b captioning sponsoredy newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm dy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the punishing cold lingers over the dwest, with temperatures plunging to record lows normally felt only in the arctic. then, european nations make a plano do business with iranpr despitident trump's sanctions. will this new arrangement keep iran's nuclear ambitions in check? and, a conversation with chris christie on his new book "let me finish," chronicling his tumultuo time as head of the trump transition team. plus, n.f.l. players can rake in millions of dollars, but careers in the league often only last a few years. making sense of the economics of life after the gridiron. >> if the average career in the n.f.l. is three and a half

years, and the average lifespan is seventy something years, that is a tiny blip on your lifespan. if this is all that you really care about, and this i makes you what you are, then you're going to suffer for a long time in the grand scheme of life. n woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbsshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: american cruise lines fleet of small ships explore americanoc landmarks, cultures and calm waterways. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs newshour.

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possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: for the midwest today, there's been little respite fr the deep freeze. that will come this weekend, as the polar air mass pushes on. but, it leaves at least 15 dead and a long list of all-time low temperatures. >> this is appleton, wisconsin. it's negative 22. it feels like negative 42. >> nawaz: days of dangerous cold came to a head early this morning for much of the midwest. in northeastern wisconsin, wind chills of 43 below zero froze hot water in mid air. in illinois, a state-record breaking minus-38 degrees in mount caroll, not counting the wind chill.

in houston, minnesota, minus 37 degrees. negative 49 with the windchill. and in michigan, wind-chill readings in thnegative 40's, compounded by a fire yesterday at a natural gas station north of detroit. >> we made it through the night. >> nawaz: governor gretchen whitmer and michigan's main natural gas utility had to ask people to turn thermostats down to 65 degrees. automakers general motors, ford, fiat-chrysler, and other big energy users suspended productiont 18 plants. >> i would just suggest that the voluntary efforts and the curtailment efrts that dropped e load by about 10% was needed in order to be able to weather the peak that we saw this morning. >> nawaz: meanwhile, crews scrambled to restore electric grids and gas lines elsewhere, including to some 60,000 customers who lost power around chicago yesterday. the city was already frozen over, and mayor rahm emanuelwa ed of a new storm. >> with more snow on the way we're not out of the woods yet.v >> nawaz: but ulnerable to the long stretch of cold,

thousands of homeless ople across the region. in madison, wisconsin, first united methodist church has been running an emergency shelter since monday. karen andro is in charge. >> here, is that in this kind of crisis, and it is a crisis. it really is akin to a hurricane, a tornado, a fire,ou losinghome.ng what's happeniight now is that conditions that are already ysressed. u nawaz: andro saer group and others couldse financial contributions, volunteers and shipments of hd warmers and ankets. >> outerwear. weee people coming in with very ill-equipped outwear like the thinittens, the thin cloth mittens, their socks, their appropriate socks. all of that outwear. >> nawaz: and, as the cold blast reaches the east coast, toofficials from washingtoew york are urging caution.

>> so stay in, stay warm, help your neighbor. >> nawaz: new york governor for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz.>> oodruff: in the day's other news, president trump and house speaker nancy pelosi faced off, in the funding fight over the president's demand for a southern border wall. in a tweet storm, mr. trump dismissed negotiations in congress, and warned "republicans on the homeland security committee are wasting their time." later, at a white house event, he vowed to reject any deal that fails to fund a border wall. >> if they don't have , i don't even want to waste my time meading what they have because it's a waste of because the only thing that works for security and safety for our country is a wall. >> woodruff: speaker pelosi was equally adamant against a border rill, but she did not rule out other types of bs. >> there isn't going to be any wall money in the legislenion. normandyng would work, but

let them have that discussion because it's all about two things: cost benefit analysis, t what best way, and what do you get for your dollar in order to protect the border. >> woodruff:ongressional negotiators have a february 15th deadline to reach an agreement, befo shutdown deadline.ra feofficials confirmed today that at least 15 detained migrants are staging hunger strikes around the country, and some are being forceed. immigration and customs enforcement said six are being fed through nasal tubes in el paso, texas, underourt order. the hunger strikers are mainly from india and cuba. they say they face verbal abuse and threats by guards. u.s. customs and border protection has announced its biggest-ever bust involving fentanyl. agents in nogales, arizona today showed off 250 pounds of the deadly drug. they found it saturday, hiddenoa

in aof mexican produce entering the u.s. the synthetic opioid has caused surge in fatal overdoses. in the u.s. senate, republicans and democrats joined today ines challenging ent trump's plans to withdraw troops from syria and afghanistan. majority leader mitch mcconnell offered a resolution that warns against any sudden pull- outs. republican marco rubio said terror groups still pose serioun threatoth syria and afghanistan.f >>e united states and the erti-isis coalition is not in syria and ing until isis is completely wiped out there will be no susined pressure on isis or on al quaeda. and they will both grow back stronger and have the capability to plot against the homeland a american interests around the world. >> woodruff: the procedural vote advanced the non-binding mcconnell measure with republican and some democratic support. that virtually assures final

