ning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> brangham: good evening. i'm william brangham. judy woodruff is offoday. on the newshour tonight: more than people are ordered to evacuate the carolinas ahead of potentially catastrophic floong and storm damage from hurricane florence. then, 17 years after the 9/11 attacks, the war in afghanistan remains a deadly stalemate. we take a look at where the u.s. strd,egy stands. ingering concerns. scientists deploy new technology to study the impacsmof inhaling oke from the wildfires in the west. >> as these fires become more common and more likely to hit urban areas, we just need tokn , what are the best actions to take to reduce some of the risks for long-term and short-rm ealth impacts. >> brangham: all that and more,

on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! k in? >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com.s >> bf railway. consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing supporte of t institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for puic broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> brangham: hurricane florence is being called "a monster" tonight, and it's still hundreds asof miles off the carolin coast. as of this evening, the storm is 500 miles wide, with winds at u're just trying to elevateme, , is it irreplaceable, so toe? speak? >> reporter: people here are used to storms, but florence could be the strgest to hit north carolina since 1954.

>> we've never had a hurricane like this that's come to wrightsville beach. this is a four. there's been threes and twos, but never anything this strong, so we're going to be safe. >> reporter: the hurricanes on a path to make landfall in southeastern north carolina late thursday or early friday. today, governor roy cooper ordered evacuations of all theba state'ier islands: >> this storm is a monster. it's big, d it's vicious. it is an extremely dangerous, life-threatening, histic hurricane. even if you've ridden out storms before, this one is different. don't bet your life ing out a monster. >> reporter: in south carolina, mandatory evacuations began at midday for the entire coast, affecting one million people. >> this one oks a little uglier than other ones. s ther be safe than sorry. >> reporter: the macuation is a mammoth undertaking, but governor henry mcmaster says it's the only choice.>> e are in a very deadly and

important game of chess with hurricane florence, and what we do-- what team south carolina do-- is doing, is staying one step ahead >> reporter: meanwhile, suppli at grocery stores and hardware stores are already dwindling, as ople stock up. and in places like charleston, south carolina, resints are readying sandbags for heavy ooding, while food banks are packing non-perishables for potential power outages. the immense size of hurricane florence-- and up to 30 inches of rain-- mean the power losses and flooding will be felt over several states. officials from the federal emergency management agency warned today, the effects will not fade away soon. >> this storm's going to be a direct hit onto ountcoast. and i o set the expectations now-- that it is going to be a long time, and a long-term recovery, when we talk about the effects of florence. so this is not going to be a storm that we recover from in ys. t will take us a good amo time to do the full recovery. >> reporter: president trump has

now declared states of emergency in the carolinas and virginia, in anticipation of heavy damage and flooding.ha >> bra p.j. tobia joins me now. p.j., i understand you are on wrightsville beach, north50 carolina or 60 miles from the south carolina border that. storm is coming in from behd you, the ocean we can see there. can you give us a sense, how are officials responding? >> absolutely. local officials that we spoke with today are very concerned about the impact of what they say could be a catastrophic storm coming their way. one city manager told us that in 20 years of government service working in communities up and down the carolin coast, he's never seen a storm of this size or of this strength. and so they're so taking remarkable steps in terms of preparation, voluntaryac tion order was sent out this weekend. that becomes mandato tomorrow pin the interim,m.all , police, and fire personnel as well as their vehicles are being

proved off of this barrier island and to the mainland right over there. that very unusual. >> brangham: so is the sense that they're getting that the storm surge is going to be so tense that it's gointo scrape that island clean? >> that's exactly what their worst fears are, yes. they say after 8:00 p.m. tomorrow, after this time, once the winds start blowing abovemp you better be someplace safe, because the police and fire rescue are not going to be able to come help you. >> brangham: how about the people who will river there? are they... i know the mandatory evacuation isn't coming yet, but from people you've spoken with, are they going to heed that warning? are they going the leave? >> absolutely. this is a beach town, right? there's a laid-back vibe. earlier this morning there were some surfers in the waves behind me and sos cafeé and bars were open this afternoon, but-everyos deadly serious about getting off this island by the curfew tomorrow. folks who lid here for decades

who never boarded up their homes before but they were worried this was the big one and they wanted to get a move on. earlier today i met an 82-year-old woman who had been through the last category hurricane to come through here, hazel in the 1950s, she told me of destruction like she'd never seen before and there weri boatd up in her backyard. she was just become here visiting with her daughter for the week. they cut their vacation short. they're headed back to atlanta.a >> brangha right, p.j. tobia, thanks so much. now, let's focus more on the strength of this storm, and the worries over possible floodingnf from its rl. ken graham is the director of the national hurricane center. i spoke to him a short time ago from the centeadquarters in miami. ken graham, thank you for being here. i know the forecast for this storm. can you just give our viewers a sense of how massive hurricane florence is right now? >> well, sometimes we run through those numbers. 's really tough to tell exactly how big. so i think the best way to do that is coming over here tthe satellite. you draw a circle around what we

