captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on t newshour tonight, less than a week from the critical midterm elections, we take a look at some of the close senate races that could decide the balance of power in washington. then, new details in the murder of jamal khashoggi, as the brother of saudi arabia's monarch returns to the kingdom, raising questions about the country's leadership. plus, inside the fig surrounding the mining of phosphorus in florida, which is essential for agriculture but may be linked to devng red tides and algae blooms.wo >> wd work roughly 200 people in this process. a tremendous economic impact on these two counties. >> education is the most important thing we can do to eople understand what th threat is. this will destroy bradford county, it will destroy its

attraction as rural paradise. woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. the engine that connects us.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: a second round of tinerals was held today in pittsburgh for v of saturday's shooting at the "tree of life" synagogue. melvin wax, irving younger, and joyce fienberg were laid to rest in separate services. they were among 11 people shot to dth in the attack. the accused shooter, robert bowers, was indicted today on 44 federal counts. he also faces state murder charges. president trump today kicked off his final week of campaigning for the mid-term elections. he plans to travel to eight battleground states over six days. r e president left this afternoon orida, where he's stumping tonight for republicans in the governor and senate races. >> it seems that the campaign is going very well it looks like we're doing very, very well in the senate, a lot of seats that were not really being thought of in terms of being victories a year ago are now look like they very much could be victories and

and i think we're going to doe well in the hoso but i know we're doing well in the senate and it looks like we're doing okay in the house, we'll just have to see. >> woodruff: also todaca the presidened again for ending automatic citizenship for those born in the united states. retiring hou speaker paul ryan had said an executive order cannot oveide the constitution on that point. mr. trump said rn should focus on holding the house majority, and not on "something he knows nothing about." and on sending active duty aoops to the border, the president said ty could deploy as many as 15,000 to back up the border patrol. in pakistan, the supreme court today threwuthe conviction and death sentence of a christian woman accused of blasphemy against islam. asia bibi denied insulting the prophet muhammad, but she had been on death row since 2010. after today's decision, thousands of hard-line islamists protested in lahore and other

cities. they set tires on fire and demanded that bibi be put to death. >> ( translated ): we demand from the government and from prime minister imran khan to immediately punish thebl phemer, so that no one dares commit such a crime in the future. until th will continue.protests >> woodruff: two politicians who had tried to help bibi have been d sassinated over the years. she is now expec leave pakistan for her safety. yarch teams in indonesia have found the main body of the lion air jet that crashed just after takeoff monday. they say high-tech scannersp pickedat appears to be the fuselage, about 100 feet deep in the java sea. the teams say they've also picked up signals from the flight data recorder. meanwhile, families of the 1 ash victims are waiting on shore, as debris is brought in in economic news, general motors

offered buyouts to 18,000 white- collar workers in north america, in the face of slowing sales. all told, the auto maker has about 50,000 salaried workers in the u.s., mexico and canada. wall street rallied for a second day, on upbeat quarterly earnings reports. the dow jones industrial average gained 241 points to close at 25,115. the nasdaq rose 144 points, and the s&p 500 added 29. and, bostonians paid tribute today to their world sers champion red sox. players rode oshduck boats and ed off the world series trophy to hundreds of thousands. of f it's the team's fourth title in 15 years. still to come on the newshour: the key senate races with less than a week to go untithe midterm elections. a look at the race for attorney general in michigan. how the saudi royal mily is

handling the international fallout from the murder of jamal khashoggi, and much more. >> woodruff: election day isa less thaek away and while democrats are hoping to flip the house of representatives, they face a tougher challenge in the senate. of the 35 senate seats up thisar tight races in key states could boost the current republican majority.ou to talk some of these races i'm joined by brandon smith of indiana public broadcasting; christ conover of arizona public media and chas s wpln public radio in nashville. we welcome all three of you to the "newshour". christopher conover, let's start with you.

in arizona, what are voters talking about? what are they focused on in this senate race? >> the big focus here is immigration, in many ways, because arizona is a border state. i'm in tucson, which is one of the larger cities in the state. we are less than 100 -- 60 to 70 miles from the border.he soorder is always an even in local races her certainly in a federal race. the other issues are the same that we he across the country with healthcare, and we hear a little bit about education here, but it's mainly healthcare and the border, with the border and .migration being number b >> -- number one. >> woodruff: christopher, i should have named the candidates in your state. they are kyrsten sinema, the democrat, martha mcsally, the republican. let's turn to tennessee and chas pusk. this is another ican-held seat. what are voters talking about there? >> yeah, this s definitely

