ptioning 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 legal immunity in return for testifying about hush money payments before the election. then, it's friday. david 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 egon pushes the boundaries of shakespearean theater, with an aim toward diversity. >> just the representation of me, as a latino, playinggl henry v, an h 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 newshour.

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frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made porible by the corporation public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbt ion 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 republicans 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, and won the g.o.p. presidential nomination in 2008. in a statement today, mcin's family thanked caregivers, family and friends for their support. they added, "john has surpassed expectations for his survival, but the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict." the longtime financial chiefmp of the tusiness organization, allen weisselberg, has reportedly been grante legal immunity. it grew out of the probe surroundinthe president's former lawyer, michael cohen. we will discuss what this development may mean for the president, after the news summary. meanwhile, president trump says or has canceled upcoming nuclear talks with north. today, mr. trump announced on twitter that he has delayed secretary of state mike pompeo's trip to ongyang, 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 th are helping with the process of denuclearization." administration officials say the president codinated with secretary pompeo, but the newshouras learned that the announcement came as a surprise elsewhere in the administration. at the pentagon, staffers thore working on korea were meeting to prepare for the pompeo trip as the preside 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 relution to that dispute. hurricane lane is spinning near hawaii, dumping torrential rains on the big island. crews responded to landslides and officials reported catastrophic flooding, caused by more than 30 inches of rain in

48 hours. the storm did ween and slow today. it's expected to turn west on saturday and could skirt the most populated island of oahu. but, even without a direct hit, forecasters warned of the danger. >> let's set expectations. they're called disasecause stuff is broken after the fact. tizens need to realize that we're looking at major hurricane impacts. g things ang to break. and we need to set the expect could go off for quite some y me, and the infrastructure is going to be heavpacted. >> woodruff: the storm has caused numerous road closures, and the national guardo rescue six people trapped in a flooded home on the big island. the former head of the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention h been arrested on a sex abuse charge dr. thomas frieden was taken into custody in new york this morning, and appeared rt 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 away from the woman. in a statement, frieden said the allegation "does not reflect" his values. in australia, lawmakers have picked treasurer scott morrison to be the next prime minister, capping a week of political turmoil. he replaces malcolm tu, who was ousted by his party, htid a feud between hard-r conservatives and moderates. in all, 13 ministers resigned and the parliament was shut dowt for annoon. after he was sworn in, morrison promised to bring stability. >> today, our team needs to look at the events of this week and how that has impacted on them. they have gone back to their electorates, they've gone back to their families, and they are ing to listen and they a going to bring things back to us. and where there needs to be changes, they will be made, and where therntneeds to be uity, then that will be

maintained. >> woodruff: it is trth time since 2010 that an australian prime minister has isen forced from office by 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. early yesterday, mr. trump tweeted about alleged seizures of white-owned farms and "large scale killing of farmers."ut africa said the claims-- which have been used by white nationalists-- are based on "false information." officials told the u.s. envoy they were "disappointed."im in neighboringbwe, the constitutional court has upheld emmerson mnangagwa's victory in last month's historic presidential election. the opposition had challenged the results over allegations of vote-rigging. the court said there wasn't enough evidence of those claims. and as supporters celebrated outside the ruling party's headquarters, mnangagwa on

twitter urged "peace and unity." the trump administras cutting more than $200 million in bilateral aid to the the state department said today that the funds will be redirected to "high-priorityec pr elsewhere." the announcement came as the u.s. prepares to roll out aip much-anted peace plan between israel and the palestinians.e and there wererecords broken on wall street today. the dow jones industverage gained 133 points to close at ,790. the nasdaq rose 67 points to 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 we, the dow and the s&p 500 both gained a fraction of a percent. the nasdaq rose just over 1.5%. still to come on the newshour: what lal immunity for a senior trump organization executive

means for the mueller probe. u.s.-supported airstrikes blamed for civilian casualties in yemen. david brooks and ezra klein weigh in on the crimes committed by trump associates. and, much more. >> woodruff: as we reportedll earlier, weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the trump business organization, has struck a legal immunity agement with federal prosecutors. it is the second day in a row a man with close ties to president trump has made a deal. weisselberg is reportedly 00stifying to a grand jury about more than 00 in reimbursement payments that he helped arrange to trump's former attorney, michael cohen.pl coheded guilty earlier this week to eight felonies.g

