captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> brangham: good evening. i'm william brangham. judy woodruff is off today. on the newshour tonight: more than a million and ohalf people aered to evacuate the carolinas ahead of potentially catastrophic flooding and storm dage 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. strategy stands. and, lingering concerns. scientists deploy new technology to study the impact of inhaling smoke from the wildfires in the west. >> as these fires become morend commonore likely to hit urban areas, we just need to know, what are the best actions to take to reduce some of the risks for long-term and short-s term health im >> brangham: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> brangham: hurricane florenceb iseing called "a monster" tonight, and it's still hundreds of miles off ta carolinas' st. 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 ceused to storms, but flor could be the strongest to hit north carolina since 1954. >> we've never had a hurricane

like this that's come to wrightsville beach. this is a four.en there's hrees and twos, but never anything this strong, so we're going to be safe. >> reporter: the hurricane is a path to make landfall in southeastern north carolina late thursday or early friday. today, governor roy coop ordered evacuations of all the onate's barrier islands: >> this storm is aer. it's big, and it's vicious. it is an extremely danrous, life-threatening, historic hurricane. r even if you'den out storms before, this one is different. don't bet your life on riding out a monster. >> reporter: in south carolina, mandatory evacuations began at midday for the entire coast, affecting one million people. >> this one looks a little uglier than other ones. rather be safe than sorry. >> reporter: the mass evacuation is a mammoth undertaking, but governor henry mcmaster says it's the only choice. >> we are in a very deadly and important game of cheswith

hurricane florence, and what we do-- what team south carolinag, do-- is doins staying one step ahead. >> reporter: meanwhile, supplies at grocery stores and hardware stores are already dwindling, as people stock u and in places like charleston, south carolina, residents are readying sandbags for heavyil flooding, food banks are packing non-perishables for potential power outages. the immense size of hurricane florence-- and up to 30 inches of rain-- an the power losses and flooding will be felt over several states. ofcials 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 our coast. and i want to 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 days. it will take us a go amount of time to do the full recovery. >> reporter: president trump has now declared states of emergency in the carolinas and virginia,ic

in antipation of heavy damagedi and fl. >> brangham: p.j. tobis me now. p.j., i understand you are on wrightsville beach, north 0carolina, 50 oriles from the south carolina border that. storm is coming in from behindan you, the oe can see there. can you give us a sense, how are officials responding? >> absolutely. local officials that we spoke with today aronveryrned about the impact of what they say could be catastrophic storm coming their way. one city manager told us that in 20 years of government service working in communities up and down the carolina coast, he' never seen a storm of this size or of this strength. and so they're also takg remarkable steps in terms of preparation, voluntary evacuation order was sent out this weekend. that becomes mandatory tomorrow pin the interim, all e.m.s., police, and fire personnel asi well as tr vehicles are being proved off of this barrier island aan to the mai right

over there. that's very unusual. >> brangham: so is the sense that they're getting that the storm surge is going to be so intense that it's going to scrape that island clean? >> w that's exactlyt their worst fears are, yes. they say after 8:00 p.m. tomorrow, after this time, once bee winds start blowing above 50mph, yoer be someplace safe, because the police and fire rescue are notin to be able to come help you. >> brangham: how about the people who will river there? are ... 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 s behindfers in the wave e and some cafeés and bars were open this afternoobut-everyone s deadly serious about getting off this island by the curfew tomorrow. folks who lived here f 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 tegoryh the last hurricane to come through here, hazel in the 1950s, she told me of destructionike she'd never seen before and there were boats filed 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 tatlanta. >> brangham: all right, p.j. tobia, thanks so much. now, let's focus more on the strength of th storm, and the worries over possible flooding from its rainfall.s ken grahame director of the national hurricane center. i spoke to him a short time ago from the center's headquarters in miami. ken graham, thank you for being here. i know you've recently updated the forecast for this storm. can you just give our viewers a sense of how massive hurricane florence is rightow? >> well, sometimes we run through those numbers. it's really toh to tell exactly how big. so i think the best way to do ehat is coming over here to th satellite you draw a circle around what we

