captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: trade disputes loom large as president trump and other worladers head to the g-7 summit. nten, one on one with former president bill c-- we discuss james comey and the #metoo movement. >> i was afraid that you know she would be frozen in public mind for the ast of her li what happened. and i didn't want that for her. >> woodruff: a, an unlikely tech hub: bitcoin miners descend or one city in upstate new to take advantage of cheap electricity rates, but energy caps are caung locals to pay more. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, nad improved economic 21rformance and ial literacy in the century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security.g. at carnegie. >> and with the ongoinort of these institutions:

and inviduals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcastin and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trump says everything is set for his summit next week with north kores leader kim jong un. the president met today with japan's prime minister shinzo abe. he said the summit with kim will be "more than a photo ," but added that doesn't mean he'll spend hours studying for it. >> i don't think i have toh. prepare very m it's about attitude. it's about willingness to t things done. i think i've been prepared for this summit for a long time, as has the other side. i think they've been preparing

for a long time also. so this isn't a question of pleparation, it's a question of whether or not pwant it to happen. >> woodruff: the president also he'll walk away if the summit in singapore does not go well. but if it does, he said, he would "certainly" invite kim to visit the united states. today's meeting came before the u.s., japan and otheup of 7" nations gather in quebec, canada, this weekend.vi we'll have a p of that meeting, after the news summary. in afghanistan, president ashraf ghani announced a week-long cease-fire wh the taliban. it coincides with the holiday marking the end of the islamic holy month of ramadan. it also follows a string of attacks by taliban a islamic state militants. the cease-fire applies only to the taliban. in iraq's capital, baghdad, at least 18eople died overnight, when a weapons depot exploded inside a shiite mosque. the blast also wounded 38 people. iraqi officials launched an

investigation into illegal stockpiling of wpons by shiite militias. meanwhile, iraqi officials launched a recount in last month's election amid complaints of rampant fraud. nato defense ministers rolled out new military plans today to deter russian aggression. defense ministers from the alliance met in brussels and agreed to a system of rapid-fire reinforcements across europe. it's to be ready by 2020. meanwhile, during al-in show in moscow, russian presidentvl imir putin argued his country is no threat to the west. >> ( translated ): we must defend our interests and d.it consequent not in a rude manner, but still defend our interests in economy, in security. we did it and we will continue doing it. but we always lookor a compromise, we aim at having a compromise. >> woodruff: putin said the u.s. and its allies must come to realize th sanctions on russia are ineffective and harmful to all. the u.s. commerce department is

lifting a ban on letting chinese telecom giant zte buy american parts. the ban was imposed for violating sanctions on iran and north korea, and it threatened to put the company out of business. instead, zte will have to pay a $1 billion fe and hire u.s. compliance officers. there's word that suicide rates rose in nearly every state inth nation between 1999 and 2016. the centers for disease control and prevention reports 25 states saw increases of more than 30%. as a group, middle-aged adults had the largest percentage. increa suicide is the nation's 10th leading cause of death, with nearly 45,000 in 2016. nearly 200 congressional democrats asked a federal judge today to hear their lawsuit against president trump.ey ay he's violating the constitution's emoluments clause when his businesses

accept payments and benefits from foreign nations. at issue today was whether they have the legal standing to file the suit. and, wall street had an up and down day. the dow jones industrial average atgained 95 points to clos 25,241. but the nasdaq fell 54 points, and the s&p 500 slipped two. still to come on the newshour: ahead of the g-7 summmit, the u.s. faces harsh cricism from its allies ovetrade. former president bill clinton speaks candidly about monica lewinsky. one on one with the former c.i.a. director, john brennan, and much more. >> woodruff: tomorrow, psident trump joins leaders of other wealthy nations in canada at the group of seven meeting, outside quebec city. but mr. trump's recent moves on trade and tariffs have

transformed a normally-staid affair, into a meeting of allies divided and wary of the ited states. yamiche alcindor is in quebec, ahead of the g-7 summit. >> he's the number one celebrity in japan. >> alcindor: president trump talked golf with japanese prime minister abe in the oval office. but, diplomatic pleasantries could hardly mask the widening rift between the u. and its closest allies. the most-contentious topic: new u.s. tariffs that threaten to spark a trade war. h >> we're workid to reduce our trade imbalance, which is very subantial. i will tell you, over the years it has been an extraornarily weak trade policy. na>> alcindor: meanwhile, 's prime minister justin trudeau hosted french president emanuel macr ahead of tomorrow's meeting. trudeau had tough words for mr. trump: >): hisanslat unacceptable actions are hurting his own citizens. it is american jobs which will be lost because of thections of the united states and its administration. >> alcindor: the president has

