captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: gd evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the end of the term: we break down the supreme court's most consequential decisions and what expect from the next nominee's confirmation process. then, what happens to the children?lo we expre the challenges of reuniting immigrant families. and, chasing the dream: inside an innovative effort to provide affordable housing in rural alabama. >> words can't describe it. i couldn't believe it. afinr all these years someth i've always wanted was a house. and i was going to be blessed with the house of my own. >> woodruff: 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 , undation. supporting scienchnology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security.or at carnegi >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers lu.e you. thank >> woodruff: there's no nominee yet, but the battle is already being joined over replacing anthony kennedy on the u.s. supreme court. the two des went quickly to the ramparts today, with mid- term elections just over five months away. >> i'm ready to fight, are you ready to fight? >> woodruff: outside the supreme court this morning, democratic senators warned the stes could not be higher in the fight to replace justice anthony kennedy >> women's access to safe legal abortion is on the line, marriage equality on the line, voting rights on the line,

>> the menacing trveh is that we o face a reality coming at us where we might lose some of the precious ideals of our country. and i stand here to say, "this will not happen without a fight." >> woodruff: president trump promised quick action ally last night in north dakota, hours after kenn'sy announced etiring.re >> i'm very hothat he chose to do it during my term in office because hfelt confident for me to make the right choice and carry on his greatacy. >> woodruff: over the years, kennedy joined court conservatives in rolling back campaign finance curbs and voting rights provisions. this week, he joined 5 to 4 majorities upholding president trump's travel ban, and against making non-union members pay fees to public employee unions. but kennedy was also a swing vote, supporting abortionts ri, as well as same-sex marriage.

w, democrats fear he'll be replaced by a down-the-line conservative. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said today republicanl upport anyone from the president's list of 25 names. >> the president's nominee should be considered fairly and not subjected to personal attacks. the ink wasn't even dry on justice kennedy's resignation letter before my friend the o democratic leader seemedho that right here on the floorhe that none ofxceptional legal minds on this list would be tolerable to him. >> woodruff: but mcconnell's challenge is preserving a razor- thin majority. arizona senator john mccain isli battng cancer, so the senate republican susan collins of maine said today she will focus on deference to previous court rulings, especially roe versus wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion. >> i do get a sense ofhether they respect precedent, from my

perspective roe versus wade is important precedent and it is settled. >> woodruff: minority leader chuck schumer sa no precedent would be safe with another trump nominee on the court. >> president trump said in his own rds that he wants to appoint a justice to give the court a majority who will overturn roe versus wade. >> woodruff: democrats are lling for any nomination to wait until after the mid-term elections in november. we'll return to the looming confirmation fight, and look at the supreme court's record in the term just ended, after the news summary. in the day's other news, a gunman killed five people and wounded several, at a building housing a newspaper in annapolis, maryland. a reporter for the "capitalze e" said the shooter fired ecto the newsroom. police said a suwas in custody. aerial video showed people

walking out of the building with hands above their he officials say police arrived within a minute after gettinge ert. >> we were here quickly. we came into the building very quickly, we received a call as an active shter. t,e building is secure from a tactical standpohat means that right now we believe there heare no other shooters in building but it is not, has not >> woodruff: there was no immediate word on a possible motive. president trump and russian president vladimir putin will hold long-expected summit on july 16th, in helsinki, finland. the kremn and white house announced the details today. the leaders had two brief meetings last year. plans for a full summit had been postponed amid investigations into russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein today defended the integrity of the russia probe. he faced hostile republicans at a house judiciarcommittee

hearing. they claimed he's withholding documents that show f.b.i. bias against president trump during the 2016 election campaign. ohio congressman jim jordan charged that rosenstein and f.b.i. director christopher wray are obstructing congressional oversight. >> mr. rosenstein why are you keeping information from ress? >> congressman, i'm not keeping any information from congress that is appropriate. >> if you let me respond sir. >> it's redacted! >> i am the deputyl ttorney gener the united states, okay? i'm not the person doing the redacting. i am responsible for responding to your concerns as i have whenever you brought it to m attention. i have taken appropriate steps to remedy them. so your statement that i'm personally keeping informaon from you.. >> you're the boss, mr. rosenstein. >> that's correct. and my job is to make sure that we respond to your requests and weave, sir.