have hurricane flonnce. you draw equal circle over the southeastern united states. you can see itovers states. i mean, this is a very large state and the impact is well outside the center of it. we have to be thinking outside this path. we have to be thinking much wider when it cos to impacts. >> brangham: right now, though, that path that's currently projected takes the storm directly into south carolina, is that still correct? >> ilyeah, that is correct. if you look at two-thirds of the time, the center is expected to be within this cone. some uncertainty once it makes it inland, but that's where we're keeping an eye on the hurricane warnings in south carolina and north carolina. that's where we think thghe t chances of thoserc hurricane-winds, basically the warning meaning that could occur in the next 36 hours. >> brangham:hat's your sense of the size of the storm surge residents there could be facing. >> that's going to be a significant issue. 50% of the fatalities in these tropical systems is the storm

surge. we talk a lot of time talking about the water. we have a storm surge warnings of portions of south carolina up through north caroliy . e of those areas could see greater than three foot of storm surge. when you narow it down, you start looking into the details, you start to surface some of these higher values where it's not just these barrier islands. you get rfwater ing over those barrier islands and it tracks into these areas. this is an area we' particularly concerned with looking at the areas where normally the water flows out. storm surge can push that water in. an where that water gets piled up, we are looking at those values get to to 13 fee staggering amount of storm surge, very life-threatening. that's somethin we' definitely focused on. >> brangham: separate from potential impacts on the coast, i know projections are this storm could move inland and stall, which could du historic amounts of rain. is that still your forecast? >> it is. we have brand-new map really just created. we just got this from our weather prediction look at these values.

20 inches of rain possible in this circle, even oside of it 15 to 20 inches of rainfall, not just along the coast. it's really important for everyone to realize not just coastal. but look at this, 1o 15, even 15 to 20 well inland in virginia and north calina. so th isn't just a coastal issue with the rainfall. you can have high... a lot of rainfall totals, a maryland delaware, and if you talk about the terrain in some of these areas, these rainfaals with the terrain dangerous, catastrophic flash flooding,ll potentin some of these areas. that's why we spent so much time talking about the rainfall. because the flasflooding could lead the fatalities. we need to be prepared for that. >> brangham:s there anything , any potential in the forecast that cou change ether or not the storm does, in fact, stall once it's come inland? >> i think at this point really what we got to fus on are those impact, because we... there's been a lot of talk about different sides of the cone and where the system could go. the bottom line is this is a major hurricane. we're talking about an

incredible winds and a large size. so no matter where we make landfall along the coast here, yore still going to hav those impacts because either way it will stall out. so think about that. all the wane, the storm surge, and the oter factor here, still s tropical storm over north carolina, and tha on saturday, and then by sunday, still with thpre sion in portions of western north carolina, that means saturated soilith that kind wind, you're going to knock down a lot of trees and have significant power outages, some lasting quite a long time. >> brangham: i know you've been doing this for a long time. how does this, when you look historically, how does this storm compare as far as impacts on the east coast? >> we've seen storms like this before. and it is going to be historic. the impacts are going to be significant. to getally what we try the word out is not to compare those storms. evy one of them are so different. when we start looking at history, somebody might say, it didn't happen to methen and it could this time. we try not to compare those storms because people startok g at the category. that's why we spend so much time

here at the hurricane center talking about the impact and the rainfall and ahe storm surd the wind. pretty his or the and really looking at ay v dangerous, catastrophic situation. aheparedness is everything. >> brangham: ken of the national hurricane center, thanks very much. >> you bet. >> brangham: this afternoon, president trump said teral government is ready and "totally prepared" to deal with the hurricane. in his remarks, the president also callethe federal response to hurricane maria in puerto rico "incredibly successful." but the administra response there has been heavily criticized from many quarters. the puerto rican government's official death toll frt storm and its aftermath is now estimated to be as high as nearly 3,000 people. a congressional watchdog said fema was overwhelmed by last year's hurricane season, and did not deploy enough personnel to puerto rico. in the day's other news, the nation marked 17 years since the terror attacks of september 11, 2001.in ew york, bells rang at the act moment that the firs jetliner crashed into theorld

trade center tower. in shanksville, pennsyania, president trump joined in honoring those who fought the hijackers of their jet, before it plunged into a field. >> america will never forget what your loved ones did for all of us. we will remember that free people are never at the mercy of evil. our destiny is always in our hands. >> brangham: a separate service was held athe pentagon, with vice president mike pence honoring the 184 people who died there. in all, nearly 3,000 people-- and the 19 hijackers-- were killed on 9/11. the ternational criminal cou vowed today to continue its work ngdeterred, this despite b condemned by the united states. on monday, u.s. nationer security advohn bolton called the i.c.c. "illegitimate." he threatened sanctions if the court tries to prosecute american troops or agents for alleged war crimes i