railed again trade agreements, even with america's closest allies, accusing the e.u., canada and japan of taking advantage of the u.s. ff they charge five times what we charge for ta and i believe in the word 'reciprocal,' you're going to charge five times, we're going toharge five times. >> alcindor: president trump announced last month that the f u., canada and japan would face new tariffs o25% on steel and 10% on aluminum. the e. quickly countered with its own list of tariffs on american steel and food products. the president's economic adviser larry kudlow has insisted the gaps with g-7 members ar't too wide to bridge. >> i regard this as much like a family quarrel. i'm always theptimist. i believe it can be worked out. >> alcindor: james stavridis is a former nato supreme allied commander, and now is dean of the fletcher school at tufts university. he expects a rocky meeting. >> i cannot think of a time where we have walked into

negotiations withoutmon sense of how to go forward, it's shocking departure. >> alcindor: the escalating trade battle is only one front where president trump has split with longtime allies: he pulled out of the in nuclear deal last month, and decided to exit the paris climate accord last year. macron warned that president trump's course change was damaging alliances and the credibility of the u.s. >> ( translated ): if they continue towards a form of isolationi, brutal hegemony, of distancing themselves from their own history, from their own values, from the role they play in international organizations where they are leaders, by deciding to remove themselves, that will be bad for the united states of america. io alcindor: stavridis said vital american relhips are under enormous pressure. >> increasingly there is a gap between the united states and the rest of our allies in the g-7. it is over iran. it's over climate.

it's over terrorists. it's over a sense of whether or not america wants to engage in the world or not. those distinctions are widening, not closing, and that is greatly, greatly to be feared. >> alcindor: with thoselo differenceing, it's unclear if the g-7 members can even agree on a joint communique by the summit's end on saturday. judy? >> woodruff: so you were at the site of the media center for reporters covering the summit. you'ren i quebec. let me ask you, the peo,le you talkedow do they think the president's trade actions will affect the g7 as a group? >> american officials i've talked to who are used to dealing with these kinds of summons says the g7 is facing storic and shocking shft. they say there's a leadership vacuum. the united states used to play a big role on multi-lateral agreements. president trump is backing away from that. they're now ying the g7 might not play the same role that it's

playing which is really to be a guidance for free trade all over the world. >> woodruff: so, y, micth so many disagreements, howe contention do ople you talked to think the summit will be? >> these conversations are lily going to be very tough. people are likely going to be arguing. the leaders of canada and france have already come out. they're going to try to push president trump to reverse the controversial tariffs on steel and aluminum. e meeting in queb think there are going to be arguments. >> woor,uff: yamiche alcin preparing to cover the summit that gets underway tomorrow. thanks, yamiche. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: former president bill clinton and best selling

author james patterson have teamed up to write a political thriller, "the president is missing" about a president slipping away from his secret service detail to save the country from a possiber attack. tonight, in the fit of two parts, we begin our conversation on the subject of former f.i. director james comey. there are several credible news reports today that -- what's going to come outn the nt day or so is an interim report department of justice from the inspector general being very critical of james comey as f.b.i. director, that he took steps he shouldn't have taken it inating secretary clinton's e-mails. when i interviewed your wife, secretary clinton, last fall, she said james comey was the proximate cause of her defeat because of the way he handled thatnvestigation. do you agree? >> oh, absolutely. i mean, i agree for factual reasons. i was ere looking at the results coming in, and you could

see -- i mean, 11 days before the election, when he had not told us tt he was inve president putin was trying to interfere on behalf of donald trump, and we now know he talked to one of the major newspapers who knew it also out of running a story on that, we knaew t from him, when he had done that for him to violate for the second time in an election cycle decades of bipartisan policy and dropping that email thing, it was, like, a 5-point drop overnight. i've never seen anything like it. re'sno, i don't think the any question about it. i think what it going to be instead of a 2.8% race, it would have been somewhere between 2 and 3 more points, and theeg electoral cowould have flipped. that's what i think would have happened. >> woodruff: another subyoject have been asked about a lot this week, the #metoo movement,

began with revndelations ar harvey weinstein, the hollywood producer. he was a good friend of yours and mrs. clinton's. he gave a lot of money to your campaigns, i guess he also contributed to your defense effort during the impeachment period. there were so many accusations by women against him, you nev had any sense, never heardhi an or saw anything about that that gave you -- >> i didn't. you know what -- and -- it's funny, i think -- i've thought about this a lot -- but every time we were together, i believe, over those years was either at chari event or a political event, if he was alone, or when his family was around. he was, over this period, rried twice, and his family was there iand, so, didn't know. no one ever said anything to me.

