captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: following the money. a top executive of the trump business organization gets gal immunity in return f testifying about hush money payments before the election. then, it's fviday. brooks and ezra klein break down the stunning week in politics, as evidence of criminal wrongdoing gets closer to the oval office. >> woodruff: plus, a festival in oregon pushes the boundaries of shakespearean theatewa with an aim diversity. >> just the representation ofe, as a latino, playing henry v, an english king. if i had seen it, that would've affected me, if i was in high school. >> woodruff: all that and more,

on tonight's pbs newshr. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs anli ted wireless plan. our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how mphh you use your e, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> babbel. a language program that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's ten to 15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> financial services firm raymond james.

io the ford foundation. working with visries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: d friends of the newshou >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcastg. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: arizona senator john mccain is ending medical treatment for his aggressive brain cancer. he was diagnosed last year with a serious tumor known as a glioblastoma. the six-term republican is 81, and has been away from the capitol since december.

mccain was held as a prisoner of war in vietnam, elected to the u.s. senate in 1986,on the g.o.p. presidential nomination in 2008. in a statement today, mccain's family thanked caregivers,ri family andds for their support. they aed, "john has surpassed expectations for his survival, but the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict." the longtime financial chief of the trump business organization, allen weisselberg, has reportedly been granted legal immunity. it grew out of the probe surrounding the president's former lawyer, michael cohen. we will discuslowhat this deent may mean for the president, after the news summary. meanwhile, president trump says he has canceled upcoming nuclear talks with north korea. today, mr. trump announced on twitter that he has delayed secretary of state mike pomp's

trip to pyongyang, which was slated for next week. he wrote"we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the korean peninsula." he added that "because of our much tougher trading stance with china, i do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization." administration officials say the president coordinated with secretary pompeo, but the newshour has learned that the announcement came as a surprise elsewhere in the administration. at the pentagon, staffers there working on north korea were meeting to prepare for the pompeo trip as the president tweeted his decision. mr. trump said pompeo will likely make the trip to north korea after u.s.-china trade talks are resolved. the latest round of those talks in washington this week found no resolution to that dispute. hurricane lane is spinning near hawaii, dumping torrential rains on the big island. crews responded to lans and officials reported

catastrophic floodinsed by more than 30 inches of rain in 48 hours. the storm did weaken and slow toy. it's expected to turn west on saturday a could skirt the most populatedsland of oahu. but, even without a direct hit,t fores warned of the danger. >> let's set expectations. they're called disasters because stuff broken after the fact. and citizens need to realize that we're looking at major hurricane impacts. things are going to break. and we need to set the expectations that the power could go off for quite some time, and the infrastructure is going to be heavily impacted. >> woodruff: the storm has caused numerous road closures, and the national guard had to rescue six people trapped in a flooded home on the big island. the former head ofhe u.s. centers for disease control and prevention has been arrested on a sex abuse charge. dr. thomas frieden was taken into custody in new york this morning, and appeared in court

this afternoon. he is charged with forcible touching, sex abuse and harassment, for allegedly groping a woman at his home last october. he has been ordered to stay awar the woman. in a statement, frieden said the allegation "does not reflect" his values. in australia, lawmakers have mcked treasurer scott morrison to be the next priister, capping a week of political turmoil. he replaces malcolm turnbull, who was ousted by his party, amid a feud between hard-right conservatives and moderates. in all, 13 ministers resigned and the parliant was shut down for an afternoon. after he was sworn in, morrison promised to bring stility. >> today, our team needs to look at the events of this we and how that has impacted on them. they have gone back to their electorates, they've gone back to their families, and they are going to listen and they are going to bring ings back to us. and where there needs to be changes, they will be made, and

where there needs to be continuity, then that will be maintained. >> woodruff: it is the fourth time since 2010 that an australian prime minister has been forced from office by his or her own party. in south africa today, the government summoned the top u.s. diplomat in the country, over a tweet from president trump.ea y yesterday, mr. trump tweeted about alleged seizures me white-owned farms and "large scale killing of f." south africa said the claims-- which have been used by white nationalists-- are based on ualse information." officials told t. envoy they were "disappointed." in neighboring zimbabwe, theti constial court has upheld emmerson mnangagwa's victory in la month's historic presidential election. the opposition had challenged the results over allns of vote-rigging. thcourt said there wasn't enous. evidence of those claim and as supportercelebrated ou

