captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, october 27: multiple casualties after a gunman fires on a pittsburgh synagogue. details emerge about the suspect eext on "pbs newshournd." >> pbs newshour weekend is made e ossible by: bernard and irhwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. royagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. ro corporate funding isded

by mutual of america-- uasigning customized indiv and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcastin and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. >> at least 11 people are dead arand six more wound afte a man walked into a synagogue near downtown pittsburgh and opene fire. he had an assault rifle and three handguns. >> it's a very horr ifng crime scene. >> it's a very horrific crime scene. it's one of the worst that i've

seen. and i've been on some plane crashes. it's very bad." >> sreenivasan: the mass murderh happened atree of life synagogue in pittsburgh's squirrel hill neighborhood, where there were services underway including a bming ceremony. local news reporters on the scene said the gunman, identified as robert bowers, barricaded himself inside the synagogue before surreceering to poli for hours this morning residents sw the area were told to shelter in place a teams raced through the streets. police officials said there were no other suspects or explosive devices and gave the all clear once the gunman was captured. at an event this afternoon in indiana, president trump called the attack an ti-semitic act. >> this wicked act of mass murder is pure evil, hard to believe, and, frankly, something that is unimaginable. our nation and the world are shocked d stunned by the grief. >> sreenivasan: earlier the president declined to comment oa gun laws, infocusing on the possibility that an armed

guard at the synagogue might have prevented the attack. if so this would be a case for, there was an armed guard, then they'd be able to stop him. maybe no one would have been killed except him. >> sreenivasan: david shribman is executive editor at the "pittsburgh post-gazette."w he joins us a skype. thanks for being with us. first, give us a sense of this community, where this happened. >> well, this is squirrel hill. it traditionally a jewish communty. it's one o most important jewish communities in the history of american judaism. it's whre judaism began and flourished and it is an area ofr odox jews. it is not uncommon to see orthodox jews walking down the street on their way to temple, synagogue ofriday nights and saturday mornings, completely unremarkable. >> sreenivasan: i know you have other reporters working on multiple stoes, what's the initial response been like? i know other synagogues were also in own for a number of

hours. >> yes, and the entire--good portions of squirrel hill, that neighborhood, also were in lockdown, banks were closed, and stores were closed. i had trouble getting to my home on my way to the office. it's-- it's a little less unsettled nowt nonetheless, it was a very difficult situation. this is a very ose-knit community. everybody knows everyone's name. everybody knows how ijmportant thish community is to this area, and it's-- it's a shockt' and a tragedy, as you know. >> sreenivasan: are there any organizations that are pitching in to try to figure out how to provide rief counseling on such a large scale? >> well, there's the usual, red cross, et cetera, going on. plus there's been an outpouring of support from other faiths. i just saw on television, bishop zubick, the bishop of the diocese of pittsburgh, expressing his griefnd his support. he's a special friend of the jewish community.

he is very close to the rabbis. there are 12 synagogues within a mile of that-- of that area. >> sreenivasan: what sorts of sort of facilities hardening, or preparations have these synagogues and these congregations taken in the past? i mean, unfortunately, this is-- >> in the past, this has been a community where, as i said before, jewish worship has been relatively unremarkable, totally integrated into fabric of this community. no one has giv much of a thought to security here. they will inrecent and future days. but, you know, on the high holidays, yom kippur and rosh shana, police are there to direct traffic. urthis the change the nand character of this community and the ways of worship quite substantially. >> sreenivasan: adre police alat this facility as part of normal security protocol? >> i doubt at they were.

this is-- my guess is that there were fewer than two dozen peopln here. >> sreenivasan: all right, david shribman, executive editor burghe "pitts post-gazette," joining us via skype. thanks so much. >> thanks. >> sreenivasanthe florida man suspected of sending at least 14 mail bombs to democratic party leaders and vocal critics oftr presidenp is in police custody and faces five federal charges. the 56-year-old cesar sayoc was arrested yesterday and ispe expected to ap in court on monday. the most recent package found yesterday was addressed to wealthy democratic party donor and activist tom steyer in california. joining us now via skype from saint petersburg florida is idevor aaronson, executive director of the flcenter for investigative reporting and a contributing writer for "the intercept." me, what do we know 24 hours have passed since the arrest bthis individual? >> what we kw cesar sayoc is he was born in new york and ended up moving to south florida when he was a teenager, graduating from a local high school here. early in his life, he aspired to