afghanistan. the leaders of china and russia today pledged "strategic partnership" in the face of rising antagonism with the united states. china's xi jinping and russia'sl imir putin met in the russian city of vladivostok, near the chinese border. xi said the two nations will present a united front against what he called "trade protectionism," a clear jab at president trump's policies. >> ( translated ): china andru ia both bear the responsibilities of maintaining world peace and stability.cu under thent background of increasing changes in international structure and growing instability and unrtainty, it is more important for china and russia to join our hands in maintaining international justice and fairness. >> brangham: the meeting coincided with joint chinese- russian military exercises in pthey're the largest in russia since the fall of the soviet union, and involved some 300,000 , oops. and on wall stree dow

jones industrial average gained 114 points to close at 25,971.os the nasdaq48 points, and the s&p 500 added 10. still to come on the newshour:p the trumministration's latest step to roll back efforts to fight climate change.wh ere things stand in afghanistan, 17 years after the 9/11 attacks. health risks, as a result of the wildfires out west. and much more. trumpngham: the administration has taken its third major step to roll bk see regulations that are meant to curb the greenhasses that cause global warming and climate change. the environmental protection agency today issued new rules making it easier for oil and gas companies to release methane,h wh a particularly potent greenhouse gas. coral davenport has been covering this story for the "new york times."

>> great to be with you. rangham: so the obama administration, the earlier administration had said to oil and gas companies, monitor the methane that's leaking out of your operations and do what you can to cap it. before we talk about what the trump administration has done, remind us, why do we care about methane? >> usually when you talk about the greenhouse gasses that warm the planet, you think about carbon dioxe, the stuffhat comes from driving cars, burning coal-fired power plants. methane doesn't get as much attention. it's % ly about the human cause of greenhouse gasses, but it matters a lot because methane is 25% more powerful than carbon dioxidetr at ping that heat. so there's a lot less of it, it's noedt cay as many sectors of the economy, but once it gets out there, it's aeally potent driver of greenhouse gas warming. it's sort of a super dwrows gas. it's a big deal.

>> brangham: what did the trump administration do today? >> so specifically they back to that 2016 obama-era regulation on methane emissions. they're mainly leaked from oil and gas drilling wells. the obamaegations said that oil and gas companies have toce put in p a strict schedule of monitoring and detecting these a leaks then said, once you detect a leak, you 30 days plug it up. and for most oil and gas wells the obama regulations said you had to monitor the leaks every six months some the trump administration amended that rule and streted out the timetable for monitoring in some cases to as long as two years. given how potent methane is, how much heat it traps, that can add up to a l more powerful warming. >> woodruff: as you reported in your story, the energy induthstry sai the obama rules were way too burdensome,

red tape, incarnation of red tape i believe someone said to you. they said trapping this methane is very difficult for them to udo. how is that? is it difficult to keep handle on these leaks? >> it's expensive, absolutely. the oil a gas industry complained, especially, you know, so many oil and gas operations are out in remote, difficult-to-access locations, getting out there every sihsx mogetting out there frequently, they needed to hire more people, they needed to spend more money. environmentalists, who pushed for theat regns, said, look, this is also an industry, you know, that clocks in billions of dollars in profits annually, so, you know, that's a significant bite, but it doesn't put any company at risk. >> brangham: rht. they're arguing the benefit is much greater. >> yes. >> brangham: lastly, t coming on the heels of the trump administration changing auto emissions standards, the rules on coal-fired wer

plants. this has been the administration's mantra. president trump stepped away from the paris accord. he said ce change is a hoax. this should not be a surprise to anyone, right? >> it's not surprising that e trump administration is going after another set of climate changeegulations. president trump campaigned on this. he specifically campaigned on helping the oil and gas industry. what is surprising and interesting is how effectively and efficiently they're going these regulatory rolebacks. so much of this administration's policy agenda i sort of dysfunctional or chaotic. so many proposals have kind of flailed or are still sort of dysfunctional or in chaos, whereas the move to roll back these regulations, particularly on climate change, are being done correctl they're going through the right channels. they'll be challenged in court, but it's really interesting to see that quietlynd under the radar, while the president himself seems mainlyoced on

the russia investigation, this piece of the policy agenda is chugging along and making a difference. >> brangham: coral davenport of the "new york times," thank you so much. >> great to be with you. >> brangham: less than a month after the 9/un attacks, the ed states invaded afghanistan to hunt al qaeda, and to remove the government of their taliban sponsors. 17 years later, the u.s. and itr alliain there, fighting alongside afghan forces against a strong taliban insurgenc our nick schifrin lived in afghanistan for more than three years, andeports now on where things stand in america's longest war. >> schifrin: in eastn afghanistan this morning, the wounded arrived, back-to-back, and kept coming. for hours, stretcher after stretcher. they'd been protesting in a group when a suicide bomber ble himsup. more than 150 casualties. 17 years aer 9/11, afghanistan