passage. separately, a federal court has ordered syria to pay $302 million in the death of amican journalist marie colvin, in 2012. the court found she was deliberately targeted by syrian artillery. the u.s. military says an air strike has killed 24 al-shabab militants in somalia. thdnesday's raid was the n already this year. officials used by the extremist group north of mogadishu. al-shabab was behind an assault on a hotel complex in kenya this month that killed 21 people. the u.s. and china wound up two days of trade talks aiming for agreement before march 2n when a new round of u.s. tariffs kicks in. president trump met with china's vi premier, and presented a letter from president xi jinping saying he hopes china and the u.s. can meet halfway.

mr. trump said he an hxi will likee to meet before there's any final deal. and, stocks were mixed on wall street today. e dow jones industrial average fell 15 points to close at 24,999. the nasdaq rose 98 points,nd the s&p 500 added 23. still toome on the newshour: european countries try to rescue their business dealings with iran. a conversation with chris christie about his new memoir. state-level democrats making abortion more accessible, and much more. >> woodruff: the u.s. and its european allies work together on many issues, but they diverge dramatically over iran's nuclear program. when the u.s. withdrew from the

iran nuclear deal last year, and then snapped back sanctions on iran, the europeans objected strongly. today, they took a major step to try and help iran get around ose sanctions. here's nick schifrin. >> schifrin: when the u.s., iran, and the europeans sileed the 2014 n deal, iran froze its nuclear program in exchge for billions of dolla of economic benefits. the trump administration's withdrawal fm the deal meant iran never received much of the revenue it was promised. whayh is why the europeans t announced a company, financed by germany, france and u.k.that's designed to allow iran to both gain some of that revenue, a keep them in the nuclear deal. the new company allows iran to barter goods with foreign companies without any money exchanged. that means they avoid u.s. banks and u.s. dollars, so they could avoid u.s. sanctions. the europeans say the first goods that iran will receive include drugs and medical devices, which iran needs. to talk about this i'm joined by david o'sullivan, e.u.

ambassador to the u.s. ambassador, thank you very much, lcome back to the "newshour". >> thank you. >> reporter: ar.are you trying e u.s. efforts in ira >> absolutely not. i think the most important thing to underline is that we, in the european union, believe that keeping iran in this nuclearre deal, and they complying with this deal as was announjucd this week by the c.i.a. in return for that, they areed entio expect some economic benefit and some increased trade and economic activity, and the purpose of the announcement today to allow this to happen. as you say, the primary focus in the beginning will be on goodse which t actually under sanction at all, which are humanitarian goo , exceptions e sanctions regime, but which is sometimes difficult to trade because of the reluctance of financial bodies to deal with anything to do with iran, so th will make that,i hope, easier. >> why risk, exacerbating the difference with the u.s.? >> we respec the administration's decision to withdraw from the agreement but

imagine they also respect the fact that we are still signanories to the agreement feel bound by it, and it is also profoundly in europe's security interest to prevent iran from developing or obtaining nuclear. weap but, of course, we also share many of the concerns of the administration on other iranian activities and indeed recently announced sanctions in response to some of the terrorist plotves und in europe. so we're trying to work with the administration even as we have some disagreements about thispr ise deal as you say, the point of this is to keep iran in the deal. do you think it's enough? many companies that deal in iran have already said that they won't try and use this vehicle because they fear u.s. secondary >> well, at the end of the day, you know, companies will have to decide whether they feel comforta and we know that some companies may take the decision not to foe fear to haveecondary sanctions, but we, on the european side, are determined to make every effort we can o continue to allow iran to have

the commercial benefit from thi deal which was promised. >> schifrin: but i the folks fos is on drugs, how do you get iran the economi benefit you say t needs to stay in the deal? >> well, i think the focus is on deliver stuff permitted ander humanitaxceptions, but we are also looking at ways to improve s onomic conditith iran. there are small and medium-sized european compani't that don necessarily trade heavily with the united states or at all who may be interested in doingss busi of course, it's challenging, no point pretending it isn't, but we still believe it is very much in our national security centers to prerve this deal d deliver some of the benefitsir an is entitled to expect. >> schifrin: let me read am statement fe state department, entities that continue to engage in obrveddable activity with iran risk losing access to the national intelligence system and the ability to do business with

the united states or u.s. companies. do you fear the u.s. could k.,ually sanction the u. germany or france? >> i think the u.s. and the european european union are very strong strategic partners, we fespect fully the decision this administration to withdraw from the new nucle deal. we believe they should also respect the fact that the european nations have decided to remain party to this, which is sanctioned by u.n. resolutions. >> do you think any of the u.s. pressure on this effort is misplaced? >> well, we don't share the administration's analysis, but we understand that they take a different view, and we are friends and allies, but sometimes we take a different view, and that is the case in is instance. >> two months to brexit day. is th e.u. willing to renegotiate the deal as prime minister theresa may opponents in parliament pushed her to do. >> we believe the deal signed ab greed is thst deal.