headquarters, mnangagwa on twitter urged "peacend unity." the trump administration is cutting more than $200 million in bilateral aid to the palestinians. the state department said today that the funds will be redirected to "high-priority projects elsewhere." the announcement came as the p u.pares to roll out a much-anticipated peace plan between israel and the palestinia. and there were more records broken on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average gained 133 points to close at 25,790. the nasdaq rose 67 points 7,945, a record high. and the s&p 500 added almost 18 points, to close at 2,874, that's also a record. for the week, the dow and theth s&p 500 ained a fraction of a percent. the nasdaq rose just over 1.5%. still to come on the newshour:

what legal immunity for a senior trump organization executer rians e mueller probe. u.s.-supported airs blamed for civilian casualties in yemen. david brooks and ezra klein weigh in on the crimes committed by trump associates. an much more. >> woodruff: awe reported earlier, allen weisselberg, the chief financial offir of the trump business organization, has struck a legal immunity agreement with federal prosecutors. it is the second dayn a row a man with close ties to president trump has made a deal. weisselberg is reportedly testifying to a grand jury about more than $400,000 in reimbursement payments that he helped arrange to trump's former attorney, michael con.

cohen pleaded guilty earlier this week to eight felonies. among other things, he told the judge that mr. trump directed him to pay hush money towo women in exchange for their silence about alleged affairs. yesterday, another long-time friend of the president, david pecker, who runs the company that owns the "national enquirer," struck his own immunity agreement. president trump has railed against "flipping"-- people who turn maover infon on former confidants. sthe told fox news it, "al ought to be illegal."pl to help n what we know s out the trump organization and the legal questirrounding these immunity deals, i'm joined by caleb melby, who covers business and the tru organization for bd,omberg news. enato mariotti, a former federal prosecutor who tried white collar crime cases, including tax evasion and bank fraud. he's now an attorney in chicago.

welcome to breh of you. soto mariotti, to you first, what exactly do we understand this immunity agreement with mr. weisselberg to mean? what does it represent >> well, it means, first of all, that mr. weisselberg himself hai criminal lty. you don't need an immunity deal if you weren't involved potentially in committing a crime. that's the first thing. second of all, it indicates that prosecutors believe thathe is something valuable that they were getting in exchange for his testimon prosecutors don't just give away immunity like candy. they have a ssocific refor doing so. so, here, it appears mr. weisselberg's cooperation was, at the very least, helpful to prosecutors in securinthe conviction of michael cohen, who pled guilty earlier this week. i think the question is is there other potential value in that testimony beyond that and i think that's an iortant question going forward.

>> woodruff: that's what i wanted to ask you, staying with you, renato mariotti, in the "wall street journal," reports of him testifying to the grand jury last month. the question is, is it just around the michaelcohen payments to these two women, or is it something w oader? we read that? >> well, it's interesting, judy, because, even if y look at the michael cohen payments, those payments resulted in false statements within the records of the trump organization. the "wall street journal" story that broke this talks a little bit about thabut,, for example,en mr. cubmitted a request for payment to be on retainer for i tnk it was $35,000 a month and included other payments, i think there's a $50,000 consulting fee and sor on, thatnot actually the truth, and those are laid out in the charging documents that the justice department filed in new rk, charging michael cohen. and, so, the question is, i

there are false financial statements in the trump ganization books, is th trump organization responsible for that, was that false information ever transfotted to others,r example to a bank, in order to obtain a loan? that would be bank fraud. so mr. weisselberg did -- know, it certainly appears that he's around criminal activity there and i think the rel question now is are federal prosecutors looking at other in the trumpg ization, including potential family members and the new york attorney general has a investigation into these matters as well. >> woodruff: so, caleb melby, you've covered the trump businesses for several years. tell us exactly what allen eisselberg's role is there. >> yeah, testion is really what his role isn't. if you think about the trump organization, trump, the trump children, donald loves to talk about his biggest, most beautiful assets.

heoves golf courses, anhe loves opening up international hotels andondominium buildings around the world that have his name on it, even if hese dot own them. but he's not a finance guy, he's t somebody that can tell you what the net operating from this building is or what the interes payment on tan is, and allen weisselberg is that guy in almost all cases. so he's the gtuy neiating the international licensing agreements. he's the guy who's talking with banks, especially post-financial crisis, to get the loanthat the trump organization needs to do business on a day-to-day business schedule. so he's really very close to the details of everything that actually makes the trump organition run. >> so reflecting back on what we just rader renato mariotti say about what federal investigators would be looking at,llen weisselberg could well be or is the person inside thetrmp

organization who knows about loans, transactionsso forth, specifically that go well beyond this michael cohen matter? >> absolutely. trump's personal financebeyond the businesses, his taxes, his charity. f d keep in mind that when trump became presidente united states, he put all his assets and companies into a trust, andh he p two children and weisselberg in charge of thatt. tr >> woodruff: so, renato mariotti, trying to understand this, once mr. weisselberg has been granted legal immunity, is he then expected to talk about that eirntcollection of business information that he has about the trump empire? ouat are federal investigators able to ask him at and expect an answer on? >> well, typilly, judy, in exchange for immunity, you agree

