that long-term need is.

so we'llontinue to provide whatever it is that they need during that time, whether it's medications, case management, housing, whatever it might be, working with an employment agency, if their goal is toet a job, whatever it might be for that person. >> yang: after leaving, case workers follow up on thoses, nen many instances helping place them in transitional housing, a critical need. >> i was worthless on them streets, i mean i don't know the words. e officer called me a bottom feeder. thatr hut. >> yang: 61-ye-old james butler said he spent nearly 35on yearhe streets, drinking and using cocaine, suffering from undiagnosed schizophrenia. about ten months ago a police wficer picked him up. butler assumed s heading to jail -- again. >> the next thing i know, i'm pulling up at 12th and

prospe to the crisis center, which i didn't even know tht'a what it was. >> yang: after being evaluated, a case working dicted him to a bed at a sober home for men.ur >> ig myself in that gutter, what i call a rut.qu now t digging that rut. i'm slowly filli it back in and it feels good to have people smile at you instead of step ou of the way. it really feels good. i couldn't have done it, i'm not going to did you, without this place, without help. >> good girl. >> yang:not far away, cassie leaper has a house, job, three boys and a puppy. a year agthings were different. >> i had a mess. my kids were taken and put into foster care. i was facing a court case in different count: s. >> reportdicted and suffering from depression, she went to the only place she knewo >> i wenhe emergency room at truman medical center and

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

the extent of the need, the big cracks in the long-herm mental th care system. already, critical funds that allow case workers to place people in transitional housing, get medications and follow-up re 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 ngat we're helping this population, keehese people in treatment and out of the judicial system and out of thal hospin order for those funding sources to continue. >> yang: everyone we talked to -- the judge, doctor, police, the head of the crisis center, the patients y treating people with respect is key toch ging behaviors. >> that's what turns people around, like me, is finally seeing that people out there do have a heart, and i've found ngout -- i'm still searcor who i am because i've never been

clean and sober or wanted to be. it's amazing. it puts a smile on my face evndy i've got a future coming. se yang: one he and tho helping him hope is far different from his past. for the pbs "newshour", i'm john yang in kansas city. joining me to talk about everfhing is tamera keith npr and amy walter of the "cook political report." ladies, we were sitting, waitinh

to come on toset when we saw president trump take to the air waves to talk abouthe search executed by the f.b.i. on his personal lawyer michael cohen. let's go to some tape of what the president just said. >> it's a disgre. it's frankly a real disgrace. it's an attack on ourountry in a true 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 al whole new le unfairness. >> whole new level, wor we keep repeatedly saying this time with this term of office. zem, the president went out of his way to critipecial counsel 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 also criticized the depny attorney geeral rod rosenstein, so you essentially

have everyone even remotely involved with the mueller investigatio and the interesting thing here is it's not entirely clear that thech sef cohen is directly related to the mueller investigation, it was a referral from mueller's office according to his attorney. but president trump, this was a meeting with military leaders about the situation in syria, and he opened it up, he s upset, he was clearly upset, visibly bothered by what he believes happened t cohen, and the way he talked about it was he really -- he is clearly bothered by this. cohen is someone who's workedhi fo for a very long time, who he's close to. he's not just hisa lwyer, he's his fixer. >> amy, we see this contfl heating up phenand again, the president versus his own justice department. but here,hat do you think the president is doing, as mueller seems to be referring this caseo nother prosecutor.

>> right. i mean, the fact that the u.s. attorney in new york was the one who conducted this raid suggests that mueller inis not makthis a part of the overall fin investigation. in other words, if he's doing an investigation into the russia collusion d comes been something that is not related but still may have a crinal component, then you refer it to somebody, whoever that is, who can address that. so it suggests this isn't as much about miewcial as it is about this is what happens when you start digging into stuff u never know what you're going to be able to find.s but itgoing to raise the question that seems to be raised in this town every two or three weeks, maybe now every two or three hours, about, is the president getting ready to either fire someone in the justice deparent, or is this rust going to be another instance where thesident blows off steam, shows his angew

at fol does not feel are protecting him adequately but then continues to move on and not do anything about it. >> and he was asked whether he was considering 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's going to do anything at all, he says we'll see what happens. he has said we'll see what p happens, aple have been fired. he said that about james comby,. the director. he said it about a number of people who have been fired, but he also says it about a lot of things where that sort of ominous outcome neveres material >> i think we have have very clear team today and the past weeks at least, we see a president increasingly exp frustration and anger. that's not new to this president but we see him ramping it up and we want to talk about another subject that hits this area, tariffs. the president is obviously taking on china. is tt a risk? who is it in trump world of his