been a nationalized election. a lot of the conversation is nd the national issues, especially here towards the end of the campaign. immigration has been a big issue, and a lot of people are telling us at the polls that they are thinking a lot about ur, in large part thanks to congressman blac who is the republican nominee, bringing it up a lot on the campaign trail, and we hear about michael cohen, something the democrats are pushing. phil bredesen is also healthcare executiv and he felt comfortable talking about h issues, so the national issues are prominent inoohis race. >>uff: national issuesar are partic local in tennessee. brandon smit indiana, this is a seat held by the democrats that republicans would like to take ay. last night, you had a debate in inana between the incumben democrat joe donnelly and his republic challenger mike braun, happened to be moderated

by amna nawaz. >> it was called the affordable care act, which joe was all for. it's the unaffordable care act. it was doomed to fail because you had big government get in cahoots with big healthcare, specifically big health insurance. i took on the health insurance companies ten years ago, and regardless of what his democratic talking points are, l d never be for any replacement that doesn't cover pre-existing conhetions. >> whaaid is not true. mike supports a lawsuit that would end the affordable care act, that would end pre-existing conditions. so all of you watching out there tonight, if you have someone in your family with diabetes, with arthritis, with asthma, their coverage goes away if mike's lawsuit is successful. as i said, that's how important this is. those are the facts, and he

can't deny that. >> woodruff: so that wasike braun first then joe donnelly. g , brandon smith, has healthcare been a sue in this race? >> absolutely, like my two lleagues before me said, healthcare and immigration are two issues that a lot of voters and e candidates themselves are talking a lot about in indiana. i'll add one they didn't tal about which is an economic issue, the tariffs president trump s imposed. the two biggest industries in indiana are agriculture and manufacturing, so there are folks in this state that really don't like the tariffs and steelworkers up north that really do. >> woodruff: how is that playing? e agriculture sector doesn't like them, right? >> right, and mike braun has hat a trouble with that. he's had to sort of change his position over time. he's all for donald trump and says that a lot, but recently hr d to take a harder line on the tariffs and say that, you know, if he gets into the senate, that he'll tell the president to get rid of them, which he wasn't saying earlier

in the campaign. >> woodruff: back to arizona, christopher conover and the trump factor. martha mcsally, thes republican, eping her distance, i think it was fair to say, earlier on in this contest bunow seems to be fully embracing the president. >> tt's incredibly fair to say. when she was just a member of the u.s. house representing siuthern arizona, she definitely kept the pnt at arm's length, but as soon as she declared she was running for the u.s. senate,eally embraced president trump, and she had a primary with two strg trump rsupporters including for prricopa county sheriff who had campaigned with thident across the country and the president actually pardoned earlier this year. so she made a change in that way. of course, kyrsten sinema, the democrat, is not embracing the president. the president has sent e-mails on behalf of martha mcsally and has come to arizona tor

campaign on half. his sons are here campaigning on her behalf. the vice president has been here nnmpaigning on her behalf. >> woodruff: to see, chas sisk, the president has -- i should say, marsha blackburn, the republican candidate for the senate has consistently been a fan of president trump. how much of a factor is he >>there? efinitely a very big factor. president trump still is very popular in tennessee. every bit as popular as he was on election day, and the idea that she's embraced president trump is really quite true literally. you see her campaign ads and there's an image of her embracing the president from one her his first rallies . her beha he's definitely thrown his support behind her. has been here twice in nnessee. will be here a third time between now and election day. sedefinitely she's tying h to president trump and portraying herself as the ally to him. n woodruff: indiana, bran smith, a different situation and comic incumbent ej donnelly,

but he's tried not to be -- not to distance himsf too much from the president. >> no, not at all. in fact, you will hear joe donnelly say more than almost anything else he voted with president trump 62% of the time. he's aemocrat but he knows he's in a relatively republican state here in india, so he rtrays himself as a really conservative democrat or an independent sort of lawmaker who, a ps s it, votes with the president when it's good for indiana and against him when it's not. >> woodruff: i want to finally come back to all three of you on voter engagement. we learned today early voting around country is surpassing the last midterm elections in 2014, something like 24 million people have already voted early compared to i think about 20 million four years ago. back to you, christopher conover. how much voter interest do you see or people talking about this race, is it getting a lot of at >> oh, sure. everywhere you go, people are talking about this race.

you can't escape it. it's on your tv if you're watching commercial tv, every ad break, and that's almost all you see during the ad breaks.s in coffee shd everything else, that's what people are talking about. arizona is a big early voting state. early ballots went out a month ago and at this point iooked at the numbers before we all sat ntwn, about 50% of early ballots are back at this p o woodruff: chas sisk, in tennessee, what kivoter interest engagement are you seeing? >> it's definitely very hi-h. just as in definitely every ad break is full of commercialby the two candidates as well as a competitive governor's race in tennsee. that's pushed voting up over a million people. this is a state of 60 million people, 4 million voters, total, so a million have already gone out and ca ballots. you see lines at the voting locations. we have in-person voting, can't do it by mail, so you can see people at the polling locations getting engaged in the election.