amher things, he told the judge that mr. trump directed him to pay hush money to two women in exchange for their silence about alleged affairs.th yesterday, a long-time friend of the president, davider pewho runs the company that owns the "national enquirer," struck his own immunity agreement. president trump has railed against "flipping"-- people who turn over information on former confidants. he told fox news it, "almost ought to be illegal." to help explain what we know about the trump organization and the legal questions surrounding these immunity deals, i'm joined by caleb melby, who covers business and the trump organization for bloomberg news. and, renato mariotti, a former federal prosecutor who tried white collar crime cases, including tax evasion an bank fraud. he's now an attorney in chicago. welcome to both of you. so, renato mariotti, to you fit, what exactly do we

understand this immunity agreement with mr. weisselberg to mean? what does it represent? well, it means, first all, that mr. weisselberg himself had criminal liability. you don't need an immunity deal if you weren't involvedin potentiallommitting a crime. that's the first thing. second of all, it indicates that prosecutors believe that there is sething valuable that they were getting in exchange for his testimony. prosecutors don't just gie away immunity like candy. they have a specific reason for doing so. so, here, it appears mr. weisselberg's coopthation was, avery least, helpful to prosecutors in securing the conviction of michael cohen, who pled guilty earlier this week. i think the question is is there other potential lue in that testimony beyond that and i think that's an important question going fward. >> woodruff: that's what i wanted to ask you, staying with

o you, renariotti, in the "wall street journal," reports of him testifying to the grand jury last month. the question is, is it just around the michael cohen paymts to these two women, or is it something broader? how do we read tht? >> well, it's interesting, judy, because, even if you look at the michael cohen payments, those payments resulte in false statements within the records of the trump orga the "wall street journal" story that broke this talks a little bit about that, but, for axample, mr. cohen submitted request for payment to be on retainer for i think it wasa $35,00month and included other payments, i think there's a $50,000 consulting fee and so on, that were not act truth, and those are laid out in the charging documents that the justice department filed in new york, charging michael and, so, the question is, if there are false financial

statements inmp the tru organization books, is the trump organization responsible for that, was that false inforermatn ransmitted to others, for example to a bank, in order tota a loan? that would be bank fraud. so mr. weisselberg did -- you know, it certainly appears tt he's around criminal activity there and i think the real question now is areederal prosecutors looking at other in the trump organization, including potential family t members a new york attorney general has an investigation into these matters as well. >> woodruff: so,yoaleb melby, ve covered the trump businesses for several years. tells exactly what allen weisselberg's role is there. >> yeah, the question is really at his role isn't. if you think about the trump organization, trump, the trumpna children, loves to talk about his biggest, most beautiful assets. he loves golf courses, and he loves opening up internationalho

ls and condominium buildings around the world that have his name oeit, evn if he doesn't own them. but he's not a finance guy, he's ert somebody that can tell you what the net ing from this building is or what the interest payment on that loan is, anal n weisselberg is that guy in es.ost all cas so he's the guy negotiating the international licensing agreements. he's the guy who's king with banks, especially post-financial isis, to get the loans that 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 organization run. >> so reflecting back on what we just rader rena mariotti say about what federal investigators would be looking at, allen weisselberg could well be or is the person inside the trump organization who knows about loans, transactions, and s

forth, specifically that go well beyond this michael cohen matter? >> absolutely. ump's personal finances beyond the businesses, his taxes, his charity. and keep in mind that when ump became president of the united states, he put all his assets and companies into ana trustd he put his two children and weisselberg in charge of that trust. >> woodruff: so, renato mariotti, trying to understand this, once mr. weisselberg has been granted legal immunity, is he then exected to talk about that entire collection of e siness information that he has about thtrump empire? what are federal investigators able to ask him about and txp an answer on? >> well, typically, judy, in exchange for immunity, you agree to cooperate with the govnment full stop. in other words, you're not

