captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, her atrney says christine blas ford is prepared to testify some time next week to claims of sexual assault by brett kavanaugh if terms are "fair." then, what washes up in the water-- we explore the environmental hazards caused by florence's historic floods. plus, the trump administration defends its policy in yemen amid mounting civilian casualties. plus, a helping hand-- why celebrity chef and restaurateur jose andres is on a mission to provide food to storm ravaged areas. when disaster strikes, people need to be eating today. not tomorrow, not next week, not onth. we will be there making sure

that things are getttter quicker and faster rather than later. that's the least we can do for people. >> woodruff: all that and more ight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour haseen provided by: >> and bythe alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. orting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcaing. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woouff: the drama swirling around supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh has taken a new turn. othe woman who accusing h sexual assault in high school now says she might be willing to testify next week, after all, but not monday, as senatnt republicans

amna nawaz begins our coverage. >> nawaz: they protested today in the halls of congress. supporters invoking the name of christine blasey ford, spurred by her sexual assault allegation against supre court nominee brett kavanaugh. that, as debra katz, a lawyer for ford, sent an email to the senate judicia committee, to negotiate the terms of any potential testimony. in that email, the text of which was obtained by the newshour, katz said ford "would be prepared to testify next week," but only under "terms that are fair and which ensure her safety." the lawyer reiterated that ford "has been receiving death threats." the committee, chaired by republican chuck grassley,pr iously invited ford and kavanaugh to testify nexta mondayte ford's lawyer now says is "not possible."li today, repubns stayedel largout of public view, even president trump ignored

ilreporters' questions, wh departing the white house early this evening for a lasegas rally. but on capitol hill, drats echoed ford's requ it for an f.b.nvestigation. >> you have the entire force of the president and all the-- and on the other side you have dr. ford, who doesn't even have the benefit on an f.b.i. investigation we've called for. >> nawaz: republicans have downplayed the need for further investigation. in today's email, dr. ford's lawyer reiterated that ford's "strong preference continues to be... a full investigation prior to her testimony." for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: and with that, we t tuour own lisa desjardins, for more on the fallout from capitol hill; and william brangham, on what more, if anything, could be gleaned from

an fbi investigation. hello to both of you. so, william, can the f.b investigate this? >> absolutely. there is nothingrecluding the f.b.i. from looking into this, provided -- and thise big provided -- that the white house request it. that's the barrier here. the white house needs to sayis reopen t background investigation into kavanaugh. once they do that, i that you could to ae rtired seen your official in the f.b.i. today, he said if that request comes in, there's nothing off limits the f.b.i. can look into any of the allegations a they see fit. what exactly sit democrats want to get fom the.b.i. investigation? >> they're asking something new of the f.b.i. in just a fewte mi senator patrick lahi says he wants the f.b.i. to investigate crimes against dr. blasey ford including hacking of her em and death threats against her. there is an investigation into what's happening to her the

democrats are restqg. democrats in particular would like the f.b.i. to interview mark judge, the other person profsor ford says was there and they think he needs to be under oath and accountable for s what hys. >> woodruff: that's the other name we have of who she says w s e party at that home that night. william, how long does it take, do we know, to conduct this kind of investigation? >> as with any of the investigation, it depends on the complexity of the investigation. a lot of the democrats pointed out at anita hill's investigations in the early '90s against clarence thomas were also investigated by the f.b.i. and thatk just two days to do. many said that was somewhat a tcurse riinvestigation, there's really no determining. depends how deep the democrats -- i mean, how deep the f.b.i. wants to gonto this. >> woodruff: and, lisa, what are republicans saying? how do they see this ltest term term? >> we're waiting to see what they come out wit pulicly but now they are not backing down about the mon day hearing.

privately, we're hearing from key repuican offices, they feel they will need to accommodate dr. ford. if she's saying she can meet next week, they don't think it's go for republicans to force a monday hearing without her. at the same tie 're seeing on the campaign trail pressure is mounting, protesters e capitol, but also we're seeing republicans like a man who used to be a republican now the independent governor of alaska has come out and said he opposes the kavanaugh nomination, that's important laws alaata sen lisa murkowski is a swing vote. she determines her own vote butt e man running for reelection is the governor of th state is now a no on kavanaugh, that's something to think about. >>druff: political chloeback. >> yes. >> woodruff: republicans are saying i even if the f.b.i. investigates this, they can't make a judgm wt call, at value is it? >> this is true. .i.'sis what the f.b protocol is for all cases, not just this case, that they gather the eviden and simply put it