>> woodruff: ow about in indiana, brandon?14 >> in indiana had the lowest voter turnout in the country.bu we didn't have a senate race on the ballot. this time we do, and that's been drawing the most interest of any other race, particularly as it is a bit of referendum on trump and his agf:da. >> woodrrandon, in terms of the campaigns being organizet all ov state, do you see evidence of that? >> oh, absolutely, particularly for the democrats. the republicans have a great get-out-thvote machine in diana because it is such a republican-controlled state, but democrats, in particular joe c donnelly tdidate is everywhere, and he's been everywhere all six years he'sse been in thte. >> woodruff: christopher conover, what about vganization? >> everybody here y ntganized. i get e-mails cons from both parties about get out the vote events from all the over the ate from door knocking a all kinds of things all over the

state, eve major metro area. so very, very organized on both sides. arizona tends to lean republican, but democrats see an opening in this race. >> woodruff: and quickly, in tenn >> absolutely, all over the state, you're seeing signs of organization, even if east, tennessee, which has been the republican strong hold, where alexander and bob corker are om. you're seeing a high level of democratic organization there. we'll leave it there. six days to go. chas sisk with wpln, national public radio. brandon smith, indiana public broadcasting and christopher conover, arizona public media, thank you. pleasure. thank you. woodruff: in addition t senate races across the country, voters will also be choosing attorneys general inany states. from time to time, these

cials have acted as chec on federal policies. christy mcdonald of detroit public television has a look ata one of theorney generalhi a ces in micn. >> reporter: it'st minute push to sway voters in a impetitive and pivotal race for attorney generaln michigan... tom leonard, republican speaker of the state house, a conservative and a trump supporter. >> i will be a "rule of law"' atrney general that will enforce the laws. and even if there is a law that may contradict where i am poli,cally or philosophically that law will still defended. >> reporter: his opponent, democrat dana nessel, is an activist attorney who gained notoriety fightingichigan's gay marriage ban, and winning. nessel has also been quoted as saying, she'll sue the trump administration all day, every day.

>> i certainly am somebody who's willing to hold the federal government accountabga if they are ng in acts that hurt the residents of this state. >> reporter: and it's that emerging power of attorneys raneral nationwide to challenge the current adminion's policies. that has put more focus on attorney general races this november. chigan is one of 30 attorney general races on the ballot across the country, and one of eight competitive races that are being closely watched. right now, there are 27 republicans, 22 democrats, with ndone appointed by an indet governor. and if that number shifts in favor of democratswe could see me increased legal challenges. paul nolette is a professor at marquette universie. in milwau >> so they have a lot ofo discretion ting the sort of lawsuits they want to bring.in they're gettinlved in highly controversial issues of obamacare and envirol politics and climate change and ansgender rights. i think it's inevitable that every g. of both parties are going to come into their jobs with certain views of how uleir office sapproach these issues. >> reporter: now he sees coalitions breaking down along party lines. earlier thisear, 20 republican

attorneys general banded together in the latest round of lawsuits against the affordable care act. in june, 18 democratic attorneys general sued over family separations at the border. leonard is cautious about the state attorney general role in immigration. >> so much of immigration is based on federal law. the supreme court has made very very clear that that is the case. >> reporter: nessel takes a different view. >> i intend to utilizefihis in a way where it helps everyone around this state and really have an office of attorney general that just gives a damn about the people wh.live here aga >> reporter: michigan's had a republican attorney general for the last eight years. the issues the next attorney n neral will have to face statewide: litigatom the flint water crisis; the opioid epidemic; l.g.b.t.q. and women'd retive rights. voters will have to decide which candidate will use test discretion on what fights to join, or sit out.