>> woodruff: sensitive questions. >> and where was the media -- i mean, charlie rose, dybody know about charlie? i don't know. and also, to me, in terms o just media being the kind tnvestigators they should be, people have beeking about the casting couch in hollywood for 40, 5veyears, whathe heck it is. no investigations. why does it take this to all of a sudden get to, to me, whaavt shouldbeen done 30 years ago. the #metoo thing should have happened a long time ago, a lng time ago. >> woodruff: sensitive question, president clinton. your clappings are monica lewinsky, you -- your relationship with monica lewinsky you said your impeachment was wrong and said you left office $16 million in debt. >> that was ththleast of it. price i paid mostly was the pain i caused to my wife and daughter and feeling terrible about the exposure she d and

the way i let me staff down, thi t. it was awful. but i had to live with this h. i always prided myself on treating ople right and trying to help lift people up, and i've spee nt st however many years it's been since i have been gone m trying tdel that and make a fference and living with what happened, yeah. >> woodruff: you paid a price. ro you think ms. lewinsky paid a higher price, a hder price? >> oh, i don't know. i think she paid quite a price. the price that i used to worry about all the time for her, and i was glad to see when she wen back to school and made another career, had a evision show, gave a really compelling ted talk, you ow, did other things, is that i was afraid that, you know, she would be

frozen in the public mind for the rest of her life and whappt ed, and i didn't want that for her. i think she's tried tobud a bigger, different, broader life, and i hope she has. >> woodrf: i assume yo think that what happened with you was more serious than whahat ened with senator -- former senator al franken. d he wven from office, from the u.s. senate. so norms have chang t. do you thit's a good thing?n >> well,neral, i think it's a good thing, yes. i think it's a good thing that we should all have higher standards. i think the norms have really changed in tms of what you can do to somebody against their owill, how much you can wd their space, make them miserable at work. you don't have thysically assault somebody to make them, you know, uncomfortable at work or at home or in their other --

just walkingund. that, i think, is good. i think that -- i will be honest, the franken c for me, was a difficult case, a hard case. there may be things i don't know, but i -- maybe i'm just an old-fashioned person, but it seemed to me that there were 29 women on "saturday night live" that put out a statement for him, that the first and most fantastic ory was called, i believe, into question.a too late to w into it now. i mean, i think it's a grievous thing to take awaty from he people a decision they have made, especially when there was an election coming up again, but it's done now, and i think that alof us uld just be focusing on how to do better and how to go forward. >> woodruff: and we'll have thre of my conversation wi former president clinton and

author james partisan tomorrow when they talk about the book and why they de tcid work together. >> woodruff: during a long intelligence career, johnbr nan was a man of few public words. yet as nick schifrin reports, these days, he has increingly found his voice, especially as it pertains to president trump. >> schifrin: john brennan joined c.i.a. in 1980. he was deputy executive director in t george w. bush administration and director in the obama administration. since stepping down in january, 2017, he has become an outspoken critic of president trump. and john brennan joins me now. thank you very much for being here. >> hi,k.ic the singapore summit is just a few days away, and there was a nlot of rhetorical back forth in 2017, but at this point, north korea claims that it wants to denuclearize and frhaozen

its nuclear missile test. so is that a sign the prese strategy is working? >> i think it's a sign the teions have come down, thankfully and i think it's important a diplomatic process u derway. i'm not pleased mr. trump decided to go to a summit with little preparation. even today in the oval office he said it didn't need much preparation. this is a highly complex matter. it was very difficult with iran that didn't have a nulear program. with north korea i think it's much more difficult becoause you'retalking about just pausing but dismantling their program. as secretary pompeo said have them thoroughly, irrevokably and verifiably stop a nucralear pr that's going to be tough to do. >> the obama administration criticized all his predecessors fr not solving the north korea problem. under the obama policy, his policy was patience, and while you were patient north korea was building and enhancing its

nuclear programie do you b patience was a failure? >> it didn't result in north korea not awaring a nuclear capability. looking back over the last 20 years, i think administrations have tried their best to prevent north korea fromquiring that capability. it was a very long march north koreans were on and now they have a npouclear w capability. so i think it's appropriate the trump administration deal with d thectly, but this is a very difficult challenge. it has been a chaenge for the last two decades. there has not been a military solution at all to this rechallenge because north not just because of its nuclear hd ballistic missile capability, but so much conventional artillery that is within range of seoul, the most densely populated ciy in the world, that even if we were able to take out all it's nuclear and ballistic missile capability,

they could rain down on seoul. we have troops in south korea and there would be a lot of people killed by nor kean artillery. >> do you acknowledge the problem has gotten worse in the last few years a president trump points out? >> i think kim jong un defied a loft his early critics, and i will say i did not have that much respector him early on, but i think he has been quite masterful in terms of how he s been able to move this program forward, accelerate it during the trump administration. >> as well as during the obama administration. absolutely. i think he escalated in order to deescalate. escalate in order to plateau with a nuclear capability. i think his strategy is to see he can get out of the summit and to see what the united states, south korea and china are going to relax e pressure on him and allow him to retain this nuclear capfoability i think, years to come. >> you were, of course, the head of the country'sest-known

