captioning sponsored by newsur productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on theewshour tonight, a troubling plot: explosive devices mailed to former president obama, hillary clinton, and others, all targeting prominent democrats. then, less than two weeks until election day, we break down some of the closest races for governor. plus, how stigma and a reluctance to seek treatment put t'ctors at a higher risk of suicide; and whabeing done to counteract the trend. >> since the medical board deals with your licensing, there was r hat if you sort of admitted that you needed help it would undermine who you were as. a doct >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. aj

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: t s program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. er >> woodruff: f agents are working tonight to get to the bottom of bomb scares, up and down the east coast. ewe targets range from prominent democrats to themedia, and from new york to florida. amna nawaz begins our coverage. >> nawaz: after a string of explosive devices were sent to two former democraticid prts, senior officials and a high-profile party donor, president trump today pledged action. he promised the full resources of the government to bring to justice those responsible for what he called "desp" acts. >> in these times we have to unify and send one very clear

strong unmistakable message: acts of political violence have no place in the united states of america. >> nawaz: authorities say they were able to safely remover inonate the devices, se packages targeting some of the biggest names in the democratic party. the disceries unfolded at a dizzying pace. earlier this week, a suspicious package was found in the mailbox at the compound home of billionaire george soros in bedford, new york. last night, a similar package was found, headed to the home of former secretary of state hillary clinton in chappaqua,w rk. early this morning, another one, this time sent to thec. washington, ome of former president barack obama. a few hours later, a package addressed to ormer c.i.a. director john brennan, sent to the cnn office in nerk city. that package triggered aatalarm to evathe building,

forcing journalists to continue reporting from the str outside their building. >> a shelter in place has been issued for everyone in the area. >> nawaz: abc news later tweeted a photo of what it said was theb ent to cnn, recovered by the new york police department. authorities say all of the packages contained a pipe bombpe and they susct the same person or people uld be behind the attacks. an n.y.p.d. official and new york's governor briefed the public. it appears individual o individuals sent out multiple similar packages. >> there is a number of devices and a pattern to the number of device wouldn't be at all sed if more devices show up. >> nawaz: this afternoon, the south florida offices of congresswoman and former democratic national committee chair debbie wasserman-schulz were evacuated aft a suspicious package arrived, addressed to former attorney- general eric holder. another suspicious package addressed to democratic congresswoman maxine waters of

california was intercepted at a maryland mail facility.an republeaders quickly sent out messages condemning the attacks. speaker paul ryan called them "reprehensible." senator marco rubio labeled them "an attack on america." and vice president pence spoke out at a campaign event in pennsylvania. >> we condemn these attempted acts of violence in the strongest possible terms. rdly acts are despicable and have no place in american socie. >> nawaz: the f.b.i. is now leading the investigion into the seemingly partisan attacks. but they come at a time ofng escalaugly political rhetoric, and deep divisions in the country, divisioy accuse the president himself of stoking. the president continues to publicly attack secretary clinton, encouraging rally chants of "lock her up."up >> lock he lock her up! >> nawaz: he's insulted formr c.i.a. direcennan as a "loudmouth, partisan, political

hack." and reatened to revoke his security clearance.es and a ent who often derides the press, has singled out cnn for particular scorn. >> cnn sucks! cnn sucks! >> nawaz: soros, a longtime donor to progressive causes around the world has also long been a target of conservatives and the far-right. one recent film, endorsed by the president's son, donald jr., went so far as to label soros a nazi collaborator.th billionaire investor survived the nazi occupation in his native hungary as a child. at a campaign rally in florida today, a somber hillary clinton said she wried for the direction of the country. >> but it is a troubling time, isn't it? and it's a time of d visions, and we have to everytng we can to bring our country togeer. >> nawaz: for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz.

>> woodruff: as of this hour, neither the f.b.i. nor other law enforcement officials provided any motive for the pipe bombs. e president was criticiz later today, the president and especially white house press secretary should understand their words matter. thus far, he added, they have shown nocomp comprehension of that. let's check let's check back in new york this evening about this tense and sometimes confusing day. hari sreenivasan is there for us and joins us from columbus circle on the west side of manhattan. hari, you standing in front of the time warner building. what's the situation there? >> good evening, judy. it's pretty much back to normal. there are police cars outsi but there are always meese cars trtside. there are satellitcks here because cnn is based just over my shoulder. so here at this point, there are report.s outnumbering poli there are a lot of people going