forward and then it's to whoever receiv the report, in th case the white house, to determine what to do of it and whateo make to have assessments. i talked to c boden grey who was in the bush white house in the anita hill allegations and he made the same argument that the f.b.i. can't really render a judgment. so what would we learn we don't already know? supporters of dr. ford, including janet napolitano, who i spoke with today, said there are sony other threads to. w northey could interv america judge, the other students who might have been at that party, the therapist dr. ford allegedly told this to. so they argue that this time line set forward with thg.o.p. is completely artificial and there's no reason why it couldn't cake days, perhaps weeks to reopen this and get to the facts. >> woodruff: in the meantime, we pate. the republicans are in control of this. >> stay tuned. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, william brangham, thank you both.

we will hear from the congresswoman with whom blasey ford first raised her accusation and from a woman who clerked for judge kavanaugh after the news summary. in the day's other news, the death toll from hurricane florence rose to 41, as theer long, slow reccontinued in the carolinas floodwaters closed part of interstate 95 in south carolina. parts of 95 and i-40 are also closed in north carolina. heavy flooding still covered parts of lumberton today after a levee breach. the governor toured a railroad bridge, with no floodgate, that let the water through. >> this is going to be a multi- billion dollar effort. we have roads and bridges to repair.cl rly we have a situation in lumberton here where we need to make sure that at the ine we've got protection from the river under e bridge. there's a lot we need to do to shore up our infraructure.

>> woodruff: duke energy declared an alert today a closed power plant near wilmington, north carolina. the ility is watching a flooded lake near several coal ash dumps at the site. we'll take a longer look at the environmental damage from florence, later in theam. today marked one year since hurricane maria struck puerto rico. it's estimated that nearly 3,000 people died from the storm and its effects in the months that followed. e hurricane devastated t u.s. territory of three million people, destroying hundreds of homes and wiping out the power grid. one year later, power has been restored. but many homes look the same as the day after the storm hit. the latest summit of the koreas has concluded, and the north's kim jong un sent word that he's eager to resume talks on denuclearization, with the u.s. that's according to south korea's president moon jae-in. the two leaders and their wives visited a legendary volcano in

north korea today. afterward, moon returned to oul and conveyed kim's message. >> ( translated ): he said he hoped secretary of state mike pompeo would visit north korea soon, and also that a second summit with trump would take place in the near future, in order to move the denuclearization process along quickly.po it would be tical declaration that would mark a starting point for peace negotiations. a peace treaty would be sealed after the north achieves complete denuclearization. >> woodruff: moon said he'll meet with president trumerat the u.n. g assembly next week, and relay other messages from kim. the world anti-doping agency has reinstated russia after a three- year suspension. it allows moscow to bid again for major international sporting events. the russians were suspended in november 2015 after findings that they used state-sponsored doping to help their athletes at the 2014 winter olympics. russian officials denied the accusations.

and, on wall street, tech stocks led a charge to new records. the dow jones industrial average gained 251 points to close near ,657, an all-time high. the nasdaq rose 78 points, ande p 500 added 22, closing at a record 2,930. and, for the first time, women will take the stage inarvard's famed "hasty pudding" revue. that hasn't happened since 1844, when the annual productions began. today's announcement says 6 women have roles in the 2019 show. it will also still include men in drag in what the troupe calls a "no-holds-barred burlesque." still to come on the newshour: the trump administratipo defends its cy regarding the war in yemen. the cus shifts to environmental hazards in the wake of hurricane florenceand

much more. >> woodruff: now back to our lead story: the sexual assault allegations against supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. the first lawmaker christine blasey ford contacted about her allegations was representative anna eoo, democrat of california. she's serving r 13th term in congress and she joins me now from mountain view. congresswoman eshoo, tell me, now that we've heard from christine blasey ford's attorneys, that she is prepared to ttify under fair conditions, what do you make of that? do you considethat progress? >> i do consider that progriss because s so important to the people of our country, and think that's an element that's been left out of this entire

story. but my constituent, dr. ford, deserves to have a fair hearing. i don't think it is unfair of her to ask that her safety be assured because of the death threats that have come since shu spoke oulicly to tell herst y and not allow others to mischaracterize it ld,so, i think that her request that the f.b.i. do the background investigation of this -- i mean, just think, shesk'sing not for less scrutiny but for more, an i think it would be instructive to all of thate sens from both sides of the aisle. so i think she always -- once she went public, she said she was willing to testify. at no time has she said that she would not. so we have to weigh this, obviously, in terms of the

weight of a limeetime appoi to the supreme court, and integritand character do matter. >> woodruff: do you think she has a responsibility to testify, given the gravity of what she's accused judge kavanaugh. >> well, she certainly weighed the risks and consequences for her family, nuer one, and herself, and that's why she was so extraordinarily, i think, courageous to, once there was some leaking, that she would speak out, tell her story and was willing to testify. >> woodruff: the nomination of judge kavanaugh was on july 9, this summer, by.resident tru professor blasey ford contacted your office, as we understand it, in the days that. you agreed to meet with her. how did she come across to you?

