captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, february 10: border wall negotiations break down ahead of the government shutdown deadline. the democratic field in the presidential re widens. and in our signature segment, life after walmart in small town america. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. ed sue anr wachenheim iii. seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products.

that's why we're your retirement company. additional pport has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station fr othank you.like you. from the tisch wnet ncudios at n center in new york, .hari sreenivas >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. what sounded like preising news yeay, that a bipartisan congressional conference committee was clone to agreement order security funding that would avoid another partial government shutdown, today turned into another political standoff. the lead republican negotiator said that one of sticking points in budget talks is now the numberof beds at immigration and customs enforcement detention centers. >> i think the talks are stalled right now. i'm hoping we can get off the dime later today or in the morning because time is ticking away but we've got some problems with the democrats dealing with

ice, that is detaining criminalh t come into the u.s. and they want a cap on them. we don't want a cap on that. >> strreenivasan: presidenp slammed democrats for not offering enough border wall funding and wantosg a cap on the detained. democratic sources blamed senate republicans for refusing to compromise on the issue. congress must approve a new spending bill and the president must sign it before friday avoid another partial government shutdown. minnesota senator amy klobuchar added her name to the list ofda democratic cans for president in the 2020 race. klobuch larnched her campaign on a snowy day from a minneapolis park on the banks of the mississippi river. the 58-year-old, three-term senator said she would rejoin s climate chan agreement, called for stronger digital protections and net neutrality, and stress her midwesroots. >> i staornd byou as the granddaughter of an iron ore

miner, as the daughter of a teacher and newsper man, as the first woman elected to the united states senate fm the state of minnesota, to announce my candidacy of presidency of the united states. (cheering) >> sreenivasan: klobuchar is the ninth democratic presidential candidate to officially enter the race. four of the nine are women. rginia's governor ralph northam says he's the right person to lead the state despite continued calls for his resignation. in a cbs interview, northam admitt leaving office after seeing a photo on his medical school yearbook page. heysow saeither person is him. >> yes, i have thought about resigning, but i've also thought about what virginia needs right no and i relly think that i'm in a position where i can take virginia to the next level, and it will be very positive.>> reenivasan: northam has admitted wearing blackface at a dance contest. in a separate controversy, the state's lieutenant governor justin fairfax denies charges of

sexual assault and rape from two women. last nhtigairfax asked for the f.b.i. to investigate the allegations and said again that he will not resign. this pasweek in politics we saw some big names added to the democratic presidential field, and a still unfolding crisis for democrats in virginia. for some perspective we turn now to special correspondent jeff greenfield who joins us from santa barbara. >> sreenivasan: this a getting to bowded field and it is not even close to over. >> yes, this is true. although the one -- thene aspect of the democratic race we haven't yet seen is a self identified centrist or moderate like a bloomrg or perhaps a e biden. those candidates have entered so e r in one degree or another reflect creasingly leftward move of the mainstream of the democratic party. >> sreenivasan: is there any litmus test left?ms it s that donald trump broke a lot of the rules on what it would take or what would stop someone from being president.

so as we see, all of these candidates get into the race, what are the standards they are going to be held to to become their party's candidate?th >> ik once again donald trump is just different. f. is a one you would not have thought the republican party would have nominated somebody whopan the praised socialized medicine, endorsed abortion, even lat term and came oth a wealth tax even higher than the democratic liberals are proposing but i think within the democratic party, there clearly tee some litmus tests they are not going to nomin pro-life or anti-abortion rights candidate. that's not going to happen. third not even going to nominate somebody who has a view on say same s democrat had in 2008. that it was between a man and a woman. ind you are not going to see the democratic party nte somebody who is nearly as tough on undocumented immigrants as president clinton and president obama were in their ate of the unions. so, yes, those are the minimal litm tests. whether or not, fo for instance, the nominee is going to have to endorse some kind of medicare

for all policy, i think you have to wait and see hoys that p out. >> sreenivasan: let's talk a little bit about virginia here.i thsomething we talked ssage last week and the got worse. >> my take on this, because the issue with the lieutenant governor is different, that is an accusation is out right sexual assault. if you are talking about all of the virginia in one wa one way r another involved with black face this iwhat i find so striking and depressing, if these imag came out of the 1930s when the entire american culture and politics and society is shocked through with racism and allyrimination, when virtu every hollywood star appeared in black face, when minstrel shows entertned the washington elite we might say, well, all right, these are coming out of a past we are bon but when you realize some of these images come out of the late sixties, or the 1980s, and fe fact that we are learning that todternities and sororities fairly frequently put

