captioning sponsored bro newshourctions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: immigration limbo-- republican s' attempt today to come up with an immigration fix falls flat, as children separated from their parents hang in the balance. plus, we continue our report from the u.s.-mexico border with a federal judge tasked with decidinghe fates of immigrant families. and making sense of e-sports: inside the economics of how the competitive video-gaming world is changing the sports landscape. >> the beautiful thing about e-sports and about gaming is you don't have to be six-three and 220 to have a shot. you don't have to be six-foot-ne o dunk. anybody can come. male, female, any race, any

gender as long as you have some basic physical functionality, it's a level playing field. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major fding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular. financial services firm raymond james. leidos. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology,o and improved ec performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new irk. supportiovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and segirity. at carorg.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporaon for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbv station frwers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: immigtion-- and the plight of separated families-- remain "topic a" tonight in washington and at the u.s. southern border. but republicans are stilld divier how to change immigration law, and more than 2,300 children are still being held separately from their parents. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: mixed reactions

came from across the country today, after president trump's reversal on family separationsfr protesters in milwaukee, angry entire families will be detained... nt a sense of relief from undocumented immigstaying in a private shelter in mcallen texas. >> ( translated ): this is good news for the hispanic community, because no one has the right to separate children from their parents, seeing so many kids crying and asking for their moms, was mply unfair. >> reporter: from the white house came a new outreach on the issue. firslady melania trump made surprise visit to mcallen today, touring facilities holding unaccompanied minors, incling a few wh were separated from parents-- a result of her husband's immigration crackdown at the border. >> i've heard they are very happy and they love to study.ve >> they o go to school. >> and i also like tyou how i can help to these children to reunite with their families.

>> reporter: the first lady decision's to wear a jacket while leaving washington today, with writing on the back that said "i don't really care, do you?" prompted questions. but her spokesperson maintained that there was no hidden message. on her trip, mrs. trump was joinedy alex azar, secretary of health and human services-- the department tasked with overseei they're apprehended by border ctrol. an h.h.s. officifirmed that for now, children separated from parents are still going to foster care homes and facilities all across the country.si as for prent trump... >> we don't want to have children separated from their parents. >> reporter: he defended his actions in a cabinet meeting today but seemed to give conflicting statements on whether families would stay together. saying both this... >> i signed a very good executive order yesterday, but that's only limited-- no matter how you cut it, it leads to separation ultimately. >> reporter: and this: >> i'm directing h.h.s., d.h.s., and d.o.j. to work together to

keep illegal immigrant families together during the immigration process and to reunite these previously separated groups. >> reporter: u.s. customs ander bord protection stated today that it would now attempt to keep families together, but detained, as it continues "to refer for prosecution adults who cross the border illegally." but people those who deal with i the familiolved are deeply concerned. they say the new order ignores those already separated. seio garcia is a public defender in texas. >> to me, it doesn't mea anything. and for my clients, it doesn't mean anything. >> reporter: newshour talked with garcia about the more than ro2,300 children separated their families, asking what is the chance that their parents ll ever see them again? >> i think it's almost none. and the reason why i feel like that is because there is, you know as you probably know,o parents me and ask

questions about asylum, who ask questions about immigration. they're being detained rightng now, they're brosecuted they're turning away people who are actually seeking information like asylum information which is a right that they have they have a right to make that claim. so i would say zero. >> reporter: still in question-- the legality of the president's executive order. the departmentf justice today g ked a federal judge to change the rules governmigration and customs enforcement detention facilities and allow for the detention immigrant families who enter the country illegally to be held indefinitely for longer than the current 20 days, in an effort to keep them together. meanwhile, in the legislative branch, the house of representatives voted down one conservative immigration proposal. and delayed a vote until tomorrow on a republican compromise that would make the president's new policy of detaining families together permanent. and judy, that compromise lell tanot only the issue of child separation, but it also includes a possible path to

citizenship for daca recipients, or "dreamers," and money for president trump' sborder wall. lisa, tell us more about what's going on behind the scenes at the capitol. you have been there. i know you spent today ander yey there. why are they having such a hard time coming together on this immigration issue? t >> well,nk we see the classic divide the republican party has had for a long time now. this movement of this big vote to tomorrow tells us who mai things, judy. it tells us, ne, they do not have the votes forhis compromise tonight, but, two, they think they might get them by tomorrow. they feel there are conservative momentum, a move toward limiting immigration more than this bill does. if this compromised bill fails tomorrow, that means the attention turns to the sen and a possible narrower solution for this child sepation issue. i think, overall, judy, in the past two days it's been so w today the joke at the capitol was it felt like and really was r.e longest day of the yea >> woodruff: it sounds like they're not close to pulling this off, to coming to an