the so-called backstop, the provision designed to prevent the reemergence of a harboer between northern ireland and the republicf ireland is a fail-safe. it's not the end point hope to reach. we hope to teach the objective of no border. i think people will listen to what mrs. may has to say and if there is something in there that uld be done to be helpful, such as the declaration on the future relations, i think people will try to be as helpful as ssible. but it took us 18 months to negotiate this deal and, in ct, the final version he backstop which was contained in the deal was very much des.igned by thek. itself, not something imposed by the european union. >> another option, would the european union be wling to extend the deadline if the british prime minister scdz for that? >> this is possible, it requiree the unanimous ent of the other 27, but if there were toq be a ruest, i'm sure people

would listen carefully to the reasons forcsuchn extension and people will try to be helpful, but i think they will need to understand what hoped to be achieved. >> schifrin:. >> schifrin: david o'sullivan, e.u. ambassador to the u.s., thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the revolving door of those in president trump's orbit has sparked a boon in books attempting to offer inside accounts of perhaps the most tumultuous campaign, transition and presidency in modern american politics. out this week, "let me finish: trump, the kushners, bannon, new jersey, and the power of in- your-face politics." its author, former republican new jersey governor chris christie. he ran for preside in 2016, then became a vocal supporter of mr. trump and, for a time, ersaw the president elect's transition team.

governor christie, welce to the "newshour". there's so much ground you cover in this book, so many stories,er s one anecdote i want to ask you about, though. you say this is a perfect capsule of president trump. this was the first time you have been with him. you had dinner with him. it was 2003. afterwards, a woman comes up, was a fan of his, wants to take a picture.en he camera doesn't work, what happens? what does he d >> well, this was in may 22, judy, outside the john george restaurant, which is in one of plump' hotels in new york city, and it was a woman and herio husband, o tourists waiting outside the restaurant, pleaded with him for a photo with her husband, and that's before the day we were all walking around with phones in our pockets on our cellne pho so no camera, she had a disposable camera, one of those black and yellow kodak dispose also. she keeps hitting the button, it won't go off. you could see donald is getting more and more impatient. he finally just steps away and

says to her, sw'setheart, l do this next time we get together. turned, got into his limousine and refer to. and the woman who did not know me at the time at all, turned to me and said, but we're never going to get back together.hi i said, i k that's the point. s d he called me the next day to say, hey, that a pretty good line, huh, got me out of there. it was just a real icture of donald trump, deliver and funn interesting and also doing whatever he can do to get what he wants. >> woodruff: and as you say,re he orded your dinner for you that night. >> he did. extraordinary. ordered me two things, one i was allergic to and one i detested. it was not spicious beginning. >> woodruff: governor, in the book you tell your own story and talk about how close you became to him over the years. ofu had dinnen with your wife mary pat, with president trump and his wifell efore he ran for president, but then you get to 2016, the two of you areng run against each other. he comes to new jersey, and you

cite a speech he gave where you say it was full of whoppers and untruths, anyou wrote -- u said i had no problem with hard ball politics, but knowingly lying? you said, to me, that was over the line. u don't do that to anyone, let alone a friend of longstanding. yet, you've gone on to support him. >> well, listen, judy, what happened after that, s you know from reading the book, is that i went after him pretty hard. he did that in the afternoon in south carolina. i went after him very hashedr that evening ohe lying in iowa. the next day, he called, and hed i was angry, i went over the line, it wasn'true, i know it wasn't true, i apologize. and, you know, in mview, when you've had someone who's a friend for 14 years, you understand that, in politics sometimes, the emotions run high, you've got to decide you accept the apology or don't you, and, based upon 14 years of

friendship, i accepted the pollingy. the important thing is he never said those things again epuher inic or private. >> woodruff: but you worked hard for him. you worked hard for his election. thanked you and said he would consider you for vice president. he didn't. for attorney general, they took you off the transition. why stay with them, with him when you've had -- again, whe you've had this kind of close relationship but payoff, so to speak, franhay. >> first, a job at the time, i was the governor of new jersey, so i didn't need a job. and secondly, listen, we have one president at a time, and we have one country, and the fact is that i think my relationship with t president helps him. i think it's good to have friends of old standing available to you to spe t to bounce ideas off, to get suggestions from. >> woodruff: let's bring you today. if you were he, would you be making the issue he is right now