did you learn something in that session? you spent an hour and a half with her. beyond what has beome public? >> well, when you spend an hour and a half with someone, you take their measure. that's a long period of time. it was quiet. i assured he that her anonymity and her privacy -- privacy is absolutely paramount to all of my constituents, but certainly in cases of sexual assault, and i also emphasize that i wasn't there to tell her what to do bt rather if there was something she wished me to do, that i would do everything to assist her. she is intelgent, she was soft spoken. i think it was wrenchi her to repeat her story, her perience, the experience that she had, and it was -- as i said, i asked her many

questions, and, at the end of that period of time, iyid sa to her, i believe you, and if you wish me to take this to anher level, we c discuss that, but it is entirely up to you, and your anonymity and youc prwill always be protected, and we have kept our word on that. she chose to have -- i spoke to senator dianne feinstein. she is obviously the ranking member of the house judiciary committee, and dr. ford is our mutual constituent. she asked for a letter, and dr. ford drew a letter up that was confidential, and we made sure that dr. ford's letter was delivered to the right person in senator feinstein washington, d.c. offices the

same date that the letter was dated. >> and that was on july the 30th, i believe. st want to ask you, there was no corroborating nvidence. why did you believe her? >> because of the details. really finite details that remained with her. i think there is sething that is not appreciated in our country, and that is that 93% of sexual assault victims are found have told the truth, and, so, yes, there's a juxtaposition of someone that eentially isour next door neighbor -- she's married, she has two young son she's a professor -- but ths woman doesn't have a political bone in her body, which she did comprehend -- what she did comprehend were the risks a

the consequences of the risks of going public, an that's terrorizing. i think it was terrorizing to r, and i think some of that terror has been confirmed because of the death threats and other really terrible things that she's been subjected to. but she is a person of integrity.sh from what shred with me, ues,has a firm set of val and she has an inner strength to her as well. woodruff: representative anna eshoo, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodr someone who's known judge kavanaugh for more than a decade. jennifer mcott clerked for vanaugh during his first year on the u.s. court of appeals in 2006. she also clerked for supreme court justicclarence thomas. today, she's an assistant professor at george man

university law school. welcome to the "newshour".be thank you fong here. you just heard what congresswoman eshoo said, that she listened for an hour and a half to prfofessor blase and believed her. >> well, yes, this is a very challenging set of circumstances and everybody should be listened to and treated with dignity and respect. my pertsonal experience h judge kavanaugh, and i've known him twelve years, him and his family, worked for him his first year on the bench and he has acted with the utmost integty and character. before and after the latestlo deents came forward, people testified to his character and my understanding he has since given a statement to chairman grassley under penalty of perjury categorically denying the ons and, you know, everything i know of him, these accusations are flatly

inconsistent with his chara>>er. oodruff: have you spoken with him since these allegations surfaced? >> i'm notng to be able to talk about personal conversations and interaction wi the judge. what i can tell you is i worked for him twelve yearsgo and he maintained a mentor, a personal contact, someo i go to for professional advice. augh annuallyav get together with all the law clerks. they're a wonderful supportive mechanism for us and the many students he's taught over the years. >> woodruff: when you heard this allegation, what was your reaction? well, when i heard th allegation, the immediate reaction i had is it sounded thv opposite oferything i know about judge kavanaugh and his character and what i've seenm from h over the years. i also wondered and questioned why it was coming up now in the process and, obviously, again,w, you knt's important and needs to be heard, everybody needs to have a chance to be listened to and treated with absolute dignity and respect. at the same time, judge kavanaugh, i believe, went through more than 30 hours of