agreement. >> unclear. this compromise bill has a chance tomorrow, but it's still uphill. >> woodruff: very quickly, the jacket the first lady wore today got some aention. it sad on the back, the style, i don't care, o you. the white house said no hidden message but the president's been tweeting about it. a arently, it was an open message. the phrase i really don't dareu do efers to the fake news media. he tweeted pla melania trump say she doesn't care about the media and what the media says. maybe not a hidden message, but the president says a message about the media. >> wndruff: different t what her office said. >> yes, they said there was noag me >> woodruff: we'll have a conversation with an immigration judge near the border in texas after the tws summary. day's other news, the

u.s. supreme court ruled that states may legally force oine shoppers to pay sales tax. the 5-to-4 decision overturnedng two longstanrecedents that allowed online retailers not to collect sales tax in many cases. a number of states argued that as a result, they've been losing billions of dollars in revenue each year. in israel, the wife prime minister benjamin netanyahu was charged with fraud today. sara netanyahu is accused of using some $100,000 in public funds to pay for meals from restaurants and celebrity chefs. her lawyers call the charges "baseless and delusional." the prime minister also faces a series of corruption investigations. turkey is headed toward a crucial election sunday and thy president topealed for support. arecip tayyip erdogan wanew term with greatly expanded powers. early voting is already under way, but polls sw the presidential and parliamentary races are ghtening. erdogan's opponents are warning against one-man rule back in this country, the trump administration proposed merging

the u.s. departments of education and labor. budget director mick mulvaney spoke at today's cabinet meeting, and laid out ante ive plan for reorganizing the government. he cled for creating a singl "department of education and the workforce". >> we think thatakes tremendous sense because what are they both doing? they're doing the same thing. lethey're trying to get pe ready for the workforce. sometimes it's education, sometimes it's vocational training. but they're all doing the same ting so why not put them same place? >> woodruff: the plan also would create a single food safety agency, among other changes. many of them will first need congressional approval. the u.s. house of representatives narrowly approved a new farbill today that sets tougher work requirements for food stamp cipients. the larger bill renews a broad array of crop and nutrition programs. n moves to the senate, which favors a more modest measure without the tougher foor stamisions. the c.e.o. of technology compani intel has ed over a

consensual relationship with an employee. the company said brian krzanich violated its non-frateion policy. it gave no details. krzach joined intel in 1982 and became c.e.o. in 2013. trade tensions again kept wall stet on edge today. the dow jones industrial average lost 196 points to close at 24,461. the nasdaq fl 68 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 17. om new zealand today, word of a happy arrival. prime minister jacinda ardern gave birth to a baby girl.r, lahe posted a picture with the seven-pound newborn alongside her partner, clarke gayford. tte late pakistani prime minister benazir bwas the only other world leader to give birth while in office. and, on a sadder note: koko-- the famed gorilla who knew signs

language--ied at a preserve in california. she was born at the san francisco zoo, and beganla learning siguage as part of a project with stanford university. her capacity to commun show emotion gained renown, and was.featured in documentarie koko the gorilla was 46 years old. still to come on the newshour: how the immigration debate ist playing ou court, navajos leek to draw new political lines by rewriting theion map, and much more. >> woodruff: now, one judge's take on the immigration debate and how the trump administration's family separation policy has been playing out in his courtroom. amna navaz sat down earlier today with judge robert brack, a deral district judge based in las cruces, new mexico.

>> the vast majority of the work you do here, of the casesou see in your courtroom deal with immigration. off front row seat thow the changes in policy affect what you do. you said it looks like we're in the death throws of a system that's been on life supprt way too long. what did you mean by that? >> so i think wge all aree and have for many years that our immigrion system is broken and as heartbreaking this crisis along the border was this last couple of weeks, a guy that shows up here every day and does this every day has to find hope somewhere, and i'm thinking, i'm hoping that maybe the moral outrage associated with what's happened will be the thing that -- the catalyst that finally makes us look had at this immigration system that we all agree needs to be fied, and if that's the case, then this was the last gasp, you know, of

that system, and maybe we can replace it with something that makes sense, that's humane and compassionate and still addresses our security needs and our labor needs. >> most federal judges, i think, don't speak out about these t kinds ngs, it's fair to say, but you have been writing letters over the years. you wrote one first in 2010 topr ident obama. you've written many since then. why? why are you taing about thi right now? >> i'm not comfortable doing it, and i never set out to be thee spokesman for federal judiciary on this issue. and the fact is judges have a constitutional lane that they need to stay in and i'm trying to be sensitive to that. i have been promised -- we as a nation have been promised immigration reform ever since i have been here, 15 years. fits and starts, never has happened. in my view, i am just reporting back from the front lines about what i see a what i know and