has never been more dangerous for civilians. in the first six months of 2009, the war killed or wounded 2,492 civilians. in the first six months of 2013, the number was 3,921. in the first six months of 2018, the number was 5,122. thorcurrent u.s. strategy is 14,000 troops to work with lower-level afghan units to doaj the vastity of the fighting. the idea is to have afghanld rs increase pressure on the taliban and hopefully compel them to negotiate, as president trump said last august. >> after an effective military effort, perhaps iwill be possible to have a politicalme sett that includes elements of the taliban in afghanistan. but nobody knows if or when that will ever happen. >> schifrin:ut u.s. commanders admit the war is a stalemate, and want the taliban to talk, as outgoing commander general

john nicholson sailast week. >> to the taliban, i say: you don't need to keep killing your fellow afghans. you don't need to keep killing your fellow muslims. the time for peace is now. >> schifrin: and peace is what the afghans crave. at the end of the muslim holy month of ramadan, the taliban and governnt reached a three-dacease-fire. residents and fighters embraced. but since then, the taliban have launched a blitz of attacks to increase their influence and try to seize territory. they've d some success. in may 2016, the taliban controlled 9% of the country, and contested 25%. in may 2017, the taliban controlled 13%, and contested 30%. and in may 2018, the taliban controlled 14% of the country, in red, and contested 30%, inye ow. the government controlled only 56%, in green. the afghan government is

despite the ongoing violeene, there has ome progress, including in health care. in 2005, the mortality rate for children under five was 110 deaths per 1,000.ha by 2010,rate dropped to 90 per 1,000. and in 2016, it dropped again, to 70 per 1,00 progress in education has been even more dramatic. in 2002,ne million children attended school-- almost all boys. today, more than 9.2 million are enrolled in school, including 3.5 million girls. but the u.n. says nearly half of children are out of school, andr afghanistan sufrom brain drain, especially among the young-- like these refugees, fleeing by foot to turkey, after deciding afghanistan wasn't safe. let's take aroader look now at the afghan war and prospects for peace, with barnett rubin. he served in the obama administration's state department, and was one of the originators of their plan to start negotiations with e taliban. ard, ambassador robin raphel had nearly a 40-yearr in the foreign service, including as

the assistant secretary of asate for sout. she's now a senior associate at the center for strategic andte ational studies, and has been active in efforts to promote a political track inan aftan. welcome to you both. thank you very much. let me start with you. we do have some metrics of progress in afghanistan, but are they isolated? >> well, i woulr't say the isolated. i think the most important metric of progress now is thatis afghn's connected to the world. there's social media. there's o internet andn and so forth. as many people indicate, there are a lt of improvements and social indicators, health, education, longevity, litacy, so on and so forth. you have a new generation of young peoplen afghanistan that want to stay and help develop the couny in a more progressive way. but, of course, there' also insecurity as we've seen today, and previously.

there's a war economy that's not sustainable. there's corruption. and, of course, much of the progress is confined to kabul and the urban areas. >> brangham: barney there is a more educated population in afghanistan, a orunger population. there's also afghan institutions today than there were many years ago, right? >> yes.'s ard for people to understand just how destroyed and isolatedfghanistan was 17 years ago. the airport didn't even have functioning conveyor belt. now, you know, it hasa president, a parliament, courts, police, an army, functioning airport, internet, mobile phones, schools, educational system, health system, andth e are vast things wrong with all of these things, but they exist, nd it's become more o a normal country in that respect. but it's still very abnormal in that thousands of people are being killed in horrible ways

ery year and even every month. >> brangham: that violence continues. the war is a steal mat commanders say. do you believe that? >> do. i think taliban realize they can't force the international forces out, and i think the international forces and our commanders realize we can't win in sea traditionae. >> brangham: barney rubin, is part of the reason that the u.s. can't win, so to speak, not only because of actual military abilities on the ground, but afghane capacity of th government and the capacity of the afghan security forces? >> yes, because it's misleading in a way to talk about this as a war and to refer to it in t militarms. it's a political struggle. it's not between the afghan armt and thiban fighters and the u.s. military. it's between the u.s. angovernment, the a government, and the taliban, which is political organization. the reasons for the weakness

compared to the huge amount of resources that we have to put into it has to do with the political leadership, e will bof consensus, and problems of legitimacy of theovernment and of lack of clarity of u.s. policy. >> brangha the clarity of u.s. policy has been a problem, robin raphel, for a longbu time, is there clarity on one thing, and this is willingnes t to talk wite taliban and willingness to pursue a political solution? >> i think today now there a consensus to start talks, not negotiations, talks, with the taliban. there's already been one round, as the u.s. government has not confirmed, but i think it's probably accepted that that occurred. so i think there is a recognition that the political track has laggedwabehind the military track and that it was time to put some actions what everybody is saying, which was there is no military