about their day, trying to,ta yu know in the holidays because this is one to have the tourist spots right here on the corner of central park. >> woodruff: hari, there were reports ay of confusion around new york city beyond time what do we know about that? >> you know, interestingly, on my way here, you know, ts is a few hours after the initial event had occurred, my phone was still going off and, in the subway, because authorities here tried to send the message out through an emeergency text alrt system for anybody in the area including colleagues of mine who were about two or three blocks everybody got a notice to shelter in place. t that alert didn't seem to turn off the activity. even hours after the fact, everyone in the subway car entered whatever that area was, all our phones went off at the same time, aid at that pont led to greater confusion because some people who hadn't seen the news or even if they had, they wondered is it there was

something new they should have been concerned about. >> woodruff: can only imagine what that must have been like. hari sreenivasan reporting live from new york. thankshari. we now turn to two guests with extensive experience dealing eswith security-related is juliette kayyem served in the department of homeland security during the obama administration s focused on domestic an international terrorism throughout her career. she's now a lecturer at harvardi univ's kennedy school of government.s joseph funk member of the u.s. secret service for 21 years, where hprserved on the ection details of former presidents george h.w. bush and bill clinton. he's now the senior vice president of torch-stone global, a security advisory firm.d welcome both of you to the program. joseph funk, to you first, what do you make of this? can you compare what's happened today up and down the east coast to anything else you've seen in your career? >> well, judy, good evening. it's a pleasure to be here.

the eventsf today, i cannot remember of any concerted effort, in my experience, other than some of the bombing campaigns that have happened in new york in thearly 1900s, the weather underground, the faln. but to target political leaders like we see today, no, this is something that i believe is new in the annals of the secret service. >> woodruff: juliette kayyem, what about you? is there anything you can t compare ? >> not really. i mean, i agree with joseph.u ow, the fact it wasn't successful is somewhat besides the point. someone or a gro of peopl tried to hurt or actually kill the senior members of one of the political parties, and we haven't really seen that in such a concerted effort like this ever, i think, in the united states. so that is why, you know, the f.b.i. is obviously taking it quite seriously. i will y, as joseph certainly knows, there is good news here,

which is the sytem did work. i would like to use the words to the extent the secret service had these layered defenses to protect, in particular, a former president really was beneficial for the outcome. >> woodruff: thank for that. joseph funk, tell us what you expect the investigation right now entails. what do you think they're focusing on? >> well, to echo juliette's remarks, the system did work. the multiple layers of security did work. but in a much broader concept, this probably, if an event like this is going to happen, the best place to happen is new york. the experience, the expertise of the nypd is unmatched, and the a f.b.i. hery robust presence and probably the lead, e flagship office of the f.b.i. office is new york. so if we are going to see eve like this happen, it's probably best that it happens in an area

that has this highest level of law enforcement. as far as proceeding, the fact that the bombs were undetonated were received in whole, i think, is going to lead to a cache of valuable investigative leads, and i would imagine a pretty rapid conclusion to this -- i hate to make predictions -- but with the bulk of evdence seized and the experience of the nypd, a.f.t. and the f..i., i think it will lead to a conclusion probably soon than later. >> woodruff: juliette kayyem, are you equally optimistic that, given what's here, that it willr be sooneather than later before we know what was behind this? >> i do. you know, i don't want to predict either, ande hrd a lot about the unabomber, the anthrax attacks and other attacks that utilized the mail system. today is so different just because of technology. so between the sort of digital footprints that may be found,

you know, video cameras, purchases online that are going to bfollowed with smeone buying a lot of one commodity that we should be worried about as wes, you know, the physical aspect of having the bomb which may have fingerprints which is going toto leamore investigative clues, both of those are verbeneficial for this investigation. the last thing, though, is the breadth of thes-- the delivery of these devices, each of tho devices had a certain number of erabilities that are goi to be exposed by a good law enforcement case. there is couriers involved, there is puchases involved, there is different states, so i ink, in some ways, because this was so big, the aulnerabilities of trying to plan this may beily exposed and solved by law enorcement. this is not the 1980s whre we were dealing with, you know, similar type attacks or even

early 2000s. >> woodruff: joseph funk, we did hear in amna nawaz's reporting earlier that they are forosing on one or a gup of individuals who would be behind all of these attacks, potentially. is there a type person who would try to pull off something like this? clearly, we are in a very heated political vironment right now. >> we are, judy. i really can't speak to motives. i wouldin sayidents like this are usually traced back to a loner. one of the positive aspects prior to sending av deice through the mail, many times these people whom comit these acts are letter writers. the secret service will have a vast database of ltrs that have been written, comparing those letters w th some ofhe packages sent today may help to