how i experience the immigratior lem, and i'm hopeful that this information that i'mil providing inform a debate that will finally happen. >> no othefederal judgomes close to your sentencing record, right, over the last five years i was reading that you sentenced maybe 6,000 defendants for felony immigration violations, and your critics will say you are then send them back to the same system they were fleeing which is not necessarily compassionate. they say that that will be your legacy. what do you say that? >> well, you know what? there's some truth in that. as a federal district judge, i'm the only one down theory that can sentence the people tha come before me, and i guess i could say, as some of my critics have recently said, if i' conflicted in this way, i should quit. maybe there's some credence to that thought, but here's the thing -- if imot sitting here, somebody else is, and those people are going to be

sentenced. this system iso a monster that has to be fed eve day. >> there's been so much attention paid to the family seration policy, and theres also a lot of conversation now that the president has issued orders for that to end, that that crisis is now st of behind us. do you believe that it is, based on what did you've seen in your courtroom? >> so i haveiceen an uk in cases involving families separated at t border in the last 30 days, and i hope that i don't see those anymore. obviously, there's an issue of ids to reunite the 2,000 and their families, you know, their parents. in the meantim do i think that's going to be the end of it? i'veeen, as i said, we had n ts and starts with this immigratoblem for a long time, and if it's not this, it's something else. the family separation i'm talking about and this is most

heartbreaking is the folks that have been here for ten years or 20 years. we had one today 30 years. they've lived here, you know, most of their lives. they've felt so prior non-criminal prosecution system that they put down roots here and they have american citizen children and ty have american citizen lives, in many cases, and i preside over process that tears them apart. i'm a husband and a father, and i'm saying to another husband and father just across the bench from me, you can't ever live with you family again. and iwh thought must it be like to hear those words,i becausn't imagine having someone else say those words to me. and i just -- it's heartbreaking, and if it doesn't

break yo heart, then -- well, you don't get i >> judge brack, thank you so much for your time. >> my pleasure. >> woo adrufna joins us from the border. that was such a powinerful rview with the judge. you were in his court this morning and spent time watching him work. tell us about what you saw. >> yeah, judy, we spent about an hour and a half with him earlier today just to give you a sense of how these things generally work, we see aga4in at 8: they wrapped up by 10:20 in. that time 13 cases were heard by judge brack, all men one woman, that's considered toe a light day. all the dforts were there inui colorful jum they have been issued in detention or county jail, wherever they're held, they're all handcuffed at the wrist and shackled at the ankles. what they had in common, none of

the people had any kind of criminal hishry prior to te criminal conviction that led them to judges bracurtroom today, that being an immigration-reitted case. bu the details that spike stick out and separate these stories one from another. there was a 19-year-old young mafrom guatemala larks tried twice to enter the united states, both times unsuccessfully. held for 35 days, being deportea totemala. a young mother from honduras, thft behind four children w her sister to come to the states and works and she was the last 60 years in atlanta before apprehended and sent back to hondurna. y a 27-year-old man from mexico who came to the u.s. when he wasve just years old, lived here 20 years, went to school here, worked here, earned for his family. he went back when he got marriel

anegally ent red with his wife, four month pregnant, they are both being deported. judge brack said he would do all eck to make sure they're both deported together. >> woodruff: we heard about the fact there's an unanswered questhon about how children separated from their parents will be pulled back together and i should say as i asked you this, we just learned in the last hour or so that the attorney general jeff sessions said in an interview today that it was not the intention of the trump administration to separate families, to separate out the children. what do we know at this point about how that process is going to happen? >> well, it may not have been the intention, but i guess anyone familiar with the law would tell you that's an inevitable consequence, that the parents and the children they care for are separated from

them. a man named frederico in judge brack's court from guatemala, 51 years old, he and his son came together. whenahey were rehended, his son was forcibly taken from him. he's been held 38 days in government custody, the father has. i had a chance tspeak with his public defender. in all that time, he has not had contact with his son once. most of the time, he didn't know where his son was. his lawyer swed me 60 pages of e- ails that shend other immigration lawyers have been working with to navigate th government system to figure out where the son is, can they set up at least a phone call between the son and father. i called public defenders to find out if this is normal. i asked another publicefder along the border what's your success rate of reunifition of parents and children who are separated and i was told zero percent. another one said this happens