for the pbs newshour, i'm ch,sty mcdonald, in detroit michigan. >> woodruff: stay with coming up on the "newshour: economics versushe environment in the debate over phosphorus mining in florida. fighting discrimination on the job: women working while pregnant. and the newshour's book club pick of the nth: author nate blakeslee on "american wolf." but first, we turn to the pressure on, and tensions inside, saudi arabia. today, istanbul's chief public prosecutor said the saudi journalist jamal khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the saudi consulate there. turkey has been ratcheting up pressure on saudi arabia, and ak chifrin reports, the u.s. is increasing its own pressure, by focusing on theio

saudi-led coalfighting in yemen. >> schifrin: the u.s. provides mid-air refueling, limited targeting assistance, and sells weapons to that coalition. but yesterday, for the first time, secretary of defense james mattis set a deadline for the fighting to stop.ay >> i mean 30from now, we want to see everybody around a peace table based on a cease fire, based on a pull back from the border, and then based on ceasing, dropping of bombs. >> schifrin: secretary of state mike pompeo also said time to end the war. saudi officials have admitted they are facing a crisis. the countrand its leadership are opaque, so we wanted to take a look inside the kingdom, which for decades has been ruled by one family. it all started in 1932 when abdul aziz ibn saud founded th modern state after he died, power transferred through six sons, from brother to brother, to the current king salman. but instead of choosing another brother as heir apparent, in 2015 for the first time salman chose the next generation. first his nephew mohammad bin nayaf, and then switched to his

favored son 33-year-old mohammad bin salman, known as m.b.s. salman's younger brother ahmeddi bin abdulazi't swear allegience to m.b.s. and moved to london. but this week he dramatically returned to riyadh. as crown prince, m.b.s. has launched a massive modernization campaign, allowing women to drive alone, reducing power of ultra-conservative clerics, and trying to wean the kingdom away from oil. those changes are popular, and b.they've helped cement m.' control. but he's also neutralized his rivals, imprisoning other princes in the riyadh ritzca ton, and he's accused of involvement in the murder of journalist jamal khasoggi. he has also led the war in yemen, that's caused the world'i worst hurian crisis. ant m.b.s. has his father the king's support, d controls the defense ministry and economic, foreign, and domestic es. that means finding an

alternative is purposely difficult. and what the saudi founder hoped would be rule by consensus, has lately, been the impulse oone man. fand to discuss this mome saudi arabia, and the u.s., i'm joined by mamoun fandy, the director of the london global strategy institute, a think tank and consultingrganization. he's the author of "saudi arabia and the politics of dissent." and robin wrights a distinguished scholar at the woodrow wilson international center for scholars, and a contributing writer to the "new yorker" magazine. s thanmuch to you both for being here. mamoun fandy, if i could start with you there's been a lot of talk about nbs and south had something to do with jamal khashoggi's murder. is there pressure for mbs to step down or will he survive? >> i think the situati saudi arabia is very fluid, but i thk the main authority of the whole political order rests with the king of saudi arabia,

and everybody follows the king, e legitimacy of the crown prince comes from being the n of the kin i think if the king decides to remove him, he has the short -- authority to do so and nobody will object. he removed two other crown princes before him. so is there pressure for that?do t think internally there is pressure for that. certainly externally is a lot ofressure for that. >> reporter: robin wright, mounting external but also bternal pressure, or not? >> i think there i mohamed bin salman has also consolidated power like no one before him has managed to do except the founder. he tooover intelligence and military apparatus, head of the economic council, head of the royal court, so the idea there could be divisions within that could challenge him i think is more difficult than in the past, but it really depends on how much pressure the royal family, particularly the king himself,

feels to whether it weakens the powers of the plown prince, e him. there are a number of different options including bringing in othersho might share power, take over some of his portfolio, put him in check, in effect, so that he isn't the only power in the kingdom. >> reporter: we just saw the king's brother return. is that an attempt to consolidate power around m.b.s.? >> i think prince ahmed is a very important figure, he's a natural number two after king salman had the process go lateral instead of vertical, the way it happened this time for passing the thrown of saudi arabia. prince ahmed has a lot of support in terms of the tribes, the leader's establishment and the commercial classes. i think the return of prince ahmed is very important for the

consolidatioof power and e king basically a building for the base which is ling family and the religious establishmenand the merchant class. >> reporter: so he will support m.b.s.? >> it is a a little much more compcated than that. i think he would support the king but i'm not sure he would support the crown prce. >> reporter: king ahmed help circle the wagups? >> i think he's begun to do that. he's gaining his future already. what's interesting, he showed up to the airport to greet prince bin salman. >> reporter: salman showed up to greet ahmed. >> yes, and he was popular with the young before this happened. in the united states, i think the khashoggi murder has backfired in many ways more thae

aninked to it ever envisioned. so i think the croin prince is fevulnerable and trying to do the things that will lift hih profile and shs in control and not associated with the ormurder. >> rr: moon jae-in, the crown prince is -- >> reporter: mamoun fandy, is this why in the united states over the war in yemen or yemen saying the cease fire needs to begin in november? >> it's both. i thin prince at his weakest point now internationally. finally, in saudi arabiathe whole del jet massey question rests with the king himself, and the king has the whole authority is -- the legitimacy of the crown prince comes from being the son the king, and whatever the king decides, i think the whole family will go