identify a suspect. that beg said, i would expect is investigation to tak a lead into the political reena th we are -- arena we are in nowadays. rhetoric does have results on both sides. >> woodruff: juliette kayyem, picking up that, i guess my question is, yoow, we just heard joseph say that the person who did this likely to have already expressed himself or herself some way out there, whether it's social media, writin hletters. does that affect the investigation here? >> so there will be part of boeh ues of identifying the person and then also getting to motive. so, you know, obviously, joseph and i want to be careful sort of about, you know, making too may conclusions, but i will say this, a sophisticated law enforcement effort right now

will take -- will look at who were the targets of the bombings and ake a rational conclusion, simply because it's a political conclusion doesn't mean that it's wrong. you know, we shouldn't let bei careful, you know, sort of blind us from being smart, which is essentially someone attacked democrats or cnn, which is aligned with dem gocrats oreorge soros, so you will start with a position of someone who doesn't orke those institution individuals and that would be generally someone who's not a democrat or left-leaning. that's not political, it's just juw enforcement at this stage. >> woodruff: we'ret on the first night after this has happened. ateast most of these bombing atinmpts. we're to continue to watch it closely as i know the two of you will, juliette kayyem and joseph funk, thank you both. da thank you.

>> woodruff: in ths other news, a new sell-off wiped out most of wall street's gains this year. the dow jones industverage lost 608 points to close at 24,583. that's bel where it was on nuary first. the nasdaq fell 329 points, and is down 10% fr its peak-- what wall street calls a correction. and, the s&p 5 gave up 84 points. it, too, is now negative for the year. saudi arabia's crown prince declared today that the killing of jamal khashoggi was a heinous crime, and he promised justice. mohammed bin salman addressed an investment conference in riyadhs itis first statement since the saudis acknowledged khashoggi was killed at their consulate in istanbul, turkey, and suspicions have been raisedt he prince might have known about the plot. >> ( translated ): we know that many are trying to use thisg painful th drive a wedge

between saudi arabia and turkey. this wedge will not happen and t we will prove world that the two governments are cooperating to see that all perpetrators are takenurt and justice will be seen in the end. >> woodruff: meanwhile, president trump told "the wall ournal" that the prince is largely running saudi arabia, so he bears ultimate responsibili. and, turkish president erdogan vowed his governme will not allow a cover-up. russian president vladimirrnutin today european nations agaist accepting u.s. medium- range missiles. that's after president trump threatened to quit a 1987 treath that banneweapons. putin spoke in moscow, where he met with italy's prime minister. he said russia will target counies where any u.s. missiles are deployed. >> (n translated ): the m question is what they will do with these newly available missiles. if they deliver them to europe, naturally our response will have to mirror this. the european countries wch agree to this will have to

understand that they put their own territory under threat of a possible retaliatory strike. this is obvious. >> woodruff: meanwhile, nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg said the allies agree with u.s. claims that russia has violated the existing treaty. but putin charged it's the u.s. that's guilty of violations. the remains of hurricane "willa" exdissipated over northerno today, as emergency workers tried to reach cut-off coastal towns. the stormade landfall last night about 50 miles southeast of mazatlan, with sustained nds of 120 miles an hour s reported the winds damaged a hospital, blew down power lines d tore up houses. back in this country, someone in south carolina wokup more than $1.5 billion richer today. one winning ticket was sold, in the town of simpsonsville, for last night's mega millionst. lottery jack it's the second largest ever, in the u.s.

the winner has yet to come forward. w and, tan who created the green bean casserole has passed away. dorc reilly worked at campbe soups' corporate kitchen, and came up with the casserole in 1955, made of green beans, cream of mushroom soup and crunchy fried onions. it remains the company's most popular recipe. dorcas reilly was 92 years old. ill to come on the newshour: inside three key governor's races ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. exploring the impact of new legislation aimed at combating the opioid crisis. why doctors are at a higher risk of suicide than the patients they serve. plus, playwright octavio solis on his new memoir about growing up along the u.s./mexico border.

>> woodruff: we turn now to the midterm elections, less than two weeks away. 36 of the 50 governorships are up for grabshis year and while republicans currently control three-fourths of them, democrats eye mounting surprisingly strong challenges in somelaces across the country. to talk about a few of these, i'm joined by bill nigut of georgia public broadcasting in atlanta. frederica freyberg of wisconsin public television in madison. and tom hudson of wlrn public radio in miami. a hello three of you. we're so glad to have you with us. i'm going to start with the biggest population statics tom hudson, of course, that's florid and you the incumbent republican governor rick scott is given that up to run for the s. senate and it's turned into a pretty tight race between the democratic mayor tallahassee