all the time. there are0 still 2ildren in government custody forcibly sepated from their parents, and the children are in a separate system, the parents are being moved through the criminal system at such a pace that they eye prosecuted and deported oftentimes before ave had a chance to make contact with their kids and they don't know when or if they wil be able to again. judy. >> woodruff: amna nawaz reporting from close to the border. thank you, amna.th forcible separation of children from their parents at the u.s. southern border haste focused ion on the conditions of the detention of all young immigrants. and now john yang reports that there are troublabg allegations t one facility housing immigrant teens in virginia. >> reporter: judy, todayr virginia goverlph northam launched an investigation into claims of severe physical abuse of immigrant teenagers at a juvenile detention facility near staunton, virginia. northam acted just hours after the associated press reported the claims made by immigrants sent tthe facility by u.s.

authorities. one of the reporters who bros the story jo now, michael beisecker, an a.p. investigative reporter. michael, thank you very much for joining us. >> good to be with you. first of all, tell us who these young eople are in this facility and how they got there. >> well, the statements filed as mart of this lawsuit were fro mostly kids from central america and mexico who crossed the border as unaccompanied minors and were picked up by immigration authorities and put into the system undeher department of health and human receivables office of refugee resettlement, which essentially puts these kids in shelters, in facilities that will house them while their immigration case often, you know, seeking hfg status wind their way through immigration courts, which can take years. >> and, so, these are similar th children who have been forcibly removed from their parents along the border in the last few weeks but not t sheame.

>> this lawsuit was filed before the zero tolerance policy was announced in april separating parents from their children. however, once those children are in the system now, they are classified as unaccompanied minors and could end up at some of the sameisfacilities whic why we were looking at them. >> and these young people wereo being gang me is well, in many cases, they have mentaes that can cause them to act out,ave behavioral problems that may have made it difficult for them to acclimate to being in less secure facilities. so what a program manager from this facility in shenandoah valley, virginia, testified to fore congress back in ail was that many of the kids labeled as being ng members, potentially violent criminals, they get them toe facility, screen them and find out they

may not be gang members or created crimes, they may just be young people who have behavioral issu that need to btreated. >> what are the allegations made about the treatment? >> they're pretty se career ando istent between the statements. several of the children say they weretrapped to w was called a safety chair, essentially a restraint chair withheels, that a white bag was placed over their head and they were left in there r sometimes days. other teens and children, they ranged in age from 14 to 17 saio that their thes were taken away and they were confined for days on end to their cells, steel beds, told a window whe peopcould see in 24 hours a day and without their clothes in the virginia mountains, it was drafty. >> and a lawt'suit tbeen filed, you've got corroborating

evidence? >> we were able to speak to someone in that facility, who had been in that facity, who had met face to face with the kids, sd that pon reported seeing bruises and in one case broken bones that, when she asked wh happened, she was told that the guards had assaulted them. consistently between the statements, the children said that they would be struck child they were in restraints, handcuffs and shas.ck >> and what's been the response from the facility? >>.here's not been any in court documents, they deny all the allegations. however, we have beele to get any response from them over the last two days. also the department of health and human services has yet to respond to outor ry and we reached out to them in advance of publication. >> and you said this goes back to theat obama adminisn and you did speak to officials who served at that time in the administration. >> we talked to a top official who oversaw the refugee

resettlement program over obama hese allegations ran over a span of years. he sd he was unaware of complaints at shenandoah valley but had heard about them after leaving. he said had he heard about them while he was in charge he would have investigated and potentially canceled theco ract that pays to house the kids. >> there has been congressional testimony about this? >> there has been from someone who worked at the facility and she said, in some case the children have behavioral problems that can be difficult to tre in what we could call a tyrrectional-setting, a prison-like faciand they would be better served in itsidential psychiatric treatment facs, however, those facilities are often hesitant to take a child with a history of behavioral problems or the potential for violence. >> you call this a prison-like facility but these children have not been convicted of crimes.

>> that's correct, they're housed in the same facility with local juvenile delinquents that have been eith charged or adjudicated with serious crimes. however, they yre largel segregated from the mostly white mates, juvenile inmates, and the latino kids said that their facility was much more stark, they didn't have access to cushy chairs, as good food, didn't have access to video consoles, and some of the perks that were afforded to most by white detainees they were deprived of. >> micel beisecker, associated press, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: the but first, how election maps are drawn can help determine which political party controls power. the u.s. supreme court narrowly ruled in two cases this term, keeping in place boundaries in