out of ay phsical barrier at the southern border? >> well, i'm not him. what i would tell yu is it's very important to him. the fact is, you know, he compromised by reopening the government, and, now, i think it's time for democrats to think about how they want this to end. my criticism of the president in closing down the governmenthwas had no end game. >> woodruff: but i've also said, governor, that you think the immigration issue should be settled in a way that honors our national heritage. is the president doing that? >> listen, i think that's much bigger than just a wall. i think that's total immigration reform which is what i talked about in my campaign for president and what i prefer congress do right now is come up with a total immigration reform package including border security that they could send to the president for his consideration, and they tuld do that, y wanted to, judy, and part of the problem is they don't want to do that because it's hard,eth really hard, because you're going to offend on stitch wednesdayys no matter which way you turn, but hat

why -- i thought that's why you ran for the job was to get things gone, and i will tell you that, on the president, i'm ntnfident that the presi would be willing to compromise -- >> woodruff: without -- in other word, you think he's ready to settle for an agreemenh that doesne money for a wall? >> no, that's not what i said. he wants $5.7 billion for a wall, and if the democrats deny him any type of partial compromise for what he wants,e then theying to leave him with no alternative but to take acti on his owthat will wind up in the courts, and that's not good for the country. woodruff: moving ahead, if you're president trump, who do you least want the to face as a democratic challenger? >> well, listen, first of all, it's impossible hto tell, rig because if you look at this time four years ago, the reponublican unner was jeb bush. so you can't judge this thing in january of 19. t >> what about republican side. do you think there would be a

challenge to the republican nomination and particularlyou long-time friend maryland rnor larry hogueson n ruling it out? >> i don't believe there would be a challenger to the president. when i look at the most recent polls of republican primary voters, show the president with an 81% approval rating, tt only leaves 189% who don't approve of his job. th's not a lot of room build a primary campaign on. so i think given the circumstances right now, i don't see any type of primary clalg to th --challenge to the president. i think he will be the republican no02minee in >> woodruff: you told stephen colbert yet you thought you would be a better presidenthan nald trump. how so? >> well, judy, i ran for president, so if you don't believe you would be better, you had no business running the first place. so i do think i would be a better president, but if idn think that, i had no business asking for people's money and votes two years ago. >> woodruff: how wouu be better? >> listen, judy, if you're going to give me half an hour, we'll do an interview and go through

it chapter and verse. >> woodruff: okay. but i would say one thing asle an exan order to not totally evade your question, i talked with my experiee as a governor for eight years dealing with a democratic legislature. when you do that dayn and day out, you do learn things about how to work with the legislative branch of government, how to forge compromise and how to msue that those compromises are not debilitating to future deals. i think that experience would stanme in fairly good stead in today'itpolal world. but as for the rest of it, we could do a whole half hour, sometimes. >> woodruff: the book "let me finish." thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: stay with us, lming up on the newshour: the economics ofe after the n.f.l. m

how neia layoffs are particularly harmful to local coverage. plus, artist and activist melissa malzkuhn gives her brief but spectacular take on human connection. proposed legislation in the virginia house of des has sparked outrage among conservatives nationwide. the bill, sponsored by a democratic lawmaker, would loosen restrictions on third trimester abtions. a warning that this story contains strong coent that may be difficult to hear. lisa desjardins reports. changing the standard, yes. >> desjardins: this one-minute exchange, with virginia delegate kathy tran defending hered propegislation, sparked a firestorm wednesday. >> how late in the thirdul trimester a physician perform an abortion if he indicated it would ithe mental health of the of the woman? >> or ph oical health. y, okay. i'm talking about the mental health. >> so i mean through the thirde trimester ird trimester

goes all the way up to 40 weeks. >> okay. but to the end of the third trimester. >> ye wp, i don't thihave a limit in the bill. >> where it's obvious that a woman is about to give birth, would that still be a point at which she could requf t an abortione was so certified? >> that would be a, you know, a decision that the doctor the physician and the woma >> i understand that. i'm asking if your bill allows that >> my bill would allow that. yes. >> desjardins: president trump reacted to tran's comments in an interview with the daily cdeler, assertincrats want to "rip babies from wombs" and that "it's terrible." but in a radio interview virginia governor ralph northam, a democrat, refuted that, saying this was for rare circumstances. >> when we talk about third trimester abortions, it's done in ces where there may be severe deformities. there may be a fetus that's not viable. ab in this particular example, if a mother's in, i can tell you exactly what would

happen. the infant would be delired, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that's what e mother and the familsired. and then a discussion eeuld ensue bethe physicians and the mother. >> desjardins: national conservatives focused on histe last two ses, about resuscitation, and reaction was swift. senator marco rubio equated it to "openly support(ing) legal infanticide." all this underscores abortion battles pushed by both parties in dozens of states, including new york, which just passed ath law to makd trimester abortions possible. today, governor northam said he regretted that his comnts had been "mischaracterized." to pick up the conversation from ere, i'm joined via skype by mary ziegler. she's a law professor at florida state unersity and the author of several books on abortion politics including: "after roe: the lost history of the abortion debate."