cooperating with just oneen compto have the justice department, you're -- component of the jusptice artment, you're cooperating with the justice departnt completely. typically state and federal organizations work hand in hand ted i would expect he agree to cooperate with suthorities as well. and the real question is, you know, what else are federal prosecutors looking at? to be clear, as i point out a moment ago, even if they're just looking atth ese transactions, there are various assorted crimes and, as was mentioned a moment ago, that trust, for example, was methntioned in cohen charges, and mr. weisselberg and then there's another individual, it's not ,lear who that other individual is but could or example, one of the family members is mentioned. so this could potentially expand very quickly to other individus, even if prosecutors are focused on that transaction because i don't expect prosecutors to ask willy-nilly

about everything related to the trump organization. >> caleb melby, how transparent has the tmp organization been over the years? how much is known? we know the president has t released his own tax returns. how much is known and not known what are thestions you as a reporter would have about it? well, yeah, we've see throughout the campaign and throughout the election all sorts of stories about, say, the relationship with deutsche bance orrelationship with certain partners overseas that have had their own legal troubles in those jurisdictions. it's a private company. they have not disclosed, typically, more thaanything that any other private company. do the one benefit reporters have had over the last couple ofha years ispersonal financial disclosure that trump has filed in conjunction with being a candidate and being the president. of cours that's inrmation that they've self-disclosed. there's no real audit or review independent to help confirm the

accuracy of that information. so the o are certain sor stuff that we could get answers to are the sorts of things that people have been asking questions about for tie last two years. >> woodruff: as we say, nyso uestions, we're only beginning to get some of the answers. caleb melby with bloomberg news, renao mariotti, thank youth. >>oodruff: as the ongoing civil war in yemen is leaving more andore civilians dead, nick schifrin looks at the united states' role in the conflict. >> schifrin: since early 2015, a saudi-led coalition s been fighting iranian-aligned houthi rebels in yemen. u.sterday, the houthis andhe n. blamed the coalition for an attack in yemen's west that reportedly killed 30 pple, including women, and many children. the coalition disputes tt claim. earlier this month, the u.n.

says a coalition airstrike hit a school bus, killing at least 51 people, including 40 children. the u.s. provides support to the coalition, and now congress is calling for thpentagon 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 beirut by kristine beckerle, the yemen researcher at human rights watch, and the lead author of a report released today, "hiding behind the coalition: failure to credibly investigate and provide redress for unlawful attacks in yemen." kris very much for joining us. the u.s. says it only provides mid-air refueling and does not provide any targeti is that what you understand? >> so, first of all, thank you for having me. and i think the big issue on the u.s.'s side is similar to what we're pointing out in the new report, which is basicallye' thbeen an incredible dearth of trahensparency or 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 aircft they refueled, did they refuel the aircraft that bombed a home, hospital, wedding? we know they're providing munitions to the sitehat he repeatedly landed at the site of apparently unlaw.l attac the reason this is concerning sit raises questions about the u.s.'s complicity in some to have the unlawful attacks. >> a state department official i spoke to earlier said they have been pressing coalition partners at the highest levels to mitigate the conflict's impact on civilians. are you seeidence or results from that pressure? >> there's been a narrative amongst coalition allouis and probably amongst coalition states that the coalition is serious about improving workingm nimize civilian casualties, is knownn how little about how the coalition operates, it's difficult to

check em on the claim. two points, since the coalition made promises to minimize civilian casualties, groups have documented unlawful attacks in 2015 through 2018. one of tha things u.s. ies 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 asstoance coalition allies continuing to ship weapons to saudirabia because these investigations themselves raise serious red flags about the way on coalition body is thinking about international law and legal haligations. >> u.s. official been trying to get the saudi offers aiairforce, the saudi military e better at targeting and waging this war and there is an investigative body that's a part of that, attempts to impro what the saudis are doing.