questioning at his hearings. i thinhe had 1300 written questions that he answered, myin understais he had a lot of private meetings with senators, and, so, it's also challenging, would seem from, that perspective, you know, to come up and have to answer questions about this now after the fact rather than them being posed earlier or in more of a ivate setting. >> woodruff: you've known him for a zen years. you don't say you knew him when he was thayoung, 17 years old in high school, so what makes you -- are you cot nvinced tha couldn't have happened? how do you look upon th? >> so, from everything i know of judge kavanaugh's character for twelve years, it's flatly inconsistent with everything i know of him. also, as you know, 65 women who did know him around the time of high school jeers also come forward in a letter talking to his character at that time. so he's had people throughout the process, early on i july, now later in september, come forward from all walks of life,

from all different political and ideological persuasions stifying to his character. it's consistently been a comment about his fairness, even handedness, his transparency, you know, he's a fantastic public servant, community leader, written over 300 opinions on the d.c. circuit court of appeals. i joined a letster of hi female law clerks, many of them early on in the process and stand behind that support. >> woodruff: and in your conversations with him over s years, has he talked about his high school years at all? has he made reference to georgetown prep or his high school years? >> i personally have not had occasion to discuss that with the judge. ,e've talked about the law we've talked about law school, we've talked about my career,u ow, we've talked about case law, talked about his family. >> woodruff: right. jennifer mascott, if you -- if it now looks as if professor asey ford is going to testify in some form, we don't know yet the details, next week. hoe wi you judge what she

says? you, someone who knows the law a how do y a human being watching all this, how will you edge whether she is crdible or not? >> well, i think at this point in the process, you know, president trump nominated judge kavanaugh and, you know, is standing behind his nomination, and now this is really with the senate. the senate wit listen to h sides. i think, so far, has tried to be very fair in the process, is myn rstanding, and we'll have to look and weigh each senator, you know, listening to people's story, but judge kavanaugh has already come forward, he's categorically denied these and i trust will have an opportunity to clear his name. >> woodruff: do you think either judge kavanaugh or professor blasey ford should be given the benefit of the doubt here? >> i think both parties shoatd be t with the utmost respect and listened to, and i think the senators, so far from what i can tell and know, have t tried to mais a fair process and i trust they will continue to do that and trust

their judgme in fact confirmation process. >> woodruff: jennifer mascott,proof at george mason school of law, thank you very much. >> thank you smuch for having . appreciate it. >> woodruff: today on capitolfr hill, official the pentagon, state department, and the intelligence community held a rare briefing for top staff there. the topic: what is u.s. policy in yemen? td what role is american support playing ongoing civil war there? nickchifrin has that. >> schifrin: the war in yemen has killed at least 10,000 people, and endangered millions more. there are rampant shortas of food and medicine. the u.s. is supporting a saudi- led coalition that is fighting largely from the sky, houthi rebels aligned with iran. they control the capital sana'a; but a battle is ongoing for the major port city of hudaydah, held by the houthis. and there are questions on capitol hill and inside the state department about u.s.

support. congressional officials tell me there's bipartisan frustration with what they call a lack of accountability and transparency. at the center of the controversy are those air raids: whether saudi arabia and the united arad emirates ang enough to limit or prevent civilian killings. one man who would know is larry lewis, research director at the center for naval analyses. he used to lead thnse department's efforts to prevent civilian casualties, and was t state department's senior advisor on civilian protection. larry lewis, you creed the team in saudi arabia that investigates civilian ca respect what was your mission and were the saudis interested in your helping thm? >> so i was asked to go over to saudi arabia and work with theio saudi coaland try to repeat the kind of work i'd done with the u.s. international forces in afghanistan, work with them to identify patterns and causal factors for civilian casualties and help them to reduce them. >> were they interested? they were definitely interested.

they actually embraced the kind of measures i was trying to take place and, in fact, as we were measuring operational outcomes for the first few months, wea actuallyw measurable reduction in civilian casualties. >> if th saudi kohl's seemed interested several years ago when you we there in reducing civilian casualties, why are we getting so many incidents of civilian casualties? >> so i was able to work with them for a long time and they were interested. ey were starting to make changes to their operations, but thse were changes not institution but to the individuals within the operational chain of command. so what happened s there was a cease fire, and then, you know, basicallnt away, they stopped fighting. about six months later, the fighting started happening again, they actually reached out and asked for me to come ande continuerk. at that time, the state department and the white housere eally concerned about reputational risk and, so, they

decide no more advising to help them. >> and that was back in 2016, 2017. >> yes, 2016. 2016. fast forward to 2018. now we' got certification from the department of state and department of defense that the saudi-led coalition is doing its best to prevent civilian caicialts. secretary mike pompeo's statemen the governments of saudi arabia and united arab emirdees are takinmonstrable actions to redisk of harm to individuals from military operations of these governments that's certification. does it make sense, do you think? >> no, it doesn't fit the facts. so if you look at thele demonstrctions they talk about in the accompanying memo, there are tour actions, three o them are over two years old. so the sy donem to have been effective because we see these problems continue. the actions they're talking about in the mo are not the kinds of things that actuallyed