be a profes.sional wrestl at one point he had traveled with a male review show as a male stripper. but what the family attorney tells us is that basically, you know, this is a man who tried and failed at many things in his life and just never had mu success in life. but, also, really kind of had trouble finding a place to fit in, this world. and, you know, after trump started running for president in 2015, that's when siac began to get engaged in politics for the first time. and starting earlier this year is when he became very active on social media, started sharing, you know, memes about hillary clinton and george soros, and variousing people who ended up receiving pipe bombs. >> sreenivasan: how much-- right now, the twitter account is no ger up, but what kind of patterns were visible to either other people who were harassed by him or law enforcement that was looking for more evidence to corroborate individual?s the >> so, the activity on twitter itself did notss neily point

to his being the serial bomber. although, in hindsight, you an see these connections, i mean, that he was making threats, you know., but ultimatew police linked him was through a fingerprinothat was on one f the pipe bombs. cesar sayoc had been arrested in douth florida a dozen times since late 1990s, during those arrests, he had submitted fingerprints. d, ultimately, one of those fingerprints proved to be the same one that was on that pipe bomb package, according to the f.b.i. >> sreenivasan: one of the people that worked with him,pe that weraps his family members or friends, what are they saying about this? >> a family friend who had represented cesar in bankruptcy, explained he viewed cesar as being someone like ai 14-year-ola grown man's body, that this was a man who was emotionally and intellectual immature, but was also someone not moored to an kind of sense of personor history-- sense of history, sense of personal history. this was a man who apparently

was filipino and italian, but he identified on social media and through others as being native american, a member of the semol indian tribe. none of that was apparently true. createdainly, the identity he had in recent years was very much linked t supporting donald trump, but then, also, you know, kind of falling into some of the far-right memes and some of the conspiracy theories we see by some of donald trump's most ardent reporters. >>reenivasan: all right, trevor aaronson, thanks for joining us. >> of course, thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: in southern mexico, police temporarily blocked a highway in an attempt to stop a group of severalal thousand centrmerican migrants en route to the u.s. f the migrants declined offer from the mexican government to apply for refugee status and continued to walk as part of the caravan. yesterday mexican president enrique pena nieto announced a plan to offer shelte medical attention and temporary work benefits to migrants if they

apply for refugee status. more than 1,700 have already applied. alan gomez and latin america for "usa today."ns he je now from san diego. latest on the migrant caravan? >> well, they're still in very south mexiclowly making their way up. the estimate of the numbers is starting to vary quite a bit, anywhere from 7,000 o 10,000. so, basically, the suz preparing all sorts of measures to prepare for them. and, meanwhile, the mexican government is trying to do tits pakeep as many of them there as possible. >> sreenivasan: and, now,il they're about 1,000 miles away, or maybe even more. it's going to take them weeks, if not longer, to get here. but what is that reception lik what does t border patrol plan to do? tour of, we just took a the border yesterday, with the head of the border customsan protectionthey laid out a very robust plan that's heavy on the enforcement side, on the stopping them from crossing over the border. the president has already announced they're going to send

an additional 1,000 u.s. troops to the border to help that. there's already 2100 national guardsmen patrolling the border to help out with border patrol to make surn'they see a rush of these migrants trying to cross into thecountry illegally. ane difficult part is there is just not much theyo right now to speed up the process by which these migrants will be able to present themselves at the ports of entry and legally request asylum. right now, we arjust south of san diego, and they can process up to 100 a day, that's it.yo and ev else is just going to have to wait on the other side as they go through th process. so they're setting up on our side to make sure there's no illegal rush. they're trying to streamline the asylum process as much as they can, but really they're working a lot wih the mexican government and the n.g.o.s on o e other side to give them shelter,ive them food, to give them safety as they wait to present themselves at the ports d apply for asylum. >> sreenivasan: one of the ideas the president has proposed

is to stop the asylum process all together from the southern borderle is that poss >> we're not quite sure. as we've learned with this president, they're willing to push thtlegal liof what they can do in order to limit both legal and illegal immigration. the most high-pfile example, of course, is the travel ban that was implemented shortly after k e president tfice in 2017. that was struck down twice by the courts,t, bu ultimately, the third version was upheld by the supreme court. prua the legal reasoning that they used fin thatl, successful travel ban as something they can use to try to limit or completely halt asylum cases along the southern border in the erme of national security. if you rememb the president has talked about criminals, gang members, and-- quote, unquote-- mannerrers mixed into this group. ki it looks like they might try to use somend of national security nexus as a reason to stop asylums at torder. we're expecting the administration to nounce something around tuesday what

their plans are. but as secretary of homeland security security kirstjen neilsen said during her own tour of the border yesterday, everything is on the table. >> sreenivasan: this was not-- this is not the firsttime a caravan has tried to do this. what can we learn from the previous pattern, of the number of people who quit along wait or turn around our stp in mexico? >> a previous caravan, earlier this year, that arrived at the u.s. border in april, gives s a better picture of what's really going on. in that case, thagroup started off at about 1500. about 500 of them made it to the border. 122 of those were apprehended trying to enteunr the y illegally. but most of them, 401, legally presented themselves at the ports of entry, as our government has been urging them todo. 374 of those, or about 93%, passed their inial crble fear screening, which means that they're now in the country. they're going through the asylum yiocess, and they're apg to try to stay here legally. so i think that gives you a