do you see any evidence thatdy investigative s actually doing its work correctly? >> i think, to be very blunt, is that at this point the investigive body serving more to shield coalition states from any real form ofac untability than to credibly investigate unlawful attacks, hold anybody responsible or provide civilian victims redress. the reason i say that is human rights watch analyze the work of that coalition body over the last two years. they basically cleared the coalition of legal fault, and the vast majority of attacks investigated. their findings showed pretty egregious fundamental failingsth in terms oe ways they were thinking about both the facts on the ground and the laws that applied. and i think perhaps even more condemnatory is this investigive body thes u.. points to, foran instce, the coalition once again bombs and kills kids t didn't need to die, the u.s.ys, well, coalition, you should

investigate. but two years on, that coalition body ha credibly investigated it. so the question is how many more children in yemen need to rks how many more buses need to be bombed and weddings need 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 yemen. >> kristine beckerle, thank you very much. >> thank you very much for having me. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: hometown shakespeare. a festival bringing diversity to centuries-old plays. but first, to the analysis of brooks and klein. ksat's "new york times" columnist david brand ezra klein of vox.com.el mark s is away. hello to both of you. it's friday, and i say this every week -- what a week.

but it really is what a week. david, this week, we saw the presidens former campaign chairman, manager being found guilty of some very serious charge 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 presiden >> i think hurt, but, you know, the debate a lot of my friends are having is thithe unraveling moment. and i personally do 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 convicis about a campaign finance law. to me one of the weird things out our culture is the president of the united states paid off two porn stars to keep hithem silent about an affair ad we're talking about campaign finance. thmoral affront is so gigantic, the legal front seems

to be less. so whether michael cohen frobtd him money to payf o that doesn't to me affect a presidency. it does openlp le avenues and as the president grants people munity, is the thing about these special prosecutors, you don't know where they're goinrt they may stout with russian collusion, wind up with stormy hdaniels and then off to 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 president, his campaign for presidency, e campaign, and then the person who was called the fix lawyer, whatever you want to call him, somebody close to him, michael cohen. seems like a tremdous coincidence there was so much criminality and thuggish behavior all around trump. i think the thing that is important s twofold. number one is what we're actually seeing is tolerated around donald trump. david's ight that i don't think

we know where any of this ends and i'm not sure whether th things are going to lead to unraveling or impeachment, but we oy know what weknow. what we also know is the huge amount we don't know about thena trump organization, the connections with russia.o we w bob mueller knows morph than we know. when you see the behavior tolerated and encouraged,he t michael cohen behavior appears to have been directed by donald trump within the trump organization, that should change our estimation of what's goings on in the thi don't know. the interesting thing that's telling is donald trump coming out saying it potentially should be illegal for people to flip on their bosses, saying what hely reates is rats. we have a president saying he doesn't like snitches, and people who don't think they have a lot to hie don't come out to principled objects to that kind of prosecutorial pressure. >> woodruff: i don't know if we're calling them people who flip or not, but the man we have been talking about tonight allen

weisselberg, the man with the knowledge of the money inside the trump business organization on top of his good frid a man named david pecker who runs a company thatuns the "national enquirer," they're both cooperating and been given immunity. >> and cohen and before that omerosa. trump does inspire a lot of -- doesn't inspire a lot fof lie long loyalty. he turns on people like a dime and people turn on him like a dime as a result. pl you have a lot of peo loyal for pragmatic reasons now in the white house in the republican party but it's not because of any affti. the lesson is, if things turn, they'll probably turn at once. if iter's no louseful to pretend you like donald trump, iople will stop liking donald trump. there is something big out there, and i want to caution us we don't know, but if there is something big out there you will see a turn all at once because ehere is not a lot of lov holding people to loyalty.