and republican congressman ronnt de. tell us what each one of these men has going this their favor and what's working against them. >> well, this is not a boulevard election in florida. there is no middle of the road. this is as polarizing of a state election that you're going to find here in this election cycle, judy. i think that what you have is, on one side, an excited, progressive democrat in the face of andrew gillum who excited base voters to come out in the primary and surprised a lot of pollsters and a lot of prsessional political watch to win in a very crowded democratic primary and, on the other hand, you hae a non-traditional republican candidate in the form of congressman ron desantis, who has run on the play book of 2016 donald trump and vey successfully who beat back a much more traditional republicae candidate in t primary. so for voters, 30% of florida voters that are no-party affiliated, they did not parts

participate in the ust primary. you have to be registered in one party or the other to vote. >> right. this is where the battleground is. this is why i say this is not a boulevard type election. there is no mid they are fighting tooth and nail for each votey and tunt. the last two gubernatorial elections d been decided by fewer than 70,000 votes. >> woodruff: in tems of what they have going for and against them, the issues, i wanget to quickly to georgia and bill nigut, the replicans held the seat for decades but you now have a fiery democrat intacey stacey -- stacey abrams who is running again brian kemp and she's giving him a run for his money.to what are the f in this case? >> this is a very tight race according to every poll, a race of contrast, a strong democrat against a strong conservative republican.

abrams has been focusinlike laser on a couple of really key issues. she wants to expand medicaid in georgia, and she's focusing on education, on public education. so she's been very, very focused on issues. she has also been attacking brian kes over iss voter suppression. we've got an lot of national attention, as you well know,ca judy, e there are people who think that the secretary of state brian kemp, now running for governor, has, over the yee s, excluded peoom the voter rolls, afran-americans who are being denied the right to vote. that's a somewhat uknown issue here. we're not quite sure how methodical and deliberative it's been, but certainly the optics suggest there have been some problems there. brian kemp's beheen on attack. they debated here last nig and brian kemp spent a great deal of his time repeat ago theme he's ed throughout the

race which is stacey abrams is a radical, she's too liberal for georgia, she's getting moneyde from nationaocratic forces outside the state, and he's focused on that as a big part o the race. >> woodruff: let's turn to wisconsin, frederica freyberg. the republican incumbentc governortt walker, this is his fourth run if you count thee recaction he won in 2010, and he's run into surprisingly strong opposition from tony evers. tell us about this race. what are the ctors working on both sides in. >> well, it's true, scott walker and tony evers are in what is projected to be a very tight race one orwo-point race, according to experts. so tony evers is theen superint of public construction in wisconsin, and he is kind of staking this claim to be the education governor, but scott walker is now saying he is education governor because he infused his state budget with new moey for k-12

schools. so this is something that the candidates have been fighting back and forth over, including really difficult achievement gap, racial achievement gap in the state's urban school districts, which are among the worst in the nation, ach are blaming each other over. this but scott walker finds himself in a tighter race than he might have thought hwould have had. >> woodruff: and tom hudson, back to you on florida.i just qly, what matters most to voters this year, and how much of ctor is president trump? >> president trump is an enormous factor here in the florida gubernatorial election. i think on e issue side, it is healthcare. there's debate around the pre-existing conditions and congressn desantis' position on the federal act and andrew gillum proposing to expmeand caid which has also not been expanded in the state of florida

under the affordable care act. also the environment which traditionally has never been a driving, motivating issue here, but we've had blue green algae in lake okeechobee, and then the naturally occurring red tide, a more stronger outbreak of re tide in the gulf coast and also on the atlantic side, so it has put water quality front and center in this gubernatorial campaign fboth parties that we haven't seen in elections past. >> woodruff: bill nigut, what about issues, factors in the race in georgia and, inul part, president trump? >> trump has not been much of a factor in the general election campaign. he's tweeted a couple times nowi support for brian kemp. kemp doesn't talk about limit a lot on the campaign il, and stacey abrams has not been spending a great deal of her time attacking him. i think there simplon for that is trump won georgia by 5 or so points, but i think both

sides recognize that trump, as we've seen in other races, can be as much of a distraction as he is an advantage. he might motivate democrats as much asns republi >> woodruff: frederica freyberg, president trump is in wisconsin today. >> that's right, in fact, hes arriving in kind of the north central part of the state later this afternoon. this is a part ofh the state tat trump won by double digits. so his visit isxpected, of course, to kind of energize and boost the republicabase, and that's what republicans and governor walker are hoping happens. however, as your ast gue just suggested, democrats are thinking that, also, hs appearance boosts their base. so, already, large lines are forming for president trump whog n, is appearing in one of these counties he won byouble digits. there are 23 counties in the state of wisconsin in 2016 that