maryland and wisconsin.t a fi still raging in one utah county over current district lines and their effect on the voice of native americans. from the university of southern california's annenberg rural reporting initiative, tommy brooksbank has the story. >> reporter: san juan county is the largest county in utah, about the size of new jersey. it stretches from the predominantly white, mormon antowns of monticello and ng in the north, to the vast navajo reservation in the south. it ialso the poorest county the state. >> on the navajo reservation, the unemployment rate is around 72%. >> reporter: rebecca benally's county district includes theva reservation. she is currently the only native american serving as one of three countyommissioners, even though the navajo are a majority of the total population. c but that couldnge when residents go to the polls for a special election in asvember. lateyear, a federal judge ruled that the county voting districts had been gerrymandered, in violation ofe

nstitution, by lumping the navajo into a single voting district. the ruling was a huge victory for the navajo nation. and for wired jones, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. >> there were some tears that were shed at that moment for my family on my side. >> reporter: jones decided to e because, he argued, navajo residing within the county district that includes the reservation had been denied critical services. ehis own sister died beca there was no ambulance available-- like this one in th nort take her to a county hospital. >> and she had a heart attack and they couldn't get there until about an hour later which was too late. >> reporter: the old county commission map placed most of the navajo population in the third district, whicguaranteed that the other two districts would have the final say on county issues. the new map, drawn up by a court-appointed expert and put ember, spreads d that population around.

reaction to the court's decision in the northern part of the county was swift and angry. kelly laws is the capublican idate for county commissioner in district two-- that is the district that could potentially swing the threenc member c majority to the navajo. he is furious that the newin district trisect the town of blanding. >> this is a perfect case of gerrymandering at it's very best and the parthat's interesting is how many of the counties in the nation have had this done to them? >> reporter: but the argumentth gerrymandering has been replaced with more gerrymandering has been rejected oby the tenth circuit cou appeals, which denied the county's most recent appeal. the court says the new districts were drawn to fairly reflect the overl population. new voting lines aside, the two parts of the county are stillrt worlds a on the navajo reservation, some people live without electricityr unning water and school buses must travel over miles and miles of dirt roads. in the northern part of the county, there are two big

libraries, a community center on a golf course, and two hospitals. navajo residents are hopeful that the redistricting-- which affects both the county commission and the school board- - might bring more resources ceir way. curtis yanito isandidate for the school board. hefives on the south side osa the n juan river, which he sees as just one more barrier to connecting with the northern part of e county. he hopes the new district lines will mean more resources for reservation children. >> i know that there's funds ou, thut it just stops right there, where the border's at. and all the funds that i've en that happened in the past it'sou just been t on that side. >> reporter: the debate over utredistricting is playing against a long history of anger by white conservatives here over what they see as federal overreach. win 2014, it was a face-oh the bureau of land management over a.t.v. use in recapture canyon more than a decade ago, federal agents swarmed into blanding and

arrested a number of citizens for illegal trade in native american artifac. one of those arrested was a local physician, who latere. committed suic librarian nicole perkins still gets emotional about it. >> the raids, when they came and raided dr. redd, and his familyn the other people here. you saw all the local people, they came in with guns andus vehicles jt like we were isis or something. >> reporte today, that anger over federal intrusion continues, with county leadersng plano appeal to the federal court yet again over the new district boundaries. if they lose that appeal, the battle for political control of the county comes down to the race for commissioner in district two. wilfred jones is optimistic that a navajo candidate will qualify for the ballot andin that seat. we're in the 21st century

here. we should be able to vote and voice our opinion. >> reporter: if the navajo winhr two of the seats on the county commission, it would overturn more than a century of political domination by white sidents. for jones, who was born before native americans had the right to vote in utah, it would be a personal, as well as historic, victory. for the pbs newshour, i'm tommy brooksbank in san juan county, utah. >> woodruff: now, the plans to renotalize the newspaper of for the united states' second largest city, "the los angeles times." patrick soon-shiong is a multi- billionaire surgeon, entrepreneur and part owner of the l.a. lakers. he has spent half a billion dollars to buy the paper, which has faced big setbacks in recent years. as critical as it has been to the city l.a. times" has struggled with

huge financial losses, two- thirds of the staff were laid off over time, three top editors wereeplaced in 18 months and there've been multiple publishers. soon-song is also an immigrant, born to parents who had fled china during the occupation by japan during world war ii. he joins me now from los angeles. patrick soon-shiong, congratulations. i you'esting in a newspaper at a time when few around fewer people are reading them. why? >>ell, i think it's important for democracy, it's important r education, it's imortant for this country, and it's an institution at i think we need to protect, and, to me, i grew up in apartheid, south africa, and the othnling that was my respite was a newspaper, frankly. >> woodruff: and, you know, you and i haa little bit of a conversation about this not long ago when we tald. what is it about journalism