solution to this war. so, yes, what is concerning is how much, how far are we willing to go in these talks, how much flexibility will there be for negotiators and so on. >> brangham: and barney rubin, it's a question not only about how far the u.s. is willing to go but how willing the taliban are, for example to, meet the afghanistan governmentat something important if these talks are going to succeed, right? ye ultimately the question is posed in a kind of simple way, which is: do both sids, especially do the taliban want a negotiated settlement, or do they want to ke fighting. actually, everyone wants eta negotiatedement that is advantageous to them, but the reason the talks have not started is because they cannot agree about o are the relevant parties. the taliban wants to talk to the united states dictly. the afghan government wants to talk to the taliban, a the afghanistan government wants to talk to pakistan, which is packing the liban, in their

view. so we've got a bunch of talks about how negotiations are eventually to be organized. at this point there is a stalemate not just military, flu is a political stalemate over tthe question of whetheks are going to be led by the afghan government or if tho will be inme other kind of format, which is more acceptable to the taliban. >> brangham: robin raphel, can the u.s. government put pressure on both the taliban and the afghan government so the two sides can actually meet? >> i think eventually, yes, but i believe that in the firsstt ce there has to be a dialogue between the taliban and the u.s. government that gs a bit further than it's gone thus far. but eventually, clearly, the afghan -- the taliban have to talk to the afghan government and other players in the region are going to need to be brought in to whatever settlement i finally agreed. >> brangham: i assume that means including pakistan.

>> that does include pakista >> brangham: is pakistan willing to do that? is i believe so. i think pn wants stability in afghanistan, contrary to the ey'rethat you hear, oh, just trying to sow chaos. no. they want e ability. but estion is on what terms. >> brangham: barney rubin, if pakistan wants stability and the u.s. and the taliban and the afghan government all want stability, does that mean there's momentum? >> there is a momenoum w because for the first time in my memory all the parties are sayinghey wanta negotiated settlement. but stability is a vacuous term. meansne wants peace if it that they're in charge of it. so right nowth e's a lack of clarity about whether the unitet es' military forces will stay after the peace or whether they're going as a prondition for it, over whether the taliban will be negotiating the ter as being integrated into the current afghan government system or are -- or whether that system

will be replaced with a new system that will be negotiad among afghans. it's extremely difficult to actually put all these thingnds togetherake them work. as i said, there's morea determinatio focus on the idea of a political settlement now than i've seen before. so let's not try to predict the future. let's get to work. >> brangham: barney rubin, robin raphel, thanks very much. >> you're welcome. >> branghatay with us. coming up on the newshour: the devos agen. how the sretary of education views for-profit schools. and, a "brief but eccular" take on the importance of traveling abroad. now, to another story about paextreme weather and its . wildfires have plagued northern california andhe pacific northwest this year. in california alone, some 6,400 fires burned nearly 1.5 million acres.

mo destroy wildlands, but, as special correspondent cat wise reports, some urban areas are increasingly under threat. it's not only from the flames, as researchers are trying understand the risks from all that smoke and ash.>> eporter: last october, this was santa rosa california's coffey park neighborhood. today, nearly a year later, it looks like this. crews of busy construction workers ardie rebu hundreds of homes. nail by nail, communities around the region are rising from the ash-- but there are questions about what was in that ash, and in the a above, that could impact residents long after the rebuilding is done. on a recent morning, air pollution scientist keith bein drove through the streets of coffey park hauling two small electric vehicles and some equipment he hopes will help him eventually answer some of those questions. these mecedes smart e.v.s are a ketepart of a prototype sys

bein has designed to get better air quality information to the public in the aftermatof a wildfirmre. think staser, but instead of looking at tornadoes, he's chasing wildfirsmoke. >> i call this the rapid response mile research unit. we can deploy this thing at the drop of a hat, and we can go anywhere we want t there doesn't have to be power. >> reporter: each vehicle can run his sophisticated air sampling equipment for 18 hou. >> i'm going to flip a switch on, and there it goes. >> reporter: bein is part of a university of california at davis collaborative research project, looking at the short- ossible long-term health impacts from the north bay wildfires. thstudy is funded by the national institutes of health, which is also a newshour funder. after spending several days sampling in redding at the carr fire, he brought his mobile lab to santa rosa to see what might still be lingering in the air. >> the wildfires that i sampled, from napa and sonoma, were this