to cooperate with the government fu o stop. er words, you're not cooperating with just one component to have the justic department, you're -- component of the justice department,re yoooperating with the pletely.department com typically state and federal organizations work hand in hand and i would expect he agr to cooperate with state authorities as well. and the real question is, you know, what else are federal prosecutors looking at? to be clear, as i pointed out a moment ag, eveif they're just looking at these ansactions, there are various assorted crimes and, as was mentioned a moment ago, that trust, for aample, was mentioned in the cohen charged mr. weisselberg and then there's another individual, it's not clear io that othdividual is but could be, for example, one of the family members is mentioned. so this could potentially expand very quickly to other individuals, even if prosecutors are focused on that transaction because i donexpect

prosecutors to ask willy-nilly about everything reted to the trump organization. >> caleb melby, how transparent has the trump organization been over the years? wn? much is kno we know the president has not released his own tax returns. how much is known and not known? what are the questions you as a reporter would have about it? >> well, yeah, we've seenhe throughoutampaign and throughout the election all sorts of stories about,th say relationship with deutsche banc or the relationship with certain partners overseas that have had their own legal troubles inos jurisdictions. it's a private company. they have not discly,osed, typicaore than anything that any other private company does. reporters have had over the last couple of years is that personal financi disclosure that trump has filed in conjunction witbeing a candidate and being the president. of course, that's infothation they've self-disclosed. there's no real audit or reviewn

indepeto help confirm the accuracy of that information. so there are certain sorts of stuff that we could get answers to are the sorts of things that people hav questions about for tie last two years. >> woodruff: as we say, so many questions, we're only beginning to get some of the answers. caleb melby with bloomberg news, renato mariotti, thank you both. >> woodruff: as the ongoing civil war in yemen is leaving more and more civilians dead, nick schifrin looks at the ited states' role in the conflict. >> schifrin: since early 2015, a saudi-led coalition has been fighting iranian-aligned houthi rebels in yemen. yesterday, the houthis and the u.n. blamed the coalition foan attack in yemen's west that reportedly killed 30 people, including women, andany children.

the coalition disputes that claim.r earlis month, the u.n. says a coalition airstrike hit a school bus, killing east 51 people, including 40 children.s the u.s. provipport to the coalition, and now congress is calling for the pentagon and white house to better describe that support. some on capitol hill want the u.s. to cease its involvement all together. for more on this, we are joined from irut by kristine beckerle, the yemen researcher at human rights watch, and the lead author of a report released today, "hiding behn:d the coalitailure to credibly investigate and provide redress fo"unlawful attacks in yeme kristine beckerle, thank you very much for joining s . the u.s. st only provides mid-air refueling and does not provide any targeting. is that what you understand? >> so, first of all, thank you for having me. and i thnk the big issue on the u.s.'s side is similar to what we're pointing out in the new report, which is basically there's been an incredible dearth of trnsparency or the

u.s. has been tight-lipped about what actual support they're providing to the coalition. we know they're providing mid-air refueling but the u.s. won't tell us what aircraft they refueled, did they refuel the aircraft that bombed a home, hospital, weddi? we know they're providing munitions to the site that have repeatedly landed at the site of apparently unlawful attacks. the reason this is concerning sit ises questions about the u.s.'s complicity in some to have t unlawful attacks. >> a state department official i spvee to earlier said they been pressing coalition partners at the highest levels tomi gate the conflict's impact on civilians. are you seeing evidence or results from that pressure? >> there's been a narrative amongst coalition allouis andab pr amongst coalition states that the coalition serious about improving working to minimize civilian casualties, but given how little is known

about how the coalition operates, it difficult check them on the claim. two points, since the coalitiono mademises to minimize civilian casualties, groups have documented unlawful attacks in 2015 through 2018. one of the things u.s. allies like to point to is the coalition is investigating so they must be serious about working to minimize civilian casualties. our report shows those investigations are by no means a sufficient assurance toit con allies continuing to ship weapons to saudi arabia because these investigations themselves raise serious red flags about the way one coalition body is thinking about international law and legal obligations. >> u.s. officials have been trying to get the saudi offer aairforce, the saudi military te better at targeting and waging this war and theres an