today that you think you can make thrive? because we look across the country, newspapers are struggling, people are moving to mdigital, what is your dr here? >> well with, the first thing, there's a fund mental need of this issue of truthful news, right. i think that tu -- and as i said in my letter, i think fake news is a cancer of our times and, frankly, this social tmedia allowss proliferationle metastasis. i think the pce where wneed to find truthful information and journalistic integrity is in the newspapers. but i think we also recognize that we havse t problem of where technology has now taken over where people want news where they can read it, wherever th may be, and the digital mobile platform. i still am o the old school, i still love the tack tile feeof a physical print and what i call

leisurely reading. but we need to adapt and adopt very quickly in realtime into this whole new world of digital age. so today i think journalists need to have cross technology skill sets. they need to podcast, they need to do what i'm doing here, tv interviews, and prin and it's a very different life for the journalists, but without journalists giving us good, real investigative reporting, i think we will have lost a lot in termi ofs institution. >> woodruff: do you think you can do this ande profitable? after all, it's a business. >> it is a business. this is not a philanthropic anercise, this is not an exercise of vity. this is an exercise where this business has to now as an institution survive. the "new york times" and "the washington post" have sho

fact, if they create great important storiesth wireat journalists, they can adopt, and we must.an the answer is i'm hopeful we are concerned or scared of technology. part of my work in cancer doing tinomic sequencing and cloud sequencing and aficial intelligence, i think we can bring together a model that thrives. >> woodruff: and you're working in a news room that has lost, as we said, lar percentage of its staff, of its reporters, youe dealing wita place that's been traumatized virtually in recent years.g what's it go take to turn that around? d ii speak to my news room say this is like a traumatized child syndrome.

wa announced the excutive effort. the next day the transformation editor. the idea is to strengthen the news room. the journalists are the lifeblood. i see this as a life-long program for us to really create stability. so i thinkif we actually track the -- attract the best talent, and california is a unique ecosystem to itself, we wil able to do fine. >> woodruff: you come to this, patrick soon-shiong, as someone who didn't come out of journalism and you said you're , physicour investments within in health care and pharmaceuticals. the "l.a. times" has written a story that earlier this year, controversies in your business career, were they accurate in those stories and do you think your background is a fit for

this? >> first of all, that's what i t to "l.a. times." they should feel to write everything and anythiut me completely independent of theg owner as ls it is fair and truthful. i think it should be the standard for anybody. fairness, honesty and truthfulness is all any person could ask for. but with regard to my background, i look at journalists like scientists. they love discovery, we love discovery. t ey love the truth, we wo find the basis of the truth and we love pubshing. while my background has been in discovery working with scientists and physician scientists, i look upon jour if we're going to do opinions, we should very, very clearly say this is an opinion, and edeverybody should be allo have their opinion, whether it be right opinion, left opinion, middle road opinion. so i think the opportunity for now to create an educational

forum, a forum that will f inspire,um that will inform, and a forum that will provide entertainment, so to speak, even, of sports, of arts, lifestyle. so i'm real excited. it's a steep learning curve fo me but i'm really excited about this next episode of what i'm going to be doing. >> woodruff: dr. patrick soon-shiong, the new owner of the "los angeles times" and the san diego union, congratulations. >> thank you so much, judy. >> woodruff: as traditional sports like baseball and football struggle with stalling viewership and an aging fan base, a new kind of "sport" has emerged with huge appeal for millions around the world.om ecs correspondent paul solman has the story from austin, texas where he went to a three-day event for what's known as "e-sports."

part of his weekly series making sense. >> reporter: pro sports don't get any hotter than this in the u.s... in france... in poland... the fans are in ecstasy-- and sometimes, despair-- over e- sports: electronic athletics. that's right, they're playingfo video gar money-- big aney. come on, you, this is "sports"? well, the olympig are considerding e-sports because they've mesmerized the digitageneration while aditional sports worry about decline. >> we're not really concerned anymore about this hanike is it sports or not. >>keporter: we're at dreamh in austin texas, canadian mike van driel he from sweden to manage the event. dreamhack austin drew a crowd of

only 30,000-- $30 just to watch, $89 if you also b.y.o.c: bring your own computer to plain the amateur pen. but you know how times many fans will tune in online? >> i mean easily 100 million. >> reporter: 100 million? yeah. >> reporter: the box office take in austin: nearly a million dollars.th bu is just one of the dozen or so events dreamhack hosts every year. >> we're doing two events in the u.s., two events in spain.o and then in eks from now we'll be at kind of the original event in a jonkoping, . >> reporter: and how many people come to that? >> about 55,000. >> reporter: in jonkoping! that's standing room only at yankee stadium., moreoverwhile we were at dreamhack, a separate tournament scs taking place at a resort in sin. and there were others all over the world, including several big tournaments strictly online. >> so many events happen on thea same weekends e there's not enough weekends. >> reporter: following the fansf