>> woodruff: later, the house passed a republican resolution th orders the justice department to produce documents on the russia probe anthe clinton e-mail investigation. new protests broke out across the country today, demanding that separated migrant families be reunited. people occupied part of a senate office building. capitol police made arrests when the protesters refused to leave. meanwhil first lady melania trump made another trip to the southern border, this time, to tucson, arizona. she toured a border patrolnt and a short-term holding facility for migrant children. the state department warns thati takingren from their families makes them more vulnerable to being enslaved. the department today issued its annual report on human trafficking. it said children in government- run facilities become "easy drgets" due to isolation poor oversight.

there was no reference to the president's now-rescinded policy of separating migrant families.e leaders ofuropean union talked today about ways to stop large migrant flows acrosseahe mediterran they met in brussels, and discussed screening people at centers across north africa, befo they try to set sail. the issue has roiled germany's politics, chancellor angela merkel defended taking in thousands of grants during 2015. >> ( translated ): 400,000 refugees had already arrived, there were very many, we said in an exceptional situation we will help, and that we did. and now, as then, i think it was the right decision, ladies and gentlemen. >> woodruff: merkel was heckled by far-right lawmakers, and answered by yelling back she also faces a rebellion within her govning coalition. australia has won a major trade dispute over its trailblazing tobacco packaging law.

the world trade organization ruled today that the 2012 law has not hindered fair trade. it mandates plain wrapping for garettes and other tobac products. a number of other countries applied similar rules on tobacco packaging after australia's action. back in this country, the u.s. senate voted to approve a new farm bill. it reauthorizes a variety ofpr rams, ranging from nutrition assistance to crop subsidies. now, it has to be reed with a house version thatct imposes stork requirements for food assistance benefits. and, on wall street, the dows jodustrial average gained 98 points to close at 24,216. the nasdaq rose 58 points, and the s&p 500 added 16. still to come on the newshour: democratic senator kirsten gillibrand on the looming battle over the next supreme court justice. the struggle to reunite families separated at the border. using architecture to serve the

greater good in rural america, and much more. >> woodruff: the supreme court wrapped up its term with a bang this week. justices handed down blockbuster rulings on the president's travel ban, racial andering, public employe unions and abortions. each case was decided along ideological lines.mo fo i'm here with marcia coyle, chief washington correspondent for the "national law journal," and amy howe. she covers the high court for the websites "howe on the court" and "scotusblog." and we welcome both of you back to the program. so, marcia, let me start with you. everybody agrees consequential term. what made it so? t >> certainly tes of cases that the court g.e.d. to hear and decide. as you mentioned, there was a whole range from

president trump's travel ban to union fair shre fees, partisan gerrymandering, the list went on and on. of course, at the end, the the ofmost consequential even all was justice kennedy's retirement, announced retirement. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about that in just a moment. but, amy howe, let's talk about something we haven't had a chance to address in the program yet and that is the ruling yesterday that affects labor unions, why is that something that should matter to all of us? >> this isa sleeperse, i think, of the term, and was even more overshadowed by justice kennedy's retirement the same day it was haed down. this was a case by which the supreme court by vote of 5 to 4 ruled if you're a state or local gornment employee and represented by a union, you can no longer be required to pay to cut the co cts ofollective bargaining, it's either called a share far fee or agency fee,

depending on your point of view. this is really significant. these fees can be as much as $500 a year as they wsre in thi case. i think unions fear, if people don't have to pay the fees, they will decide not to and the unions will still haveo provide the same services because they're still representing everyone in the workplace with less money wh can lead to a spiral with money as more and more people decide to get out. and it overruled a 41-year-old decision that had upheld these 977. back in it's a big deal in and of itself, but as we look to justice kennedy's retirement, there's a legal document that you don't willy-nilly overrule an old case, you have to have a good reason for doing so, and you can see a battle in te opinions that may be looking at further battles down the line. woodruff: what did you , marsia in other decisions handed dom this terat tell you anything about stare decisis,

about a hearing precedent. >> there was another huge case that has ramification force the economy, for the e-commerce market, and that was whetherst es would be allowed to esquire online retailers so collect sales taand the court had an earlier predent -- in fact, two o them -- in which it said, no, you can't, unless that onine or out of state retailehas a physical presence within the state's borders. well, the court decided that we're in the e-commerce age, and that physical presence test jus cannot apply anymore. it's out of date. it was i witially used becau had catalog sales. so the curt overruled, basically, two precedents that had the physical presence test, and that also created a strong dissent and, actually, the dissent this time was led by