intelligence service, and you've ac accused the president of not only lying routinely, intentionally refueling divisions and degrading institutions but,io wrote on march 17 on twitter e when th full extent of your vinality, moral turpitude and corruption becomes known you will take your place in thef dust pin history. there are some who are a little uncomfortable with your criticism. the people who say you are partisandon't they have a point? >> i'm not a republican or a democrat and i have been roundly condemned by republind democrats over the years and i call it like i see it. on that march 17th tweet, this was the day thtrat donalmp did almost a victory andoa ng dance when andy mccape the former deputy director of f.b.i. was fired, basically 36 hours before he was

to retire. mr. trump is a demagogue because he has preyed upon the fea and concerns of the american people, some very legitimate kerns, but he routinely lies, desieves and misrepresents the facts and reality, so, yes, i speak out ratherorcefully, but i am a private citizen now, and these are abnormal times, and some people think itfo's abnorma the former director of c.i.a., just like the former director of f.b.i. andirector of intelligence jim joamy d jim clapy to speak out as well, but this is an abnormal president. i think people who have experience and responsible to speak truth to the ameoprican to call mr. trump out when he desieves the american public aneindeed th world. >> do you worry your criticisms play into the president's fears that intelligence services are out to get him and gin gina has, now c.i.a. director, do you believe your criticisms might

make her job harder? >> i don't think. i think- i don't think mr. trump and others rely on my public commentary. he sees threats from lawnchts judiciary, public commentary and the media because they tier ones that can expose his falsehoods. the fact i'm aking out. i think i'm lending my voice to the legions of people w lieve mr. trump is realt reallyn abberation and he is deceiving the american public and is going to have negative consequences for national security. >> yodo you think the russians havesomething on mr. trump personally? >> they may, but i was ve surprised at how fawning his attitude was toward mr. putin, that he would speak with such disdain toward our allies, toward senaeven of his own party, but, yet, he speaks, youm

know, sot lovingly about mr. putin and was so reltant to cal him out to include for the attems undermine our elections. you say you don't kno tw. do ynk it's appropriate for the former c.i.a. director to speculate? >> i think it was appropriate owr me to answer the question and say i don't which i said. i said they may have. i don't know. >> do you think it's okay for you to speculate, given how much you know and given how peopl see you and what you know, certainly what you have accthess to ie past? >> i think i've come to learn a lot since my departu from the government in january 2017, including what's out in the press, and i am increeringly cod about all the things that the russians clearly did during the election that i was unaware of in terms of perso and social media and other things. so i don't know what the russians might have on individuals who may have been associated with the campaign, but i'm going to speak out, and if people want to crzeitime, that's fine, but i must tell you

so many people who sop me or sending notes are saying thank you for speaking out because i'm giving voice to those who don't have the same opportunity i d >> director john brennan, thank you very much. >> thanks, nick. >> woodruff: on capitol hill today, a tense morning ofng infighas house republicans threatened to go above leadership's head and force aat vote on immin reform. lisa desjardins has been at the capitol and s the details. >> desjardins: today at the capitol, a high-stakes, closed- door fight among republicans, over iigration, and especially so-called "dreamers," hundre of thousands of people brought here illegally as children. >> we have top-graduate kids who want to do great things for this country. >> give me a bill that doesn't have amnesty. i'll bet i can support it. >> desjardins: all this because moderates like california's jeff sdenham and florida's car curbelo have rebelled against

g.o.p. leaders to try to force action on the issue. they have launched something called a "discharge petition" to force immigration votes. if a majority of the house signs on, it would trigger floor action. with the help of democrats, the petition is close to having enough names. there is some urgency, thanks to house rules, moderates have just two windows to act on the petition, in the next few days, or in july. today's rare two-hour meeting was an attempt by leaders to find an internal g.o.p. compromise. if they don't, speaker paul ryan knows his moderates will join with democrats to pass something else. >> the best we can do is basically make sure that we exhaust the possibilities ofhe coming togas a house republican conference to bring a bill to the floor that everyone can support. >>esjardins: today there conservativeedom caucus has i signaledt may be willing to move andake a deal, it's