have hurricane florence. you draw an equal circle over the southeastern unitetes. you can see it covers states. i mean, this is gea very l 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 comests to imp >> brangham: right now, though, that path that's currently projected takes the storm directly into south carolina, is that still correct? >> yeah, thctat is still cor 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. hat's where we think the highest chanceof those alrricane-force winds, bas the warning meaning that could occur in the next 36 hours. >> brangham: what's your se se of the sizof the storm surge residents there could be facing. >> that's going to be a significant issue. 50% of the fatalities in the tropical systems is the storm surge. we talk a lot of time talkingth

abouwater. we have a storm surge warnings of portions of south carolina up arrough north carolina. any one of thoss could see greater than three foot of storm surge. when you narrow it down, you start looking into the details, you start to surface some ofe thgher values where it's not just these barrier islands. you get water surfacing over those barrier islands and itks trnto these areas. this is an area we're particularly concerned with looking at the areas wher normally the water flows out. storm surge can push that water in. and wherehat water gets piled up, we are looking at those values get to 10 to 13 feet. staggering amount of storm surge, very life-threatening. that's something we'dere nitely focused on. >> brangham: separate from potential impacts on the coast, i know projections are this storm could mo inland and stall, which could dump historic amounts of rain. is that still your forecast? >> it is. we have a brand-new map reall just created. we just got this from our weather prediction ceheer. look at values. 20 inches of rain possible in

itis circle, even outside of 15 to 20 inches of rainfall, not just along the coast.'s eally important for everyone to realize not just coastal. but look at this, 10 to 15, even 15 to 20 well inland in virginia and north carolina. so this isn't just a coastal issue withl the rainf. you can have high... a lot of rainfall totals,aryland and delaware, and if you talk about the terrain in some of these areas, the rainfall totals with the terrain dangerous, catastrophic flash flooding, potentially in some oese areas. that's why we spent so much time talking about the rainfall. because the flash flooding could lead the fatalities. we need to berepared for that. >> brangham: is there anything any potential in the forecast that could change whether or not the storm does, in fact, stl once it's come inland? >> i think at this point really what we got to focus o are those impact, because we... there's been a lot of bolk 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. ke no matter where we ma

landfall along the coast here, you're still going to have those impacts because either way it s will out. so think about that. all the wane, the storm surge, and the other factor here, still a tropical storm over north carolin and that'sn saturday, and then by sunday, still with the depression in portions of western north carolina, that means saturated soil with that kin of wind, you're going to knock down a lot of trees and have significant power outages, some lasting quite a long time. >> brau'gham: i know been doing this for a long time. how does this, when you lookst ically, 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. and really what we try to gerdt the ut is not to compare those storms. every one of them are so different. when we start looking ator hi somebody might say, it didn't happen to me then and it could this time. we try not to compare those storms because people start looking at the category. that's why we spend so much time here at the hurricane center

talking about the impact and the rainfall and the storm the wind.d pretty his or the and really looking at a very dangerous, catastrophic situation. preparedness is everything. >> brangf m: ken graham oe national hurricane center, thanks very much. >> you bet. >> brangham: this afternoon, president trump said the federal government is ready and "totally prepared" to deal wi hurricane. in his remarks, the president also called the federal reonse to hurricane maria in puerto rico "incredibly successful." but the administraheon's response has been heavily criticized from many quarters. the puerto rican government's official dea toll from that storm and its aftermath is now estimated to be as high as nearly 3,000 people.a ngressional 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.ls in new york, bang at the exact moment thathe first jetliner crashed into the world trade center tower.

in shanksville, pennsylvania, president ump joined in honoring those who fought the hijackers of their jet, before it plunged into a field. >> a what your loved ones did for all of us.il weremember that free people are never at the mercy of evil.y our dest always in our hands. >> brangham: a separate service nts held at the pentagon, with vice presiike pence honoring the 184 people who died there. in all, nearly 3,000 people-- and the 19 hijackers-- were killed on 9/11. the international crinal court vowed today to continue its work undeterred, thisespite being condemned by the united states. on monday, u.s. national serity adviser john bolton called the i.c.c. "illegitimate." he threatenesanctions if the court tries to prosecute american troops or agents for alleged war crimes in afghanistan.ad the s of china and russia

today pledged a "strategic partnership" in the face of rising antagonism wi united states. china's xi jinping and russia'st vladimir putinn the russian city of vladivostok, near the chinese border. 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 and russia both bear the responsibilities of maintainin world peace and stability. under the current background of increasing changes in international structure and growing instability and uncertainty, it isore important for china and russia to join our hands in maintaining international justice and fairness. >> brangham: the meeting coincided with joint chinese-ia run military exercises in pt the largest in russia since the fall of the soviet union, and involved some 300,000 troops. and wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 114 points to close at 25,971.

athe nasdaq rose 48 point the s&p 500 added 10. still to come on theewshour: the trump administration's latest step to roll back efforts to fight climate change.ta where things snd in afghanistan, 17 years after the 9/11 attacks. health risks, as a result of the wildfires out west. and much more. >> brangham: the trump administration has taken its third major step to roll back the regulations that are meant to curb the greenhouse gasses that cause global warming and climatchange. the environmental protection agency today issued new rules making it sier for oil and gas companies to release methane, which is a particularly potent greenhouse ga coral davenport has been covering this story for the "new york times." >> great to be with you. >> brangham: so the obama

administration, the earlier administration had said to oil and gas companies, monitor the methane that's leaking out of your operations andat do ou can to cap it. before we talk about what the trump administration has done, remind us, why do we care about methane? >> usually when yotalk about the greenhouse gasses that warm the planet,ou think about carbon dioxide, the stuff that comes from driving cars, burning coal-fired power plants. methane doesn't get much attention. it's only about 9% of the human cause of greenhouse it matters a lot because methane is 25% mo powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping that heat. so there's a lot less o it, it's not caused by as many sectces of the economy, but it gets out there, it's a really potentriver of greenhouse gas warming. it's sorof a super dwrows gas. it's a big deal. >> brangham: what did the trump administration do today >>o specifically they went

back to that 2016 obama-era regulation on methane emissionsy e mainly leaked from oil and gas drilling wells. the obama regulations said that oil and gasompanies have to put in place a strict schedu a of monitorinnd detecting these leaks and then said, once you detect ay leak, ou 30 days to 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 stretched out the timetable foasmonitoring in some to as long as two years. gin how potent methane is, how much ht it traps, that can add up to a lot more powerful warming. >> woodruff: as you retorted in your, the energy industry said that the obama rules were way too burdensome, red tape, the incarnation of red

tape i believe someone said to you. hane said trapping this m is very difficult for them to do. how true is that? is it difficult to keep handle on these leaks? >> it's expensive, absolutely. e oil and ga industry complained, especially, youkn , so many oil and gas operations are out in rete, difficult-to-access locations, t tting out there every six months, getting othere frequently, they needed to hire more people, they needed to spend more money environmentalists, who pushed for these regulations, said, look, this is also an industry, you know, that clocks in billions of dollars in profitsal an, so, you know, that's a significant bite, but it doesn't put any company at risk. >> brangham: right.th 're arguing the benefit is much greater. >> yes. >> brangham: lastly, this coming on the heels of the trump administration changing auto emissions standards, the rules on coal-fired power plants. this has been the

administration's mantra. president trump stepped away from the pars cord. he said climate change is a hoax. this should not be a surprise to anyone, right? >> it's not surprising that the trump administration is going after another set of climate .ange regulatio president trump campaigned on this. he specifically campaigned heon helpingoil and gas industry. what is surprising and interesting is how effectively and efficiently they're going ese regulatory rolebacks. so much of this administration's policy agenda is sort of dysfunctional or chaotic. so many proposals have kind of flailed or are still sort of dysfunctnal or in chaos, whereas the move to roll backes regulations, particularly on climate change, are being done correctly, they're going through the right channels. they'll be challenged in court, but it's really interting to e that quietly and under the radar, while the president himself seems mainly focused on the russia investigation, this

piece of the policy agenda isgi ch along and making a difference. >> brangham: coral davenport of the "new york times," thank you so much. >> great to be with you. >> brangham: less tn a month after the 9/11 attacks, the united states invaded afghanistan to hunt al qaeda, and to remove the government of their taliban sponsors. 17 years later, the u.s. and its allies remain there, fighting alongside afghan forces agnst a strong taliban insurgency. our nick schifrin lived in afghistan for more than three years, and reports now on where things stand in america's longest war. >> schifrin: in eastern afghanistan this morning, the wounded arrived, bac-back, and kept coming. for hours, stretcher after stretcher. they'd been protesting in a group when a suicide bomber blew himself up. more than 150 casualties. 17 years after 9/11, afghanistan has never been more dangerous for civilians. t

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. the current u.s. strategy is for 14,000 tops to work with lower-level afghan units to do the vast majority of the fighting. the idea is to have afghan soldiers increase pressure on the taliban and hopefully compel them to negotiate, as president trump said last august. >> aftern effective military effort, perhaps it will be possible to have a political settlement that includes el afghanistan.taliban in but nobody knows if or when that will ever happen. >> schifrin: but u.s. commanders admit th and want the taliban to talk, as outgoing commander general john nicholson said last 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 holymo h of ramadan, the taliban and government reached a three-day cease-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 had some success. in may 2016, the taliban controlled 9% of the country, and contested 25%. in may 2017, the taliban controlled 13%, d contested 30%. and in may 2018, the taliban controlled 14% of the country, in red, and contested 30%, in yellow. the government controlled only 56%, in the afghan government is

spite the ongoing violence, there has been some progress, including in health care. in 2005, the mortality rate for children under five was 110 deaths per 1,000. by 2010, that rate dropped to 90 per 1,000. and in 2016, it droppen, to 70 per 1,000. progress in education has been en more dramatic. in 2002, one million children attended school-- almost all boys. today, more than 9.2 million arn lled in school, including 3.5 million girls. but the u.n. says nearly half of children are out of school, and afghanistan suffers from brain drain, especially among the young-- like these refugees, fleeing by foot to turkey, after deciding afghanistan wasn't safe. let's take a broader look now at the afghan war and prospects for peace, with barnett rubin. he served in the obama adnistration's state department, and was one of the originators of their plan to start negotiat taliban.the and, ambassador robin raphel had nearly 40-year career in the foreign service, including as the assistant secretary of state for south asia.

she's now a senior associate at the center for strategic and international studies, and has been active in efforts toe prompolitical track in afghanistan. 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 wouldn't say they're isolated. i think the most important metric of progress now is that afghanistan's connto the world. there's social media. there's internet and so on and so forth. as many people indicate, there are a lot of improvements and social indicators, health, education, longevity, literacy, so on and so forth. you have a new generation of yog people in afghanistan that want to stay and help develop the country in a more progressive way. but, of course, there's also insecurity as we've seen today, and previously. there's a war economy that's not

sustainable. there's corruption.d, f course, much of the progress is confined to kabul and the urban areas. >> brangham: barney a bin, there imore educated population in afghanistan, a younger population. there'slso more afghan institutions today than there were many years ago, right? >> yes. it's hard for people to understand justst how yed and isolated afghanistan was 17 years ago. the airport didn't even have ina functi conveyor belt. now, you know, it has a president, a parliament, courts, police, an army functioning airport, internet, phones, schools, educational system, health system, and there are vast things wrong with all of these thieys, but exist, and it's becomeore of a normal country in that respect. but it's still very abnormal in that thousands of people are being killed in horrible ways every year a even every month.

>> brangham: that violence continues. the war is a steal mat commanders say. do you believe that? >> i do. i think taliban realize they can't force thenternational forces out, and i think the international forces and our commanders realize wt win in a traditional sense. >> brangham: barney rubin, is part of the reason that the u.s. nly't win, so to speak, not because of actual military abilities on the ground, but also the capacity of the afghan government and the capacity of the afghan security forces? >> yes, because it's misading a way to talk about this as a war and to refer to it in military terms. it's a political struggle. it'sheot between afghan army and the taliban fighters and th. ilitary. it's between the u.s. government, the afgan government, and the taliban, which is political organizationn the re for the weakness compared to the huge amount of

resources that we have to put into it has to do with the litical leadership, the will be of consensus and problems of legitimacy of the government and of lack of clarity of u.s. policy. >> brangham: the clarity of u.s. policy has been prlem, robin raphel, for a long time, but is there clarity onne thing, and this is willingness to talk with the taliban and willingness to pursue a political solution? >> i think today now there is a consensus to start talks, not negotiations, talks, with the taliban.s ther 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 lagged way behind the military track and that it was time to put some actions behind 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,uc how 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 talibanle are, for exao, meet the afghanistan government, something that's important if these talks are going to succeed, right? >> yes. ultimately the question is posed in a kind of simple way, which is: do both sides,ciesly do the taliban want a negotiated settlement, or do they want to keepiging. actually, everyone wants a negotiated settlement th is advantageous to them, but the reason the talks have not started is because they cannot agree about who are the relevant parties. the taliban wats to talk to the united states directly. the afghan government wants to talk to the taliban, and the afghanistan government wants to talk to pakistan, which is packing thne taliban,heir view. so we've got a bunch of talks

about how negotiations are evennially to be ord. at this point there is a stalemate not just military, flu isolitical stalemate over the question of whether talks are going to be led by th afghan government or if they will be in some 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, bute eve that in the first instance there has to be a dialogue between the talibanand the u.s. government that goes a bit further than it's gone thus far. but eventually, clearly, the afghan -- the talibae to talk to the afghan government and other players in the region are goin to need to be brought in to whatever settlement is finally agreed. >> brangham: i assume that means including pakistan. >> that does include pakistan.

>> brangham: is pakistan willing o do that? >> i believe so. i think pakistan wants stability in afghanistan, contrary to hae view you hear, oh, they're just trying to sow chaos. no. w tht stability. but the question 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 momentum now myause for the first time in memory all the parties are saying they want a negotiated se slement. butbility is a vacuous term. everyone wants peace if it meant thy're in charge of it. so right nowac there's a lof clarity about whether the united states' military forces will stay after the peace or whether they're going as a precondition for it, over whether thealiban will be negotiating the terms 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 negotiated ong afghans. it's extremely difficult to actually put all these things together and make them work. as i said, there's more dehermination and focus on idea of a political settlement now than i've seen before. so let's not try to predict the future. lerks get to wo. >> brangham: barney rubin, robin raphel, thanks very much. >> you're welcome. >> brangham: stay with us. coming up the devos agenda. how the secretary of education views for-prit schools. and, a "brief but spectacular" take on the importance of traveling abroad. now, to another story about extreme weatheand its impact. wildfires have plagued northern california and the pacific northwest this year. in california alone, some 6,400e burned nearly 1.5 million acres. most 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 ting understand the risks from all that smoke and ash. >> reporter: last october, this was santa srosa california' coffey park neighborhood. today, nearly a year later, it looks like this. crews of busy construction e rebuilding hundred of homes. nail by nail, communities around the region are rising from te ash-- but the questions about what was in that ash, and in the air above, that could impact resen long after the rebuilding is done. on a recent morning, air pollution ientist keith bein drove through the streets of coffey park hauling two small electric v ehicles and some equipment he hopes will help him eventually answer some of those estions. these mercedes smart e.v.s are a key part of a protype system bein has designed to get better

air quality formation to the public in the aftermath of a wildfire. think stormchaser, but instead of looking at tornadoes, he's chasing wildfire smoke. >> i call this the rapid response mobile research u ct. deploy this thing at the drop of a hat, and we can go anywhere we want to.s there don't have to be power. >> reporter: each vehicle can run his sophisticated air sampling equipment for 18 hours. >> 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- term and possible long-term health impacts from the north bay wildfres. the study 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 bnever, ever seore. whensi you have new ations like this, these urban wildfires-- now, any consumer product, cars, paint, cleaners, construction materials, you name it, it's all goi up in flames. then, those emissions are going to be very differentboth chemially and most likely toxicologically, compared to w ahat we'd normally study very isolated wildfire. >> repter: his samples will be tested back in a lab for toxins like metals and organic compounds from products like pesticides, but eventually he wants to provide that kd of information in real time to residents. wildfire 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 more toxic.

>> okay, this is going to be a great room, kitchen right here. >> reporter: jeff okrepkie lost the coffey park home he and his famy 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 iin. spent like eight hours on that property, just kicking up ash. what's that goingo do to me, ou know? >> reporter: he's alsooncerned about his young family's health. j fust three days after theires, he and his wife stephanie learned she was pregnant. >> at f putting on the mask, because i didn't know i was pregnant. but after the fact, every time i d out i had to put on a mask. i don't think it filters 100% of all the particles te t are out th the air. >> reporter: baby quinn is now several months old. she's thriving, but her parents are wondering if her exposu in utes to wildfire contaminant may have an impact down the road. that's a question also on the

minds of two u.c. davis public health researchers. >> hi, come in. >> reporter: 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 mitolk, placentas, and hair assess toxins the women and their babies may have been e>>xposed to. hat 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 p,0ticipants. >> as these fires become more common and more likely to hit urban areas, we just need to know, what are the best actions to take to reduce some of the risks for lrm and short- term health impacts? so, things like, when do we need taco te them. >> reporter: smoke, of course, is one byproduct of wildfires. another is ash.

nearly two million tons of debri from four counties, was cleared by contractors for the army corps of engineers. but many ars remain untouched. e had a sense of potenti hazards that could be in the fde debris, and that infor many of our actions. >> reporter: . karen holbrook works with the sonoma county department of health. dheespitenormity of the disaster, she says the department acted quickly to p she believes there should be on-going studies of health impacts, but she's not worried. >> my sense is that over the long-term, this lfel of concern or a broad toxicity is overstated. i live here, i'm feeling comfortable about it. thomere werethat went up into the air, and settled down, and 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. prd ofessor tom young ad student gabby black are cntur testing samples from both wildland areas and former homes that black collected last fall in h native sonoma. he results so far show a big difference between the two. >co> we see thousands oounds in the household samples that we don't see in wildlanassamples. themajority of those, we cannot yet say what they are, and we can't say what their oxicity is. many of them are not necessarily a cause for concern. the diversity of organic chemicals our body is designed to deal wh a lot of that. the problem is it doesn't deal

with all of it. >> reporter: of all the threats to blic health now being studied, one became immediately clear after the fires: contaminated water. in santa rosa's fountaingrove nghborhood, benzene and other chemicals from melted plastic pipes leached into the water supply. >> it really was not something that had ever been considered, or found to be an issue followi 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 wn ouldn't wantdrinking water system. and that happened, also coincidentally, with losing water pressure, and that allowed tathis contaminated w in the homes to come deep into our water distribution system. >> ctporter: the water distri has been replacing damaged service lines at about 400 sites with safer, but more expensive, copper pipi. 250,000 gallons of water a week

are now being flushed through the system to cle chemicals, and water testing is happening regularly. back in coffey park, jeff okrepkie says the recovery of hueis community will contong after the last house is rebuilt. >> we are going to be, 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 are you guys a year out? we need to be the ones that are t the forefront of attacking these public health concerns, and making sure we have answers. >> reporter: okpkie 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 necessarily attract as much national attention as other mrsemf the president's cabinet, but education secretary betsy devos has been busy. tmmhroughout the , herep dtment has been taking a very different approach toward fororofit colleges, compared her predecessor. that sector of higher education has been under especiallyarsh scrutiny in recent years. those changes are the focus of our "making the grade" segment with amna nawazonight, and part of our periodic look at the education secretary's agenda. >or> nawaz:any years, the for-profit college sector boomed, eventually reaching nrollment of two million nationwide. but complaints mounted about some players in that industry, and the obama administration cracked down on them, closing down twmajor for-profit hains. the administration also imposed new regulations that provide more forgiveness fostudent debt. education secretary betsy devos has announced some major