chief justice roberts, it was one of the strange alliances h he aligned with some of the more liberal members of the court,s saying ts really something congress ought to deal with because it has su huge ramifications for the economy, for the sitate's possibly a billion-dollardf winl. >> woodruff: amy, let's talk for a moment about alignn the court. what diwe see by the end of this term and the dec disions handn in terms of the justices, we know they're reliableonservatives and liberals on the court, but how did we see them line up on the i moortant cases? >> we often talk about justice anthony kennedy being the swiic ju in many cases that will be remembered he joined with the court's more liberal members on abortion, sa this was a term in which tre were 15 5-4 cases and he did not join the liberal justices onny

of them. the overwhelming majority of the 15 cases were the five more conservative justices, the cases in which there was after case involving cell phone privacy where roberts joined witih the moreberal justices, an immigration case held over after the death of justice scalia. justice gorsuch joined with the former liberal justices in that case like scalia would ha wve. druff: the travel ban, marcia. >> i think one of the overridin themese court's five justice conservative majority dominated the mssignificant and closely divided cases of the term not only because justice kennedy didn't move to the left all but also because justice gorsuch, in the union fee cas as you recall in 2016, that t issue was befoe court. they divided 4-4 after the death of juicscalia. it was justice gorsuch who made the difference this time. >> woodruff: after watching him on the court for this term,

what are we to ma of him and how he makes decisions and the difference he's going to make going forward?o >> going ie term, you know, he'd only sat through one set of cases and i think issind one n last term because he joined the court very late and, going into the new term, thorp murmurings that perhaps some of the justices thought he might be getting too big for his britches, but of the 15 5-4 cas, he wrote five including a major arbitration argued on the very first day in th trm, and the the senior justice in the majority decides who's going to write the cases. so there were rumors of discontent but you didn't see them in the opinion assignment process. >> woodruff: what did you see? the other thing i would say about him is, during s confirmation process, he said he was an originalist and a tex xtualist and i would say this term he adhered close to that.en

er he had an opportunity to use an originalist appach interpreting the constitution or the tex chiewlist approach th a statut did that and sometimes his approach on originalism didn'take him in the same direction as the staunch originalist clarence thomas. so it will be interesting to see where heoes. >> woodruff: a few seconds left. in that time, amy, the difference it will make having what everybody assumes will be a more conservative justice replacing justice kennedy. >> on abortion, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, it could make a very big difference, because they will have a solid 5-4 vote, and the conservative justices will feel cooidentt having to worry about what justice kennedy

thinks. a >> i would ke eye on chief justice john roberts, i don't think will beome a swing vote like justice kennedy was, but i think if there is any sort of moderation of how far and fast the court goes to te right, he's the one that will do that just becausee is me of a minimalist and, also, because he cares very much about theut instn and that it not be perceived as a wholly patisan body in our structure of government. >> woodruff: marcia coyle, amy howe, thank you both. so many eyes on the court. >> thank you. >> woodruff: justice kennedy's vacancy on the court means brewing political battle to fill his seat on capitol hill. for more on the fight to come, i spoke this evening with senator kirsten gillibrand, a democrat from n york. i began by asking what it means if the president nominates a strong conservative to the bench. what the president's progosed is he isg to appoint someone who will overturnso

tely overturn roe v. wade which means women's reproductivity freedoms are at risk, women's freedom toe dehat they want. they will criminalize women's access to abortion services and reproductive joyces. i think every american shouldou speaand fight against this and i don't think we should allow a vote before theti el. we should apply the same standard mitch mcconnell applied to president obama. ints here,f: two po the person the president appoints will be one of nine members of the court. the chief justice said, when he was first nominated, i'm quoting, said roe v. wade is a settled law of the land. he said there's nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying the precedent. sounds like there is not a sentiment to overturn it. >> i don't agree. presidentrump ran on the

notion i'm going to overtur roe v. wade, created an alist of 25 people of appointees of people who he believes will only overturn row roe v. wade. women need to speak up because women will be denied civil rights toake decisions of their own bodies. weill be movingackwards and harming families and women. >> woodruff: you also mentioned the fact that majority leader mcconnell has sa mid he wants ve quickly, the president wants to move quickly, you and other democrats are saying move this till after the election, but they're saying this is not a presidential election year, it's very different, it's mid-term elections and there's a precedent for hoosing other supreme court justices in mid-term election years. >> that's not what senator mcconnell said then and not what his republican colleague said. they said things like we're going to overturn th senate, we could have a different body of