>> i think what you will see is leadership will take all the input from different members, points of view, and boil that down into a legislative framework in the coming days.ha >> desjardins:s the potential deal look like? several house republicans told newshour there is agreement on some legal status for dreamers, but disagreement on should get an automatic path to citizenship. an idea being floated now: end the vi lottery, where individuals around the world win the chance at citizenship, and use those spots for dreamers who meet certain criteria. for dreamers and all who caren, about immigratt is a key moment, and possibly the last moment for action this year. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now. you were telling us ther is more on the table as part of these negotiations. tell us about that. >> there is. in the houcase repubn conference they're fobbing about family migration and seems conservatives are moving toward the middle. freedom caucus dave brat said

they would conr status for family members for dreamers but more requirements and there is expectation this would have more money for the borr wall but could be over 1013 years. >> woodruff: what happens next? >> there is a deadline the moderates have set. by next tuesday if they don't get a deal they like, they say they will pull a trigger on a vote of their own and g wo inth democrats. so tuesday is the date to watch. once that happens, we will move to the senate. it is hard to predict how senate will react to se things. some versions will appeal more there, some version i think this is a critical last attempt at any kindof immigration deal in the next few days. many moderres are unde pressure because the districts are a hiring minority population these tas. >> woodruff: clearly the tpublican leadership not wanting members eir own caucus to work with democrats. >> that's correct. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins,yo thanvery much. >> pleasure.

>> woodruff: if you've been following the rise of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, you also probably have heard quite a bit about the meteoric spike, but what you may not have heard is abo of energy computers need to pursue bitcoin and other currencies in the first place. that demand, in turn, is affecting the prices of electricity in some places. and that's where our economics correspondent, paul solman, comes in to help explain these connections, part of our weekly series, "making sense." >> reporter: bucolic burgh, new york, 20 mile from the canadian border. it sure doesn't look like ground zero for a gold rush. but in this mall alone, cryptocurrency prospectors have installed thousands of mining machines-- small computers that gobble energy-- just to find new cryptocoins, in a vacated space behind the family dollar store. and it's all because platturgh

has dirt cheap electric rates. the invasion has the locals up in arms. these guys that are mining bitcoins are riding into town, taking advange of the situation. >> reporter: and the situation, it turns out: plattsburgh is the klondike of new york. that's because the cost of mining is all in the cost of energy. as mayor colin read says... >> plattsburgh has some of the lowest energy costs in the world. >> reporter: that's because this is hydroelectric land, where dams powered mills like this one last century. and these days, electricity rates in plattsburgh are barely a third of the national average, courtesy of a long-term deal for om niagaratricity falls. but there's a catch. plattsburgh has a monthly megawatt limit. onceed it, and they have to pay much higher ratehe open market. >> so, if we go over the quota, we can all of a sudden see a huge spike in our electric rates in the winter.ly it very raappened, but it's happening on a regular basis since the bitcoin operators came to to r.

orter: how much higher? >> 30%, 40% higher.or >> repr: and that proved a real budget-buster for the residents of chilly plattsburgh. >> they're used to paying, you know, $100 a month in the middle of winter to take care of all their elecicity and heating needs. to the point where most people in our city, the vast majority, heat with electricity,se it's very inexpensive. >> reporter: and then there are local companies who have relied on cheap energy. >> our electric bills changed overnight. >> reporter: here at the company you mean? >> yeah, a good 20 to 30% increase in the electric bill. >> reporter: tom reckny mold- rite plastics, where 500 workers churn out 11 million products every day. >> caps, closures, jars. and mo recently using child resistant caps for the cannabis market. >> reporter: but margins are thin. they were even thinner once mold-rite's electric bill jumped

by $22,000 in march. plattsburgh was driven over its monthly quota, says reckny, because miners were gobbling energy. >> more than twice what we consume. the impact that they're having is extraordinary, for sure. >> reporter: a simple video explains what they use the power for. miners use special software to solve math problems and are issued a certain number of bitcoins in exchange.r: >> reporhe software runs erfast, super power-hung computers, explains m.i.t.'s neha narula.g >> they're tryts of different random numbers to see which one is a solution to the zzle. and the first computer that figure number that's a solution to the puzzle publishes its answer and gets bitcoin in return for the answ. >> reporter: the mayor has a few right in his office. >> they're just cranking away doing tens of millions, hundreds of millions of calculations a second. and then hooked to all kinds of other maches around the world, and they're all sharing in the profits in trying to find the ne cryptocurrency solution