investigative body that's a part of that, attempts to improve what the saudis are doing. do you see any evidence that investigative body is actually doing its work correctly? >> i think, to be very blunt, is that at this point the investigative body is serving more to shield coalition states from any reaform of accountability than to credibly investigate unlawful attacks, hold anbody responsible or provide civilian victims redress. the reason i say that is human rights watch analyzeork of that coalition body over the last two years. theyebasically cleared coalition of legal fault, and the vast mority of attacks investigated. their findings showed prettyou egrefundamental failings in terms of the ways they were thinking about both the facts on the ground nd thews that applied. and i think perhaps even more condemtory is this investigative body th u.s., points for instance, th coalition once again bombs and kills kids that didn't need to

die, the u.s. says, well, coalition, you should investigate. but two years on, that coalition body has not credibly investigated it. so the quiois how many more children in yemen need to dirks how many more buses need to be bombed and weddings nd to be bombed before the u.s. realizes calling on the coalition to investigate itself is not an adequate response to what's going on in yen. >> kristine beckerle, thank you very much. >> thank you very much for having me. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: hometown shaspeare. a festival bringing diversity to centuries-old play but first, to the analysis of brooks and klein. that's "new york times" columnist david brooks, and ezra klein of vox.com. mark shields is away.

hello to both of you. i it's friday, aay this every week -- what a week. but it really is what a week.we david, thik, we saw the president's former campaign chairman, manager being found guilty of some very serious charges, a number of felonies. we saw the president's former personal lawyer, michael cohen, pleading guilty to a number of serious crimes. where does this leave the president? >> i think hurt, but, you know, the debate a lot of my frie are having is this the unraveling moment. and lyi persono not think it is. it may lead to the unraveling moment, but the manafort conviction is on matters scarcely related to donald trump. the cohen conviction is about a campaign finance law. me one of the weird things about our culture is the president of the united states paid off two porn stars to kep hithem silent aboutirn af and we're talking about campaign finance. the moral affront is so

gigantic, the legal front seems to be less. so whether michael cohen frobtd him money to pay off, that doesn't to me affect ida prcy. it does open up legal avenues and as the president gant people immunity, is the thing about these special prosecutors, you don't know ere they're going. they may start out with russian, collusind up with stormy daniels and then off to the races. assuming donald trump did something else, it seems to me more than likely they'll find that >> woodruff: just the fact these two people had such a prominent role working for the presiden his campaign for presidency, the campaign, and then the person who was call the fixer lawyer, whatever you l nt to call him, somebody close to him, michhen. >> seems like a tremendous coincidence there was so much criminality and thuggish behavior all around trump. i think the thing that is important is twofold. number one is what we're

actually seeing is tolerated around donald trump. david's right that i don't think we know where any of this ends and i'not sure whether the things are going to lead to unraveling or impeachment, but we only know what we know. w at we also know is the huge amount we don't kbout the donald trump organization, the connections with russia. we know bob mueller knows morph than we know. when you see the behavior tolerated and encouraged, the michael cohen behavior appears to have been dirnaected by trump within the trump organization, that should change gor estimation of what'ng on in the things we don't know. the interesting thing that's telling is donald troming out saying it potentially should be illegal for people to flip on their bosses, saying what he really hates is rats. we have a president saying het doeske snitches, and people who don't think they have a lot to hide don't come out tos principled objo that kind of prosecutorial pressure. >> woodruff: i don't know if we're calm ling theople who

flip or not, but the man we have been talking about tonht allen isselberg, the man with the knowledge of the money inside the trump business organization on top of his good friend a man named david pecker who runa company that runs the "national enquirer," they're both cooperating and been given immunity. c >> aen and before that omerosa. trump does inspire a lot of --do n't inspire a lot of life long loyaltyn he turnspeople like a dime and people turn on him like aa dime asult. so you have a lot of people loyal for pragmatic reasons now in the white house in the republican party but it's not because of any affection. the lesson is, if things turn, they'll probably turat once. if it's no longer useful to pretend you like donald trump, people will stopiking donald trump. o if there is something big out there, and i want ution us we don't know, but if there is something big outthere you will see a turn all at once because

there is not a lot of love holding people to loyalty. >> woodruff: is the president already weakened by this,ezr or do we wait, watch and withhold judgment? in i think he's weakened but what and what way? w donaldnderestimate ho trump's drain the swamp anti-corruption plank wa. if you look at the polls, just a couple of days before the election, the singegory on which trump led hillary clinton was corruption. he was tight on the economy, behind in immigration and national security and other things, but people believed in him to clean up washington or at least believed more in him than her to do that. donald trump has now had multiple cabinet secretaries resign for corruption, key people at random go to jail, under constant investigation, things around his faly a strange. to give up that is going to be rough for the republicans in 2018, becomes an issue for the n democrats, bble 2020 people underestimate how much more difficult it's going to be for him to run as a person now a