senators, these new senators pshould decide, tople of america should be able to have a say. the people of america should be able to have a say, and i believe the women of america have to have an opportunity to stand up and speak out and make their views heard on election day. i think this nomination should be left to next yeard an every member should et -- every woman ould let their congress members know about decisions for their own health. they wnt to beenish women for their reproductive choices.na >> woodruff: sr mcconnell is pointing to confirmations in the senate, justice kagan, she went through confirmation in 2010, justice breyer in 1994, that these were all mid-term election rules. >> right, and this is his rule, not our rule. he denied a justice nominee from president obama and i do not

believe he should be given the benefit of before this election. this president intend rewrite the law and to turn back history over 40 decades of jurisprudence to undermine women's rights and to harm women, to punish women. >> woodruff: we know, senator gillibrandthe conservative organizations are gearing up to support whoever the president nominates, assuming thy like the choice. concerned women for america, amonothers, are saying "our happy warrior activist ladies relish the fight and shine in these historic moments." are you and other democrats prepared for this fight? >> we are, and i'm prepared to fight it and i know a lot of women around this country who are prepared to fight it. they have been marching since president trump has been inaugurated. they are raisingheir voices, running for office, they are ilrning out to vote. women are mobed and i believe their voices will be heard on this.

>> woodruff: back to the numbers, you know the republicans only need 51 votes get this nominee through. how concerned are you that some democrats wh repsent so-called red states, states yhere the president is ver popular, may be tempted to vote for the president's nminee? >> i believe the american people aren't going to tolerate the next nomin if he's a gorsuch style nominee who's anti-choice, anti-women's rights, anti-gay cghts, anti-clean water, pro corporation in ases, i think the american people will speak out and in all 50 states,b ree and purple states, and i believe that if members of congress, particularly senators, are listening to their voters, i don't think they could vote for a nominee like this easily, so i hope the american people stand tall and speak out and are heard his very issue. >> woodruff: senator, finally, a different subject, this is about something that was a big issue a few months, legislation to address sexual harassment among members of congress. both the house and senate have

passed legislati but it's different and right now the house is saying the senate is the holdup in terms of moving orward, finding a compromise. what's goi? >> the holdup is paul ryan and mitch mcconnell who will not let these two bills be conferenced. you have two bills that passed both chambers unanimously that are 90% the same, s why we are not moving that legislation to conference is outraous and absurd and i hope more people will not only raise this issue but speak out about itecause if you work in congress today, you're a young man and woman and harassed by your boss, you have to wait for a month to have mandatory mediation followed by up to a month of mandatory counseling followed by a month of mandatory cooling off and then you c report and, if there is a settlement, the taxpayers are left holding the bag. our bills both sides eliminate oue three-month waiting, taxpayer-funded pa and make sure you post the rules and have mandatory survey f all house and senate employees every two

years so you know what the climatis like here. those are the four pillars of both bills. let's pass, move it to congress and the question is why the republican leadership in the house is not letting tis to conference. >> woodruff: kirsten gillibrand of nework, thank you very much. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: now the challenges of reuniting migrant families th have been separated. earlier this week, a federal judge ordered the trump administration to stop separating those children from their parents and re-unite those already in custody. today a white house spokesman said the president believes the judge's order must be lifted because it endangers national security when immigrant families illegally cross the border. but for now, the judge's order must be dealt with amna nawaz looks at the difficulties of doing so given the present policies and situation.

>> nawaz: there are still more than 2,000 children wh been separated from their families at the border in recent weeks and placed in government- run or contracted shelters. the federal judge ruled that the administration must reunite families with children under five within 14 days, and families with older children within 30 days. those children are currently in the care of a particular division of the health and human services department, the office of refugee resettlement. bob carey ran that office at the end of the obama administration, from 2014 until presidents trumauguration. while separation policies have changed, carey is knowledgeableh about ho agency works and joins me now. bob carey, thanks for making the time. i want to start with some of the countls reports we've gon from along the border, some of the things i saw first hand ein my there about how difficult it is to connect parents with children in the system. what's your understanding based on you know how the system works, why is that so hard right now? >> well, it's, in part, because

the system o.r.r. receives was set up to reunite adolescents for the most part who arcorived unanied to the united states with family members who are already present in the iited states. what you have no children, often young children, often tender age under age o 1, who have been forcibly separated from their parents, so it's a different system, requires communication between health and huofn servicece of refugee resettlement and immigration and customs enforcement which affected the system. it requires cooperation betweene the ment agencies and requires leadership. p> you're saying the leaders isn't there? where exactly is the system falling down? >> it's hard to say because' not inside of it but i know that the systems that are in placet ar track children and reunite them with parents. it's a very different system when you have parents who arein no detention who do not know where their children are.