with him and the whole country will go with him. >> reporter: is there unprecedented pressure over yemen because of these two statements by the u.s.? si i think this is the pot fortunately a deal that this is wnere the kingdom or particularly the crince has to back off his most aggressive foreign policy campaign and come up with a compromise, whether it's spending error strikes that have been so deadly on civilians, whether it's agreeing to go to peace talks under u.n. auspices that there w something to try to move toward the end. and remember, the adminiunration is alsr pressure because republican congressmen now said wilet's not have a dialogu saudi arabia anymore. there's a lot of pressure within the admistration, within the republican party over arms to saudi arab and issues tangential to saudi arabia's foren policy. >> reporter: arms sales, pressure from congress, mamoun e ndy, how much influence does the u.s. have, if s.

wanted change in saudi arabia, could that happen? >> the u.s. has a great deal of influence. this is the moment of great bargain, given the weakness and the vulnerabity that the crown prince has shown after the khashoggi muer. i think the u.s. has the ability to shepherd this process and take it to a safe harbor, and e role of the united states should not be underestimated in shaping saudi arabia in the future. >> reporter: robin wright, quickly, if the u.s. has that power, what should they do with it right now? >> well, i think the u.s. -- this administration feels that it needs saudi arabia more than saudi arabia needs it when, in fact, the reverse is true. saudi arabia can't wage its ware can'iewed as a legitimate or important power in the middle east without the united states't approval, u.s. has enormous influence. but there is much more at stake

now in jamal khashoggi's murder tthan simply what happethe crown prince. it's about big power politics epd r and peace. >>ter: robin wright, mamoun fandy, thank you very much. >> woodruff: in the coming midterm election, environmental issues have played an unually large role in the state of loorida, in part due to the explosion of twos of algae that have crippled part of the state's tourism economy and killed hundreds of thousands of fish and wildlife. there are many factors driving these blooms, but scientists believe that the mining of phosphorous is one of them. special correspondent laura newberry and producer alan toth tell us, many of his neighbors fiercely oppose it. it's the focus of this week's on the leading edge of science and

technology. of reporter: when most people thinlorida they probably imagine wetlands and beaches, but there's a lot more going on ere than most people realize. i buriflorida's earth is an element so essential to our everyday lives that we'd gout hungry witt. gosphate is an essential nutrient for plawth. it's ubiquitous in fertilizer, and we get phosphate by strip mining. ed golly and andy mele took me of a flight over the mines so i could get a sense he scale of phosphate production. >> laura, all those toter forms ofhe right, those are all related to the mines. orter: it's fair to say that the human race is dependent on phosphate to grow enough food. the united states produces 27 million metric tons of phosphath

per year, anmajority of that phosphate comes out of florida. >> and here's the fertilizer plant, a.k.a. the acid plant. >> reporter: phosphogypsum stacks also known as gypstacks t are mountains of waste ler from fertilizer production. some of that waste is radon and uranium. the e.p.a. says that it's too radioactive to be buried so it's piled in these stacks. there are 25 of these things in florida and they're some of the highest points in the state. >> here we are at the sinkhole laura. there's your sinkhole. >> reporter: in august of 2016 this huge sinkhole opened up on a gypstack in polk county and hundreds of millions gallons of wastewater drained right into the aquifer. the company responsiblthis spill is mosaic, the largest e osphate company in the nation. >> a large sinkh now open beneath a gypsum stack at the mosaic n wales plant in lberry. >> reporter: mosaic kept the

fullxtent of the spill a secret for 19 days, only admitting it to the loblic after l news reported it. in a statement the company apologized for "not providing information sooner." but for some, the pontial benefits of phosphate mining outweigh the environmental concerns. jack hazen owns circle h ranch in north florida, on the border of bradford and union counties. >> well, i was born hethis property in 1933. my father owned it, and my grandfather owned it before him. >> reporter: hazen raises cattle and corn, but he known for a long time that his land is rich in phosphate. he recently formed a company in order to mine land on his farm and four neighboring properties. >> this county, and the adjoining county that this phosphate's in is poor counties, and i came to the conclusion that we would work roughly 200 people in this process. a tremendous economic impact on