helpe civilian casualties. >> you mean the actions saudis haveoo take are nt those the state department says they're already taking? >> correct. one to have the problems was this horrific attack that killed school chiren on a bus, and the saudi-led coalition did come out and make a statement and let's listen to the statement. this is from colonel turkey al-maliki. >> we fully accept the findings. we launched the air strike at a wrong time and made mistakes in crossfire rules. we will hold all of those making mistakesn accountable with th laws and regulations. >> we fully accept findings hold all those responsible for mistakes. not so bad, right? >> it's good they admitted a mistake. the details of the explanation don't look right. so they talked inout problem the timing of the air strike, but the common understanding what happened was the problem was actually the target selection. i mean, they struck a school bus

with kids. and theundamental problem is if they are not getting the details right of what went wrong, it's unlikely that they will be able to put solutions in place to get btter. >> the main debate, it seems to me, is some arg,e saytop, don't help them at al, that absolves some, at least, of u.s. responsibility, and another part ys, look, we have to help them g t better. the u.s. is sellapons to this coalition. is that the debate we need to be ?aving now >> we're kind of at a fork in the road. you can either lessen support or continue support but also help mitt gait the negative effects through advising, through more focused attention to the problems that we're seeing d helping to fix them. right now, thee crtification decision does neither and, as a result, what we're doing is we'retting the humanitarian disast just continue. we are letting our partner,

saudi arabia, suffer in terms of legitimacy and, also, in terms of makes it harder to resolve this ongoing conflict, and, of course, we havena reputaton the u.s. as well. >> larry lewis, thank you very mue. >> good to >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: chef jose andres on bringing together chefs to feed storm victims. remembering the economist who created the famous "marshmallow test." and a brief but spectacur take on telling stories on the radio. as rescuers evaluate the human toll of florence, continued flooding poses serious environmental risks. floodwaters are sweeping up

chemical pollutants and animal waste, leaving environmental groups wor term effects and public health impact. john yang has our story. >> yang: judy, in north carolina, those concerns are rising after duke energy said today that three inactive coal ash basins in goldsboro are underwater.ti the electricty said it is monitoring the site and only a small amount of ash leaked. coal ash is a byproduct of coal crning that contains toxi metals like mercury and arsenic. for decades, it's usually been stored in open-air pits filled with water, though duke energy says the goldsboro site is covered by forestland. but the heavy flooding has environmentalists worried about other duke energy coal ash sites. dad there are other hazards: the flooding breache at more than 40 lagoons on hog farms, spilling pig waste into floodwaters. also in those waters: the carcasses of millions of chickens, turkeys, hogs and wild

animals killed by the storm. will hendrick is a staff attorney for waterkeeper alliance, a group conducting aerial surveys in the carolinas to identify contaminated sites after florence. he joins me now via skype from chapel hill, north carolina. mr. hendrick, thanks for joining us. what iyour assessment of th current public health threat from the waters in the floodow area right? >> well, it's dark. it's a significant threat and sadly one that wilcontinue to increase as flood waters continue to rise. hhere are a number of sources of pollution, some ofch you alluded to in your introduction. we are monitoring them closely. we are conducting both aerial monitoring and ground patrols and water quality sampling efforts to better understandub thatc health threat. sadly, it is a threat that is exacerbated by decisions made py rful industries with respect

to their waste management. >> you say it's dire. i i mean storms, you always have some -- flood waters always contaminated. you've got sewage treatment plants that overflow, even in heavrains. what makes this worse in north carolina than it might be someplace else? >> well, honestly, i think it's that we should have known better. in north carolina, we have been hit in the past hurricanes that have exposed the threat posed by inadequately stored and managed coal ash, posed by inadequately mainentand stored waste by industrial organizations. we saw in hurricane matthew what flood waters could do, what hurricines could caus terms of breaches, inundation and in terms of releases of contamates that, based on past

experience, are leaders and are -- our leaders and industries in h this state should have ackdnowledged mitigated by removing that imminent threat from our flood plains. >> we talked to duke energy a ago.e b they said the goldsboro and wilmington site are the only twa sites th concerned about. they say they're working with state and environmental protection officials and that they're confident that there is no public health threat from the coal ash. what do you say to that? >> my response is that duke energy has shown me and again that it will understate the threat posed to publicealth and environmental quality by its own actions. it will underreport volumes discharged, it will understatere the that its own facilities are under and, most importantly, will understate and try tois dimpublic understanding of or response to