voters that likes that idea and who is it that might be coerned about that idea? >> the trump we're seeing now that we saw on display mot recently in the cabinet meeting with his arms crossing, this is 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 the wrongdoing, and anything about what he was doing was certainly off limits and/orer thwas no collusion, as the president likes to talk about. but what he talked a lot about on the campaign trail was makin america gt again and china is making suckers of us, taking jobs trom us, trade is unfair, that has been a consistent them not justht durig campaign but really pretty much his entire time in the public spotlight. to the fact he is encouraging ultariffs on china shonot be surprising. to your question, though, what do people think about this and,

among republicansthere's not unity on this. a whole bunch of congressionalul republicans rather spend the next few months before the midterms tking about the things they've done, tax cuts, and talking about the booming economy. they worry tariffs could hurt the booming economy and take the focus off their tax cts. theoretically the folks who could get harmed most about the tariffs are those who are the strongest supporters, those in red states very agriculture dependent, but these are also 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. i hear it from people i talk tot in that pahave country saying, you know what? i'm worried about commode us the prices but, at the same time, i trust the president will do the right thing, he's a negotiate, businessman, he knows what he's doing. >> we're going to wait andee. the congressional budget office, i love their reports, they came out seeing they e a sea of red ink, increased

deficits, trillion-dollar deficits, this is happening under republican government. how did we get here? is there a risk or do republicans not vote on the deficits anymo >> trillion-dar deficits, as far as i can see, were a big talkin point for a party. but now that president trump is president of the united states, amazing, that report came out at the white house briefing today, not a sing que, ll about ybe tomorrow. >> a concern but not a day-to-day issue in washington. amy walter, npr, tamera keiofth "cook political report," we thank you >> brangham: there are many benefits of arning a foreign nguage-- it opens up work and travel opportunities, and ofudies have shown that it might even slow the onseementia. but what about a language that is rarely spoken in conversation anymore, never used inusiness

transactions, that most peopleul consider dead? tonight 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 latiar okay, e out. yes, any modern language offersa moreical benefits than latin, but latin offers more fun. it has all the pleasureof pausal, a time capsule and secret code. you say dealanguage, i say ghost hunting. my favorite thing about latin is all ivts natspeakers are dead. you will never have to talk to them. this makes latin therfect subject for introar verts. there's no pressure to become conversationally fluent, and no latin teacher will ever force you to turn to your classmate and have anwa awk scripted conversation about your winter break, unless beginners spanish or french which teach you to say would like a salad, and where is the library, beginner latin teaches you to talk like a super

dallain. the st at the college level teachous to say the following sentences: you are all to blame, and tomorrow you ll pay the ultimate price, and our army is great and because tr have the nuf our arrows, you shall not see the sky, andli humae is punishment. how can you not love a language that immersous in this epic world of war and gods and gladiators, where every sentence is fraught with pore tense ande someis usually about to get murdered. my middle school textbook had a passage about a barber who accidentally cuts his customers' throats. to this day we learn to say in latin, "much blood flows." by the standards of middle school entertainment, it beat beawson's creek." the barwas real, lived in pompeii, as the characters in the textbook. the oter vocabulary words it taught us, volcano, erupt,

ashes, to be in despair. did mitch all nate tin speaker are dead, many buried horribly inolcanic ash. which is why which know much about them today. you can't talk to them directly -- what would we talk about, winter break? but they havta way to ge into your head with their beautiful useless words no on e speaor needs latin anymore, yet here we are, here i am, watcng my favorite sitcom, mentally translating the dialogue -- (speing latin) -- and remembering that nothing the permanent, not emerors, not gods, 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 itn will livour memory forever, and in that sense, here's the secret of lain, it's not really a dead language at

all. >> brangham: on the "newshour" online right now, there's a new music video from merle hazard, he's the world's only crooningco oy who sings exclusively about economics-- also known as .arvard-trained investment manager jon shay here's a clip from his latest ditty about self-driving trucks. ♪ i saw an awful peculiar sight it looked like a truck ♪ where the driver had disappeared ♪ i'd never seen a rig with an unmanned wheela ♪ was tharage or was it for real? ♪ >> brangham: find thfull video, and much more, at pbs.org/newshour.an anditor's note before we go: on friday when we reportedof the deat.s. senator daniel akaka of hawaii we incorrectly stated he was the first native american senator. e he was the firr native hawaiian senator. we regret the error. and that's the newt.our for toni

i'm william brangham. join us online and again here torrow evening. for all of us at the "pbs newshour," thank you and goodnit. >> major funding forurhe pbs newshoas been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, ke spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> and by bnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan , undation. supporting sciencetechnology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. ♪ ♪ >> supporting social >> supported by the john d. and catherine t.tiacarthur foun. committed to building a more

just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corpn for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewek like you. thu. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," bridget and julia unlock the secrets to the ultimate linguine allo scoglio, adam reveals his top pick for manual pasta machines, lisa reviews restaurant tools that every cook should use at home, scd becky makes bridget a classic, shrimp and beans. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitch." -"america's test kitchen" is brought to you by the following -- ♪ -i've always been a big believer