ourse: the money. growing at 40% per year, e- sports figure to gross nearly a billion dollars by the end of 2018: 40% or so from sponsorships, 20% from ads, another 20% from media rights. at dreamhack, signs of the new money were everywhere: hh tech cameras on cranes, so-called "casters" call the action play-by-play-- streamed live, worldwide-- as the pro gamers play for rich prizes in iaaddition to their substa salaries.>> they're well over six figures. and then the sky's the limit with prize money. >> reporter: that's shzeam shahkhan, a star whose pro e-sport is "counter strike," where five terrorists try topl t bombs and five counter- terrorists try to deter them-- permanently. whoever "neutralizes" the opposing team first,

shazam plays for "complexity gaming," one of scores of pro e-sports teams in various leagues playing different e- sports video games: "dota 2," .b.g.," "overwatch," "le of legends." they all compete f top talent like shazam. last year, complexity was bought by dallas cowboys football boss jerry jones, who's been joined by traditional sports mogulsra like bob kft of the new england patriots football dynasty, who's invested in a v league for teo game overwatch. team "complexity," which makes its money from corporate sponsors and its cut of tosnament winnings, provide plenty of support. >> we' got a personal fitness sports psychology coach. like even teaching some of the players how to cook, taking somy s to the gym and showing them like a healthy lifestyle, getting advices on like you know fixing your postur >> reporter: hey, "posture" is key, if you sit as much as these

guys do, practicing 8-10 hours a day. but look, says the entrepreneu who founded and then sold the "complexity" team, jason lake... the beautiful thing abo sports and about gaming is you don't have to be six-three and 220 to have a shot. you don't have to be 6 foot 9 to dunk. anybody can come.le male, feany race, any gender as long as you have some basic physical functionality, it's a level playing field. >> reporter: there is one physical hazard: carpal tunnel syndrome. daniel rodriguez, a.k.a. "chudat", also plays professionally. >> if i played for about one or two hours my fingers are pretty much, they just start to hurt. >> reporter: chudat is a star at "super smash brothers melee," a mostly gun-free mano-a-mano affair released way back in 2001 but chudat's e-sport was shelved for a sequel, "super smash brothers brawl," and both he and the game appeared to be obsolete.od >> i was no t it. f i had to kind of like drop "smash" and i had us on

like my real life so i got a job old then i went back to sc >> reporter: luckily, a 2013 noalgia documentary revive "melee" and rodriguez's career for the time being. >> peoe think that this game will dry up and it will just like completeldisappear. >> reporter: well what do you do after that? >> i got to go back to school and get a job. >> reporter: so unlike baseball or golf, video games go, video games come-- and sometimes quickly. -se video game of the moment, soon to become a pport with a league of its own: ortnite," a shoot-em-up featuring a battle royale. 100 players drifting down to an island and then sniping away to emerge as sole survivor. xtth promised tournament prizes of $100 million neear, it threatens to become the biggest e-sport of them all and was plastered on screens throughout dreamhack. released less than a year ago, the ga already has 50 million players, in part because it'sty

"free," while cal video game costs $50-$60. an it offer $100 million in prizes? because "fortnite" hastourned oue a superb virtualnd mercer. matthew adams, playing "fornite. at the "b." area of dreamhack, is one of its customers. >> you can earn dances and buy them like here's a break dance. like in old times, like disco. >> reporter: and you could either earn those dances for your character or you can buy them? >> you can buy them in the shop. >> reporter: how much is a dance cost rouly? >> like two dollars. >> reporter: two bucks a dance. >> yeah. >> reporter:skins"-- the outfits players don-- are $10 to $20 apiece. as a result, "fortnite" grosse $296 million on "cosmetic items" and weapons upgrades in the month of april alone! how many hours a day do you play this?