previously voted for barack obama that then turned and voted for donald trump. >> woodruff: a rural part of wsconsin. back tyou, tom hudson, on i guess you would call them the x factors in this case, charges of mrruption, and, frankly, racism. >> absolutely, race is playing an enormous role,lso, in this. as far as the corruption investigation, this is an f.b.i. investigation that has centered around some of the doing in tallahassee. andrew gillum, the mayor of tallassee, the docratic candidate consistently said the f.b.i. tells him he is not a target of this investigation. the latest flap is over oid for tickets to the hamilton broadway show during an drew andrew -- andrew gillum visit several years ago in new york. this is going to come up the character question comes into play, no doubt about it. on race, this was fro th

get-go, congressman desantis, the morning after winning the primary with his monkey-up comments, there have been some flirtations with other white supremacists and white nationalists groups he's had to defend and push back against. >> woodruff: i wt to thank all three of you, tom hudson in florida, frederica freyberg in wisconsin, bill nigut in georgia. thank you all three. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: it's been rare to get bipartisan legislation on almost anything for years now. but the nation's overwhelming opioid epidemic provided one of those few opportunities today. on average, more than 130 people die in the u.s. each day from the crisis. and opioids have ravaged communities as million people have misused the drugs. today, as william brangham exains, the president and

congress we able to tout their plan to provide new money and changes to combat the problem. in just a few moments i will sign the single largest biru to combatcrisis in the a story of our country. >> brangham: nearlar after declaring the opioid epidemic a public health emergency,to president trumy signed a sweeping bipartisan bill to address it. it's a crisis that killed nearly 50,000 americans last year. >> together we are going to end the scourge of drug addiction in america. we are going to end it or make an extremely big dent in this terrible, terrle problem. >> brangham: the bill, which runs over 600 pages, is called the opioid crisis response act. it calls for $8 billion in federal funding over the next five years and tries to do a lot of different things, including reducing the illegal supply of

opioids and increase treatment for those who are addicted. to do that, the law makes changes to medicaid and medicare. in medicaid, it eliminates an old rule that blocked the government from paying forl residentdiction treatment at facilities with more than 16 beds. this would expand access to treatment subsicntially. in me, for americans over 65, the program would now cover ajmethadone treatment, a m opioid-replacement therapy used to treat addiction. the new law will also allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants t prescribe buprenorphine, another ore of three federally approved medications usedddiction treatment. currently, only about 5% of the nation's doctors are licensed to i this, and shortages are particularly badn rural areas of the country. the law also tackles the flow of fentanyl into the u.s. fentanyl is the incredibly potent synthetic opioid that causes the vast majority of overdose deaths. l w, just like fedex, the u.s

postal service wilhave to collect more detailed information on international shipments, which are a main conduit for the drug io the u.s. last year in boston, d.e.a. special agent michael ferguson described to me just how deadly fentanly had become for heroin uss in his city. >> so, the deadly combination is high-purity heroin. and i'm talking about heroin that is 50, 60, 80, upo 94% re. i thitself will kill you. now you add in fentanyl, aop synthetiid. if anything can be likened to a weapon of mass destruction and what it does to a community, it's fentanyl. >> brangham: the law also contains money for research into non-addictive pain treatment, more distribution of anti- overdose medications, and more education about best practices for prescribing drugs. across the country, local officials are pursuing their own

various efforts to combat the epidemic. and over 20 states are currently suing purdue pharma, the maker of oxycontin, for what the argue is that company's role in fueling this crisis. given the scope of the epidemic, it's important to understand what this bill can change, and what it doesn't do. for that, we turn to a pair of experts who know this terrain well. keith humphreys is a professor of psychiatry at stanford university who served as a drug policy advor in the obama and bush administrations. he worked with the senate and house taff on the bill that was signed today. and gary mendell is the c.e.o. shatterproof-- it's a non- profit group he founded to help families cope with the addiction of a loved one. gary lost his own son brian in 2011 and he attended the white house signing ceremony today. gentlemen, thank you both very much for being here. >> sure. gary mendell, first off, we tried to describe that there are many, mny ements in this legislation. what is it you most like aboutth