off-white, tan-ish color, that i'd never, ever seen before. whenouave new situations like this, these urban wildf, ires-- ny consumer product, cars, paint, cleaners, construction materials, you name it, it's all going up in flames. then, those emissions are going to be very different, both ally and most likely toxicologically, compared to what we'd normally study as a very isoled wildfire. >> reporter: his samples will be tested back in a lab for toxins like metals and organic compounds from productlike pesticides, but eventually he wants to provide that kind of information in real time to residents. ildfire smoke is known to cause a host of health issues, and a growing body of research suggests it may contribute to thousands of premature deaths annually. but scientists fear those health impacts may be compounded if the

smoke is re toxic. >> okay, this is going to be a great room, kitchen right here. >> reporter: jeff okrepkie lost the coffey park home he and his family had been renting for five years before the fires. he's eager to return and move on, but he's still thinking about those immediate days after the fires. >> the first time we came back, stuff was still smoldering, stuff was still warm. then it starts to kind of sink in. i spent like eight hours on that prerty, just kicking up ash. s that going to do to me you know? >> reporter: he's also concerned about his young family's health. jdaust three after the fires, he and his wife stephanie learned she was pregnant. >> at first, i didn't bother putting on the mask, because i dgnidn't know i was pt. but after the fact, every time i stepped out i had to put on a mask. i don't think it filters 100% of all the particles that are out there in the air. >er> reportbaby quinn is now s she's thriving, but her parents are wonderingf her exposure in uretero to wildfi contaminants may have an impact down the road.

that's a question also on the of two u.c. davis publi health researchers. >> hi, come in. >> report: rebecca schmidt and mckenzie oliver are enrolling women, like stephanie, who were pregnant during or after the fires, in a study. they're collecting bio-specimens like cheek swabs, blood, breast milk, placentas, and hair to assess toxins the women and their babies may have been exposed to. >> what we've seen is that people are still having symptoms from this fire almost a year later. >> reporter: rebecca schmidt is the study's principal investigator. she's also involved in a larger general health survey with about 2,000 participants. >> as these fires become more common and more likely to hit urban areas, we just need t know, what are the best actions to take to reduce some of the risks for long-term and short- tmperm healthts? so, things like, when do we need to evacuate them. >> repo is one byproduct of wildfires.

another is ash. early two million tons of debris, from four counties, was cleared by contractors for the army corps of engineers. but many areas remain untouched. >> we had a sense of potential hazards that could be in the fire debris, and that informed many of our actions. >> reporter: dr. karen holbrook works with the sonoma county deparent of health. despite the enormity of the disaster, she says the department acted quickly to pherotectublic. she believes there should be on-going studies of health impacts, but she's not worried. > my sense is that over the lonnterm, this level of conc for a broad toxicity is overstated. i live here, i'm feeling comfortable about it. there were some that went up

into the air, and settled down, nd it is going to work its way in, but i don't believe-- truly, i don't believe that it's at a level where it's going to cause harm over the long-term. >> reporter: the county health department did not collect ash samples, but another team of davis scientists did. prr ofesm young and grad student gabby black are currently testing samples from both wildland areas and former homes that black collected last fall in her native sonoma. the results so far show a big difference between the two. >> we see thousands of compounds in thhousehold samples that w don't see in wildland samples. the vast majority of those, we cannot yet say what they are, and we can't say what their toxicity is. many of them are not necessarily a cause for concern. t diversity of organic ofemicals our body is designed

to deal with a lohat. the problem is it doesn't deal with all of i >> reporter: of all the threats to public health now being studied, one becamemmediately clear after the fires: contaminated water. in santa rosa's fountaingrove neighborhood, benzene and other chemicals from melted plastic pipes leached into the waters upply. >> it really s not something hat had ever been considered, or found to be an issue following a fire like this. >> reporter: bennett hornstein is the director of santa rosa water. >> and as these homes, unfortunately, burned, the plastic burned and gave off chemicals. and these are chemicals you woun't want in a drinking water system. and that happened, also coincidentally, with losing water pressure, and that allowed this contaminated water in the homes to come deep into our water distribution system. >th> reporter: water district has been replacing damaged service lines about 400 sites with safer, but more expensive, copper piping.

250,000 gallons of water a week are now being flushed through yshem to clear the chemicals, and water testing is happening regularly.pa back in coffe, jeff okrepkie sa the recovery of his community will continue long after the last house is rebuilt. >> we are going to , unfortunately, the poster child for fire recovery on a large scale. we're already seeing it with what happened in redding. people are coming to us, and like, where areou guys a year ut? we need to be the ones that are at the forefront of attacking these and making sure we have answers. >> reporter: okrepkie hopes to be in his new home by next spring. u.c. davis researchers hope to start releasing some of their results later this year. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in santa rosa, california.