on parties wi mth thebers dress in black face, what you are finding is either out of some not so subt anis or unbelievable cluelessness this upect of american life that some ofmight have thought was there the past earlly isn't in the past at all. >> sreenivasan: and finally, i would likeo point out some stories that have been overlooked this week, it is t fe americarm situation. we know that throughout the midwest th number of bankrupts that are up 50 percent,rc0 pet, 100 percent and i think in the last "48 hours" the agriculture departmentaid farm inincome, net farm income is going to hit nt15 year low, that is commodity prices, increasedest rates which put pressure on farmers to boanow money to their crops and as a result of the tariffs slapped on american goods from trade wars, now farmers only represent two percent of the american populati, but they are a critical part of the trump con constituenciesn states like wisconsin that came down to a frac shun of one percent. so if we are tal ng about

economic catastrophe in the farm belt next year that is very bad l ws for the trump campaign. >> sreenivasan: ght. jeff greenfield, joining us from santa barbara, thank you so much. pleasure. >> sreenivasan: the south korean government agreed today to a short-term deal to pay more for the more than 28,000 u.s. troops stationed there. the new agreement would raise south korea's contribution from $830 million i2018 to $924 million for 2019. the one-year deal still has to be a parliament.e korean the agreement comes just weeks a planned second summit between president trump and north korean leader kim jong un. tens of thousands of protesters marched madrid today to oppose concessions by the government to catalan separatists. the demonstrators rallied against catalan sovereignty and called for spanish prime minister pedro sanchez to step down. the socialist leader is viewed by far-right parties as sympathetic to the separatists. he recently proposed talks to address the catalan independence movement.

white scrar ps of pairled through the guggenheim museum last night as part of a staged protest against the drug oxycontin. the falling paper was meant to resemble prescription slips for the opioid that was created byrd pu pharma, a company owned by the sackler family. the same family which has made charitable gifts to the museum. the protest was styled after a comment richard sackler made when oxycontin was first launched. he said in recently exposed documents, that the drug would be, "followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition." last niprght's otest was the latest to target cultural institutions that have accepted gifts from the sackler family. to learn more about the new cost-shing plan for american troops in souths.orea, visit g/newshour. >> sreenidivasan: acc to walmart, 90% of americans live within 10 miles of one of its stores. but not the residents of winnsboro, south caroshna. as nr weekend christopher

booker reported in 2016, walmart closed its super center there three yes ago, one of 154 it shuttered across the country that year,any of them in rural areas. he recently returned to winnsboro to see what life almfr t is like for a small american town. >> reporter: when the news came in january of 2016 that walmart would ose the winnsboro, south carolina, supercenter, residents were shockethd. >> wght it was a prankster at first. i said, "walmart's closing?" that's the only store we have around here. >> i think that the customers deserve to know something you know? i spent a lot of money at walmart. >> reporter: the closure was part of a restructuring effort that walmart described in a press release as "necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future." a walmart spokesman told the newshour in 2016 that "there was not a single factor, like profit or location, that determinedst whices they closed and which remained open." and jweust tws after the announcement, winnsboro's

walmart shut its doors. for nearly 20 years, the store had served as the town's one stop residents could buy groceries, fill their prescriptions or just catchbo-up with their nei. >> or if you wanted to see anybtoody, comalmart, which is where everybody would meet. >> reporter: but convenience came at a cost for winnsboro.a competing withlmart's rock bottom prices was difficult for the town's existing businesses. when walmartrrived in 1998, the town had three grocery stores and two departmentby stores the time it left winnsboro, only the bi-lo grocery remained. but itas downtown, about two miles away from walmart, that took the biggest hit. >> i came to winnsboro a year and a half before walmart. >> reporter: terry vickers was president of the chamber of commerce when walmart opened in 1998. >> there were some smaller shops.sa dwich shop, book store, small mom and pops on the street. and while some of those small

shops were able to stay open. a few of them, you know, just had to close their doors. >> there may be some benefits of not having a walmart here.re >rter: in 2016, dr. roger tddy, a local physician, and also then's mayor, saw walmart's departure as an opportunity r the town. >> when walmart comes, the small mom and pops close. so we're hoping that whenever walmart leaves, some of the small mom and pop stores and specialty stores will-- will .eopen and it has the potential to help revitalize main street. rter: if we come back, what do you think we'll see in winnsboro? >> i would like to think that you would see a revitalization of downtown. you'll see more small specialty shops downtown. you'll see more people shopping downtown. i hope you'll see another grocery store, so that is what i am hoping you will see.