so, mary, let's start with this moment right now and what we're seeing in ose two states. democrat-led efforts to broaden out the category, the health of the woman who could be allowed for a third trimester abortion. can you help us understand howio many abo could that effect in theory and what are these lawmakers tryi to do? >> well, the number of abortione ed especially by the expansion of late-term i borings would be quite small. sohe vast majority of abortions in this country have been in the first trimester. i think what swlairts are tryinn to do, many ways, is toep e for a post-roe v. wade landscape, so it's widel expected that the supreme court is going to substantially scale back on abortion rights, if not overturn roe altogether and prototypically blue pro-choice states are making sure policy ih e states is welcoming to women in a post-roe world. >> to help our viewers, a

reminder, when we're talking about a third trimester pregnancy, we're talking 26 weeks into the pregnancy. can you take us through the science on this?i >> third tster abortions are complicated. the dispute is why they're often performed. bortion rights groups claim, for the most part, that whenha wome later-term abortions it's either in cases in which a child has a condition incompatible with life or which e woman's own health will b substantially impacted if a pregnancy is carried to term. anti-abortion groups that are skeptical of this claim many abortion providers will be willing to perform procedures for any point iregnancy. the science is disputed but also, too, is whorf is ming the procedures on the ground and why, and we don't have enough data to answer that in a difientive way. >> as the left is trying to expand abortion rigmhts in y states, this comes out after in years of the rights trying to

restrict abortion rights and they point to status and talk about when is a fetus not just viable but when is it conscious of pain fo example, can you talk about the science on that end and what we know about human life and i beginnings? >> sure. i think part of the challenge is some of these questions arelyn partly scientific, so there's not much disagreement, for example, abo when from a genetic standpoint a human lifet begins, but that means from a legal or philosophical standpoint remains contested. when it comes to fetal pain, it's a more straightforward question of when paiis possible, but there the challenge is pro-life and pro-choice groups don't necessarily trust the sameso ces to answer the question. so pro-choice groups or abortion righ groups have emphasizedle the american c of obstetricians and gynecologists and medical authorities in the u.k. have found that fetal pain isn't possible as early in pregnancy as many statute would provide and banning abortion at

the 20th week. anti-abortion groups respond that those groups are simply putting political correctness ahead of the truy th and mre, in fact, dominated by pro-choice obstetricians. so it's difficult, i think, in many of these cases, to find a o common s facts that everyone in the abortion debate can agree on, much less what those facts should mean in terms of the constitutionality or morality of abortion. >> so where does this moment fit in how you see the abortion debate? are we in for theext one very heated, difficult battles over this? or where ar we? >> in some ways, i think we're in a very unpredictable moment, ud it seems that most commentators, ing me, think that the supreme court will undermine abortion rights. but what happens nxt, i think, is sort of a brave-new world because, for so long, the fight on bth sides has really been r out preserving or undoing roe. if roe is no lonthe law, i think you will see a lot more

unpredictability in of whether states whether ban abortion, what they mean when they ban abortion, does that include, for example, i.u.d.s, will blue states go further than we've seen in protecting or funding abo dion? i think 't know really what this future will hold muchi beyond the proty that the court will, in fact, transform abortion law and undo roe. >> mary ziegler, florida state university, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: in just a few days the new england patriots and los angeles rams will batt it out in super bowl liii. for the players on the field, it will be the pinnacle of their n.f.l. career. but what about life after football? our economics correspondent paul solman talked to former tight

end martellus bennett about his pursuit of an entirely different career. it's part of our series "making sens" >> i'm weird as ( bleep ). i mean, weird as stuff. i mean, i'm weird as-- >> reporter: i'm very weird. how's that? >> i'm very, very ird. >> reporter: martellus bennett may be the most outsken professional football player of his generation. he also excelled at tight end for five teams, won the 2016 super bowl with the new england patriots, and then, while on a spiritl retreat in japan retired, at age 31. >> i don't always answer bird calls, but when i do they're from tom brady and gronk. >> reporter: but during his ten, year carennett was known as much for candor and wit as winning plays. c and he's notabdid about the economics of pro sports. when did you realize that football was a business? >> well one of the moments was when i first had to write a check for taxes. i didn't know what the ( bleep ) taxes were, you know what i'm