>> brangham: she doesn't necess marily attract h national attention as other members of the president's cabinet, but education secretary betsy devos has been busy. throughout the summer, her department has been taking a very diffepproach toward for-profit colleges, compared to her predecessor. that sector of higher education has been unr especially harsh scrutiny in recent years. those changes are the focus of our "making the grade" segment with amna nawaz tonight, and part of our periodic look at the education secretary's agenda. >> nawaz: for many years, the for-profit college sector boomed, eventually reaching eofnrollmenwo million nationwide. but complaints mounted about some players in tt industry, nd the obama administration cracked down on them, closing dprown two major foit chains. the administration also imposed new regulations that provide more forgiveness for student debt. education secretary betsy devos

has announced se major roll backs on that front. anya kamanetz watches this for pr, and joins me now. anya, welcome to the newshour. i want to ask you about a couple of specific changes that hd e been propo the education secretary, one about student debt forgiveness. now, previously under t oba administration, if you attended a for-profit school and that school was shut down o penalized for defrauding students, how easy was it to have your loans forgiven, and what is different now? >> so the rulero iced under obama was called "borrower defensto repayment." basically they were clarifying how a student who had gone to o of these colleges who had been defrauded could get their money back. they would have to... they wouldn't automatically get their money back. they would have to go through this process. what's happened under devos is there are still tens of thousands of claims penng from people who went to i.t.t technical institute as well as

other colleges tha were sh down. devos has says she's going to grant only partial relief ina many circumces, and, in fact, there is a new report from the a.p. that has shown that ine the firstw months of this program under devos, they've only forgivenfully only 1,000 people, and that's out of tens of thousands that have petitioned. so they are trying to match up your income with the amount ofe back, which is a principle that seems to be not relevantto ome student advocates. they say, look, if your college defrauded you, itoesn't matter how you're doing financially now. the point is you didn't get what you werpromised. >> nawaz: previously you were able to receive relief as part of a group. is that difference now? >> right. so borrow defense to r was originally meant to something students could achieve in batches and thclaims could be processed in batches by the educdepartment. devos has also instituted this idea of going case by case. you have no right to

representation as a student who has been defrauded. so many very poor people, vetera, working parents, and they're trying to petition, and they have high burdens of proofs to mee well as this personal information about their income. >> nawaz: okay. there was a another rule about gainful employment. this goes back the regulatons established in 2014. there was some accountability added to the emsy tray tracked and basically . blished data that said, if studentsw many of your students are unable to pay back the loans that they took out to attend your school and then people could publicly sue those member schools with bad numbers. they are penalized. how would this administration chan that rule? >> gainful employment was a necall specifically targe the for-profit college industry. as you mentioned, this rule would not only publish schools that did a bad job kind of putting their students into gainful employment, but it would eventually penalize those colleges with easing access to

federal student aid. der devos theyre proposing to take the teeth out of that. so they're still going to publish the information, including performance by program of schools in federal, in the federal college scorecard, but they are not goi to have any consequences for colleges necessarily that are doing such dentsr job of placing s in gainful employment after they leave. >> nawaz: anya, we're talking of changes proposed by the utdepartment of education, want to ask you about another federal agency, the consumer financial protection bureau. man was the student loan watchdog who resigned in proteat uple weeks ago is. that related to any of these changes at all? >> it is, because the student loan industry is a major, major part ooverall consumer finance industry. and it ismeverseen in ense by the education department, but as we've seen, there have been udny people from the nt loan industry as well as the for-profit college indusn y that have bstalled into the education department under betsy

devos, even if that weren't true, the education department essentially collecting revenue from the student loan business, and so the point made by others who are consumer advocates is t there really needs to be another regulatory boss on the job that the consumer financial protection agency, the consumer financial ptection bureau has fulfilled a very important role in oversee ing, you know, jor amount of student loan debt. $1.5 trillion. without the true commitment toud helping ts and having students' backs, this person resigning really felt like they weren't being able to do their job. >> nawaz: anya, very quickly in a few second, what do you think is the overall impac on students as a result of these changes? >> well, you know, it is caveat esmor -- emptor more an ever before. for-profit colleges are still losing enroll. , but it's incumbent on each

individual to do their own research before signing up for any program. >> nawaz: anya kamanetz of npr, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> brangham:we turn to another installment of our weekly "brief but spectacular" series, where ask people about their passions. abby falik is the founder and c.e.o. of global citizen year, a non-profit in oakland, california that recrts and trains a diverse group of american high school students to work abroad before they head off to college. >> when i graduated from high schools exhausted. i was like one of those excellent sheep. i was really good at playing the ool" game. i was good at what i was doing, but i was hungryor the "why." i called the peace corps headquarters in washington, d.c. and i said, "hey, here i am. will you take me now?" they said, "little girl, go to college. we'll see you in four years." and i remember how frustrating it was when i was 18, to have enthusiasm and time, and an

interest in doing something outside of my comfort zone, but not being able to find a way >> the pressures on today's high school students is unprecedented. the orientation around getting into a selective college means that perfect records are valued mon authentic exploration, risk-taking, failure, reflection. so it's really hard to get out of high schoay and actually know what you genuinely care about. and when kids get to college, what we're seeing cord levels of stress and anxiety. we see that a third of college freshmene on't cck for a second year, and on average, kids are taking six years to get through for colleges. what happens when you take a young personut of their comfort zone and out, away from the people who've defined who they are? the social media profile they've invent expectations that their family and community might have for them?