some of those cldren are nonverbal, they're not able cuto arte who they are, where they're going, what the situation is, they're deeply taumatized and have been forcibly separated from the only caregiver in many instances they've ever known, so there ars a lot stems problems that are compounding the humanitarian issues and, also, these decisions to separate children from parents were de quickly at the highest level of government and it's evident thao it wasne without any pre-planning for how the children and the parents would be reunited. >> let me ask you now, i want tr makewe cover what we know and don't yet know, but this reunification process now being ordered, let me walk through what we knowabout it. help me understand where the obstacles are in each to have the steps. obviously, you have to find the child we the system. now or believe there is an essential database. why is it such a poblem finding kids in the first place? >> it should not be a problem to

find the child in the o.r. system, the database works and can find children pretty quickly. thproblem is finding the parent, connecting the systems between the two federal agencies so that the parent can find out where the child is and then figuring out a way they can be treunited because many oe parents, if not most of them, are in a descension facility,a and t's inherent riproblematic to reunite -- it's paramount children and parents be reuned but seding a child into a detention facility or tting that doesn't have the ability to accommodate their needs, that's not secure or safe for them is a problem frra an oponal standpoint and a hanitarian, legal standpoint. >> so the parents would have to apply for reunification, they ove to be vetted. where's the problthe holdup there? >> well, you know, a week ago the secretary of heeth and human rvices announced an emergency task force created to respond to tis crisis and

rectify these problems. you know, a week later, nothing actionable or concrete is known about the action -- the mov of that body. so, but there do need to be steps taken to streamline the reunificationesroce for instance, background checks are now required if the sponsor of, the motr or father, is released to a family member. there need be background checks on all people in the households, fingerprints, whch take 20 days currently to process, so that's a problem and a new requirement that theni adration put in place that all these family members need to be finrprinted. ey are now charging parents for the travel of children who are being reunited.e that could waived. i think it's unconscionable you're charging a parent to be reunited when the u.srn gont has forcibly sprayed the parent and child. so there are measures to streamline the system but i

don't know if ose are taking place. today they're still charging parents for airfare, they may nohave the ans to pay tore those. also, where are the parents going to be placed or are they going to be released sucthat they can be reunited in anop apate setting with the child. so i think there are a lot of logistical coordination issues. obviously, these plans were put inplace wihout consultation with the different agencies without planning as to how families that were being separated were going to be reunitedar eth not cl that the record keeping in the federal agencies, particularly homeland security, was accurate. the judge in his orders noted that the agency appears to be a bette to track people's possessions than they are their children. >> let me ask you about the reunification orded by the judge. 14 days for kids under 5, 30 days for 5 and older. knowing what you know about the system, can they actually meet the requirement? >> ty can.

it would be a stretch, and it ould require additional resources and a lstrategic planning, coordination and leadership. it would require guignce from the st levels of government, the same high levels of government that put this plan into acttoio separate families hopefully can develop a plan tom reunite n a timely basis. requires human resources, system modifications to databases, streamlining of processes used to ensure the child is being reunited with the right person and that it's happening in a safe and secure way. >> bob carey, thank you for your ti. >> thank yu. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: making sense of nation's wealthiest 9.9%. and a brief but spectacular take from the writer and director judd apatow. but first, discussions about

affordable housing often focus on big, expensive cities, likesa francisco and new york. but what about rural america, home to about one-fifth of the u.s. populatn? john yang reports on a program improving housing in a remote town in alabama. it's part of our ongoing series on poverty and opportunity, "chasing the dream." >> welcome to my house. >> yang: ree zinnerman was born in this tiny west alabama town of newber, and for her, it will ways be home. >> it's a peaceful place and i just like sitting here watching it and listening to the quiet. >> yang: soon, for the first time, she'll move into a real house of her own. for more than 40 years, zinnerman lived in a mobile home. >> that's what i was living in. >> yang: zinnerman's house comes courtesy of architecture students in auburn university's rural studio program. >> words c't describe it. i couldn't believe it.

after all these years something i've always wanted was a houin. and i was to be blessed with the house of my own.ce >> yang: 1993, rural studio students and faculty veki been w, studying and living in hale county, alabama. some call it a lesson in social design using architecture to serve the greater good. the rural studio director is andrew freear. >> this sort of feeling that y deserves good design, whether they're rich, poor, black, white, pink or green. y >>g: zinnerman's house is part of the studio's 20k project, launched in 2005 with the goal of producing residences that would cost $20,000 to build: "20k." more than two dozen different homes have been designed, constructed and given to residents. most are one-bedroom, about 500- square-feet. each design is named for the recipient.th e's johnnie mae's house.