the threat posed by discharges of its coal ash and the con stitch we want b that are therein. >> you say that we should have known or recognized this threat, this problem. what, in your view, in your group's view, can be done or d should bne to prevent this from being a problem in the e future, in futorms? >> well, coal ash and swine waste and poultry waste should, for starters, not stored in our 100-year floodplain. the fact that all of duke energy's coal ash is stored in online pits within half a mile of our rivers, lakes and a streamd there are currently 62 hog operations located in the 100-yearloodplain in north carolina, and more poultry operations as well.i as ast step, given the

increasing frequency and severity of these sorts of weather events, i think it's necessary and overdue that those waste impoundments, that that waste be removed from those inherently vulnerable locations. >> will hendrick of the waterkeeper alliance, uank you very. >> thank you. >> woodruff: jose andres, who's already well known to television audiences, is becoming increasingly known for his work to help in the wake of natural disasters like florence. in fact, the celebrity chef has been on the ground in the rolinas. in a new book, andres details his experiences in puerto rico and elsewhere. he spoke to jeffrey brown about what he learned, and the challenges of disaster relief. >> brown: he was an unlikely

first responder after hurricane ma aa tore through puerto ri year ago. chef jose andres prefers the term, "food first responder." and if you wonder what a chef can bring to a natural disasterh he says : >> our pfession is a profession that is chaos. we try to surve in chaos. we try to-- >> brown: chaos is your normal life in-- >> we trto organize the chaos and that's the difference between successful restaurts and not successful restaurants because it's, kind of, chaos. and in the moment this was veryu like a crazy restaurant, but only at the largest scale. >> brown: for years, andres grew his brand as a celebrity chef: high-end dining, cookbooks, tv shows, michelin stars. a native of northern spain, he became a u.s. citizen in 2013. his washington, d.c. based company is called think-food-

group, where we watched him working on ideas and recipes for some of his 30-plus restaurants around the world. but in recent years, escalating after the devastating 2010 earthquake in haiti, andres has wanted to do more-- to use his knowledge of and passion for food to help create a new kind of activism his world central kitchen, is am non-profit hitarian organization that not onlyst responds to dis, but looks for solutions to hunger and poverty. >> chefs like me, we l feed the few. >> brown: you love to feed the few? but more and more, we a very in love of feeding the many. i cann have my fancy restaurant doing well in this corner, and en in another part of the city, people are doing poorly. brown: so just four day after maria hit puerto rico, andres was on the gramnd, and his as cooking within hours.

he enlisted the help of local restaurants, grocers and bakers, mobilizing a network of kitchens on the island that ultimately fed hundreds of thousands, making nearly four million meals. their efforts are chronicled on social media with the hashtag" chefs for puerto rico." >> we opened more than 26 kitchens. my crazy idea was not crazy. my crazy idea was doable. i think we did very good work in a very difficult situation. so i guess we got the right to write a book and share what we learned with everybody >> brown: that book is called," we fed an island," published on the imprint of his friend, the late anthony bourdain. the initial challenge, andres recalls, was convincing officials he was equipped to tackle the problem. >> for me was, in my brain, it's almost like i knew how to feed one or two million puerto ricans

and i was trying to communicat that. viously when you're a ch and you go to talk to-- imagine a government official, "listen, i want to, i can help you feed two million people. tomorrow. just give me the resources. d st believe in us. >> brown: how coey not sort of see who's this crazy guy kind of coming in thinking i know how to feed a whole island. who are you? >> it's not the first time you ow up in one of those. when they see that you have more than 30 reaurants where i feed thousands of people a day. when you are manning an organization that has more thany 2,000 employee have some skills. >> brown: he worked with fema, the federal emergency management agency, but describes his frustration with what he saw a endless bureaucratic red tape. >> the truth is that the men and women, the volunteers are

amazing so you need to be careful in the criticism, especially on tv because it sounds very harsh and seems nobody did anything. that's far away from the truth. but yes, it's true that thee systems and thganization in charge sometimes are not creating a way that gives anun opporty for people to be successful. >> brown: andres has been a frequent critic of president trump for what he considers an inadequate response to the crisis. just in recent weeks, the osficial death toll from maria was revised to alm3000, a figure predent trump then sharply disputed. andres believes the presidennt has consistely underplayed the true scope of the devastation. nd to watch him throw paper towels to hungryhirsty crowds, while i'm sure he didn't meant bad, the image, the