saying. taxes, i thought they took that directly out my check. you mean, they only withhold 20% when they supposed to do another 17%? now i got to write checks to this guy i have heard of, but i never met personly, uncle sam. like what the hell's going on? you grow up, no one really teaches you about taxes, especially as an athlete. e >> reporten in bennett's middle class family, finances weren't discussed. but he did learn a lasting economics lesson at age 14, when the energy high flyer enron went bust due to corporate malfeasance, and put his dad out of a job. >> i just remember that economically changing in our household too.om my dad out, he's a black guy that's it, there's 15,000 people all wanting the same job. for him to try to find a job in that space, not being able to find work for a long period of ti-- >> reporter: in houston? >> in houston. and at that moment is when i realized inwas to be a entrepreneur the rest of my life. i never wanted to work for anybody because the circumstances that we went through as a family wasn't because of my dad, it was because of the people at the top of a company that he worked with. >> reporter: seven years later, bennett was a high draft pick in

the n.f.l. what was your signing bonus? >> was it 2.5 or was it 1.5? whatever it wa it wasn't enough. >> reporter: you're talking 1.5 or $2.5 million? >> yeah, million dollars, yeah. >> reporter: and what did you do with the money? >> i don't have any of that money from that contract don't know where it's at, don't know where it went to, where it, how it was spent. i s a 20 year old kid. didn't really have people arouno me w managed that amount of money in their lifetime, so they couldn't really tell me how to manage it as well. >> reporter: what he did with the money was straight out of fantasyland. >> so, yeah, i casd a big eck, and i got a briefcase. and i handcuffed myself to thefc bre, and i took it home, and i just threw the money ind the air 's like, "i'm rich, ( bleep ) !" you know, just throwing money in the air. and i laid in it. and i woke up, there was likero 20s on my facesweating in the money. then i put it all back, and took it back to the bank. i turned the ceiling fan out too, for the speciep effects. >>ter: so that the money was swirling? >> yeah at the fundraisers as a kid, they used to do this thing where you'd get in this machine, and they'd turn the air on, all

this money would fly up. >> reporter: yeah, yeah. i've seen those. >> and i never really got picked to go in that machine. i'm like, "damn! if i can get $20." i ha'ma plan. gonna do my shirt like this," like the whole time i'm just, "pick me! pick me! pick me! pick me!" and all through middle school i never got picked. i always wanted to bthe guy in the money machine. and every time i knew they would come i would dress appropriately for-- ro>> reporter: with a big you mean? >> yeah, i just had a big plan to get all the money.li i'm , "why everybody wait for the money to float, and no one gets it off the ground? just sit down and like they never encked me. but got drafted, and i had all the money. and then i created the machine for myself, and i was able to get all that money, and i felt great about it. >> reporter: at its peak, bennett's annual pay was over $5 million. but he soon realized that in football theoney only floats for so long. so he began saving and in 2014 formed a multimedia storytelling company, "the imagination skency," which grew out of his love for cartoonetching a

th his love of books. >> my goal is to be surrounded by books. >> reporter: even more books than his literary inspiration. >> i've never seen so many books in all my life! >> belle from beauty and the beast. i think it's every reader's dream to have that library. >> reporter: did your teammates read? (laughs) no? why is it funny? >> the majority re them, no. wh? your world is totally different, so you not grong your skills. a lot of times in college and high school you didn't need to read either. you were just pushed along by your talent. oh, hey. i'm just a dinosaur reading about dinosaurs.r: >> reporut bennett, who says he majored in "eligibilit"" in colle his own, pursued a lifelong interest in art, and began releasing work while still playing, preparing for life after the n.f.l., the initials, some say, of "not for long." >> if the average career in the n.f.l. is three and a half years, right? and the average lifespan is 70-

something years. that is a tiny blip r lifespan. so if this is all that you really care about, and this is whthmakes you what you are, en you' gonna suffer for a long time in the grand scheme of life. but, you know, i wanted more. >> reporter: even n.f.l. players who do try to diversify away from football, like recentlyre red brian orakpo and michael griffin, get into business too late, says bennett. >> you got to ride that wave while you have their aysention. i alell guys, "you have their attention right now." because once you're out of the league, no one's really going to care. >> reporter: since his own retirement last year, bennett has hurtled himself into his work at the imagination agency, producing an animated series, mobile apps, and children's books about "a.j.," a character based on his four-year-old daughter, austyn jett rose. a new book will come out in march: a letter of encouragement to black boys

>> within the black mmunity it's important to, we don't really get to perience escapism as kids. we don't get to dream of being astronauts, and seeing ourselves or kids that look like us in these movies or any sci, especially scifi. we was just happy with lando in star wars, but other than that you know what i'm saying? >> you got a lot of gutsheoming . >> you get to the library. you shuffle through all the books,ou're looking through the books like "dang." this book, this book, no characters in these books that look like you. only 2% of children's books are books of color. >> try some of this. it'll do you good.on >> reporter:der roald dahl, who, under pressure from his agent, uncorized the lead aracter of one of bennett's all-time favorite books," charlie and the chocolate factory." >> it came out that, in roald was black., charl his estate said that. and i was like, "whoa." for me to be able to... as a kid o admired willy wonka and to have a kid that looked like me go to the chocolate factory, could you imagine how th would've blown my mind? i probably would be making chocolate right now somewhere. n >> reporte football is still a big part of bennett's life.