paragon of washington but its key >> i saw an a.p. today where he's dow.n to 38 maybe there's slippage. from my personal experience, i wawith trump people in north carorona and south na. we talked about politics and life in general, but thesels scanere off the radar screen. i dented detect anyone who was a arump supporter not being trump support. as long as he has a death grip on the republican party and as long as the loyalty is to trpum himself and not to the party, not to any position, which i think it is, 's where he has been with a very solid party ally wrapped around hi finger right now. >> woodruff: but, ezra, this does seem to be giving pause to at least some of the republicans. they're not abandoning him yet but in their lanage and the way they're talking about this, you sense, a i don't know, aat discomforthe very least. >> i think there's a lot of discomfort lurking very close to the surface in. general, i think this is

something that we always need to be careful with. i think the media has a tendency to think about trump support as it is one kind of thing, so we'll talk to die hard trump supporters a say do you still support donald trump? they'll say, of course, i do. donald trump has a base of support and it's big.to it looke around 30 percentage points. they matched donald trmp against every democrat they could think of. e support varied from joe biden to bob bullock. but what didn't change was trump supporters always around 30%. the key for trump is not strg republicans who support him. the question is that 5, ten percentage points that pushed him over the ellen, that's the people he can't lose. while they're probly not paying huge amount of in and out athe tensiona lot of the people may beless alatched to politics than peo tple s room, they are also not die hard trump supporter, and if they think he's the problem it gets dangerous for him ause his

margins have been small. the coming election 208, the republicans, they don't have his personal charisma. >>oodruff: david, while al of this is going on, the president is this we taking out frustrations against on his attorney general. jeff sessions at one point saying, you know, is he a man, did he take over the justice department? we heard jeff sessions finally speak up for himself and put out a statement saying, yes, i took over the justice department.e we know the sident is unhappy with what's going on at justice and with sessions. is that something that could build to something bigger in te s of the integri the justice department and the work that it does? >> yeah, in some wa i'm more offend bid this. you know, the people in the government i was just listening this automobile book by michael lewis on the national weather service, and it's aboutg hoat the people in the national weather service are, they get no m b work hard to predict tornadoes so people don't die, and e that's truin a

lot of government agencies. in my experience around washington, it true for the people in the department of justice. it's a very good agency. people are not parrlticu political, they want to do their job. to have faith in the country and government, you have to have some faith that cally the people are fair minded in the government. in my experience whether theye more liberal than i or not, they're basically fair mindedd nt to do their job as well. if you portray everything is rigged and politics and crooked, then you really ma it hard for the government to work because thgovernment has no legitimacy and you can get away with anything. ikd donald trump's cultural effect in this st me as guy gant. >> i think that's true. i think there is somethiil extraordintelling about the way donald trump has treated jeff sessions, and you can see itno in ather place. donald trump gave an intervi and asked how he felt about eric holder, he said he reallyec red him because barack

obama was this criminal president and eric holder protected him from consequences. let's put aside ther potrayal of the obama administration which one can argue with. his view was a good prtorney generaects you from investigation and his con frustration with jeff sessions is he's not playing that role on donald trump's behalf is telling. it's knot the way the thing is supposed to be run. it has downstream effects but ect. has the direct eff jeff sessions has spoken up for himself a bit, but this is a lot of p assure he's undnd having the attorney general under constant pressure from thr ident of the united states to protect him or be publicly humanityiated is not how -- humiliated is not how laws supposed to work. >> woodruff: you see lindseyls in week said, not a work relationship, i can think of other people who could do the job. >> a couple of senators, ben

sasse from nebraskraised a fuss saying he can't do this, but lindy graham moved over and i suspect the republican party to silently moving ove the lindsey graham direction. >>oodruff: we heard the sad news about john mccain. we know the senator has been fighting brain cancer and his family put out word today that he's no longer going to receive treatment. he's still with us. we're all thinking and praying for him. but someone who has been a big figure in this city for decades, ezra, and, again, he's still with us, but i think it's a good thing to think about his chacter and whahe's done for the country while he's still alive. >> i think one of the fascinating thing about joh y mccain is whu look at american politics and what's happening now in congress in our politics, one of the great questions is why don't more rsmbers of the senate, mem of the house of representatives stand up and do the things they clearly know are right.