>> woodruff: is the president already weakened by this, ezra, or do we wait, watch andld withjudgment? >> i think he's weakened but in what and what way? people underestimate how donald trump's drain the swamp anti-corruption plank was. if you look at th polls, just a couple of days before the election, the single category 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 belied more in him than her to do that. donald trump has now hadet multiple cabecretaries resign for corruption, key people at random go to jail under constant investigation, things around his family are e strange. to g that is going to be rough for the republicans in 2018, becomes a issue for the democrats, but nibble 2020 people underestimate how much more difficult it's ing to for him to run as a peson now aa paragon of shington but its

key enemy. >> i saw an a.p. today where he's down to 38. maybthe's slippage. from my personal experience, i was with trueompple in north carolina and south carolina. we talked about felitics and in general, but these scandals were off the radar screen. i dented detect anyone who was a trump supporter not being a trump support. a long as he has a deth grip on the republican party and as long as the loyalty is to trump himself and not to e paty, not to any position, which i think it is, he's where e has been with a very solid party really wrapped around his finger right no >> 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 language and the way th tey'king about this, you sense, a i don't know, a >>scomfort, at the very least. think there's a lot of discomfort lurking very close to the surface ge. ral, i think this is something that we always need to be careful with. i think th media has a tendency

to think about trump support as it is one kind of thng, so we'll talk to die hard trump supporters and say do you still support donald trump? they'll say, of course, i do.p donald tr has a base of support and it's big. it looks to be around 30 percentage points. they matched donald trumpd against everocrat they could think of. the support varied from joe biden to bob bullock. but what didn't change was trump pporters always around 30%. the key for trump is not strong 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 probably not paying huge amount of in and out athe tension, a lot of these people may beless alatched to politics than people in this room, they are also not die hard yrump supporter, and if the think he's the problem it gets dangerous for him because his margins have been small. the coming election 2018, the

republicans, they don't have hi personarisma. >> woodruff: david, while all of this is going on, th president this this week 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. we know the president is unhappy with what's going on at jusce and with sessions. is that something that could build to som ethigger in terms of the integrity of the justice department and the work that it does? >> yeah, in some ways i'm more offend bid this. you knowthe people in the government i was just listening to this automobile bok by michael lewis on the national weather service, and it's about how great the people in the national weather service a, they get no money but work hard to predict tornadoes so people don't die, and that's true in a lot of government agencies. in my expouerience

washington, it's true for the people in the department of justice. it's a very good agency.le pere not particularly political, they want to do their job. to he faith in the coury and government, you have to have some faith that basically the ople are fair minded in the government. in my experience whether they're fre liberal than i or not, they're basicalir minded and want to do their job as well. if you portray everything is rigged and pitics and crooked, then you really make it hard for the government to work because the government has no legitimacy and you can get away with anything. and donald trcump'stural effect in this strikes me as guy gant. >> i think that's true. i think theresomething extraordinarily telling about the way donald trump has treated jeff sessions, and you casee it in another place. donald trump gave an inerview and asked how he felt about eric holder, he said he really respected him because barack obama was this criminal

president and eric holderpr ected him from consequences. let's put aside the portrayal of the obama administration which one can argue with. his view was a good attorney general protects you from investigation and his continuous frustration with jeff sessions is he's not playing that role on benald trump's half is telling. it's knot the way the thing is suppos it has downstream effects but also has the direct effect. jeff sessions has sroken up fo himself a bit, but this is a lot of pressure he's under and ntving the attorney general under consressure from the president of the united states to protect him or publicly humanityiated is not how --ed humilis not how law is supposed to work. >> woodruff: you see lindsey hilsum in week said, not a work relationship, i can think of c other people wuld do the job. >> a couple of senators, ben sassfrom nebraska raised a

fuss saying he can't do thi but lindsey graham moved over and i suspect the republican party is silently moving over to the lindsey graham direction. >> woodruff: we heard the sad news about john main. we know the senator has been fighting brain cancer and his family putut word today that he's no longer going to receive treatment. he 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 good thing to think about his character and what he's done fo the country while he's still alive. >> i think one of thefa inating thing about john mccain is when you look at american politics and what's haesening now in conin our politics, one of the great questions is why don't more members of the senate, members 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 lot are

horrified about what's going on rty discipline. john mccain was one of the relatively few, whether you agreed or not with him, was often willing to go his own way. he was willing to act out of a personal conviction and looking at things and deciding the way .e 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 legsy. he has tw geerations. in the mccain family's fighting somebody. f he speve years in a cage and after that everything else was gra, so he's going to speak his mind. a randoanecdote covered hi closely in 2000 and 2008. in early 2008, he looked sad, losing, nowhere in the polls. i was sitting witha consultant, and it was sort of sad to see hi the consultant said, we were