>> reporter: to find tan solution,then add it to the so-called blockchain, a runnin record of all transactions. that takes more power. this machine of read's is a just stack of graphics cards, like those us for gaming. it's mining for other cryptocurrencies. and this machine? at this here is an actual of-the-art bitcoin machine. >> reporter: the energy use of all these machines is immense. >> this miner here will use as much power as my house does in a month. >> reporter: 19-year-old plattsburgh native ryan brienza deferred college to run zafra out of the defunct imperial wallpaper mill. he hosts 200 machines from clients all over the country. ew it's going to cost you more to plug it in inork city, california, or boston, than to host with us. >> reporter: just to plug it in. >> what you're paying for power there is more expensive than o whatur hosting rate is. en>> reporter: moreover, b's clients don't have to cope withs

the machine and the heat. that's about as long as i can o ld my hand there. and then it startsrn. >> sometimes when i wash my hands, sometimes i use that to dry them off. >> reporter: brienza's operation is a drain on plattsburgh's eap energy. but it's dwarfed by coinmint, ac puerto-rbased operation, which first set up shop around the corner from brienza d then in this strip mall. no signs. just open doors and immense fans to vent the heat. thousands of machines inside suck up about 10% of the whole city's electricity. worldwide, the energy footprint of bitcoin alone is expected to double by year's end, devouring an incredible .5% or more of the world's electricity, as much as all of austria. the potential impact on global warming is profound. but the allure to miners of cheap energy outposts like iceland, washington state, and

small, unassuming plattsburgh is derstandable. >> the caper the power is, the more profitable that you can be. >> reporter: how much is any gven miner making at the moment >> on average i think mine are yielding l miner. a month, per >> reporte that is.ing machine, and, argues david bowman, plattsburgh gets something out of this too. >> there's nrt a lot of opities here. leey have a really hard time retaining young pe >> reporter: bitcoin mining is a reason to stay. >> get some investment in here t tech sector. bring, hopefully retain young people that are interested- because real it's a young people's game. >> rhoorter: but mayor read, w is also an economist, says the benefits to plattsburgh are indiscernible. >> our city gets, really, nothing out of it. the industry, typically, leases space, so we're not receiving any prerty taxes from them. and they employ very, very few people. >> reporter: so is plattsburgh- bred miner ryan brienza feeling the heat? does anybody give you a hard time about this?

>> i do know some old teachers and stuff who complain that i made their electric billo up. (laughs) >> reporter: but it wasn't just his teachers. >> we shouldn't be burdened wit this on our backs. >> reporter: in march, residents stormed a city council meeting to complain. son after, the council voted to ban all new mining operations for 18 months. >> we've got a substantial investment in this stuff. >> reporter: electrical engier greg brienza is ryan's father and business partner. the moratorium mothballed the new switchgears he'd helpedal inat the old mill to host more mining machines. how much do these things cost a piece? everal hundred thousand dollars. >> reporter: who's investment? yours, or...?>> he landlord. >> reporter: so he's not very happy with the moratorium? >> i'm not either. >> reporter: they're not giving up that easily, though. >> we've just been looking for otnr places that we can put operation in, and we have been pursuing that. >> reporter: places that don't have a moratorium. >> mm-hmm. we know a bunch of locations where there's cheap power. >> reporter: while hoping the ban here will be lifted.

the brienzas have come up with a seductive alternativhe recycle th from the computers. >> so this is that solutioni was talking about with the city. >> reporter: the brienzas have concocted a box toouse 108 machines, on building rooftops, say, to vent and recycle t heat free of charge. >> a greenhouse, a pool, a spa, a community center, something along those lines.te >> rep: mayor read, the economist, finds the idea downright intriguing. >> imagine a hot house tomato indoor growing facility, that's heated by abundant excess heat from a bitcoin operation. >> reporter: so, plattsburgh, new york, could become the model for efficient bitcoin mining? >> exactly, that's my goal, to figure out a way to turn this liability into a hugt for us, and communities all around the world. >> reporter: for the pbs

newshour, this is economics correspondent paultsolman in platburgh, new york. >> woodruff: next tonigher feeding a huand stoking the appetite, for reading in african schools and libraries. fred de sam lazaro has this report. it's the latest in hisfoeries, "agentchange." >> pretty much what we do is get lsbooks donated from schoo libraries, people in their homes who like to hoard books like myself. >> reporter: it's a typical saturday morning and selena hamer is training in a new shift of volunteers on how to choose which materials are suitable to send overseas. about six million bos are delivered to this football field-sized warehouse in atlanta ery year. dozens of volunteers come in to sort through the piles. and entually some three to four million make it out of here, destined for libraries and

schools across africa. the organization is, aptly, called "books for africa" and over the last 30 years it has sent more than 41 million books, donated by schools, librarie and textbook companies, to 53 different countries. it all began when a minnesota bookseller named tom warth, on vacation in africa, happened tor visit a y, says the group's executive director pat plonski. >> he saw this library that had no books in it. as he says, it had a building, card catalogs, a librarian but virtually no books he came back home to minnesota, met with some of his book partners, sent a few books and that was 41 million books ago. >> reporter: today, schools and libraries nd books for africa a wish list. they agree to pay for the shipping, on ocean-going ships in bulk containers to minimize costs. we visited the white dova,school in rwa private school for economically disadvantaged