toster's house, and, next ree's house, geraldine's house. that's zinnerman's younger sister, geraldine braxton. >> the day he gave me the keys to the door i couldn't even open the door. i was shaking. i was happy. h >> yang: braxt lived here for two years. the retid school cafeteria worker loves her kitchen >> i like everything about it. the way 's set up. i like my island in the center of the kitchen. >> yang: braxt's new energy- ficient house puts less strain .n her wallet: her previous home was poorly insulat it cost her hundreds of dollars a month to keep cool in th summer and warm in the winter. >> i was spending like about 350 on gas in the winter every month. >> yang: $350? >> every month for gas. os>> yang: while rural stu is helping improve the lives of local residents, the main focus is on training a new generation of arctects whose social consciences are as strong as their aesthetics. >> what we're ying to do, is design a home that is easily

built, and again, easily maintained. you know, our goal is to offer heit up at some scale down road, but we're determined to do it quietly and slowly, and carefully. >> yang: the idea is to give experience hands-o working with an underserved community in the heart of the south's black belt. hale county is one of the poorest in the ste: 24% of all residents live below the poverty line, compared with about 13% nationwide. for african-americans in the county, the rate is even higher-- more than 35%.ea and in an hort on jobs, the population is dwindling,er dropping sixnt from 2010 to 2017. since the students live full- timen newbern, some 140 mile from auburn's campus, they're seen not aoutsiders, they're seen as neighbors. co it makes a different by them being part of thunity because they have really improved it.

>> yang: and they ask their neighbors to suggest who could use a new house.ad >> it was justor anyone to be living in those conditions in these days and times. >> yang: who better to ask than gwen melton, who delivil to 483 homes in the newbern area every day? for 10ears, she's quietlyte suggested ntial clients to rural studio. how does it make you feel when you go deliver the mail to that new house knowing where they had lived before? >> makes me feel great. >> yang: the 20k project beg with lofty goals. rural studio associate director rusty smith oversees the project. >> we thought we were going to work for a year or two or maybe three, and at the end of tho house, and it would solve all th affordability in the united states. >> yang: it didn't take them long to realize the hurdles to o doing a bigger scale. >> we're in charge of the financing, and we're in this l place where e, we've got student labor to do it and the

faculty oversight. to scale, to do thou outside of operational footprint, are many. >> yang: still, they want the project focus attention on the issues facing rural areas, not just in amera but around the world. >> it's absolutely a trojaol horse for a bunch of issues about rural living, that we're very interested challenging and being a voice for. >> yang: for instance, cell service in newbern area is spotty. the town's new library, designed by the rural studio, is the onli place high-speernet is available to the public. >> it makes you feel real good to be able to say that we have a library. >> yang: librarian barbara williams says that when the nearby high school cloo,d five years he town lost a community hub. >> what the library is trying to do is to try to meet some of the needs of the community that are being left i guess left unmet

with thelosing of the high school.s >> yang: acre street is newbern's fire station. built by the rural studio in 2004, it was the first new public building in the tn in a century. patrick braxton lost his job when the factory where he worked the next town over went out of business in 2013.lu now, he's a eer firefighter and newbern's handyman. before the station was built, the nearest fire station was 15 minutes away. >> by having this truck right here in newbern, we saved a lot of houses. saved a lot of people. mo yang: and saved newbern homeowners a lot oy, reducing insurance premiums. like all of rural studio'spr ects, style also has function: there are no fire hydrants in newbern, so the fire trucks carry theirwn water, and have to be kept from freezing in the winter.

>> it's very much about making that those fire trucks don't freeze and that that space is temperate throughout the year. >> that's macarthur's house. >> yang: ree zinnermanreave studentsrein to design her house, except for one detail. >> a red door. i just love red and my momma always loved red. >> yang: for zinnerman, thest greaelief is simply having a well-designed, well-built house to live in. for rural studio, it's about more than just solving a housing problem. >> solving problems sort of imagines the future as broken and it needs to be fixed. i don't think there's anything broken here. but there's some reallypu significant oses that need to be served. ts yang: a lesson for stud in helping an underserved community.g and helpe community learn how to better serve its lf. for the wshour, i'm john yang in newbern, alabama.