he co-hosts a weekly digital show called "mostly football." his brother, eagles defensive end michael beett was a guest when we dropped by. ti, on the eve of the super bowl, a final queson for the former new england tight end. so, everybody hates the new england patriots except of course people who live in the region, right? >> yeah.or >> rr: why? and is it justified? >> because everyone has a team they want to root for, and they have all these, every year the sucowboys are gonna win thr bowl, right? every single year you know, "baltimore ravens are gonna be a new team." "the steelers are going to go back to the playoffs." "the giants." everyone's rooting for this team, and then at the end of the day who's always there? the patriots. it's le damn, how do they get to enjoy this moment so often? it's just hard when you dconstantly have hopes an dreams, and always have to watch someone else win.

>> reporter: on sunday we'll learn if the patriots dash yet more hopes and dreams. but martellus bennett will be trying to cash in on dreams of an entirely different sort. this is economics correspondent and reluctant patriots fan paul solman, reporting from los angeles. >> woodruff: the past couple of weeks are showing once again just how tough the news business is economically, with layoffs by digital upstarts and the couny's largest newspaper chain, gannett. buzzfeed laid f 15% of its staff, while the huffington post and yahoo news cut hundreds of jobs under their new owner, verizon. many in the field e more worried that a hedge fund known for gutting newsrooms might buy gannett. that would potentially be an even bigger hit to localio

coverage nide. all of this has led to the growth of so-called news deserts, places where there's limited access to news outlets. fook at the fallout from all this, we're joined by steve cavendish, editor the "nashville banner." that's a non-profit news start up he's relaunching after the paper folded in 1998.ab and pennnathy at the university of north carolina. she's written a major report about this and how it increases our country's polarization. welcome to both of you. thngk you for jois. steve cavendish, i'm going to start with you. you wrote the other day that what's going on right now for journalists is a blood bath. is it really that bad? >> well, it has been over a long period of time. it's over the last -- over the st couple of decades we've seen journalism jobs around the country being cleaved off at a

rate like either coal miners or steelworkers or fisher mern, and those are are not what you would call thriving industries. journalism has had revenue problems for years, and we're starting to see, as print is really sort of -- is sort of wiped out, that the conversion over to digital for many ofe thoperties, many of these newspapers just isn't the same. so we're seng with it a lot of jobs lost. >> woodruff: penny abernathy, you agree it's that b, and, if so, what's driving this? >> well, i think there are two things we need to look at. one is the total loss of newspapers are often the prime if not the sole source of news and information especiallin small and mid-sized communities. so, over the last decade and a half, we've sen 1800 news disappear off the landscape of hee u.s. but there's also equally troubling situation that we have with the surviving newerspapers we've lost more than half

to have the newspaper news room journalists that we had just in 2008th we're callin the rise of the ghost newspaper in which papers are basically shells of their former selves and as ste suggests is driven by a couple of things, one is the rapid decline of advertising, especially print advertising and the inability of newss organizati make up for that in any kind of digital revenue, be that subscription or advertising revenue. >> woodruff: steve cavendish, a lot of conversation about the role of theseanizations that have become so powerful over the last decade -- facebook, google. what is their role in all this? >> well, as newspapers have itald to become dig operations and tried to sell digital advertising, the problem is that they get into thse markets, and google and facebook have, between the two of them, about 80% of the

digital ad market, so what's left really pushes down on what they can make as -- what you can make as aornization. so the print dollars that many news chains have walked way from have been replaced by digital pennies, and that replacement is reflected in the number of jobs that have been lost. >> woodruff: and penny abernathy, what does that mean for news consumers, people who have counted on whether it's a newspaper or something else for hews and information? >> well, it means rise of news deserts in which ridents in hundreds of communities, even thousands in this country hav limited, very limited access to the sort of news and information that's been the lifeblood of our democracy. everything from when and where to vote to topicsa such s education, health, emergency and safeat information the need. the f.c.c. put o earlier in this decade a list of eight

topics that thedey cond to be critical information needs for comunies. as we've looked at newspapers and the content that comes out of newspapers as well as diital startup sites, we often find that some essential information that we need as citizens and just residents to make wise decisions we don't have acess to anymore. >> woodruff: and steve cavendish, how do you see that playing out in tennessee? what are people missing now >> well, so, take for example, the nashville banner which was the afternoon paper here and where i goty start in the early '90s was sold to theh gannett papee in town. they took about a third of the news room and combined itin the tennesseans staff, so you had about 180 journalists. that number is now less than 70. what does that mean? it means that, you know, large swaths of what was once covered of crts, of institutions, of