these two counties. that is the only reason, i decided to phosphate this land. >> reporter: phosphate mining might benefit some workers in this economically depressed area of florida, but some local activist jim tatum says that the environmental cost of a phosphate mine is not worth a few jobs. >> i live on the river and what happens in bradford and union county will affect my river, ori could affect mr. >> reporter: jim tatum lives next to the santa fe river. a small tributary to the santa fe divides bradford d union counties, and it flows right through the proposed mining area.s >> i think it 97, they had a spill in the north shore of the alafia river. the spill killed millions of fish wildlife crabs. >> rorter: 50 million gallon of wastewater from a phosphate fertilizer plant spilled into ilthe alafia river, and itd almost everything. more than a million fish for 50

miles downstream. courtney snyder who lives right next to the proposed mining area is also concerned. >> nobody wants a phosphate mine here. >> why? >> well, you've got the dust. i guess you could call it radioactive dust because of the radon and whatever else is found in the ore, where the phosphate is found in the ore. my four-year old has asthma, and i'm 100 yards away from the borderline of the proposed property. now we're getting into this dirt road here that cuts through the center of the mining property. t that's part mining property owned by the pritchett family. back there, and on tha there. it's very close to people's homes. >> reporter: snyder and several other concerned neighbors are meers of a group called citizens against phosphate mining in bradford and union counties. they hope to convince their county commissioners to deny

hazen's mining pert. jack hazen knows about his neighbors who are protesting the ndne, but he says that their concerns are unf. he says he plans to ship his phosphate out of the county to erbe processed into fertilso there will be no gypstacks. >> we're not going to inate the rivers, we're not going to contaminate anything. i'm telling you, this is a clean operation. and of coue these environmentalists, they fight this sff, but they lose. >> reporter: union county commissioners recently passed a one-year moratorium on mining permits, but bradford commissioners are still considering the mine. >> i heard mr. hazen told you not to listen to us because we are activists and outsiders. we live here too. building a mine next to our homes would make our pperties worthless. >> nobody wants it, the people don't want it, the people thaton elected you, d want it. >> reporter: despite the public outcry, the bradford countyer

commissivoted to hire a consultant to advise them on hazen's mining application. >> motion carries five to zero. >> reporter: jim tatam is still concer county commission will approve the mine. >> education is the most important thin help people understand what the threat is. this will destroy bradford county, it will destroy its setraction as a rural para so to speak. >> ithey get the permits and they start mining across the street from me, i'd probably move. >> reporter: jack hazen is determined to do what he wants with his land. >> they can't stop us from mining, because we got property rights. n you don't govern what i with my land. when people start governing what i can do with my land, we're in bad shape, in this country. >> reporter: one thing's for

sure, phosphate ming in central florida continues, so those gypstacks are going to get even taller. for the pbs newshour, i'm laura newberry in starke, florida. >> woodruff: now, the problem of discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace. today marks the 40th anniversaro of a law as the pregnancy discrimination act. the law has been crucial, making it illegal for employers to deny a woman a job, promotion, or higher pay because she is pregnant. but a new investigation has reund there are important gaps in the workplace whis is simply not the case. and it can be even more difficult th physically demanding jobs. that's the focus of what william brangham explores tonight. a note for vwers: this conversation discusses sensitive subjects.ng >> bm: warehouses are some of the fastest growing workplaces in erica employing more than a million people.

as part of an ongoing series about pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, the "new york times" discovered some warehouses where pregnant women alleged that their requests for lighter duties wthe rejected and then had miscarriages. the times report focused on alleged troubles with one warehouse in memphis, tennessee. it currently owned by a company known as xpo logistics, which owns supply chain warehouses used by man brand corporations. several women say th miscarriages after what they alleged was harsh treatment at that facility. xpo denies all of these allegations. but we're going to talk about one of these cases and the larger picture here beyond just one company. tasha mirelle had a miscarriage while employed at that warehouse in memphis shortly before xpo bought it in 2014.s shw with the teamsters which is trying to organize ahe union atame warehouse andes fatima goss grs the c.0.0.eo of the national women's law center. welcome to you both.

>> thanks for having me. >> brangham: tasha ir if you telling us a little bit about what happened with you. i know you were working in this warehouse while you were pregnant bacinin 2014. whatof work were you doing back then? >> well we process boxes process items that come down a conveyorp belt rather nes tablets gadgets whatnots. it's very challenging is very hot in that buding and we do not have air, we lift boxes 45 pounds or more. and that's picking them up lifting them do whatever it >> brangham: and i understand at the time that this was causingt some discomfr you. did you did you express that to your supervisor? >> absolutely. february of 2014 i found out that i was pregnant. i immediately went to the doctor

so she put on my doctor's note" no heavy lifting." so my supervisor saw that note but she disregarded the note because she still sent me to areas where i had to pick up 45n boxes and heavier boxes. >> brangham: so you're saying w that yt to the supervisor and said "look i've got a doctor's note saying i'm notft supposed to eavy things. can i do something different." what was what was the supervisor's reaction? >> yes i did request lighter duty because there is lighter duty.mm the company acates who they want to accommodate. so i did ask for light duty and i told my supervisor there i could not lift heavy boxes. t she statme that i should have an abortion. and i just looked at her because, i was so shocked that she told me to have a frking abortion.