>> woodruff: now a look at a group that one writer is dubbing "a new american aristocracy" and the problems it ses for our society. no, it's not the billiares in the top 0.1 percent of the population that we often hea about. but the group that ss right below them: the 9.9%. our economics correspondent paul solman has more. it's part of our weekly series "making sense," which airs thursdays on the newshour. >> the united states is going down a path. it's a path of class stratification, growing inequality. and the consequences of that are more potentially damaging than i think most people appreciate. >> reporter: in a provocative atlantic magazine cover story," the birth of a new aristocracy" author and philosopher matthew stewart argues growing class division is destabilizing our society. >> so it turns out that the concentration of wealth in the

united states has really been focused on the top 0.1 percent, not the top one percent. but that doesn't mean that everybody below them lost money. in fact only the bottom 90 percent did. so there's this group in between, the 9.9% that havep managed to kce. osey play a very important role in on the one handively running the economy, on the other hand basically setting up lebarriers that prevent pe from below to realize the ameran dream. >> reporter: so how much wealth do the people in the 9.9% have? >> you need roughly $1.2 million to make it into the 9.9%. and the median is around $2.4 million. >> reporter: net worth this is. >> this is all net worth.s and it inclul forms of assets. sohat would include homes. in the numbers i've seen it also includes things like cars. it's very important tota unde that our wealth is not just financial. we in the 9.9% we enjoy better health.

we tend to live in better neighborhoods, which means we thhave less crime to deal we have better education, so all of these non-financial forms of icwealth turn out to be cr. they don't only make us basically able to generate more economic wealth, but they also consolidate our position. we can then pass them down to our kids. >> reporter: so it's obviously not good for people who are stuck below, but your argument is it's not good for people who are lucky enough to be above. >> yes, that's right.us beas the classes pull apart, the people on the upper strata have to work harder to keep their position. they have farther to fall if they make a mistake. os they invest more in preserving theirion. but i don't think we've appreciated how that ramifies throughout society. the way it locks them in place, draws battle lstes, creates st. >> reporter: and what's driving this? >> the bic driver is something that we're all familiar with. we all know the story of rising inequality.

that creates a kind of rigidity, an instability.ls thatremoves fact and reason from our discussions, that we're not able to have meaningful, a meaningful basis for discussion among all americans. inequality feeds on itself to some degree. so the greater the concentration of wealth, the more that the peopleith that wealth can use it to consolidate their position. by investing it inrmon-financial of wealth. >> reporter: i've heard this referred to as transactional capital now. >> it can also be just physiological capital in a certain sense. so it turns out that not only are the wealthier getting healthier, but the people in the lower deciles are actually tting less healthy in many respects. so for example for white, middle-aged people with high school education and less, life expectancy has gone down.ep >>ter: part of what's driving this, is something that you and others call assortative mating. >> so assortative mating is jus

when lrries like in the past 50 years, we've seen a significant increase in this kind of marriage pattern. there are some studies that suggest that as muchthird of the growth in concentration of wealth is due to decisions connected with mating, essentially. >> reporter: just like in the olden days noble families, kings, queens, they wouldco intermarry tolidate their power or their wealth. >> well it reminds me of jane austen, to be honest, cause we are returning to a world in which individuals seeking mates are frankly frtic. they can't find true love in someone who is of the adequate social status. >> you must come and make lizzy marry mr. llins! for she vows she will not have him and if you do not make haste mr. collins will change his mit and he will ve her!

>>omhe benefit that you get matching social status is tremendous, and the price your pay iling to do that, for failing to find a high-status mate, has gone up. it's gone up dramatically. if you're w status and you marry a low-status mate, marriage is actually harder. it's harder because you're working harder probably or you have greater risks, greater stresses. you have worse health. and consequently you, statistically are much less likely to have a stable household. >> reporter: so what do you want the 9.9 percent to do? >> we have to start thinking about how we can live in integrated communities that are open to everybody. where geography is not an economic and class barrier. our geography is killing us. we are setting up a system whera we conce educational resources, the schools in a particular area. we concentrate economic power. >> reporter: and that'why people move to areas like where you live, brookline,tt massachu which has this great educational system, right.