david talks to a lotto of the members of congress, a l are horrified about what's going on with tru, party discipline. john mccain was one of the relatively few, whether you agreed or not with him, was often willing n go his ow way. he was willing to act out of a conviction and looki at things and deciding the way he believed things ought to be. if everybody in congress acted more like that, i think we would be in a better place politically. >> that's part of family leg he has two generations. in the mccain family's fighting somebody. he spent five years in a cge and after that everything else was gravy, so he's going to speak his mind. a random anecdote covered him closely in 2000 and 2008. in early 2008, he looked sad, losing, nowhere in the potis. i was sit with a consultant, and it was sort of sad to see

him.ul the cont said, we were having a drink, said there's ly one great man in the race. we knew he was a great man. he was up and down, did the town halls in new hampshire and came back. he remains a great man fa zillion different reasons. one is when he does something wrong,e knows it. he is never the sort of person who lies to himself, and i alwaysmi ared he has a private inner voice, even when he's compromising the confedete flag i south carolina in 2000, he said, yeah, i'm not doing the right thing hereso >> woodruff: many ups and downs in his life, as he near as the end of it, think everybody can appreciate him. david brooks, ezra klein, thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, how

eakespeare has helped def and build a community in the pacific northwest. jeffrey brown reports from ashland, oregon, as part of our "american creators" series. >> caesar, caesar. >> brown: a production of william akespeare's "julius caesar", with a twist-- caesar was played by vilma silva, latina woman. >> i was caesar. ( laughs ) lots of explaining. >> brown: not obvious casting, yeah. >> no, it wasn't. the news spread pretty quickly in the town. and i was shopping in bi-mart, one of our local shops here, and from down the aisle, i heard someone go "hail caesar!", and i looked down the aisle, and there was this woman, and she was so excited. >> bro: it's the kind of community engagement, high- quality production, and casting decisions that the oregon

shakespeare festival has become known for, all taking place in the small-town atmosphere of ashland, in a beautiful rura rt of southern oregon. >> part of why i fell in love sth this theater company its location. i think it being in a relatively isolated rural area surrounded by all this incredible natural beauty is part of what made my heart sing. >> brown: bill raucheen owtistic director here since 2007, helping gr it into one of the country's most important regional theater companies. he'd started his career in even smaller settings, touring communities of fewer than 2,000 around the country, with a group called "cornerstone," dedicated to bringing theater to rural areas of america that rarely sen producti >> when we were in college, a bunch of us who started cornerstone together, we heard a really damning statistic, that

only 2% of the american people went to professional theater on anything approaching a regular basis. and so, we became determined tot do t for the other 98%. >> brown: for you, it was a kind of mission. >> absolutely. absolutely. a passionate mission. >> brown: at o.s.f., as it's known, rauch inherited a company that dates to 1935, and began as a tiny, three-dashowcase of traditional shakespeare productions. ( fighting ) >> brown: today, the bard remains a staple, but the festival has made a name for itself by commisoning new works... >> we offered to take a 50% pay cut... >> brown: ...sometimes provocative ones, by contemporary playwrights" its ten-yearamerican revolutions" project of new t,ays on american life included lynn nottage's "swwinner of the 2017 pulitzer prize. o.s.f. now offers an eight-month season of numerous productions

in three separe theaters, some 800 performances a year. it helped make this town o 22,000 a destination for theater lovers, and for creative entrepreneurs. sandra slattery heads the local chamber of commerce. >> it's built a community basedn ultural appreciation. so, not only does it bring into vi and incredible productions every year thatr t hance oueconomy, it creates an environment thahas spawned other businesses and industries. >> that is edward's brother. >> brown: many of the actors live in wn, and some, like 23-year-old samantha miller, enter the troupe through a program with nearby southern .soregon university, where. directors and actors teach. >> so, as we were being trained and going through our acng classes, movement classes, all kinds of classes in order to get here and get to the rest of our lives, we knew that once it's

about time to get our degrees, h e the opportunity to thdition for the biggest regional theater icountry. so that was definitely in the back of our minds. >> brown: the back of your minds? sounds like it was in the front of your minds. on yeah, it was in the front of our minds, to be hest. we were thinking about thaty every, as we were going to class. ♪ ♪ >> brown: miller also represents another defining aspect of-- o.s.he diversity of its casting. since 2016, the majority of actors onstage have been non-white, in every conceivable type of role. >> don't you wish it would go on stop?r and it would nev >> brown: and one of this's summits, the musical "oklahoma," has same-sex couples in the leading roles. artistic director bill rauch: >> we're in the business of telling stories that reflect tht deepest and wirray of human experiences that we can, so we need the storys todt

reflect the brof diversity of the stories we're telling. and we want everyone who comes to see themselves reflected on stage, and ao to open up their hearts and minds to other kinds of human beings. >> brown: actor daniel jose of itscame here becau diversity. >> i came here because of it. the first year i was asked t come here was to play romeo in"" romeo and juliet" set in california in the 1840s. , two latino families, spanish families, feuding. same exact story, but it was ain mostly lcast. >> what's more? or once again close the walldeo our englis. >> brown: one of o.s.f.'s brightest lights, 29-year-old moli went on to perform many different roles, including a much acclaimed current turn as" henry " >> i'm getting incredibly lucky with the viety of work that i've been able to do here,