perception, was one of him like saying, hey, here i am to give you some paper towels so you can take care of your own.wa the problebig, the problem was huge. >> brown: his group has now been active in other disasters. this is like a battle map, almost, right of-- >> it's a battle map. and then i canevhow this to ybody and everybody understands. and so those are t shelters, those are the kitchens.: >> brown recent months, world central kitchen has been on the ground and feeding people after volcanoes in guatemala and hawaii, an earthquake indonesia, and the wildfires in cali wrnia. thk he and his team are in north carolina, helpingaf residentr hurricane florence. they've prepared and delivered0 upwards of 80,als from relief kitchens in wilmington and raleigh. at the very end of this book you write, "we need to build a new mol of disaster relief and food aid." >> when disaer strikes, people

need to be eating today. not tomorrow, not next week, not next month. we only need to make sure that organizations like ours, will be there making sure that things are getting better quicker and faster ratthr than later. 's the least we can do for people. >> brown: all this, based on a simple idea: >> nothing nurtures people better than a plate of hot food a plate of food was bringing hope, was bringing a message of saying, we care. ou're going to fight for yo make sure that tomorrow things will be better. >> brown: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in washington, d.c. >> woodruff: with some 10,000 baby boomers hitting retirement age every day, the problem of financial self-control, saving

for the future, has become more and more pronounced.om our ecs correspondent, paul solman, has been following the connection between saving f and psycholo years. wae death last week of its seminal researcherer mischel, triggers this retrospective, part of o making sense series, which airs here every thursday night. >> reporter: how hart for you personally to save, insteayo of spending money right away on something you want? >> you know, we are not born knowing all thesthings. >> reporter: an interview conducted on sesame street itself a few years agoonfirmed what many might have suspected: that grover can no more dela gratification than many of his fellow americans whon average, according to the federal reserve, have less than $4,000 in savings. 57% of u.s. adults have less than $1,000 to their names.t you can maintain self- control, psychologist walter mischel told me... te>> you have got a much b chance of taking the future into

account and likely to have better economic outcomes. >> reporter: mischel, who died last week, is known for an experiment he first ran at stanford in 1960 with fo o to six years, and that you're probably familiar with: the marshmallow test, which i ran on age appropriate grover.ll i ive you a marshmallow now, or if you wait a little while, i will give you two marshmallows, but only if you wait. >> two marshmallows. d reporter: would it be h wait? >> it would be very hard to wait, yes.ow you you know, just looking at this marshmallow right now makes me want that marshmallow right now. >> reporter: leaving aside the dubious charms of the foodstuff, the marshmallow test is actually among the most famous and replicated in the history of psychology. >> there's a marshmallow. you can either wait, and i will bring you back anothn one, so you ve two, or you can eat it now. >> i will save it. >> okay, i will be back. >> reporter: of the 600 preschoolerst stanford on whom it was run, most wolfed down the little pillow of pleasure. but one-third delayed gratification long enough to get

another. >> you get two! >> reporter: follow-up research found that the more temperate types had higher s.a.t. scores as teens. and later, an ongoing study of 1,000 random new zealanders fror birth to now t0s yielded even stronger findings. their self-control, or lack of it, almost perfectlycted their future prosperity. duke professor terrie t: >> so, the children who are of very little self-contrin are in deepcial trouble by their 30s. those who arvery high self- control are doing really well. they're entrepreneurs. they have got retirement accoun. they own their own homes. and those who are average self- control are right in the middle. >> reporter: one challenge to the marshmallow results has suggested that trust in the experimenters the key to resisting the temptation. but mischel was more interested in teaching kids how to resist. and found that the successful self-deniers employed simple strategies. >> they transform an impossibly

difficult situation into a relatively easy one byin distrathemselves, by turning around. >> reporter: by putting theal marsw farther away. >> or i can do it by exploring my nasal cavities or my ear canals and toying with the product. the fancy word for it now is executive control. i'm able to use my prefrontal cortex, my cool brain, not my hot emotional system. i am able to use my cool brain in order to have strategies at allow me to make this miserable, effortful waiting effortless and easy. >> reporter: or effortful and inhard. >> tenes. ten minutes. >> reporter: a question that's plagd this research: is self control hard-wired? >> i think some people find it much easier to exert control than others. but no matter whether one is reasonably good at this overall or easily d at this overall,