better picture of what we could expect when this cur ends up making it to the border. >> sreenasan: all right, alan gomez of "usa today" joining us from california today. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: read about the technology that helps bomb aquads decide whethe suspicious package is a real threat. visit our website at pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: women are running for office in america at foprecedented numbers this year. instance, more than 2,600 women won major party nominations for state legislature ses in 2016-- a cord. but that number was topped this ar with more than 3,300. in the spring a report by newshour weekend's megan thompson explored the monvations of republican wo seeking election in the deep red state of indiana. here's an excerpt: >> reporter: g.o.p. strategist jennifer hallowell says it's a point of pride that republicanwo n hold so many state offices here-- lieutenant governor, auditor, secretary of state, treasurer and schools superintendent. >> i think that women are

motivated by issues similar to men.'s you know, whether it's taxes, or-- the economy, jobs. oi reject this whole noti men's issues. because every issue is a woman's issue. >> reporter: similarly, corrie meyer, a 40-year-old mother of two, says she doesn't feel the haed to emphasize the fact she's a woman when she's campaigning door-to-door. >> i figure my face would tell them that. (laughter) but, believe it or not, they bring it up to me. i have had 70-year-old men say to me, "you're a woman, the women are gonna make the difference, they're going to create change, and i'll vote for you because you are a woman." so while i don't necessary carry that banner, the voters are carrying that banner. >> reporter: why don't you necessarily carry that banner? >> because i-- i'm qualified for this position. and i think that regardless of

my gender i know that i can succeed. >> in purple, wisconn, who are hoping to turn that state blue. zach schultz of wisconsin public television has ourry s. >> drink some more water, sweetie, it's so hot. >> reporter: when alexandra nugent and emily siegrist meet for playdates at thek, their conversations might sound a little different from the other parents. >> did you do your 35 doors yesterday? >> i think i hit 25. eporter: that's because in between the park and the picnic, thgy is also a campaign stra session. >> i don't know-should i order more yard signs? >> wait until they're gone, i would say. >> and then order some? >> yeah. >> reporter: alexandra and emily met in 2017 at a town hall for

their republican congressman, glenn grothman. >> he had a town hall meeting in sheboygan. >> reporter: they were among the of voters who showed up t.turn the affordable care >> and we were both in the overflow area and just kind of kept nodding and looking over at each oth. >> and that kind of stemmed our relationship of..." we suld get together some time." >> reporter: they kept meeting and kept talking politics. rothen emily heard about aam called "emerge," which trains progressive women to run for office. >> if you want to get more active, you should check out this program. i didn't even know abou emerge, but emily looked it up, and saw it, and then told me to apply with her. >> hi,re here and ready to do this. >> reporter: on a beautiful summer day, emily and alexandra joined 2other women in a ndowless room to learn about campaigning for office. >> so, this is an experience. this is behavior change. this is how do you get morehe people t you.

>> reporter: a few months later, their names would be on the ballot. emily siegrist for state assembly... >> my friend emily siegrist-- ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: and alexandra nugent for town of sheboygan board of supervisors. >> thank you all so much for being here tonight. >> reporter: but this wasn't the culmination of a lifelong goal sr either emily or alexandra. >> y, i've never been particularly politically active before. >> reporter: in 2016, they were both mothers to young children, working and ling a normal life. >> and then the 2016 presidential electn had happened. (booing) yes. >> reporter: emily's biological mother ited from mexico. >> i can't believe we elected an individual who doesn't want me in this coand besides my children as well. and realized, "oell, what are you going to do about it?" >> repor executive director of emerge wisconsin. she says the election activated

a t of women politically. d more applications come in in the next two weeks than we had had in the previous month and a half of applications being opened. like, it just went through the roof. tedreporter: emerge was cr in california in 2002 and has expanded to 25 states. it came to wisconsin in 2007. the focus is on getting more ofwomen into publice. >> we win at the same rate as n, we're just still only about 25% of the candidates. >> reporter: forrest says there is a political ambition gap between men and women. >> we're more likely to need to be recruited, we are less likely to hear that recruitment pitch as a recruitment pitch. weff blow itas like "oh that's someone trying to say something nice about me." >> reporter: chris rahlf decided to run for the state assembly because no one had challenged the incumbent the last two elections. >> i remember going in to vote in off year elections, and there would only be one name at each office.

and that's not exciting. that's notgoemocracy. yoto have a choice. >> when i ran in '16 i didn't know about anything. >> rereportercca clarke made a late decision to run for the assembly in 2016, and lost by 20 points. >> and, i woke up like, "oh, my gosh, we're going to do this again." you ow? >> reporter: emerge gave these women training and technical advice. >> 70-8 spent in the last 30 days. why? that's when people care. >> reporter: but perhaps most impo trtant, emerge gam a support network. >> the sisterhood is, like, amazing. >> having other people, especially other women, that are going through the same thing that you go through, it's, it's just critical. >> reporter: there are emerge alums all over the state running in races ranging from school board congress. many of them are running against established incumbents in parts of the ste where democrats have not won in a long time.