>> maybe like five, i ay a lot. i think that it will be as popular as baseball, basketball, and those sports it's just a matter of time. >> reporter: matthew zac adams is a pro athlete himself, a long-drive golfer who has hit a ball 450 yards onto a fairway. he's taken up "fortnite" to spentime with his kids. but now wait a second. maybe "fortnite" is the next big e-sport. but doesn't the olence concern the faer? a 2015 review by the american psychogical association linked video games to increased aggression, though it found no link to violent crimes. >> i think that the parents at do allow them to play should be responsible to bring that to the top of the list. >> reporter: matt's dad said het waorried about a "fortnite" addiction. but that was before the worldth herganization pronounced this week that such addictions can be a "gaming disorder"

in extreme cases. do you worry at all about the addiction factor? i asked him if he was addicted to the game. and he said, "yeah." >> i mean it's tough to like put my finger on that. you know because if you balae your life with exercise, proper diet, and you're and you're doing things to keep yourself mentally healthy, you can have a hobby that maybe isn't necessarily an addiction but it's what you do.ow you nd it's what drives your life. >> reporter: i had one last z ouestion f's son: what but doave any dreams of becoming a professional gamer? >> yes. >> reporter: you do? >> yeah. >> reporter: do you think you have a shot? >> may. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour in austin texas, this is paul solman, sticking to my tv economi career-- at least for now.

>> woodruff: next, we turn to another installment of our weekly brief but spectacular series, where we ask peopleth abour passions. tonight, in honor of l.g.b.t.q. pride month, we hear from youtube contributor, jackson bird. hosts the podcast "transmission" and creates videos for transgender people and r everyone to better understand the transgender community. >> i think it can be difficult for people to wrap their heads around gender, specifically cisgender people whose gender identity is congruent with the one assigned to them at birth. it can be difficult for them because they never had to question their gender, which is astonishing to those of us who are trans because we spend so much of our time questioningnd and thinking about in an existential way and wondering why is gender, and what is gender, and how did this happen? when i was 25, i came out as transgender, which means basically i came out as a guy.

when i say that i'm a transgender man, what that means b that when i was born, i was assigned female th. i was socialized as a girl growing up. it never really felt right. from a young age, i did felt i should've been born a boy. i didn't think i could share with anyon so, what i did instead was, "well, this is the life that i have to lead as a woman. so, i would just try to be the best woman i can be in whatever that means in a very stereotypical way from society." hi, my name is jackson bird.am i two years post surgery. i have been making videoa on youtube fong time. and i start making them when i was gender identity and kinda knew at the back of my head if my audience would continue to grow on youtube, i would eventually have this pressuco of having to out publicly online. there's something in the trans- community called "ving stealth". and only some transgender people have this privilege.

what that means is that you are perceived enough that read is the gender that you identify as when you go out, in your everyday life, people aren't going to question your gender. for anyone who is not consistently read as the gender they identify as, it's so much harder because they're going out in public every single day, just living their lives and having shrangers on the street, on the subway, the rs on the grocery store, giving them weird looks, maybe even dirty looks and basically making them explain themselves anywhere they are. so, that's every single day, multiple times a day coming out process, on top of the very turbulent, traumatic one that you probably already had when you told your family and friends. if you're watching this and you' wondering what you can to help close the gaps of the inequality that exists between l.g.b.t. people versus straight and non-transgender people, i think the biggest thing is to just see the humanity in us, tos up our voices, especially in so many places of media and community and spaces where our voices are uer-represented.

erdid not have any transge y le models growing up. i hardly have any queer role models growing up in texas in the '90s. didn't even know that transgender men existed. that lack representation growing up made me literally feel like i was alone in the world and there was no one else like me. so to now, get to be the role model that i need as a kid is just indescribable. my name is jackson bird and this is my brief, but spectacular n providing a platform f transgender people. >> woodruff: you canind additional brief but spectacular episodes on our website: pbs.org/newshour/brief. and before we go, we're sorry to share this passing. charles krauthammer, the syndicated conservative columnist and fox newsas contributor,ied after a battle with cancer. he'd not been on television for,

nearly a ynd wrote a public letter earlier this month announcing he only had a short time tlive. krauthammer, a former psychiatrist and paraplegic since a teenage diving accident, er prize for his commentary, and was a best- selling author. charles krauthammer was 68 years old.d at's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.of for als at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has beeprovided by: >> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads us to discovery and motivates us to succeed. it's why we astithe tough qus and what leads us to the answers. at leidos, we're standing behind those working to improve t world's health, safety, and efficiency. leidos.

>> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin.ic >> adve for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. u >> cr cellular. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possle by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsoredury newshoroductions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org elyse: this week on history detectives:

could this propeller have powered a top secret weapon that transformed modern warfare? for that time it was just unimaginable technology. tukufu: what could this strange object have to do with teddy roosevelt and his run for a third-term presidency? is that blood? eduardo: and in an encore presentation, ho w does this letter written about a soldier's final days on the battlefield nennect to american heroi clara barton? elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can' wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ ♪ it's just like watchin' the detectives ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives