captioning sponsored b p newshourductions, llc oo >>uff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we are on the ground as the carolinas brace for hurricanflorence. then, we take to the sky miles o'brien flies with scientists into the eye of the storm to better understand destructive hurricanes. >> with this aircraft, being able to fly right through the storm, getting into the storm environment, actually sampling the atmosphere, not just looking at it from afar, you can't get that quality of datawhere else. >> woodruff: and campaigning on kavanaugh: abortion politics and the supreme court nomination become central issues in the race for an important u.s. senate seat in missouri. >> everybody goes, "oh she's trying to figurennut what the is for her politically." there is none. no matter what i do, there are twnsides to it.

>> woodruff: allt and morebs on tonight's pewshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson founda committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org.

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. itted to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. re information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. li woodruff: hurricane "florence" has ms of people across the southeastern u.s. asking tonight: which way willt go? the target area moved south and west today, and sustained winds dropped so, to 120 miles an hour. p.j.obia begins our coverage from wilmington, north carolinar >> rr: the storm's enormous mass is clear enough from space, but its shifting track also means growing uncertainty.

"florence" is now projected to slow near the north carolina- south carolina line, tme ashore on saturday. from thereit could turn south and west across south carolina. the changes put new areas in jeopardy from arat forecasters calling the "storm of a lifetime." federal emergency cynagement agfficials say this was the day to get out of harm's way. >> if you're in an area where you know it's going to flood, or if you're in a mandatory evacuation area, or if you justu don't feele home is safe, now is the time to evacuate. ma reporter: thousands heeded the warnings, anr highways filled up. that lefgas stations with shortages as drivers crowded in to buy what they could. in north carolina, buses ferried people from wilmington a other coastal towns to shelters in raleigh, some 150 miles inland. george alsberg is 103 years old. today was the first time he's evacuated for a hurricane.r >> i've ned an occasion to

think about it before. th time i think its obviou >> reporter: in south carobona, eastund lanes on interstate 26 were reversed, with all traffica moviy from the coast. wiose who stayed, spent more hours boarding uows and filling sandbags. but the mayoof mt. pleasant, uth carolina, near charleston, said there is only one way to be safe. >> when you choose to and get out of its way, you have more control over your destinyou than you do ifhoose to stay here. >> reporter: civilian and military leaders alike were gauging the potential of 30 inches of rain, hurricane-force winds and wer outages over wide areas. north carolina governor roy cooper warned the state is in for a sustained battering. >> plan to be without power for days. undersnd that the rain may last for days and not hours. and this may be a marathon and not a sprint. >> reporter: on the front lines, local officials said they're as ady as they can be for what's coming, and what follows.

>> the worst of the storm's not here. we think we got a good evacuation plan, a good shelterc plan in but we're already planning for what happens after florence makes impact >> reporter: meanwhile, many ofh evacuees face the prospect of days in shelters. >> it's coming right for us, literally right for us. so we're just like: you know what? st's just do this. let's just go to tlter. >> reporter: staff at senior avcare facilities are alsog to make tough choices about whether to evacuate the most lnerable. ted goins said staying was thet rioice.di >> this bu is should be zle to stand up and not be in any surge or floe. so it was the right decision to make when you consider the problems you have when you try to transport 100 or almost 100 very debilitated folks.

-he jokingly told me the facility had a big enough generator to power the entire city of wilmington.ly he serioold me they had enough food and medicine socked away to last for days in case t florence knockm off the power grid. >> woodruff: so p.j., we heard you say the nurs making the decision, sol of them not to move. what about the elderly senciior zens who are not in nursing homes? what are they saying about them? >> folks at tht facility and others who take care of vulnerable and elderly epopulations said the bst thing that folks in those populations can do is be eth thir community. get with family, get with friends or neighbors. don't try and ride out this storm alone, because en if you're in a secure house, the power can go out. a tree could fall on your rof, and when bad things happen, no one will be there to help t out. >> woodruff: p.j., tell us about the shelters that are operating therin the lmington area. what is going on at this point. what are they handling?

>> sure. just in the 4:00 hour, the red cross released a statement that about 1,600 peoe spent last night in shelters in north and south carolina. but today iseally they that most folks in this region made their way to shelters if gey weng to go to shelters. we visited one shelter where over 100 peodple ha come, many were streaming in as we were in there talking to th director there. so many that they were actually out of cots. p there was stinty of space for folks to stretch out. they even had a space for pets, which as you may know is a reason that a lot of folks don't want to a shelter is because they're afraid their pet won't be allowed in. hundreds of people in this area have made their way to shelters over the last 24 hours. >> woodruff: and finally, we know we're getting close to the hour when people have to get ou for their own safety. what are you seeing there in wilml,gton? >> wehings are closing up here. pharmacies have basically started shuttering today. goesry stores, gas stations are running out of gas. earlier today around 10:00 a.m.

we went to a home depot, theyar were closing, within that hour. there was a line out the door.s so itting to zero hour where if there is anything you need to do to prepare, it's getting to be too late awfully quickly, judy. >> woodruff: p.j. tobia porting for us from wilmington, north carolina. thank you, p.j. the president has sa federal government is "totally prepared" for hurricane florence. but there have been quesons in recent days about that in light of the response to hurricanes harvey and maria last year. we get an assessment from twe people who htched this closely. craig fugate was the administrator of fema during the obama administration. he now consults in that world. and chris currie of the u.s. government accountability office or g.a.o. he oversaw the agency's recent rert on fema's response to disasters in 2017. gentleman, we yolcome both of to the program. i should say at the outset, we invited fema to participate

today, but they were not available. but craig fugate, as somebody who knows that ageency veryl, how prepared are they for this hurricane that's coming do you think? >> well, they're in better shape. think eout what were facing with maria. it was the third major hurricane to hit. so they're busy. they're in guam. we have hawaii.df we have wies, but at least on the east coast, this will be the first hurricane make landfall. they're using a lot of resources. the other thing is you're going into an area, these states have quite a bit of rcs and capabilities themselves. local governments have been faced with hu.ricanes befo you have a prettyeaood sprd from local to the federal government working on this. it all comes down e peopl evacuating and heeding those orders. we can always rebuild communities, but rescue operations at the height of the storm are impossible. .you look at the threat 88% of deaths are related to water, not wind. so the evacuation is key. >> woodruf so craig fugate, you would say they are better

prepared than last year? >> i say they got more stuff because this is the first hurricane. when you got to maria, you w on your third major hurricane, and three hurricanes back-to-back of harvey, irma, and maria, it's going to stretch you every time. but this being the first one on the east coast major hurricane, they have more resoubles avaithat they had literally run out by the time maria got here. >> woodruff: so chris currie, your agency. g.a.o., the report you put out last year looking at the response to puerto rico and the other storms, you did point t that there were many factorsth includinparticular situation of puerto rico, but you also looked very closely at peopleback and among other things, you said they were overwhelmed, they were not prepared to deploy enough qualified stu f. how would m that up? >> absolutely. thank you for ving me. you summarized it very well, judy. by the time, and i think craig summed it up pretty well, too. by the time mria hiyou had

ahree sequential hurricanes. harvey, irma, ea happened within 28 days of one another, so by the time ma,ria hit supplies and resources and people were already allocated to other parts of the country, which made it very, very difficult to marshal the resources in puerto rico. >> woodruff: because when you ad some of what you reported, you spoke abo it, you know, cloak wally, being down to the barrel. more of half of the staff they were ufing were not qua for the jobs they were holding. >> yeah. what i was referring to was the numbers of fema personnel. they had hardy deemployed thousandof people harvey to, irma in florida, and at the time, fema had over 600 ope disasters throughout the country. so very, very difficult to marshal th the numbers of people you need and you needed in puerto rico, but a lot of their highly qualified staff were in other place, which vade y difficult to fillit crical positions in puerto rico. >> woodruff: craig fugate,

does it surprise you, did it surpriseou to see this assessment? >> no. again, quite honestly, we face the same challenges in the obama administration. we would often times b nning so many sequential disasters, we gre pulling people out of active casters t to the next one. we had to do it when sandy was threatening. we haduo do it nmerous times. this goes back to how fema is resourced pd our deendency on reservists who quite honestly, we only pay them when we're working disasters. we don't really have good incentives. we've made recommendations to give them status tofo applyr career jobs as an incentive. we've asked for opportunities to pay them when they're not doing disasters, similar to the military for the reserves, but we're demanding upon a workforce ho may or may not be available when disasteppen at a scale we'r,talking 000 to 16,000 people. that's not sustainable with the current worklvid we're ha. i think congress needs to go back and looks at how do you build and maintain a staff for

these types of events with the frequency we're seeing, because the current system wasn't built for it. >> woodruff: chris currie, what about that? i want to ask you about that point, and just looking at this, we know there was no way anybody could have forecast there was going to be three major storms t with course of one month. but does it reflect a a lack of planning on the part of fema last year? >> i think it reflects a lack of planning in terms of the scale of disasters. you're correct. nobody expecd to have three sequential disasters just like, that and four if you count the california wildfires afterward. but if you look at the atlantic ocean right now, we have three disasters and maybe even four looming t there. so these rare events are happening every year. so i think craig mentioned, we have to start planning and preparing for these types of things rutinely and having the workforce and the numbers of ryaff we need to do that eve year for this potential number t of that.rs is par >> woodruff: craig fugate, how

does that happen? tere's politics involved obviously when yk about congress and you talk about appropating more money. where does the change need to come from? >> well, it needs to come in the appropriations process, something that we've had a challenge with congress just passing bueedgets. it s they can always come up with the money after the disaster, but the key part i we're going the change these outcome, we need to spend more ney before disasters happen. we'll have to grow and sustain that workforce, and unfortunately for fema, we tend to get resources after we failed in a disaster, and then when we don't have a lot, they cut the budgets again. we went through sequestration in the obama administration, and that had an impact on fema's ability to respond last year. it goes back to we can either pay for a lot of costs after disasters very inefficiealy, or we canke investments and build a team for the type of w disasters thll happen in support of the states and local aovernments, but it is resource issue. if you don't have the resource end funding, hard to build a

team. ou have that money disaster, you're going to run out of qualified people. an a result of that, the response suffer we put our citizens on the wrong end of what we are capable of doing. >> woodruff: chr currie, as someone who is serving right now in the federal government, do you see the pieces in place to make these changes happen in time to make a difference? >> i agree that funding is a really important part of. this a.a.o., our responsibility is to provide independent oversight. we've been looking at these issues for yea and years, particularly after katrina. we've made a number of recommendations fema over the years. i think there is a responsibility on the agency to plan for the workforce it needs and then to train that workforce with the abilities they need to perform the mission. so funding is important, to build up your numbers, but once you have the people, you also have to ensure that you train anyou retain those people so you're ready to go when something like this happens. >> woodruff: well, all of this is really important the think

out as we confront yet another major hurricane. chris currie with general accounting office, g.a.o., craig fugate, formerly the h peoplea. we thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodrf: in the day's other news, tropical storm "olivia" brought heavy rain to the hawaiian islands. it lost some punch as it neared maui, with winds at 45 miles an hour, and then, continued on a track uthwest. the islands could get 10 inches of rain, with a stsurge up to three feet in places.pe rancis will host bishops from around the world in february, to discuss sexual abuse by catholic clergy. today's announcement came ahead of a vatican meeting tomorrow cith u.s. church leaders. it also came as fris facing new criticism over the long-running abuse scandal. the refugee crisis in syria isen getting orse. the united nations reported today the country's war has uprooted a recoropone million this year.

several hundred thousand have fled to lib province in the ntrthwest, and now, they face an impending governffensive. but france today warned syria's president to back off. >> ( translated ): the hypothesis of war crimes cannot be rul out, that's what france is saying, when you carry out indiscriminate bombing on civilian populations and hospitals. we know that assad can only see a military solution. we only see a politil one. we need to be active if the worst is to be avoided. the worst isn't for certain yet, if everyone acts responsibly. sy woodruff: the u.s. and turkey also have troops ia. both have warned the syrian regime against an assault on idlib. in eastern afghanistan, the death toll from a suicide bombing climbed to 68 today. more than 100 others were wounded by tuesday's blast in nangarhar province. it was the latest in a string of recent suicide attacks. the taliban has denied any involvement.

russian president vlreimir putin hacted claims that two russians poisoned a former double agent in britain. last ek, british authorities charged alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, and identified them as part of russian military intelligence. in moscow today, putin said the two men are actually civilians, and he dmissed the british allegations. >>translated ): we have looked at who these people are, we know who they are now, we found them. i hope that they show up and speak for themselves would be better for everyone. there is nothing special or criminal there, i assure you, but in time we will >> woodruff: britain accuses the two ruians of using a nerve agent in the attack. but, there is virtually no chancehat moscow will ever extradite them to stand trial. the europeannion's parliament issued an unprecedented rebuke to hungary's far-right governme today. lawmakers accused budapest of subverting democratic values by mistreating migrants and curbing

press freedoms. the vote could lead to suspending hungary's e.u. voting rights. back in this country, president trump signed an executive order that authorizes sanctions against foreigners who interfer. in u.s. electi the president would have the final say on imposing the toughest penalties. several senators in both parties id the order does not go far enough. median household income in the u.s. rose last year, for a third straight year. that puts them where they were just before the recession. the census bureau reports a gain of 1.8% in 2017, topping $61,000. but for the poorest one-fifth of americans, incomes increased just a half a percent.d, omen still earned 82 cents for every doar that men make. cbs news has fired jeff fager,pr the executivucer of "60 minutes."

he'd been under investigation for allegedly groping women and fostering an abusive workplace. cbs said the dismissal was not directly related to those allegations. last sunday, cbs chief executive les moonves was forced out after allegaons of sexual misconduct. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 27 points to close near 25,999. the nasdaq fell 18 points, and the s&p 500 added one point. still to come on the newshour: we follow hurricane hunters into the eye of the storm. how abortion politics are playing out in missouri's closely-watched senate race.a. why the f.d. is cracking down on a so-called "epidemic" of teen vaping, and much more.

>> woodruff: naturally, we and mest news organizations are spending a lot of his week trying to alert people about the power and trajectory of the hurricane. but how is it thatol meteists and scientists are able to make these projections? that's the fus of tonight's report from miles o'brien. he joined a crth of scientists flew right into the eye of the hurricane, just as it was starting to develop into a major storm, a few days ago. buckle up for this week's story on the leading edge of science antechnology. >> reporter: another beautiful morning hamilton, bermuda. the crew of a wp-3d orion inspects, preps and briefs for th eight-hour mission straight into the worst wea nature has to offer. they are hurricane hunters. and on this day, florence is their quarry.

the aircraft brims with three powerful radar systems, sensors to analyze clouds and tubes for dropping probes.na the onal oceanic and atmospheric administration offered me a seat on this aioorne science laboratory, long as i could buckle up my belt and harness in a hurry. f no smallt for your humble one-armed correspondent. but i passed, and soon theai raft they call "kermit" was airborne >> so, essentially, mission isn from bermuda d tropical storm florence. seu can see on this map, t are initial suite of points. >> reporter: our flight director

is meteorologist mike holmes. >> so, we're goi to do a circumnavigation and then we're going to do a series of lakes that bisect the storm, starting with end points 90 knot miles and to fix the center, 90 nautical miles out. rotate that, we're going to do a that three tim then >> reporter: the plane is filled with scientists, engineers and technicians. much of what they do depends on how well things go here. >> we call this station 5. this is where wel deploy our expendables from. >> reporter: aerospace engineer nick underwood is releasing dropsondes-- tubes filled with sensors that fall to the sea under parachutes, with precise timing. dictated by the scientific objectives, teey beam back erature, humidity, pressure and wind data to make forecast models more accurate. >> the more accurate data, the more up-to-date, the moreta

precise hey have, the better that those models are going to be. so, with this aircraft, being able to fly right through the g storting into the storm environment, actually sampling, the atmosphet just looking at it from afar, you can't get uality of data anywhere else. me reporter: much of the data they gather is beaback in real time to forecasters at the national hurricane center in miami. people like flight recon coornator warren madden. nten we met him a few weeks before my flightflorence, he was monitoring the same aircraft as it flew in hurricane lane, as it bore down on hawaii. >> and what you're looking at right now you know, we have variety of screens up so we can keep track the whole situation. >> reporter: he flew hurricane hunter missions himself, for 14 years. >> the aircraft is flying and sending us information through a satellite connectionfiack into our here, and so we can track where the aircraft is, how strong the winds are, we can bring up various plots about you know the wind speeds from not

instruments that we drop out at the bottom of the plane that float down to the surface that can measure the wind speed and the pressurend the aire temperatoating down. >> reporter: all that data is entered into complex computer t models, that try to prede path of the storm, and its intensity-- the blind spot in rie forecasts. >> forecasting hne intensity has been a big challenge for many years. >> reporter: michael brennan ise a senior hurripecialist at the national hurricane center. >> one of the big investments that u.s. has made is with hurricane forecasting improvement project, where congress provided a big infusion of money to fos research and computer modeling development on the intensity forecast problem. in the particular, trying to forecast these rapid cy nges and inteere we see storms strengthened by 30 or 40 miles per hour in one day. >> reporter: he says predicting sudden shifts is a kind of holy grai some progress is being made.. but it's painfully slow. >> we still have difficulty forecasting accurately because it's, we're not sure exactly when it's going to start or how long it mig last.

in 2017 for example, we had 39 instances of rapid intensification in the atlantic basin and we forecast six of them correctly. now, it doesn't sound like a l but 10 years ago that number probably would have been zero. >> reporter: there are a lot oft factors lay, and forecasters struggle to identify the triggers. aboard kermit, they are focused on vertical wind shear-- a sudden change in wind direction as altitude changes. nd shear causes cyclonic storms to tilt, reducing their ability to gain strength, so a d suddline in wind shear can lead to rapid intensification. they spend a lot of time on the westward edge of florence sampling the environment where the storm is headed in addition to plowing through it. heather holbach is a meteorologist at noaa's hurricane research division. >> one of the main goals of our research is to try and collect data that we can use tors unnd this process, which is why this flight is really inte potentially catching the

beginning of the reorgization of florence before it begins to intensify. so that would reallyp inform us about the whole process tha florence will undergo in the coming days.te >> rep hurricane forecasting has come a long way since the early days of airborne storm hunting. jon zawislek is a scientist at the university of miami. >> it's really a combinationf having more satellite measurements and then the airaft measurements such a we're taking today. just generally, we've seen improvements in computing power and such, so we can get higher resolution models, better pararimarization of certain things like clouds processes having near the surface and then also maybe including how the ocean may interact with the atmosphe as well. >> reporter: but even as forecasts improve, the hurricane center is focused on how best to

communicate all the complex, often misleading, data to the public. it's a new kind of weather front, where physics, math and meteorology meet the social sciences. t r example, while we all tend to focus on he mkely path storm, the called cone uncertainty, it doesn't tell the whole story about who is at risk. >> you can't sit there and say, "well, now i'm outside the cone." >> reporter: kenneth graham is director of the national hurricane center. >> it's not a cone of impact. i think we still have some work to do to really talk about what o sothese things like the cone mean and get people understand the impacts could a be 100 of miles away from the cone. >> reporter: case in point: hurricane irma, last year. the storm left dntown jacksonville inundated, even though it was not anywhere near the "ne of uncertainty." aboard kermit, scientists d engineers are trying to put more certainty into the cone.

satellites using radar can measure how rough the sea is, and that correlates to wind speed. but how accurate are they? data gathered by the aircraft is used to calibrate the satellites, and thus refine the models. engineer paul chang leads the ocean surface wind science teamo objectives are both to calibrate and validate and improve like current satellite sensors that are up there and also investigate new remote sensing technologies. es new satellites are launched, we try to conduct flights to validate the measurements in the extreme conditions. >> reporter: eight hours and 19 dropsondes later, we find ourselves on final aberoach to uda. a the data is go plentiful, and the crew is tired but happy. in the days that followe florence intensified rapidly, just as they suspected. they hope missions like th will help make it possible one

day to turn those suicions into predictions. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in hamilton, bermuda. >> woodruff: stay with us, >> woodruff: now campaigning on kavanaugh: we travel to missouri, where th contentinfirmation of the next supreme court justice looms over a competitive senate race. w lisa desjardins reports e of the most divisive topics in politics has taken center stage in the campaign. >> desjardins: it is 8:00 a.m., cold and raining at an abortion clinic outside saintmiouis ouri. >> we just want to let you know that we're here for you. >> desjardins: 26-year-old reagan barklage aims for a soft approach, t she is here to try to intercept women and talk them ut of an abortion. >> when women puto the driveway, we can go up to the

vehicle and just say, "hi, how are you? can we help you? we're here to offer free resources today." >> desjardins: barklage, who works students for life, an anti-abortion group, is part of a highly-motivated community that wants two things: brett kavanaugh on the supreme court and mo anti-abortion republicans in the u.s. senate. >> my faith tells me thamei need to do ing to end the injustice. igso for me it's not a relious issue; it's a human rights issue. >> so that's two buildings over. >> desjardins: a few hours later, in downtown saint louis, pamela merritt is also incredibly motivated, in the opposite direction.is >>uri is teetering on the brink. the likes of which i have never seen, and een doing this for awhile. >> desjardins: she organized a conference this weekend for progressive campaign activists- after building her own non- profit to advocate for abortion access. >> the women who are overwhelmingly impacted by restrictions and also by you know criminalization are poor

women of color and who look just like me and who deserve access to abortion without limits and without restrictions. >> desjardins: the two women with counterampaigns share afo currens: how a potential justice vanaugh could impact the future of the supreme court's landmark 1973 decision to legalize abortion, roe v. wade. >> it means everything. you know.t riw, despite our best efforts, we are looking at ane nowho would cement a five judge, all male conservative court that is opposed to abortion. >> this supreme court nomination is huge, because this will determine history and it could reverse what's already been done. >> desjardins: you want it overturned? >> i would love to see roe v. wade go back to the states and go back to where people can vote on i >> desjardins: so does, it seems, missouri's republican

candidate for u.s. senate, josh hawley. >> we believe that every person was created in the image of god, that every person has inherent dignity and value, tery person deserves the right to life! >> desjardins: hawley, the state's attorney general, has called roe v wade one of the most unjust decisions in u.s. history, and is centering part his campaign against two-term democratic senator claire mccaskill around the court. recent polling shows hawley andk mccaskill are nd neck. >> the eyes of the nation are on missouri. we decide which values control the senate and the supreme court. claire mccaskill wants liberals in charge. h that'sow she votes. >> desjardins: kavanaugh met privately with mccaskill last month. she has not announced how she'll vote. she got an overflow crowd in rural franklin county saturday, a group of democrats that wante her to votno on kavanaugh. the former prosecutor explained the pressure is coming from both sides. >> everybody goes, "oh, she's trying to figure out what the winner is for her politically."

there te none. no mwhat i do there are downsides to it. >> desjardins: missouri has been a hotbed of debate and court action over abortion since the e 1970s and a factor in thst time mccaskill ran six years ago. her opponent then, republicaned todd akin, spautrage when heaid: "if it's a legitima rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." >> mccasll really then exploited that, promoted that. and that helped her have a huge victory that fall. >> desjardins: st. louis public radio's jo mannies has covered missouri politics for almost four decades. she says this year stands t for the dollar signs. outside groups have poured over $27 million into missouri, the most of any senate seat this year. one conservative group launched a statewide bus tour about kavanaugh. others are blitzing tv screens. >> president trump has nominated another fair, independent justice. will senator mccaskill stand with us or them? >> desjardins: the fight has soured some voters on both

senate candidates. >> i'm not too thrilled aboutth either o, not necessarily about them personally, but neither of them are interested in what i'm interested in. >> desjardins: but in , you see the state's sharp divide. >> i am a pro choice woman so i don't really like the idea thate the gove can tell me what to do with my body. >> the fact that i don't believe in abortion is a big deal for me.s: >> desjardccaskill also has a geography problem. she needs me moderate voters from the suburbs, but also more l voters in the cities, pour out for her. >> i mean she has to keep therg progressives eed. you've got some of the abortion rights activists in the statg who are tellr she's to be more upfront on the issue. >> desjardins: like pamela merritt. in on the issue of abortio general i think senator mccaskill is too timid. >> desjardins: merritt is tapped into key campaign groups, likeig the abortions group naral, whose office she visited to plan an upcoming demonstration. >> i'm not a moderate. i'm an unapologetic lefty.

and the one, number one reason why i elected or voted for claire mccaskill was because the supreme court is on the line. >> desjardins: merritt also lives in the city of s louis. she's the kind of fiery progressive mccaskill needs to excite. out in the suburbs... >> i liked having the shade open. >sj> dins: ...reagan barklage is precisely the kind of republican josh hawley needs: conservative and motivated. >> if josh hawley were elected, i definitely think that he would confirm kavanaugh to the supreme court. and i do confirm him to the supreme court. and their vote matters. pis is a battleground state. >> desjardins: assure over kavanaugh is mounting now. the senate is expecto vote this month, meaning mccaskill wion have to make her decisi a so come down on one side of this heated campaign issue. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins in st. louis,. missou

>> woodruff: the food and drug administration today issued its toughest crackdown yet on the makers of electronic cigarettes. these vaping devices have become increasingly popular with young people, and, as william brangham reports, the f.d.a. told manufacturers they have two months to prove they can keep their e-cigarettes out of the hands of minors. >> brangham: in announcing its action today, the f.d.a. said the use of e-cigarettes among young people had hit "an epidemic proportion." it's illegal for anyone under 18 to buy any tobacco or nicotine product, including these e- cigarettes. in a moment, i'll talk with the head of the f.d.a., dr. scott gotlieb, but first, to give you a sense of what these e- cigarettes are, and how kids are using them, here's an excerpt from a report special correspondent kavitha cardoza of "education week" did two months ago at a high school in connecticut

>> reporter: fran thompson, thea princiof jonathan law high school, opens what he calls his "vaping drawer." >> these are some of the items that we have confiscated this week >> reporter: the "items" are all e-cigarettes. popular brand by far is called juul. >> this is a juul. i know it looks like a flash drive, right? so, the liquid goein here. >> reporter: basically, they're devices that often nicotine, and you inhale the vapor. >> and then they smoke it, they vape i >> reporter: kids can hide them anywhere. >> their socks, their backpacks or pockets, their wallets. their bras, back pockets, everywhere. >> anywhere, yeah. >> reporter: "juuling" as it's called has ed all over the country among youth. but unlike alcohol or cigarettes, often parents aren't even sure what it is. parent l goodwin has two teenagers in this school. she found nicotine liquid pods in their pockets while she was doing laundry. >> when i found the pods, i

googled it. and i couldn't find anything. i had photos and tried to describe it. what is this? then i saw the amount of nicotine. it's one pack of cigarettes. i also understood some of my adult friends used e-cigarettes as a way to get off of smoking so i didn't know how dangerous it was. >> i'll show you what was going on. >> reporter: principal thompson says his "aha moment" was in the bathroom. >> so you're typicalschool bathroom right? >> reporter: brings back memories. >> just like watching grease! but what was happening was you might have five or six kids hang door closed and vaping. >> reporter: suchitra krishnan- ccsarin runs the yale toba centers of regulatory science at yale university. t she says flavors are a big part of e-cigarettes' popularity. they sound playful and harmless- ngo, mint, cotton candy, blueberry pie. or these products come in over 7,000 different fl

they can also mix and match to hicreate their own, again, introduces a sense of novelty. >> reporter: but the vapors inhaled have been found to contain lead, zinc, chromium and nickel. and krishnan-sarin says nicotine, the main liquid in these devices is extremely addictive and can cause memory and attention loss. especially in the developing teenage brain. >> brangham: that was from a report by special correspondent kavitha cardoza. in its warning today, the f.d.a. told the four main manacturers of e-cigarettes that if they can't prove within 60 days that they can keep these devices out of the hands of kids, the f.d.a. would consider taking them off the maet totally. the f.d.a. also sent over a thousand warning letters to retailers that sell them-- places like drug stores and gas stations. for more on today's action by the food and drugon administrai'm joined by the head of that agency, f.d.a. commissioner dr. scott gottlieb.

commissioner, thank you very much for beiyo here. could u just explain to me, this clearly seems like anes lation on the f.d.a.'s part today. why today, why now? >> well, we have access to right now data that demonstrates there is nothing short of an epidemic of use among teenagers. we knew use was rising among high school teenagers, among young people, kids, but we now ve access to some preliminary data that we'll make public wsetty soon that shohis is nothing short of an epidemic of use. we feel we ed to step in with dramatic action to try to curtail that use. unfortunately, we do see these e-cigarettes as a viable alternative for adult smokers to migrate off of combustibleo tobacco on to cts that might not have all the risks associated with them of smoking, but unfortunately, in order to close the on-ramp for kids, we'll now have om take e actions that we think will narrow the off ramp for adult, and that's a trade-off we have to make based on what we're seeing in the market right now. >> brangham: you mentioned anem ep level of use among

kids. as a physician and as the head of the f.d.a., can you just sketch out for me, what do you see as the main health problems with kids usi these products? >> well, there's multiple problems. first of all, wenow that tick tick -- nicotine has directhe effects on developing brain. so nicotine in a child is not harmless. it's not a benn substance. but also if we see the trend in use that we're seeing right nows threate massive pool of young people who are becoming habituated on it, addicteto nicotine, and some component of those young people are going toi ate on to combustible tobacco products, so if you believe, that we do, that noou child be using any tobacco product, and we certainly don't want the see a new generation of ung people and kids become addicted to nicotine and start smoking, this pool of users of e-cigarettes, and it's a pool that's growing very sharply based on the data that we have,nt reprerisk for the future that some component of these kids are going ton migratee cigarettes and ultimately become long-term smokers with all the healom effects that come fr

that. >> brangham: so you have toldtu the manufrs, you guys have 60 days to prove to us that you can keep these out of kid hands. let's say the manufacturers fail to meet that test. what haens then? >> well, what we said today is we're actively looking a removing from the market the flavored products. we believe that one of the t aspects se products that makes them appealing to kids are the flavors, and system of those flavors come in fruity flavors and other kinds of flavors that we think are increasing the appeal of these products to kids. so right now those products remain on the market because the m ency allows theto remain on the market under what we call an excise of enforcement discretion. we haven't required the manufacturers to file documents proving they have a net benefit. we have the legal authority to do that. so what would do is tell manufacturers the favors need to come off the market. if they want to reintroduce the flavored markets, they will have to file successful applications with the f.d.a. that demonstrate

the existence o a net public health benefit, that the benefits of favors in terms of helping adult smokers quit combustible tobacco outweighhe risk that it's also going to appeal to young people and get a kid hooked on e-cigarettes. >> brangham: so the f.d.a. wouldn't necessarily be taking these products mpletely. you'd be taking specifically the ones that have fruity flavors, candy flavor, dessert flavors that... it seems to me you're arguing those appeal particularly to kids. >> well, the bottom line is al options are on the table, and if the trends in use that we're seeing right now continue, we're going to have the take even more dramatic action. we think right now we cante into this market with a come by nation of enforcement actions against the places we know kids are getting access to tis product, which includes retail establishments tngt are sel them without carding minors, as well as the online sites where we think there arestraw purchases being made where someone is going online, buying a lot of these pro reselling them to kids.

but the other action we would take immediately is look at removing these flavored products from the market. if we don't think tho actions are sufficient to curtail the scope of use we're now seeing among kids, we're willing to step into the market d take even more dr. maltic action. ly say, we do think the e-cigarettes offer a viable alternative for adult smokers. we don't want to extinguish this opportunity entirely, because we do see some potential bnef from having these products on the market as a way for adult smokers to g access to nicotine without all the harmful effects of come buting tobacco. but it's going to have to come i think going forward with some additional limitations on the availability and the types of eroducts being marketed in order to stem what we as an epidemic of use amo kids. >> brangham: juul labs, one of the main manufacturers of e-cigarettes, several months ago they said, we're going to put $30 million into a campaign to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of kids. they said they supported the

idea of raising the national re to 21 fo these products. they put out a conciliatory youtement supporting what did today. but clearly you don't think the manufacturers have done enough lus far. >> welk, i'm measuring what the manufacturers are doing and frankly what we're doing based on the results, based on this data that we're seeing, and the day that we're seeing is showing the proportion of teenagers and high school students using these products is growing at a very fast clip. ultimately that's going to be the measure that i judge the manufacturers and i jung our own success by. that's what i'm looking at. >> brangham: all right, hr. scott gotlieb, commissioner of the f.d.a.,nks very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff:s part of our ongoing race matters solutionst series, toniecial correspondent charlayne hunter- gault looks at how lessons from

a successful interfaith effort may be used to bridge racial divisions as well. >> finding common ground while respting differences is what brought these 450 college studentsnd educators together arom across the country. they're spendingof their summer vacation at this chicago hotel, learning how to bridge the toxic divides in our society. the trainers are part of the "interfaith youth core," an organization aimed at helping people of all religions, ethnicities and beliefs. the non-profit was foued on the notion that the united states was the first country built on the promise of shed values rather than shared heritages, and that a 21st century democracy can thrive only if its citizens have the skills to successfully navigatei s of all kinds. eboo patel is the founder and president of the organization, the largest of its kind in north

america, started in 1998. patel is muslim, born in mumbai and raised in middle-class burban chicago. there are chapters on nearly 500 campuses now, focusing on service in the community pressing issues on campus, and making meaningful cooperation ith others a normal part of the college experiencand outside the classroom. >> we are the eyes and er.s of the trai i don't have a story. we're the ones who turn the gine and... >> get them going. >> get them thinking. give them some ideas. do reporter: during the conference, i sat ask why, after studying sociology of religion as a rhodes scholar, he decided to set out on this

challenging path. t >> i w go back with you a few years, you had just gotten your phd at oxford, you came back to america, and you started this program. what caused you to do that? >> mandela, 1999, south africa. i remember seeing him speak, and he begins by pointing out into ntthe cape, and saying i s7 years of my life on that island, in prison, and i wouldn't be on this stage today if it wasn' br the interfaith movement in south africa, thught down apartheid. and at that time, if you had told me the work interfaith i might have kind of rolled my eyes.ze i didn't reahat people from different faith bacogrounds comingher had built this stunning movement in south africa. f,and so, i thought to mysou know, going into the 21st centy, are we going to forfe

our societies to religious extremists? or, are we going to try to build an interfaith movement, that helps all of us build diverse democracies where everyone can thrive. and i thought to myself, i want to be a part of the next chapter of history. at did you start to do? >> so i was a big part of both the diversity and the service learning movements in college, and part of the intersection of that movement was the idea that you bring people from different racial, and class, and geographic backgrounds together, to do service. so the way interfaith youth core gets its start is to say why b don't ng young people from different religious backgrounds, each of whose religious traditions has an inspiration to serve. >> did you find that there was a better age than another one to reach these young people, and what was your selling point?

>> so, ame are a treasure of our civilization.he it's so many young people get a sense of their calling, their vocation.ou we thought telves, let's partner with u.s. college campuses to educate aninspire a generation of college students to be interfaith leaders. the american ideal is deeply intertwined with interfaith cooperation, and we need a new generation of interfaith leaders write the next chapter. >> how does the atcial divide e have today, compare with when you were starting out? >> we are living in an ugly time. part of what interfaith work has to be about right now, is calls for justice with reconciliation, buildi a new community where we can all thrive. and i think part of the power religious language, and the bridges that people om different faiths have built in the past, in the civil rights movement, in the struggle against apareid, is they did exactly that.

>> one of the things i found interesting in your general session with all of the 500 was the question how many of yoa al to strangers, how many of you all talk to someone who doesn't share your politics, and just wondering where you were going with that, do you work on that? >> so, we've got this really thorny set of problems, and i think that one of ts that we address it, is with the kind of interfaith partnerships that create spaces where it's easier for people to cooperate. d thsn't mean we're going to agree on every election, that doesn't mean we're going toco agree onmic policy, but we can start a baseball league together. t we can help ma school play successful. we can parcipate in disaster relief efforts together. there's all kinds of things thar are central toivil society, and our civic culture in the united states, that i feel are now being shredded, because of a poisonous political environment. if we're not willing to do the work of citizens, with other

citizens, you can't have a healthy, diverse democracy. having said that, we can't paper caer the problems of marginalization, wt paper over historic ugly injustice, especially around race. so how do we address that, without making some group of people feel like the ene? because i think that the great lesson of lincoln, and jane adams, and king, and mandela is for every stitch of hate, or distrust that you put into the fabric now, you're going to havs totch at a later point. c> i look at college campuses, where you have hostile racial divisions. how do you account for, that and at do you do about that >> i'm on 25 college campuses a year. i probablvisited something like 130 in the past eight or ten years. it's not like things don't ever

get tense, but what i read about inw the nes on college campuses is foreign to me. which is to say it is by o,finition sensational. >>re you, in the end, optimistic about our country now, and it's future? >> how am i not going to be optimistic? really, right? i mean, i feel like if i wasn't optimistic, i would be, i woulda be being uful to the work that martin luther king junior did to bring me to this country, and i'm serious about that, right. and the beautiful thing is, there's lots of us that feel this way. there's this whole growing network of college student interfaith leaders on american campuses, basically saying whe's the divide, let me bridge it. that's the future of america, or we have no future at all. >> woodruff: eboo patel has alst eleased a book entitled "out of many faiths: religiousy

diversd the american promise." find more about that work, along with his recommendations on books you should read as you consider developing your own faith. of that is online at pbs.org/newshour. d that's the newshour fo tonight. on thursday, i sit down odth bob rd to discuss "fear," his explosive new book on the trump white house. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for t newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an unlimited wireless plan. our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan e,sed on how much you use your phone, nothing mothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv on

>> and with thing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was madey possiblee corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. po captioningored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access groce at wgbh .wgbh.org

hello, everyone,nd welcome toan ur. here's what's coming up. was serena williams t victim of sexism? was naomi osaka's first grand slam ruined? how it is playingut in the united states and japan. tlly jean king joins me for an interview since controversial match. then the secretary of state john kerry has sn one diplomatic accomplishment after another bulldozed by donald trump. i ask him how it feels to see his legacy dismantled before his eyes. also ahead, our walter eisen son talks to jenny