>> for me, it's also important to have women running in places where maybe it is harder for them to win. >> reporter: that's the case with alexandra, rebecca, chris and emily. >> it's fairly conservative. >> reporter: they live on the eastern part of the state along la michigan, where republicans often go unchallenged. >> someone needs to ru.against him and here i am. alexandra's election was in the spring, because she ran for a seat on the town of sheboygan board of pervisors. >> so, final results. dan olsen got 585 votes. alexandra nugent 806. ( cheers and applause ) >> yeah. it's been real e exciting. itrything i'd hoped for. >> reporter: now she's dealing with issue ps ranging frks to drainage. >> as boring as drainage sounds, that's a real issue to people.

if your basement is flooding, you can't really think about much else. >> reporter: her win has resonated. >> set the tone for me, and i think, probably, some her dems the area, like, "okay." >> it kid of gives you this confidence. >> reporter: polling has shown a surge in democratic enthusiasm to vote in this fall's election. >> hi, my name is emily siegrist and i am running for state assembly in the 24th dm trict and i'st out knocking doors this afternoon. >> reporter: but first the voters need to know they're in cethe >> i just want to introduce myself-- >> state assbly, never heard you. >> oh, well that's why i'm knocking doors so you can get to meet me. it's just all about doors, and making the connection with people, and saying, "there is another out there." >> i'm chris rahlf and i'm running for state assembly. aso, we can actually go o knock on doors that probably haven't seen a democrati candidate in, you know, more than ten years. >> i'm rebecca clarke, i'm running-- >> you are? >> i are. >> you are definitely not a republican.

>> no. well, all right, sir. >> reporter: but democratic voters alone aren't enough. n>> i hitting strong democrats. my universe is maybe lean-dems, independents, unknowns and lean republicans. that's the persuadable universe we're dealing with. dy>> i have to run as some that's really going to represent the people of thisistrict. >> reporter: sometimes the person behind the door i perfectly satisfied with the way things are going. >> i'm running for state assembly herin our district. >> okay, as a democrat. >> yeah. >> uh, can't handle that one. >> really? >> there might be a handful, there might be, all right, well have a good day. those are hard doors. en>> reporter: that's he emerge sisterhood kicks in. >> there's also a lot of emotional support. because it is a very stressful process. >> if you had a rough or, and you're just, like, you just need to vent, having someone there that youan call.

>> i honestly think i would have really struggled trying to do this on my own. >> reporter: emily and alexandra felt their lives change on election day 2016, and they don't expect to go back to the way things were. >> are you registered to vote? >> yes. >> i always ask people. it's a weird question, but it's one of the first things i ask ople these days. >> reporter: alexandra is already in officand emily hopes to join her on election their children are used to seeing their names on yard signs. >> it will be weird when we're driving and she's like, "mommy, there's your sign!" >> reporter: and sitting down for intviews... >> this is real life. this is being a politician with a baby. >> reporter: this is their new mal. >> she's telling me she's done right now. this is t e done sign. 're just getting started, ruby.

>> sreenivasan: we will have more tomorrow from the scene of thsmass murder at pittsburg tree of life synagogue. officials say eleven people lost their lives. none were children. four police officers and two others were wounded. tha" all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access growgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshokend is made possible by:

bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate fuing is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individgrl anp retirement products. that's why we're your retirement cpany. additional support has been provided by: and by tporation for public broadcasting, and by s contributions to your station from viewers like you. thank you. more. pb

hello. i'm greg sherwood. and here in northern california we're used to emergencies or every kind. in recent years we've dealt with severe drought and massive fires and we've learned the painful but necessary lessons about howe tore. but we all know another emergency is cing because major earthquakes that can strike at any time are central to our history. we all know another one will hit, and over the next half hour we're gointo look at the latest science and explain how you can be proactive and protect yourselfnd your loved ones. r first guest in a fewing with moments, but first we'd like to invite you to support kqed and take a big step in your emergency planning at the same ti. now, we've got two levels for you to consider.lo so take and then make a pledge at kqed.org/donate or give us a call at 1-800-568-9999.