? >> to really reverse the course of this epidemic there are four big things -- it's containing it, so no mor lwill ouroved ones become addicted opioids unnecessarily. two with, for those who are already addicted, let's treat them with protocols based on science. number three, it's a chronic illness, people will relapse and for thosee need medication to rescue them at the time ofla e so they don't die and live. underlying it all is to change the way our entire society thinks about this disease. this is a chronic illness, it's not people with bad will power, it's a change of brain chemistry ad we need to treat it with love and empat programs based on science. with that umbrella, what does this bill have? atment it focuses on tre and there are several clauses in this bill that relate to expanding supply of professionals who can treat it,g which at, and several claws that relate to expanding

the capacity of our healthcare systemoso treat it. are all good and positive3 o you,th, same question i know you were involved in crafting some draft versions of this legislation, what are you lebrating today in this? >> well, even though the parties couldn't agree on a big bang ofu making age investment like we made for hiv/aids a generation ago, they were able to agree on taking advantage of the health insurance programs we already have and maing them more a part of the addiction treatment infrastructure so that means medicaid is going to cover more residential care, which is reallymportant, medicare is going to cover treatment for people who are adcted to opioids. that's more important than a lot of people realize. the stereotype is eveone is young who have this problem, but a number of senior citizens suffer from it as well. >> gar wmendelat about the issue of money? there is, by some estimates, about eight dollars billion authorized over five years. i've heard from numerous public health officials who say eight

dollars billion is barely even enough for onehear. do youk we're still missing a big chunk of money to address this crisis? >> what we need is two things -- we need structural change so thiss treated within our healthcare system through insurae like any other chronic illness on an ongoing basis, then we need a band-aid right away, because that's going to take time to do, to help as many people as we can today. and 8-, 9 billionis not enough. the states need more. the states are not crying for one-year grants. hhis needs to be five and ten-year money soy know it's coming so we can build the system, then we need to create structural change so we don't need federal funding, it's built into the system. >> by maunts, we do not have enough treatment beds, we do not have enoh facities that offer the best medical based assistance treatment, how do we surmount this part of the

crisis. >> the bill does not do enough in that respect. to give comparison reports. the president's council on economic advisors estimates the damage of the epidemic at $500 billion. s our healthcands about 3 trillion a year. so six, seven, eight, nine billion is a very small investment given we're losing 70,000 americans a year to this disorder, so it's certainly not enough. the thing we need to do, gary said, is move away from the idea this is a one-year or two-yea problem we can fix with a grant. we have to build it into the basic structure of how we finance healthcare, and i would say to chronic pain as these are problems that will always be with us. we have to permanently build them in h. yes, it costs money but will have a huge impact on bl health and public safety. >> gary, we know that one of the big genesis factors of this epidemic was the overprescription of these medications, and we are years into this epidec, and, yet, i still hear stories from good

friends whose children have a sports injure and they come home with weeks and weeks of opoid pills. today in this day, do you think we're doing enough on educating doctors about how to prescribe these medications? >> yeah, i jut want to rhrase that and say it's not what i think, it's a fact. we are absolutely not doing enough. we -- in a 15-year perio we have increased the amount of ioids prescribed observe an annual basis four times, the amount of deaths six times, and it's not just correlated, it's causal.r everyone aees. >> you put more of these drugs out there, more people will die. >> the lines go like thatge er, in fact, even more on deaths. so what's happened with prescribing? it's come down about 25% or 30% tand now we're at thrimes where we were. still e times the amount of opioids as any other country in the world, and we have doctorsu every day, as ust said with

your friends, still prescribing 30ays worth of 0xycontin or vicodin or percocet for a sprained ankle or wrst. these are not dishonest doctors, these are good doctors w haven't changed with the current science. there's no way you could say we're doing enough if this still happens. if this were zika or ebola spreading across this country, we would contain i a weekend >> gary mendell, the legislatioe has been si maybe a sense of closure to all this, but i'd like to put you back in the position of counseling the house and senate a the president. from today forward, what would you like to see us do? >> i wou like us to stop thinking of this as a crisis, a short-term issue that will be resolved by a couple of years of hard work and, instead, just realistic that addiction is part of the fabriof population health, it has been, you know, for the entire history of our pgo away in two or three years.

we would never have a grant program to te care of cance for two or three years because we know we're always going to have people with cancer. so we need to bite the bullet, go into programs like medicaid, medicare, adequately reimburse treatment, make a big investment in training because we need physicians, nurses, psychologists and other professionals who are trained in taking care of this disorder and just accept this will be part of what the healthcare system does from here on out because rig now it's opioids, ten years from now it's going to be a different drug, and we have to be prepared for that.um >> keithreys, gary -- gary mendell, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. thanks. >> woodruff: they dedicate their lives to saving others, but can't always save themselves. doctors are at a higher risk of suicide compared to other adults.