so she eventually walked away from me. i stayed at work maybe 15 minutes lar i was hurting so bad. but i went home and went to sleep. but when i get up the next morning my mattress was like drenched in blood. my husband was there. my two kids was there and they were like mom what's wrong? my husband was like so shocked. he didn't know what to do. u know me crying in pain so he rushed me to the e.r. i got to the e.r. and the doctor examined me checked me and everything. he was like sorry mrs. murrell but there's nothing we can do. you're miscarrying now you just have to let it take its course. >> brangham: i'm terribly sorry about you having to experience that. know you've heard this already, but the supervisor at the time says that's never what she said to you. the company has denied all of these allegations. they sent us a statement that

said "we were saddened to learn about miss murrell's loss in 2014. while we can'tpeak to what happened at this site before we bought it we've cread a culture that is strongly grounded in dignity and respect. our workplace and pregnanc accommodation policies exceed what is legally required." they also alleged that the teamsters union, for whom you now work, is stirring up these stories to make the company look bad and i'm just curious what your reaction is to that when you hear that statement. ga there are lying because their supervisor not only told me that, but it was several four or five women that was pregnantt he same time that i was pregnant. it was like a trickle down effect. i mean and to try to put it on the teamsters? o was affiliated with the teamsters. i now work for the teamsters so to speak out. but i wouldn't i wouldn't dare allow anyone to downgrade the teamsters because they are the

ones that gave us a platform that gave the voiceless a voice. so i feel like this is very disrespectful to try to blamer someone eir mistakes. >> brangham: i want to turn toes fatima goss gr when you hear a story like this. when iead about her story in the "new york times" and about allegations of this kind of behaor going on in other warehouses, the thing that really struck is that i thought surely this kind of uteatment of a pregnant woman asking for lighterwhen she has a doctor's recommendation-- that that should be a legal requirement, but it's not. you know i'm so grateful for tasha and the other pregnant workers for speakingecause 40 years after congress first passed the pregnancyti discrimi act you would think that this wouldn't be a problem. what hap ago.was a few years there was a supreme court decision that limited the interpretation that basically made it harder for pregnant workers when they need accommodations to get them.

and there have been a huge backlash to that decision. we have had over 18 states pass new laws to be more directive to sort of say actually pregnant workers shouldn't have to choose between having a healthy pregnancy and being able to stay on the job and get the income that they need which is the really terrible choice people are having to make right now. >> brangham: so what does the law rrently say. what is protected under law and what is not? w l pregnant workers should know that they cannot experience discrimination dn the job. so't want to put out ensinformation on that. but the real cha is around keen you need an accommodation not all pregnant w are going to need them many people. y en i was pregnant at my job which is really cu a desk i didn't actually need any accommodations. >> brangham: same with my wife. >> but sometimes you do. and we hear from workers who need really basic things sometimes they just need the ability to go to the bathroom when they need to, or be able to

have water or workin cashier be able to have a stool so they're not standing all day. unfortunately what the supreme court said is that an employer can make a determination that it isn't going to provide that accommodation if it's if it's an unnecessary burden for them. >> brangham: i was struck that there's a sort of-- seems to be a perverse incentive in the law which says that if you provide an accommotion for someone, then you're required to provide it for pregnant women or other women who ask for it. it seems to be incentivizing people to provide no accommodation whatsoever. >> and unftunately a lot of employers have gotten more rigid and have made working conditions abusive for everyone.we and so they sareat everyone equally bad and that is our rule. ule forat isn't a good anyone. and you know the conditions that she descbed-- the heat conditions the hours withoutea . all of those are things thatul they sbe really fixing for all workers but certainly for workers who need them.