girlof which received a crate books for its library three years ago. students here saidhe variety of books have made them enthusiastic readers. >> i wasn't truly interested in reading. but when i came here to white dove, i got to love books and read them. >> reading has developed my vocabulary because before i started reading, i was not good at speaking english.ep >>ter: of course not all books that are donated are culturally appropriate to send to africa. >> no self-help, no travelme guides, nocan history. no santa, easter bunny or halloween. >>ereporter: warehouse manag jeremy bostwick says the oorganization has learned become more selective over the years. >> they may ask us to remove anything that has to do with magic. also, we've been asked not to b include computks that say" for dummies."s

thermething lost in atanslation there. >> reporter: so s popular? >> we've probably proliferated danielle steel to every corner of the african continent. >> reporter: the fact that the books are so american appealed to some of theoung rwandans we interviewed. >> the more you get to read the bookof america, the more you get to discover what america is. you get to know the culture, the history of america. >> reporter: but others said they wished there were more bookabout africa. >> those in america talk about a girl in an american high school while the african books talk about situations that happen in africa and you relate to it more. >> reporter: you'd like to see more of that? >> yes. >> we are seeking to provide more books in local languages and books. dethink books in local languages are best prolocally, but we at books for africa exist because the ideal does not exist. >> reporter: in the meantime,

books for africa has begun experimenting with sending donated e-readers and digi books to africa. eventually that technology could exponentially increase themb of publications sent overseas. for the pbs newshour, i'm fredaz de saro in atlanta, georgia. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories p at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. and we'll be back shorth a brief but spectacular take from the man behind the popular ted talks. buarfirst, take a moment to from your local pbs station. k's a chance to offer your support, which help programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: for those stations staying with us, think about alw the flash cardksheets, and lesson plans used in classrooms each day. increasingly, teachers are going

online to find those resource and sell their own ideas. but some worry about the unintended consequences. special correspondent kavitha cardoza, with our partneron "educaeek," traveled to rural alabama and brings us this encore report. >> reporter: jennifer white is showing me around her hometown, oneonta. >> in 2010, my husband lost his job, and i needed to earn some extra cash. >> reporter: so in additn to her job as a kindergarten teacher, white started to tutor kids after school. but th three children of her own, two still in diapers, money was still tight. >> it was probably one of the most difficult times of my life. >> reporter: that led to a third job on weekends. >> this is the gas station where i worked. there's nothing quite as surreal as selling alcohol to former students. >> reporter: around this time, she heard about teachers who weti making extra money, wri and selling lesson plans online. sere are a number of websites

where teachers cre or sell their work. white started browsing through them. >> it kind of planted a little seed, and the more i thought about it, the more i thought "well, maybe i could do this!" >> reporter: the largest of these online sites is teachers pay teachers, or t.p.t. adam freed is the c.e.o. of the company. teachers pay teachers is a marketplace where teachers come together to buy, sell and share original educational materials. today, two-thirds of teachers in the u.s. are active members of our platform. this is an activity on le cycles. >> you have been assigned to put insects in the proper sections of the local zoo. >> it's so much more engaging to get to theideo this way, by doing something yourself. >> reporter: the average t.p.t. lesson plan sells for $5, and the company takes a cut of 20% or 45%. >> we're proud to announce that this past year, t.p.t. paid out more than $100 million to teacher authors across the country. >> reporter: some have even

become millionaires, including a kindergarten teacher from florida, an elementary school teacher from california, and an english teacher from louisiana. these online marketplaces are cocoming more and more popular. but, there are alserns. some legal experts say, if a teacher creates educational materials, those materials legally belong to the school district. some educators worry about quality. and, there are those who question what this means for the teaching profession, which traditionally has shared these materials for free. bob farrace is with the national association of secondary school principals. he worri this trend could discourage teachers from working together. >> i think it's not unreasonable to say that once you put a price tag on that colloration, you begin to close people out of that market. we want these ideas to flow very freely among everyone, not just teachers who might be willing or inclined to pay for that collaboration. >> reporter: jennifer white

worked on weekends to develop her first oduct, called "let's make a pilgrim." the lesson sells for $4.50.pa it includes erns and pictures of the finished product. the first quarter, she was excited when she made $300 from sales. then, a popular blogger shared her lesson. >> and that next quarter, i think i sold $14,000 in that three month span. and it was life-changing! >> reporter: white now has about 100 different products online. "let's make an elf," "let's make a snowman." i sense a theme here! th>> there was. at was the year of "let's make!" .p reporter: one of the most helpful parts of t., white says, is that teachers rate each other's lesson plans. so i see you've got 44,600 votes. >> yes. >> reporter: and you've got the highest score, which is four stars. >> yes, and the votes are basically like ratings. >> reporter: but ky swalwell, a professor at iowa state university, says teachers

ch osing a lesson plan based what's popular can be a problem, becausteachers may focus on what's "cute and catchy" rather than on content that's high quality. for example, she and two colleagues studied aopular lesson plan, "the wedding of q and u." it teaches kindergartners a simple concept, how the letter "u" follows the letter "q." thousands of classrooms have mock weddings, complete withel orate invites, decorations and vows. >> a lot of teachers are taking hours and urs to teach this fairly simple literacy concept. they're also teaching it as a rule that always works, and for any good scrabble player we know that q and u don always go together. >> reporter: swalwell says the vows between the kindergarten couple are even more troubling-- the girls' vows were often pretty sexist.