having a drink, saithere's only one great man in the race. we knew he was a great man. i was up and down,d the town halls in new hampshire and came back. he remains a great man for zillion different reasons. one is when he does something wrong, he knows it. he is never the sort ofrson who lies to himself, and i always admired he has iva prate inner voice, even when he's compromising theonfederate flag in south carolina in 2000, he said, yeah, i'm not doing thi t thing here. >> woodruff: so many ups and near ain his life, as he the end of it, i think everybody can appreciate him.o david brs, ezra klein, thank >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, ho shakespeare has helped define d build a community in t

pacific northwest. jeffrey brown reports from ashland, oregon, as part of our "american creators" series. >> caesar, caesar. >> brown: a production of william shakespeare's "julius caesar", with a twist-- caesar was played by vilma silva, a latina woman. >> i was caesar. ( laughs ) lots of explaining.wn >> bnot obvious casting, yeah. >> no, it wasn't. the news spread pretty quickly in the tow and i was shopping in bi-mart, one of our local shops here,nd 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. >> brown: it's the kind of community engagement, high- casting production, an decisions that the oregon shakespeare festival has become known for, all taking e in

the small-town atmosphere of hland, in a beautiful rural part of southern oregon.hy >> part of fell in love with this theater company was its location. b i think ng in a relativelyre isolated ruralsurrounded by all this incredible natural beauty is part of what made my heart sing. >> brown: bill rauch has been artistic director here since 2007, helping grow it into one of the country's most important regional theater companies. he'd started his career in even smaller settings, touring f communities er than 2,000 around the country, with a group called "cornerstone," dedicated to bringing theater to rural areas of america that rarely see productions. >> when we were in college, a bunch of us who started cornerstone together, we heard a rially damning statistic, that only 2% of the an people went to professional theater on

anything approaching a regular basis. and so, we became determined to do theater for the other 98%. >> brown: for you, it kind of mission. >> absolutely. absolutely.io a pate mission. >> brown: at o.s.f., as it's known, rauch inherited a compant that to 1935, and began as a tiny, three-day showcase ofio traditnal shakespeare productions. ( fighting ) >> brown: today, the bard remains a staple, but the festival has made a name for itself by commissioning new works... >> we offered to take a 50% pay cut... >> brown: ...sometimes provocative ones, by contemporary playwrights. its ten-year "american rewlutions" project of plays on american life included lynn nottage's "sweat," winner of the 2017 pulitzer p o.thf. now offers an eight-m season of numerous productions in three separate theaters, some 800 performances a year.

it's helped make this town of 22,000 a destination for theater vers, and for creative entrepreneurs. sandra slattery heads local chamber of commerce. >> it's built a community based in cultural appreciation. so, not only does it bring in visitors and incredible productions every year that enhance our economy, it creates an environment that has spawned trher businesses and indusies. >> that is edward's brother. >> brown: many of the actors live in town, and some, like 23-year-old santha miller, enter the troupe through a program with nearby southern oregon university, where o.s.f. directors and actors teach. >> so, as we were being trained and going through our acting 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, we have the opportunity to

audition for the biggest figional theater in the country. so that was tely in the back of our minds. >> brown: the back of your minds?as sounds like itn the front of your minds. >> yeah, it was in the front of our minds, to be honest. we were thinking abouthat every day, as we were going to class. ♪ ♪ >> brown: miller also represents another fining aspect of o.s.f.-- the diversity of its casting. since 2016, the majority ofctors onstage have been non-white, in every conceivable type of role. >> don't you wish it would go on forever and it would never stop? >> brown: and one of this summer's hits, the musical "oklahoma," has same-sex couples in the leading roles. artistic director bill rauch:e r we're in siness of telling stories thlect the deepest and widest array ofex humariences that we can, so we need the storytellers to