whether that-- my ethnicity needs to be addressed or not, because that's the thing about diversity, is that even if it's not an aspect of the play, just the representation of me, as a latino, playing henry v, an english king, in a 400-year-old play... , u know, if i had seen it, that would've affected i was in high school. >> brown: in fact, there's much more diversity onstage here than in the audience, and all involvednow more work on that score needs to be done. >> i have seen some progress in t,at, but it's something that's a continuing effecause of who has grown up going to theater, who h the time to go to theater, who has the money to go to theater. there's always going to be those issues that we're addressing ♪ ♪ >> tail has to go back. >> brown: even as new productions begin rehearsals, artistic director bill rauch ha announhe's leaving, afterto 12 yearsead up the new performing arts venue at the

world trade center in lower manhattan. he'll miss ashland's small town atmosphere, he says, but is confident the festival will continue to push boundaries and engage audiences. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the oregon shakespeare festival. ( applause ) >> woodruff: and we will be wack shortly, with a uniqu sheep are being used to provide solar power.e but first, tmoment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, whi helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: for those stations staying with us: in many central american communities, a

mysterious disease has affected farm workersho spend long, hot days in the fields cutting sugar cane. these workers are essentially caught in the middle of trying to eke out a living while maintain special correspondent fred de sam lazaro brings us this encore report from el salvador. it's part of our ongoing series, "agents for change." eg>> reporter: the cutters early, trying to sneak a couple of hours before the tropical suh begins to scorhe sugar cane fields. it's dirty, brutal work that requires the stamina of the young and physically fit, the exertion likened to running a half-marathon every day. but, 20 years o, doctors began ticing an alarming increase in the number of these young workers across central america who were coming into hospitals with a mysterious, ultimately fatal kidney ailment. dr. ramon garcia i a kidney specialist in el salvador's

capital, san salvador. >> seven to eight deaths every day in this small country. it's 10 to 12 times more than the expected death rate. this is a silent massacre.dr >> reporter: agarcia and others began to investigate, they discovered that on some farms, nearly one-fifth of sugar cane workers were suffering froo chc kidney disease, even though they had none of the usual risk factors such as high blood pressure or diabetes. jose monjares has be a cane cutter most of his adult life in the small coastal region that is the disease's epicenter. his father and uncle died from it. g his diagnosis seven years ago. >> ( translated ): it came on very suddenly: back pain, fever, vomiting. >> reporter: the illness forced him to stop the grueorking as a cutter, so he now works as

eld assistant. he needs the job, he says, even though the wages barely cover the cost of medicatowions to the disease. >> ( translated ): i have to take care of myself and watch my diet, because if i don't, i'll have to get dialysis, and that gust means death. >> reporter: ramonar, who heads a cooperative of small farmer least ten of his members died last year from kidney disease. ( translated ): there may have been others who died, who wereret diagnosed. n el salvador, many people don't want to recognize thisat disease and n epidemic exists. >> reporter: dr. garcia and other researchers, including a team from boston university, have conducted several studies trying to determine the cause. initially, pesticides were t,considered a likely culput there was no explanation why siese chemicals didn't have a lar impact in other places they are sprayed, including the united states. dr. garcia says one thing they believe may be a contributing

factor is the severe dehydtion of the workers, which prevents the kidneys from functioning fully. >> it's too hot, simply too hot. you cannot drink enough water ac the samethat you are losing it in sweat. we're not sure if this is the only cause, or a mix of causes that put together are producing the disease. >> reporter: as researchers scramble to nd the root cause of the disease, some groups are focusing on improving working conditions. some regions of the world have mechanized cane harvesting. it lowers the financial cost, but would create a social e here, says sebastian teunissen of the netherlands-based group, solidaridad. something has to change. it could be mechanization.ld it ce that farmers work ogether in cooperatives so they make effective uthe land. but that means surplus labor.