>> yeah, it's great. we have a quasi-private system of education thaall public. i move to brookline, i send my kids to public schools, they're terrific schools. that's why you move there. and you can too. h you jue to buy a home that's worth $2 million. now that's a colossal, colossal blunder. in american history, public education was absolutely essential in building the middle class. that's how we got the productive economy in which everyone participates, and we had reasonable degree of stability. we're now setting up a system whue you get the education pay for. and that means you get a bunch of citizens who are uneducated. and that's a recipe for disaster. >> reporter: i think that's what's so difficult for somebody like myself to hear or people in our audience. what we're doing is what comesab lutely naturally to us, that i is investiour kids. moving to a neighborhood with a good school for our children or. grandchild you don't want me to stop doing r at, right? >> just because dividual

wactions are blameless wh look at them very narrowly, that doesn't mean it's all going to wo out for the best. i lived in mexico, i lived in the u.k. for a number of years. i've seen versions of this process going on. everybody involved is nice. but at the end of the day, they participate in this thing that leads you to a point where you've got a distinct class ofl wonderople that a lot of other people are very unhappyth >> reporter: and the people in that distinct class, at least in places like mexico, and they have actual gunmen in their big, fancy houses. >> right. and there's a natural progression from gated communities to armed and gated communities. and we're sort of working through that now. and if we keep going down this path, yeah, we'll have the armed and gated communities. and none of us will have done anything wrong. but that's where we'll be. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman outside boston.

>> woodruff: next, another installment our weekly brief but spectacular series where we ask people about their passions. judd apatow is a world-renowned writer, director, and standup comedian. he says he owes much of his t success late comedian garry shandling, who is the focus of apatow's latest film "the zen diaries of garry shandling." apatow has his own s "judd apatow: the return" that is now ailable on netflix. >> is there's any part of you that wts to try acting? >> i general don't act due to, i have a voice in my head that's like no one wants to look at you and i always have to overcome, thhave a one scene in the film the disaster artist, i was told that i was playing, like a jerk, sleazy, producer, and then when they pro, you know promoted the film, they said yeah judd did a great job playing himself, and that hurt.

i don't think it's possible for most people to understand what it feels like to be a stand-up comedian, because it's what most people on earth are trying to avoid at all costs. standing in front of people, saying you know, saying what you believe and hoping to get a positive reaction, you have to be really bad at it for a long time in order to learn how to do it. my first memory of garry shandling was you know seeing him on the "tonight show" killing and then he was hosting the tonight show and i was interviewing comedians for my high school radio station, and i was able to finagle an interview hth him over the phone, and i just remember thwas one of hee only people that tried to make me laugh innterview. i think at most of modern

television in some way w inspired by garry, because garry did an incredibly broad, silly, innovative show with his "garry shandling show," and then he dil a grounded, satirical, emotionally deep show with the s "larry sandew," he worked so hard on it, and then it was time for it to air, there was no party, i just went to garry's lohouse, and we watched it, the two of us, and when it ended, the phone did not ring, hed i thought well that is perfect larry sanders moment, garry always mentored me, he would read all my scripts, he would go to all the cuts of my movies and give me notes. the hardest part about garry passing away was the person i would normally call about someone like garry passing away, was garry. when things come up and i have to make choices, if i'm just like quiet for a moment, i can hear gary, i know exactly what he would say, i know when he would be like, you do, you know what to do.wh

wh fun about being young and ambitious in comed you're a kid is you meet all these people and they're hystericalno but they havutlet for it so when i was in my early 20s and i lived with adam sandler. what was so enjoyable about it was he was so freakin' funny all day long but didn't have a job,l so he just try to be that funny to you. if i went somewhere with adam adam was famous, i alwa felt the room gravitate towards him, i would get quiet and shy and just disappear into the wallpaper, but other people like i think one of the reasons why i wanted to do my netflix special wawas because my only dreato do stand-up, everything else was not the dream, and i feel like now that i'm older i have stories to tell and i have opinions on things. raising kids, living with three women, not knowing you know where i t in in a very female household, and i do talk about

spending most of my life just following them around sephora, i'm noeven allowed to complain, i have to, i have to walk around and be like hey this y great, this is a great spend our day. and the weird part is now it really is. sometimes when i'm alone i'm like i wish i was at sephora with the family, so they won. this is judd apatow, aef this is my but spectacular take onme cody and garry shandling. >> woodruff: you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at: pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all ne us at the pbs hour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads an to discovery motivates us to succeed. 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 fo life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> and with e ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.u. thank

captioning sponsored by inewshour product, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org gwendolyn: this week on history detectives:

what does this medal reveal abt a top secret american milt during world war ii? elyse: what can this pennant tell us about one woman's role at a crucial point in the women's suffrage movement? tukufu: and in an encore presentatio what can this curious artwork tell about the beginnings of some of our most beloved and icartoon characters?atio so what you're telling me is that buddy was going head-to-head with mickey mouse! elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angr s when the teardrotart ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ it's just like watchin' the detectives ♪