major kind of stories just don't get covered, and it afects everything from the cover of healthcare which is a big h induste to high school know. to politics, y in the last set of elections where we had a senate and a governor's race here back in the fall, you had basically one reporter covering those races each for -- gannett owns dailies in three of the furggest markets in tennessee. so you're seeing fewer and fewer ople covering things. the state house reporting is kind of a crisis across the cotry. in tennessee, there were 35 pele covering the state legislature and the state government at one time abut three decades ago. that number is now ten and, really, a couple of those are specialists, so you only have eight people covering a $37 billion -- a billion state government and the

legislature. >> and we've seen that in state after state and, penny abernathy, it's so important for to high light this because here in washington you look at, say, a presidential news conference and you see a lot of journalists. you don't get a sense, looking at washington, what happened around the country, but i want to ask you something that you've pointed out and that's how all this contributes to the political polarization in the country. how is that happening? well, one of the things that we found through our study of looking at where people -- communities have lost newspapers and where they are living wit severely diminished newspapers is that it tends to -- news deserts tend to coarolesce und areas that are much poorer, much less educated and older than other types of communities, that can be communities that are middle, inner city neighborhoods, that can be suburbs around metro areas, and it can be what we call the

flyoveregions of the country, the rural areas that are out there. i live in what you would call a news desert, the congressional ninth, where wstill do not have a house of representatives member because of alleged voter fraud. it is -- and it is a classic news desert where, in 20 years ten or so, you could have got ample coverage of the congressional race through three different newspapers, the charlotte, the raleigh and the fayetteville paper, and there are no newspaps that ciculate in my county now. >> woodru: what detmines quickly, penny abernathy whether, this is going to turn around anytime soon? >> well, i'm most optimistic that if you have a publisher and owner in an area that has a good economic foundation, that if the publisher is both creative and rnsciplined that you can t around. we've seen several examples of at. where i am most concerned is on

the low-income areas, which i do not see a viable to-profit economic model emerging, and i'm hoping we can begin tget media funders to begin to look at these overlooked areas, because it's critical for s ouriety, it has political, social and economic implicationthat are long-term. >> so important to focus on this. penny abernathy, steve cavendish, thank you both. >> thanks, judy. you. >> oodruff: learning language can be a challenge for some, but none more so maybe than for those who cannot hear. in tonight's brief but spectacular, melissa malzkuhn, who was born deaf, uses her perience to build human connections through storytelling and technology. malzkuhn is the crea

director of "motion life lab," c researter at gallaudet ouiversity. >> when you think language, it's something that you were exposedo from birth.'s ssumed that it's a given and that language then in turn is your key to opening up doors to different worlds. u it's your key erstanding who you are, the way you're thinking, your self-expression and your identity, that's so integral to having language.ou ifon't have access to language, you don't have access to your humanity. i grew up as a person who comes from a family withhree generations of deaf people. that means my grandparents are deaf, my parents, and my siblings are deaf. i come from a long line of storytellers. and so, i grew up in a family storytellers which became a part of who i am. my inspiration goes back to my

grandmother. i see her as a pioneer in so ny ways. she was a deaf woman who was born in a time when captioning wasn't available. she was alwaysushing for human rights and she often said," don't wait for tomorrow, start today," and she talked about the human rights of deaf cn and asked, "who will protect deaf children? who will speak for them? who is going to advocate for them?" i acquired language just like any other child acquires their language from their community and family. you start learning single words and then make them into phrases and then sentences. so that's how i learned to sign. having access to sign language from birth, is an experience that only 5% of deaf people ve. the remaining 95% of deaf children are born into hearing families. what that means is that language access is not a given, it's not granted.

you have to build ittt it's just a of connecting their parents with the community so that they can learn to sign and give the children everything. and that can build the bond that all children shoulhave with parents who love them, care for them, and can communicate with them. i adopted my son when he was four years old. he didn't have any language then. i understood up close and personal, the realities of language deprivation in trying to communicate with him. it was a full on family effortto ave him develop language. i saw firsthand his experiences and how he would copy signs from the story. and to get to see that in my own home drove home the point of what happens when someone doesn't have language.e to see the deg frustration that they experience and to seea how theye as they're able to use language to engage in conversations with people. so seeing his experience has been reay emotional for me. my name is melissa malzkuhn andb

this is ef but spectacular take on human connections through language and storytelling. >> woodruff: for a separate take on language, you can find a special episode of brief but spectacular online witroline that's on our website at pbs.org/newshour/brief. d that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. .oin us online and again here tomorrow evening for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons rare available as an app, online. more information on babbel.com.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contrutions 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 results are only as good

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