it can be enormously improved. the idea that your child is doomed if she choos not to wait for her marshmallows is really just a serious misinterpretation. a >> reporte that's why mischel worked for years with the kipp charter school program to put his ideas into practice for those who, he felt, most needed them. >> clap twice. put up your right hand. put up your left hand. put your right hand. >> reporter: the kipp infinity middle school in new york city's harlem, where, in addition to the three r's, these predominantly poor fifth graders study character to maximize success in later life, qualities like grit and gratitude, optimism and curiosity, zest and social intelligence, and one skill above all. >> what is this talking about, don't eat the mahmallow? brittany in the back. >> self-control? >> okay, so we're talking about self-control. >> reporter: in ct, they'd been talking about self-control since the first day of school,en eacher leyla bravo-willey gave all of her students the

marshmallow test. walter mischel's other major collaboration was with the sesame street workshop... >> me want it. >> reporter: ...on a series s videtarring their guru of gluttony to teach tots how to delay gratificatken. >> me can eep breath. me can self-regulate. me wait. >> reporter: we had one more question for mischel, and it formed the basis of a new year's resolution story we did a few years ago: how to apply marshmallow test strategies as adults? so if i have a new year's resolution to drink a little less than i do, what do i do? >> what you need is a plan that says, at the end of the day, 5:00 is the time that i am likely to have a drink. >> reporter: right. >> okay? i have to have a substitute activity at that time, so there will be an alternative and it

.ll be very, very practic to givyou an example from my own experience, a chocolate mousse is generally irresistible for me. >> reporter: his self-control strategy? >> i will order the fruit and that's a specific rehearsed plan, so before the guy ca tempt me with the mousse, i'm already ordering the fruit salad. >>eporter: walter mischel at age 88. but, cliche though it is, his work lives on. this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting for.he pbs newsho >> wdruff: now, another of o brief but spectacular episodes where we ask people about their passions. jay allison is an independent journalist who produces the "moth radio hour" and is the founder of the public media

website, transom.org. tonight, we get his thoughts on w he goes about finding stories for radio and the importance of paying attention. >> radio isn't a performanceth medium iusual sense or tcen like tv where several people might be ng. generally, it's maybe one person with headphones in or a person in the kitchen and if you can make that person stop what they're doing and stay stopped until you finish the story, that is our definition success. when i began in radio, i only talked to people who'd never.nt beenviewed before. the thing about talking to strangers is you-- you probably never gonna see each other again. g if yand talk to people with a camera like you're doing or with a microphone and focus fully, it's that the things come

out of lock boxes and people start revealing thingsse they can feel that you really care and that you're really paying attention. the conversation you're having has to be a real one because once you-- they start to feel like, "oh, this is an interview then?" they kind of present themselves in an interviewee way, the amazing thing is whethat gets stripped away and you just see a person whose soul is coming out or you hear that person.ca yohear it in their voices, and you know this a person you're speaking in an unmonitored way. they-- they aren't really caring that it's being recorded because it's-- they feel like the necessity of speaking. i work with a microphone and a rig, i disrespect the equipment. i tap my own face with the microphone. because it's a sort of a powerful symbolic thing to hold ke a stick in your hand and then put it in somebody else's face. at you have to neutralize and you have to make it seem like, 'eh, this is nothing.

i'm a believer in the stories of human beings. it's when we fully understand somebody else that we t we didn't like, the we thought we were afraid of, that-- thawe didn't care about, and, we hear they're story and we recognize,w "ot. they're just like me." or, "maybe, they're not just like me, but at least i feel them." then suddenly you fundamentally change. it's as though when out in the world and encounter actu life and you collect it almost like a biologist with a collecting net and you bring it back and you study it and then you figure out how to present it, how to honor it, and, this-- that work of tellinghe story of the things you find out i-- e nevetired of it. may name is jay allison. that was my brief but spectacular take on finding stories. >> woodruff: you can find

additional brief but spectacular episodes on our website,ho pbs.org/ne/brief. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh late today sent a let tore the senate judiciary committee chrman. judge kavanaugh wrote that he will be there moday if there is a hearing. he again denied the allegations of sexual ass and on the "newshour" online, we have more on the newshour online, we have more on our top story, including a detailed explainer on what the fbi might investigate in the allegation of sexual assault by supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonidrt. i'm judy wf. join us online andrrgain here to evening with mark shields and david brooks on the fallout from the accusations for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the newshour has been provided by:

>> kevin. kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >>tnd with the ongoing supp of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for puic broadcasting. d by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org martha stewart: have you ever seen a fanciful pie

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