>> reporter: three years later, in 2019, we did come back to winnsboro, andound that at least one of the mayor's projections has come to pass. a second grocery store did on after the walmart closed, right next to a new sporting goods store and a new diount store. and fortunes have improved for some of the small businesses that had managed to weather the walmart years. the local hardware store says business has increased by 20% since the supercenter left. and the downtown pharmacy manager carrie baker says siness has nearly doubled. >> we just have more business. r numbers have increased. we're now staying open on wednesdays, which, when we used to close at 1:00, now we're here all day on wednesdays. >> reporter: and there are few new face. >> believe it or not, what convinced us to open was the fact there was nothing here. >> reporter: crystal paulk and her family movennd from ticut to south carolina a few years ago. following the success of her famid ly's fuck business in nearby columbia, they decided to open a donut shop in winnsboro in 201 >> i mean, people would say, "winnsboro? are you serious?

why?" wd i am like, "why not?" it was junsboro is a place where there isn't anything here, hau know? and i don't meanin a negative, but it's s small placthere's not a lot, you know. but what there is, it's-- what is heris unique. >> reporter: paulk says business has been steady, steady enough toat they are making plan open a restaurant next door. >> we have relationship with people. you know, we see people who-- who were once pregnant and now they have their-- you know, they're coming in with the little girl or the little boy, you know. that's just super cool. >> reporter: buexthose are the eptions. much of downtown winnsboro remains like it was when walmart closed its doors in 2016. >>the businesses down here, outside of a few, are still strunggg >> reporter: gene stephens took over as president of the chamber of commerc retired last december. he says about a quarter of the downtown storefronts remain vacant. >> some people are hesitant to purchase these buildings, rent these buildings, and do that

worauk, b the investment is so large upfront to get them back up. >> reporter: now it's been three years since walmart closed. do you think tolmart owes the of winnsboro anything? >>e, personally, i don't think so. >> reporter: is there any t validithe argument that, well, the community supported walmart? >> i do believe if you ask the majority of the population, they would say that the walmart did owe the corporation did owe something, because of the way they impacted the community. something that will help us revitalize to get back to wherea we were beforart came. >> reporter: when walmart left winnsboro, it did con $30,000 dollars to the county's community development corporation. but evenhose who were optimistic concede hopes to restore downtown may have been premature. >> we've got some people that want to-- you know, want downtown to be reignited, rejuvenated, and, you know, that's just not happening anywhere to amount to anything. there'll have to be some major

changes in the population, and for that to occur. >> reporter: mayor gaddy now believes the fate of downtown is tied not to what happens to e storefronts, but what happens just outside of town. in december, after sitting empty for nearly a dade, the town's former mack truck production facility was sold to a chinese mattress manufactuer. they are expected to open this year and hire 250 workers. winnsboro sits between columbia, south carorllina and chaotte, north carolina. state and county officials are marketing the "i-77 international megasite," just ten miles outside of winnsboro on a 1,500 acre tract of land, as the location of the area's next major employer. the mayor is hoping it will lure an auto manufacturer that can bring 2,000 jobs or more. but if it comes, it won't come cheap. >> where the town really is involved with it is that we urally electricity and n gas and water. we've floated about a $12 miion bond to make sure we have a sustainable water supply

for our reservoir to help with industrial recruitment. >> reporter: $12 million is a big sum fo gamble on recruiting a big company. but it's a gamble mayor gaddy believes they ha to take. >> to have downtown to be successful, you got to have a critical mass of people. have the critical mass people, you have to have the industry. to have the industry, you got to have the infrastructe. i'm kind of a basic thinker, and i said, let's-- we'll work on the infrastructure, hopefully industry will come. when the people get here, then iowntown will have a much better opportunity to flosh. and you know, it may or mamynot happen iifetime, but hopefully it won't be too long ater that. >> sreenivasan: newshour weekend would like to hear from viewers like you. what comments oruestions do you have about this story? how has walmart's presen absence affected your community? send us your thoughts at nhekend@wnet.org. we may use your response in an upcoming program.