roll backs on that front. anya kamanetz watches this for npr, and joins now. anya, welcome to the newshour. i want to ask you about a couple of specific changes that have been proposed by the education secretary, one about studenes debt forgivs. now, previously under the obama administration, if you attended a for-profit school andhat school was shut down or penalized for defraudingst ents, how easy was it to have your loans forgiven, and what different now? >> so the rule introduced under obama was called "borrower "efense to repayment. basically they were clarifying how a student who had gone to one of these colleges who had been defrauded could get their money back. they would have to... they wouldn't automatically irt t money back. they would have to go through this process. what's happened under devos is there are still tens of thousands of claims pending from people who went to i.t.t. technical institute as well as other colleges that were shdut

own. devos has says she's going to grant only partial relief in many circumstances, and, in fact, there is a new report fro p. that has shown that in the first few months of this program under devos, they've only forgiven fully only 1,000 people, and that's out of tens of thousands that haveti peed. so they are trying to match up your income with the amount of back, which is a principle that seems to be not relevant to some student advocates. they sa iy, look,f your college defrauded you, it doesn't matter how you're doing now.ially the point is you didn't get what you were promised. >> nawaz: previously you were able to receive relief as part of a group. is that difference now? >> right. so borrow defense to repayment was originally meant to something studenould achieve in batches and the claims could be processed in batches by the education department. devos has also instituted this idea of going case by case. you have no right to representation as a studen dwho has berauded.

so many very poor people, veterans, working parents, and they're trying to petition, andh they havh burdens of proof to meet as well as this personal informatn about their income. >> nawaz: okay. there was a another rule about gainful employment. this goes back the regulatis established in 2014. there was some accountability added to the system. tray tracked and basicallyta published hat said, if students... how 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 change that rule? nt was aul employme recall specifically targeting the for-profit college industry. as ytioned, this rule would not only publish schools that did a bad job kind o putting their students into gainful employment, but it would eventually penalize those colleges with easing access to

federal student aid. under devos they are proposing to take the teeth outf that. so they're still going to publish the information, including performance by program of schools in federal, in the federal coege scorecad, but they are not going to have any nsequences for colleges necessarily that are doing such a poor job of placing students in gainful employment after they leav >> nawaz: anya, we're talking of changes proposed by the education, but i want to ask you about another federal agency, the consumer financial protection bureau. man was the student loanog watcho resigned in protest a couple weeks ago is. that related to an changes at all? >> it is, because the student loan industry is a major, major part of the overall consumer finance industry. and it is overseen in some sense by the education department, but as we've seen, there have been many people fm the student loan industry as well as the for-profit college industry that have been installed 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 that there really needs to be another regulatory boss on the job thate consumer financial protection agency, the consumer financial protection bureau has fulfilled a very important role in overseeingyou know, a major amount of student loan debt. $1.5 trillion. thout the true commitment to helping students and having students' backs, this person resigning really felt like they weren't being able to do their : job. >> nawya, very quickly in a few second, what do you nhink is the overall impact o students as a result of these changes? >> well, you know, it is caveat esmor -- emptor more than ever before. for-profit colleges areill 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: now, we turn to another installment of our weekly "brief but spectacular" series, where we ask people about their passions. abby falik is the founder and c.e.o. of global citpren year, a noit in oakland, california that recruits and trains a diverse gro of american high school students to work abroad before they head off to college. >> when i graduated from high school, i was exhausted. i was like one of those excellent sheep. i was really good at playing the "school" game. i was good at what i was doing, but i was hungry for 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." tiand i remember how frust 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. >>ressures on today's high school students is unprecedented. the orien around getting into a selective college means that perfect records are valued more than authentic exploration, risk-taking, failure, reflection. so it's really hard to get out actually know what you genuinely care about. d when kids get to college, what we're seeing are record levels of stress and anxiety. we see that a third of college freshmen don't come back for a second year, and on average, kids are taking six years to get .through four-year colleg what happens when you take a young person out of their comfort zone and out, away from the people who've defined who they are? the social media profile they've invented for themsels, the expectations that their family and community might have for them? that removal from thatontext