that they have to support the boys going out with other letters, that that's what they need to do, that's what their job in the relationship is. they also talk about how the boys' letter is what gave them a voice, otherwise they couldn't make a sound in the world. >> reporter: she says teachers need to be far more critical about lesson plans they create d buy. >> some kids might find it fun. but it isn't ever just about fu there are always social lessons that are being taught underneath. >> reporter:ennifer white tries to make the lessons applicable for teachers across the country, and she sees only an upside. for starters, she no longer worries about money. >> i could give up my job at the gas station and tutoring, andco d spend more time with my family. >> reporter: the whites have been able re save for rent, and go on vacations. she's also made teacher friends around the world. best of all, white says, she's been able to give back to her

students. woo it'slorful! >> thank you. actually, a lot of it was paid for through my sales. d>> reporter: the tables books, all the learning materials, toys and posters-- >> in my classroom, we're when they need something, if they need crayons, if they need glue or they need a backpack or they need something, anything, i i'm giving back to the people who have gotten me where i am today. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour and "education week," tam kavitha cardoza in one alabama. >> woodruff: next, another installment of our weekly series brief but sptacular where we tonight, chris anderson, the ow"r of "ted" and "ted talk the non-profit media organization which posts talks online for free, under the >> the process of one humanot speaking trs, is, has deeply biological roots.

we've evolved these techniques ov hundreds of thousands o years, perhaps gathered around campfires, of looking at someone, seeing every micro expression, hearing the tone of their voice, and being able to judge, is this person genuine, or are they bull ( bleep ) me? the single most importing to do if you have to give an important talk in a limited period of time, get rid of 90% of what you think you want to talk about. pick the one thing that is most important to you, and make it the through line of your talk. some people memorize their talk, every word, and there's a trap in doing that because if you sound like you're reciting, that takes away the authenticitytu ly. the difference between an actor acting and an actor really owning the character you really have to know a talk so well that it's in you and you can, focus o why it matters, what it means. the meaning that you want t communicate t person, and to that person, and to that person. o

a lifetiwork, condensed over a few hundred hours of prep, in 12, 13, 14, 18, nutes. a key question to ask before you give a talk is, y are you doing this? many speakers come thinking this is my opportunity, i've got this agenda, i want to promote these people. the audience sees through that in the moment. think that you're bringing a gift, and focus the whole talk on that. every story you tell is in service of that idea, of that gift. the first time i went to ted, 1998, i had no idea what i was coming into. why am i listening to an architect, followed by a software guy, made no sense to me at all, but, by day three, it started to connect. can actually learn fmeone outside of your field you can learn context you can be stimulat and in your mind, five things come together, and can explode in a way that actually wouldn't happen in anyone else's mind, because this

is how ideas are born. there is a moment where you have to emerge from your trench, come up, above, 10,000 feet at the amazing pattern that is out there of how things connect. context matters, you can't really understand somethingho deeply w knowing how it sunnects to something else, which means that ping experts in a field to share their knowledge accessibly with the rest ous, that's a huge gift to all of us. my name is chris anderson, and spectacular take on the power of ideas. >> woodruff: you can watch additional brief but spectacular episodes on our bsite, pbs.org/newshour/brief. on the newshour online right now, the investigation into russian attempts to influence the 2016 election has grown dramatically in size and scope,

and we have a new timeline to help you make sense of it. it covers decades of activity, and comes from months of work. that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again he tomorrow evening with mark shields and ramesh pannuru. for all of us at the pbs yowshour, thank you and se soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads us to discovery and motivates us to su. it's why we ask the tough questions and what leads us to the answers. at leidos, we're standing behind those working to improve the world's health, safety, and efficiency. leidos.

>> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. lifeell-planned. learn more at raymondjam.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org eduardo: this week on history detect

what does this letter reveal about a forgotten act m during the final days of the korean war? d all's he sais that he jumped on a grenade to save other guys and knew that if he didn't, everyone was goit. tukufu: how did n is alleged lesbiaautobiography escape censorship in the 1930s? wes: and what can this painting tell us tu about a ing point in the civil war? this is beautiful! elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ it's just like watchin' the detectives ♪