and physicians are declining to seek treatment for the depression. patrick testra of newsy, an online and cable news network, has our report. it's the focus of this week's segment on the "leading edge" of science and medicine >> i can remember getting the call. as soon as she called and told me that he had disappeared, i think i just knew. >> reporter: north carolina physician mitchell hardison was a popular family doctor wi a secret. >> all of these guys were doctors, ievthis photo. they were my dad's closest friends, he wouldn't have talked deout that with them. >> reporter: he waessed, his daughter anna says. >> the stigma around mental illness and medicine is so strong that i don't even think he would admit it to his closest friends. honestly, i don't even really know if he admitted it to himself. >> reporter: hardison killed himself three yes ago. he was among medical doctors who take their own lives at a highea rate cd to the general population. a landmark 2004 harvard study

found male physicians, were 40% more likely to die by suicide. and female physicians, were 200 percent more likely to take their own lives. research shows long work days, s constaep deprivation, a sense of guilt and a fear of showing weakness are factors. >> i am a killer. that's a fact.>> eporter: anesthesiologist alex hellman felt like his actions contributed to a patient's death after he replaced a breathing tube. >> there's always a sense and a, question lell where's the justice in this situation? there's only one way to make this situation right. and that answer was suicide. >> reporter: his wife stopped his suicide attempt. he thought the emotional pain was just part of the job. >> i got tons of education on how to prevent disasters and accidents. i had education on what to do if and when onhappens to you. >> reporter: in recent years, groups such as the arican

medical association have stepped up their fight against physician burnt and depression, now recommending hospitals offer new resources like 27 confidential counseling. at the time, only doctor hardison's family knew he was sick. >> he was 100% positive that if he came forward and said he needed help that there would be a reprisal of some sort. >> reporter: hardison's daughter says her father had fallen victim to a medical system that he felt discouraged him from seeking psychiatric care. hardison worried if he got treated for his depression, he'd have to disclose it when he renewed his medical license with the board. at that time, north carolina asked whether doctors had been treated for mental issues onpl their ation for a medical license or renewal. >> since the medical board deals with your licensing, there was a fear that if you sort of admitted that you needed help it would undermine who you were as a doctor and they would start digging into things that hadn't even been done incorrectly and that would just result in like smearing your name and losing your license or you know just

possibilities like that that were terrifying. >> reporter: katherineat the university of michigan studies doctor suicides. her research shows that mental health questions on physician applications keep doctors from seeking counseling, while failing to actually identify unstable and unsafe doctors. >> just having a mental health problem doesn't necessarily mean that there are any behavioral problems. so, i think boards often. conflate the t >> the board's mission is very simple it's stated in statute;pr basically, tect the public against people who should not be practicing medicine. >> reporter: ian marquand is executive officer of the montana board ofedical examiners, responsible for licensing doctors. monta was among 38 states we found that asked doctors about their ment health when they apply for or renew a medical license. >> with mental health, we don't go into specifics, but we do want to make sure that our providers are stable individuals.

again, to prevent any harm to patients. 's medicalr: monta application asks about five years of past psychiatric history. but numbers provided by the montana medicaboard show out 22 applicants who reported mental diagnoses in the past r ree years, none ended up with any impact to thcense. why ask the question, then? >> that may be a question for the board in our department to review. >> reporter: it's a similar story in other states that require disclosure. the head of wyoming's medical board said, "in my eleven yearsi the board, i cannot recall a single time that the board declined to or physician assistant on the basis of a disclosed mental health condition." >> there's quite widespread concern that many of these iestions would not hold up if they were challenga court of law because they're very broad, they don't talk about

current impairment. >> reporter: the americans with disabilities actrohibits discrimination based on disability, including mental health diagnosis. state boards in minnesota and new jersey changed their mental health questions after doctors bccessfully argued that the questions were tad and violated their rights under the a.d.a. last spring, medical boards across the nation gathered in charloe, north carolina, to talk about this issue. >> so this is the nation's state medical and teopathic medical board coming together. >> reporter: doctor humayun audhry leads the federation of state medical boards. >> all in favor of accepting the document. r orter: the federation advises states on the best practices >> it does have a lot of meaning when the nation's state medical bards decide to support a particular point of view on anything. >> reporter: the group passed 35 recommendations to promotene physician we. topping the list, they asked k ate boards to consider whether it's necessary to ctors about mental health at all and to ensure questions focus on current impairment, limiting

them to the past two years. we found at least 21 states that ask about three or more years of mental health history. katherine gold hopes the report makes state boards go a step further to eliminate questions about mental health. >> but i tell you, as e ng as ates are asking physicians about mental health, you are going to have many, manyns physicho don't speak up and don't get help and just get worse. >> reporter: after mchell hardison's suicide in north carolina, the state medical board there removed the mental health questions from physician licee renewal applications. following the federation vote, the board took the question off the initialicense application as well. >> honestly, i think he would be thrilled that something about his life helped somebody and horrified that the story is public, and that's almost to me the reason why we have to do it because he felt like it couldn't be talked about and it shouldn't be something anybody knew. and i don't feel that way. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm patrick terpstra from newsy.