forces you to see yourself ia completely new light. we worked with a dean at tufts university who liksay, "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 this young person's education, whether it is a parent, or the government through some kind of pell grant or federal loan. and the idea that we would waste that precious learning global c is a deep community immersion. you live with a host family. you work as what we call an entice, supporting a local project. 95% of our alums are in college rack to graduate in four years or less, and that same percentage holds for the proportion of our kids who are w income. colleges love to brag about the numbers of kids who are studying abroad and that's definitely on the rise, but when you actually look at the data, what we're seeing is that the vasrity of kids go to western europe, live with other americans, often speaking english. we want young people to be humbled, to sit with the

scomfort of not yet being able to speak to people in their own language, to recognize that they're not th solve-- they're there to explore with the local solutions might actually be. my name is abby falik. and this is my "brief but spectacular"ake on preparing a new generation of leaders. >> brangham: you can find additional episodes of "brief but sptacular" on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour/brief. later tonight , "frontline" and pro-publica present a film about one american city that has yet to recover from the 2008 financial crisis. cleft behind america" chro the lives and struggles of the working poor in dayton, ohio, a city tha had a booming aviation and automotive industry. but those businessesnow 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. >> got 49. a lot further than i thawing i

would be. usually this far down0 i'm 7or 80. >> brangham: last year th gave out groceries more than 31,000 times. >> you never know what's goin on. 49. >> number 39. your food is ready. please meet your shopper at the door. number 39. >> the majority ole who come to our pantry work. we actually have a significant number that come here. they'll give me a ticket and they'll say, i haveo be at work at 10:00 or 9:30, please make sure i get my food. people who are coming are people who will prably never recover from the great recession. we have families watering downnd soup oms trying to figure out how the make a box of mac and cheese las two days. >> are you tired? you're being really good. >> we visit homesod with in in the cupboards at all. there is nothing. >> number 46, your food is ady. will you meet your shopper at the door.

>> i cannotgeverstate the ch that happened in 2008 and from there on. it was a game changr for us. people who have never needed anlp came to us, and they continue to we still see the impact from that event, joba have come , but it's not the kind of jobs we lost. people who are making a good middle class income are now making $10 or $12. people lost half of their pensions. people did everything they were supposed to do, and it didn't work. >> you're baggg up here today? >> yes, ma'am. is okay. you can head th way. all i've seen isdhe n increase and increase and increase. we used to serve 150 families. 're now serving 350 and up. all i see is the need going up and up and up. >> there you go. >> thank you. >> okay. wow. hold on. >> a lot of the jobs here in dayton are minimum wage. benefits. so by the time they provide all that to their froamily,ries

are the last on the list, so they need to come here. >> cupke. >> look, they have cupcakes right here. look at that. >> i don't liko see kids coming here with their parents. it really bothers me. it bothers 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 now, there's more on our top story of the day, hurricane florence. we take a deeper look at the unique conditions that have powered the storm, and what threat it coul. 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 north carolina wh e latest. i'm william brangham. join us online, and again here tomorrow. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and see you soon. or >> major fundinghe pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. me financial services firm daymond >> the ford foon. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.g. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made

possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by

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♪ ♪ - this week, milk street is in taipei, taiwan. it's early evening i'm standing at chiang kai-shek square, renamed freedom square, and we're cooking wi just a wonderful cooking school teacher. she's been here for 40 years, her name is chuang pao-hua. she's been using the old taiwanese recipes and teachingachem to people whally want to go on to be professional chefs both here and in america. 's now, srought back fabulous old-style taiwanese recipes still made today. a beef noodle haup, you can findall over the city.