reflect the breadth of diversity of the stories we're telling. and we want everyone who comes to see themselves reflected on stage, and also to open up their and minds to other kinds of human beings. >> brown: actor daniel jose molina came here because of its diversity. >> i came hereecause of it. e first year i was asked to come here was to play romeo in"" romeo and juliet" set in california in e 1840s. so, two latino families, spanish families, feuding. s same exary, but it was a mostly latino cast. >> what's more?or nce again close the wall to our english dead. >> brown: one of o.s.f.'s brightest lights, 29-year-old molina went on to perform many different roles, including a much acclaimed current turn as" henry v." >> i'm getting incredibly lucky with the variety of work that i've been ableo do here, whether that-- my ethnicity needs to be addressed or not

because that's the thing aboutrs diy, 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... you know, if i had seen it, that would've affected me, if i was high school. >> brown: in fact, there's much more diversity onstage here than in the audiee, and all involved know more work on that score needs to be done. >> i have seen some progress inu thatit's something that's a continuing effort, because of who has grown up goi to theater, who has the time to go to theater, who has the money to go to theater. there's always going to behose issues that we're addressing. ♪ ♪ ne tail has to go back. >> brown: even as productions begin rehearsals, d artisticector bill rauch has announced he's leaving, after 12 years, to head up the new performing arts venue at the world trade nter in lower manhattan. he'll miss ashland's small towne

atmo, he says, but is confident the festival will continue to push boundaries and engage audiences. for the pbs newshour jeffrey brown at thegon shakespeare festival. ( applause ) >> woodruff: and we will be back shortly, with a unique way sheep are being used tsoprovide r power. but first, take a moment to hear from youlocal pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep

>> woodruff: with solar farms popping up around the country, comes the task of controlling vegetation growth under and around the panels. from the cronkite school of journalism, amanda mason has the ory. >> reporter: the red horse solar and wind project can provide tucson electric power with up to 71 megawatts of clean power a year. >> solar power is great in many ways. it's great for the environment, and the cost for installing and delivering solar power is coming down all the time. >> reporter: joseph barrios is the spokesperson for tucson electric power. >> and one thing we look for is making sure that our solar energy is reliable for our customers.

>>t reporter: and t reliability depends a lot on keeping grass from growing too high. enter 200 sheep, whose appetites help keep 250,000 solar panels on 1,300 acres operating. >> easy, easy! r >> reportety cocke is a sixth-generation arizonan rancher who has leased his sheep out to the solar fieldwoor close toears. >> well, sheep, because they don't eat wires, like goats do. they're small enough, when the panels oscillate, and are really low on the ground and you can't run cattle out here. >> reporter: if thsheep weren't here, the grass would be growing to about this height, which would create a problem foh solar panels, because the solar panels are moving 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 power er 211 homes per year. so, solar panel matters, and that means every sheep needs

to do its job-- which isn't without its challenges, including protecting them from predators such as eagles and coyotes. enter luciano and his canine friends. at least three dogs are responsie for this herd of herbivores. >> the dogs make the whole deal ssible. if it weren't for the dogs, the predators would pick them apart. >> after a while i got so distressed about losing the sheep at home that i brought them home and let them have the babies at my hous 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 loves them. >> reporter: it's not cheap to maintain a live mowing system, but tucson electric power says 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.

online as hurricane lanearrels toward hawaii we explain how the icore is reminiscent of hue harvey which made oundfall in texas a year ago saturday, that's o web site at pbs.org/newshour. and meanwhile, robert costa is preparing for "washington week," which airs later tonight. robert, what's on tap? c tonight, we will discuss this week's twrtroom dramas, involving the aeesident's long-time attorney micohen, and his former campaign chairman paul manafort, and how their convictions could change the course of the tru presidency. that's later tonight, on "washington week." judy? w >> woodruff: all be watching. bob, thanks. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, and good nit. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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>>. tonight on kqed newsroom, house minority leader nancy pelosi talks about winning back the house and fighting in the capitol. and doublele troub for the trump presidency. paul manafort's conviction. a w the women helped kick start the economy and her take on the labor markets. hello and welcome to kqed newsroom. we begin with politics. this week, the trump administrationr sufd major league blows. on tuesday, president trump's former campaign manager was convicted on eight counts of tax and income fraud while