that removal from that context forces you to see yourself in a completely new light. we worked with a dean at tufts univ who likes to say, "well, everyone takes a gap year. it's called freshman year." it's kind of funny, and it's kind of not, because somebody's making the biggest single investment in th young person's education, whether it is a parent, or the government through some kind of pell grt or federal loan. and the idea that we would waste that precious learning global citizen year experience is a deep community immersion. you live with a host family. you work as what we call an apprentice, supporting a local project. 95% of our alums are in college and on track to te in four years or less, and that same percentage holds for the proportion of our kids who are low income. colleges love to brag about the numbers of kids who are studying abroad and that's definitely on rise, but when you actually look at the data, what we're seeing is that the vast majority of kids go to stern europe, live with other americans, often speaking english. we want young people to be

humbled, to sit with the discomfort of not yet being able to speak to people in their own language, to recognize that emthey're not there to pro solve-- they're there to explore with the local solutions might tually be. my name is abby falik. and this is my "brief but spectacular" take on png a new generation of leaders. >> brangham: you can find n ditional episodes of "brief but spectacular"r website, www.pbs.org/newshour/brief later tonight on pbs, "frontline" anpro-publica present a film about one american city that has yet to recover from the 2008 financial crisis. "left behirica" chronicles the lives and struggles of the working poor in dayton, ohio, a city that once had a booming aviation and automotive industry. but businesses have now faded, leaving former workers struggling to meet even basic needs. st. vincent de paul's is one of the dozens of charitable food pantries serving the dayton area. >> i got 49.

a lot further than i thawing i would be. usually this far down i'm 70 80. >> brangham: last year they gave out groceries more than 31,000 times. >> you never know what's going on. 49. >> number 39. your food is ready. please meet your shopper at the door. number 39. >> the majority of people who come to our pantry wk. we actually have a significant number that come here. they'll give me a ticket ansa they'l i have to be at work at 10:00 or 9:30, please make sure i get my opfood. who are coming are people who will probably never recover from the great cession. we have families waterg down soup and moms trying to figure out how the make a box of macd eese last for two days. >> are you tired? you're being really good. >> we visit homes with in food in the cupboards at a there is nothing. >> number 46, your food is ready. will you meet your shopper at

the door. >> i cannot overstate the change that happened in 2008 and from there on. it was a r game changer fo. people who have never needed help came to us, and they ntinue to, and we still see the impact from that event, jobs have come back, but it's not the kind of jobs we lost. people who are making a good middle class income are now making $10 or12. people lost half of their pensions. people did everything they were supposed to do, and it didn't work. >> you're bagging up here today? >> yes, ma'am. >> okay. you can head this way. all i've seen the need increase and increase and increase. we used to serve 150 families. we're now serving 350 and up. all i see is the need going up and up and up. >> there you go. >> thank you. o y. wow. okay. hold on. >> a lot of the jobs here in dayton are minimum wage. no benefits. so by the time they provide all

that to their family, groceries are the last on the list, so they need to come here. >> cupcake. >> look, they have cupcakes right here. look at that. >> i don't like to see kids coming here with their parents. it really bothers me.he it b me to see children here because i know they'll be here 20 years from now with their kids. >> brangham: "frontline" airs tonight on most pbs stations. on the newshour online right w, there's more on our t story of the day, hurricane florence. ue take a deeper look at the unonditions that have powered the storm, and what threat it could pose. that's on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, hurricane hunters. miles o'brien flies with researchers into the eye of hurricane florence. and, our team will be on the ground in rth carolina with the latest. i'm william brangham. join us online, and again here tomorrow. for all of us at ther, pbs newshou thank you, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs

bwshour has been provided by: nsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the ford foundation. working with visionan the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, docratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.

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♪ >> hello, everyone, d welcome to our new hour-long show, "amanpour & co."s and hereat's coming up tonight. >> $3.2 trillion. >> as sources in the trump adnistration go public with their account of a presidency off the rails, i ask kellyanne conway,ow the most pful woman in the trump administration, "is the white houser undeege?" then, to one of the most powerful women on the world stage -- as head of the international monetary fund, christine lagarde is at the helm of the global economy and in the cross hairs of trump's war on trade. also ahead, the alvin ailey dance theater, born out of the civil rights movement, celebrating the african-american experience for 60 years now. our hari sreenivasan sits down with the artistic director, robert battle. ♪