>> woodruff: newsy has much more on physician depression andsu ide at newsy.com/unspoken. >> woodruff: with imion at our southern border very much in the news, we finish tonight with a perspectloe that takes a er view. jeffrey brown recently spot w th playwritavio solis about a nemoir chronicling his childhood along that border. >> they're naive art painted for a specific person. >> brown: they're called retablos-- small simple paintings of mexican folk art, often religious in nature. >> in this one, this man has been stung by a bee. >> brown: octavio solis has collected them for years. >> each one of these is like a

flash fiction story. >> brown: flash fiction? >> because it's all encapsulated in one ige with a little writing in it. >> brown: "retablos" is also the name of solis'latest work: a collection of stories about his childhood along the texas-mexico er. >> that's what revisiting el paso is like for me. like walking into a retablo with a rusty surface for a sky and misremembered. family and friends for saints d supplicants and the lost distilled moments of my border past for miracles.oc >> brownvio solis, author of more than 20 plays regularly performed around the country, is one of the leading latino voicet in the t. we're not on the border anymore are we? >> no, not at all. >> brown: he lives in rural seegon now, but in "retablos," he looks back at h as what he calls a "skinny brown kid." >> that's what i was growing up there. and everything that comes with it. all the hang-ups that come with being a young man who's unsure

of who he is and what he is as an american growing up in el paso, texas. >> brown: you describe a family that's isome ways living on the border of legality as well. you're born in the u.s. your mother, not but she becomes legal. your father's not at first. >> we saw people crossing all the time around our household. they looked exactly like us but they weren't us. we always found a way to create distance. but we were so much like them. and that distancing didn't work at some poinbecause border patrol would always stop us and ask us, "where do you live?"" can you recite the pledge o" allegiance >> brown: you always felt that. >> i always felt that. that never left me. >> brown: those tensions have often been a theme in his work... >> i dub you don quixote. don quixote la plancha.

>> brown: including a new version of "don quixote" that was staged this summer at the california shakespeare theater. >> to fight for the unemployed. >> using the quixote spine, i was able to tell a new story about the border and about the border patrol and about the immigration issues that we're dealing with today. i feel it's incumbent on me, in these times, to address the issues that i feel are endangering tinos in this country. >> brown: so your quixote is going through that lan at the border? >> and instead of fighng, tilting at windmills, he's tilting at surveillance drones that the border patroluts around the desert. >> brown: recently solis had a chce to reach and teach an audience of millions, as part of a team of cultural consultants hired by pix for the blockbuster hit, "coco"-- an

animated film about a boy and his family in mexico. >> they had us look at every aspect of the film. we became the firewall between something that could be cookeds up just for sad something that was authentic to the culture. >> brown: meaning-- >> meaning a story that would curately depict the latino,xi the culture in the film. >> brown: which does not often happen.s >> which dt happen at all. and they seldom bring in consultants to say "check is the dialogue sounding authentic? is this correct spanish? would a character dresthis y? >> brown: solis says he was pleased with the final result, and the popurity it enjoyed. >> it was a way also for general american audiences to relate to someone who's colored like me in

a way that is so immediate and visceral and humane. what's so puzzling a a so disturbiut the times that we're living in, is that a film like "coco" can attract such a wide audience and yet at the same time, a lot of that audience is demonizing us. it's really, it's very hard. it's very hard to e that. i don't understand. >> brown: these days, with wife jeanne and their daughter gracie, there are chickens and goats to tend, and also new plays on the horizon. one is called "mother road," a kind of sequel to john steinbeck's classic story of migrant workers, "grapes of wrath." the nearby oregon shakespeive fe will stage it as a world premier next summer. for the pbs newsreur, i'm jeffbrown in medford, oregon.

>> woodruff: on the newshour dilemma with autonomous cars. a new study of offers clues onw ethically program driverless vehicles based on that and more is on our web 6site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. 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 on. pr major funding for the pbs newshour has beeided by: >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an unlimited r reless plan. s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv

>> and with the ongoing ipport of thetitutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh accessgbh.org ry

hello, ee, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. a caravan of 7,000igrants bears down on the united states through mexico and president trump is accused of manufacturing midterm hysteria. we get the latest on the ground, and we speak to the former mexican foreign minister jorge castaneda. then, is america losing its longest war?i speak to stanley mcchrystal, former commander of allied troops in afghanistan. and our walter isaacson obes the origins of life, the universe and everything with theoretical physicist, brian green.