>> brangham: all right, fatimad goss graves sha murrell, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: finally tonight, jeffrey brn has the latest author conversation from our book club, n read this. >> brown: wolves, wolf watchers, western lands and washington policy, "americ wolf," a true story of survival and obsession in the west, contains all that and more. set around the story of one particular yellow yellowstone national park wolf named 06. our book club pick for october and author nate blakeslee is here to answer some of the questions the readers sent in. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks so much for having me. >> bwn: a great read. thank you so much for that. >> i appreciate it. >> brown: let's go to some ofon our ques >> okay.

what inspired you to research and write this book and were the yellowstone park rangers eager to share their notes andst ies? >> i had read a lot of wolf books in preparation of this. i never read one told from the perspective of a wolf, so thewr the idea was te a sort of non-fiction book that reads like a novel in which many of the main c the only way that was possible is because of this one wolf 06 was so famous during her lifetime that she literallye became one of st famous wild animals in the world. she was a wild animal, but she was carefully watched,ully observed. what made it possible, they met wowoman, a really dedicate watchewho watched 06 and her pack in yellowstone almost eveye day for thres and took notes. she gave me a treasure trove of material and it was like reading die require of a wolf back. they were trying to fix the broken system -- ecosystem in

yellowstone, there were far too many elk. i don't think rangers would realize it would be the tourist attraction it became. the wolves stayed in t particularly wide openiary knowt lamar valley where you could reliably spot shell with a teloscope used for watching wildlife and today yellowstone is one place where you can reliably spot wolves from the roadside. >> brown: about the wolves themselves -- >> wolves are highly intelligent creatures but always putting themselves in danger by confronting other wolves. have you ever seen evidence of packs that avoid confrontations. >> brown: so behavior and intelligence of the wolves,ic is much of what you're writing about. >> wolves are extremelys danger one another. the territoriality that you see in your dog comes from wolfs, ergs are descended from wolfs. they are extremelytorial.

inside yellowstone where wolves d,are never hunted or traphe leading cause of death for lves is conflict with th other wolves. every part of the park is controlled by a packother, and the so-called lone wolf has to leave her native pack to look for a mate or territory of her own and runs this gauntlet of opposing packs. somebody called it a game of thrones, you know, to have the canine world. and 06's story is very much part and parcel of thadventure story of her life. te book begins with herself out on her own wanderi park looking for a mate and territory of her own. the adventure story of 06's life is told but it is also the case she came of age at a time when this fightn the west over how the world should be managed was coming to the head, culminating in the first legal wolhunting season in wyoming in 50 years. >> brown: and explain. so this is rampers and farmers

did t want the wolves, mostl >> right. >> brown: did not want the b wolves to cok. >> right. >> brown: environmentalists and others did. >> yeah, yeah. the idea that the wolves were brought back to fix that ecosystem. >> brown: mm-hmm. the descendents of the same ranchers that hunted wolves out of the mountains long, long ago in defense of livestock, they're all still there and running cattle, so it was controversialo >> brownhe next question goes right to the controversy. >> after you finisd writing the book and interviewed many pro-hunting people, how did you come away from that? did you have sympathy for both sides or wast more one-sided? and did your opini how you felt when you started the snrojt. >> those are all very go questions. i'm from texas. i grew up around rampers --d ranches nching families. i'm a werner. it was important to have thei-

pro-wolf and alf side. even drawing the divisions that way, it's not that clear cut. and i wanted to interview someone who had actually shot a wolf because the fact you were allowed to hunt wolves in the northern rockies after so long of them being gone and on thepe endangered ses list, it was immensely controversial, and i knew a lot of readers would ask how could someone shoot a wolf? why would the state of wyoming allow someone to shoot a wolf ter spending all this time and resources to bring them back. the only answer was to talk to someone who had shot a wolf. >> brown: another question. what is the current status of the wolves in yellowstone parkin anhe rocky mountains, and how can we get updates and newsa about th follow them along? >> wolves are off of the wendangered species list throughout the northern rockies. that means idaho, montana and wyoming manage those animals just like any other game animal. theris a hunting and trappin season, and there is also this question of what happens when wolves spread beyond the

northern rockies into, for example, wrote- colorado, will they be protected ere, and that's the fight that's going on in congress now. >> brown: we'll continue conversation. we'll posted online now. nate blakeslee, thanks for joining us. >> it's been my great pleasure. >> brown: for november, we are switching gears dramatically to a novel named to many of the best to have the year list, it'e called "ration," a psychological thriller about an estranged couple and mysterious disappearance. as always, you will find more on our facebook page and hope you'll read along at now read this, our facebook collaborations, with the "new york times." >> woodruff: and aeminder we will have special coverage next week on that's next tuesday night beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern, 5:00 pacific. 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 happy halloween!or >> munding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular believes that wireless plans should reflect the amount of talkhatext and datayou use. we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for people who use their phone a little, a lot, or anything in between. to learn mor go to consumercellular.tv >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> and with the ongoinort of these institutions and individuals.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org pati narrates about halfway down the

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