r e of the issues really is, where is that laboing to go in the comepg decades? >>ter: his group and others try to coax workear to take regest breaks and shelter from the intense sun, and to hydrate whether or not they are thirs. it managed to get one of the largest sugar producers in the countrto make this company policy. , just 8% of the sugar processed here comes from company land. most comes from small farmers, 2,000 of them, says owner juan wright.to >> jusonvince people that the practice of resting and taking water with certain frequency is hard to get across. >> reporter: it's not hard to understand why. ehere in the field, therery incentive to just keep working, because taking a break comes at a direct personal cost to workers, who are paid not by the hour, but by how much cane they

cut. >> ( translated ): everyone has their own working styles. sometimes you don't want to rest, but then your body hurts. >> reporter: solidaridad has also tried to introduce a new machete, designed in australia to be more ergonomic, so workers don't need to bend as low as sley swing. >> ( tred ): we started using it the year before last, and it's been a big improvement. our arms are less tired. you can feel it in your entire body. it has let us cut more cane andt edve less effodo so. >> ( translat ): we're having good productivity, but the blade is made of a different material, and it wears out a little faster. >> reporte that means workers have to stop more often-- sometimes hourly-- to sharpen oeir blade, which could mean losing up to a tena day's earnings. for others-- struggling small farmers-- the cost of the new machete is also a barrier.

>> a lot of modern business practices are not readily adopted, because tradition is so stro in this industry. layer on top of that, that it's regulated by the governments because it's so importto the economy. it's not necessarily progressive in every case. >> reporter: meanwhile, boston unersity has just begun a three-year study trying to further unlock the mystery of a condition that has claimed the lives of more than 25,000 central american agricultural workers over the last two decades. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in usulutan, el salvador. >> woodruff: with solar farmsup poppinround the country, comes the task of controlling vegetation growth under and around the panels. from the cronkite school of asjournalism, amanda masonhe story.

>> reporter: the red horse solar and wind project can provide tucson electric power with up to 71 megawat of clean power a year. >> solar power is great in many ways.it great for the environment, and the cost for installing and delivering solar power is coming down all the time. reporter: jeph barrios is the spokesperson for tucson eltric power. >> and one thing we look for is making sure that our solar energy is reliable for our customers. >> reporter: and that reliability depends a lot on keeping grass from growing too high. enter 200 sheep, whose appetite, help keep 0 solar panels on 1,300 acres operating. >> easy, easy! >> reporter: rusty cocke is a sixth-generation arizonan rancher who has leased his sheet out solar field for close to two years. >> well, sheep, because they don't eat wires, like goats do. they're small enou, when the

panels oscillate, and are really low on the ground and you can't run cattle out here. r orter: if the sheep weren't here, the grass would be growing to about this height, which would create a problem for ove solar panels, because the solar panels areg in order to capture the sun, and if the grass is too tall, they only collect about half of the energy needed. this solar field provides powery to 211 homes pr. so, every solar panel matters, and that means every sheep nb-ds to do its which isn't without its challenges, including protecting them from predators such as eagles and hiyotes. enter luciano ancanine friends. at least three dogs are responsible for this herd of herbivores. >> the dogs make the whole deal possible. if it weren't for the dogs, e predators would pick them apart. >> aft distressed about losing the sheep at home that i brought them home and t them have the babies at my house.

when i brought them when i brought them home, my daughter went crazy and started to name all of them, and she's eight years old and she love them. >> reporter: it's not cheap to maintain a live mowing system, but tucson electric power sa the extra effort makes it possible to bring clean power to their customers. for the pbs newshour, i'm amanda mason with cronkite news in wilcoxx, arizona.s onlinerricane lane barrels toward hawaii we explain how the store is reminiscent of hurricane harvey which made landfall in texas a year ago saturday, that's on our web site at pbs.org/newshour. and meanwhile, robera is preparing for "washington week," which airs later tonight. robert, what's on tap? >> tonig, we will discuss this week's twin courtroom dramas, involving the president's long-time attorney michael cohen, and his former campaign chairman paul manafort,

and how their convictions couldu change thee of the trump presidency. that's later tonight, on "washington week." judy? >> woodruff: and we'll be watching. bob, thanks. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weeu,nd. thank nd good night. >> major funding for the bbs newshour hn provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin? >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> babbel. a language program that teaches real-life conversations in a new anguage, like spanish, french, german, italia more. babbel's ten to 15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions tohe world's most pressing problems--

skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by captioned by media access gro at wgbh welcome to south dakota

and an area that 140 years ago was very much a part of the wild west. now, back then, the eaest way to g around was on horseback. inow,f i was driving this in 1865, i woul bve been easily overty the cavalry horses nd that were coming aoing out of the cavalry fort e u.s. built right over here. well, it ritlly doesn't look likight now, but this is the site of fort james. you can imagine what it must have been like. yot re a soldier heree fort charged with protecting the white settlers from the sioux indians, 'r but then imagine yactually one of the nive americans over there on the hills watching the cavalry ride in to take over more of your land. and we've been invited here to investigate this site and find out what survives of the fort underneath this ground.