>> sreenivasan: payday lendin it's an enormous industry that charges exorbitant interest rates for quick loans, usually to people with poor credit ratings. last week, the consumer financial protection bureau moved to abolish some of the regulations designed to protect borrowers. i spoke with associated press business reporter ken sweet about p reporting on possible changes to consumer protection regulations. >> sreenivasan: the main crucia are being rolled back is basically called the ability to repay rules that the consumer financial protection bureau rolled out. baically it said that if you payday lender you had to figure out whether theer custwho was with coming into your store could actually repay the loan that you were giving to them, which sounds really basic but that was the crucial part of that loan. >> sreenivasan: because payday lenders make more money when somebody can't paythat back in time and then what? they extend the loan? >> correct. the payday lending industry, the

customers of the payday lending industry are mostly poor, lower income, people who desperately need money, so they are high risk borrowers, but the way that e industry works is that you borrow a two-week loan and then you go in and say well i can't repay this $400 loan, i would anke to renew it and you pa extra fee and then you renew that a second time or a third time anduften times get loans that go on for six months, maybe even a year. >> sreenivasan: so that is way more an the $400 that u initially borrowed. >> correct. i mean the annual interest rate ns some of these ls close to 400 percent if it was carried out for a whole y sear. enivasan: giv give us some scale of what the population i , whhow many people actually take these loans. why is this such a big deal? >> 12 million americans will use a payday loan in -- this year and they will rack up about $9 billion worth of fees. atere are several states ban payday lending, but there are 1600 paydayending stores

across the country, mostly located in the south and in the west. it is a very large industry that foses mostly on lendinvery short-term cash to desperate people. >> sreenivasan: and, you know,ok g at the articles, the panancial watchdog gut most of thay rules,. >> this was something that cfpb spent most of ss etence working on. they started a research project on this in 2012. they rolled out draft rules in 2014, i believe, and then finalized those rules in 2017. so it was like aive-year project by the cfpb. this was kind of the thing that previous cfpb richard cordier dominated his tenure when se wa there from when he started until basically the month he ended, his tenure, thiwas the thing that the cfpb worked on. >> sreenivasan: and nick mulvaney came in he early kind of signaled this is something he wanted to roll back? >> this was the first priorities of nick when he came

in, in january he announced that he was going to revisit the tire resumes. it was announced before any reher project of his. >>ivasan: is there any reason to believe that he knew this coming intothe job? i mean, has he been funded by this industry? >> the main criticism that was thrown at nick mulvaney was that he took 10s of thousands of doars of contributions from payday lending companies during -- when he was a congressman before he became a budget rector at the white house. close to $30,000. >> sreenivasan: one of the thin that comes up in your article, you said the community financial services associati of me america payday lending group is holding its annual conference in rch atrump's doral golf club in miami and held the conference there last year too. >> so -- so this has been -- there has been lot of stories written about the conflict of

interest that is going on with the trump white house and this has been -- this is oneec of leat, which is that the payday ing industry basically bought a luxury conference at one trump's properties and now they have people over there who are now determining whether the payday lending industry should be regulated or not. >> sreenivasan: what happens next? usually these kind of rules have a public comment period. >> correct. so for the next 90 days the cfpb t will take comm this, but legal experts who have stepped in on this have said that it is goinerg to be difficult for the cfpb to justify such an abrupt about-face on these rules. ou know, just les than 18 months ago the cfpb was under aa position of the pay lending industry needed to be regulated and now they are tabling the exact opposite position. >> sreenivasan: all right. ken swee, from the associate, from the associated press. thank you so much. >> thank you. >>

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: it can take years before the composers and performers on stage at the grammys tonight make it to the top of charts. but the macarthur foundation is ygiving ong classical composer a jump start. meet matthew aucoin, a 2018 maonrthur fellow with a focu opera. >> i write music, both orchestral music and operas, and i also conduct that music. >> one thing that opera can do, i think better than any other vt form is to express and represent yoce to multiple psychological states at the same time. but through the power of music when you layer harmonies, you actually get a deeper sense of the whole psychology of the room, and tt miraculous aerial perspective on human souliis something that

turn to opera for. my first opera crossing is a kind of psychological portrait of walt whitm ♪ ♪ what is it then between us >> with an original open pretty at that based on the diaries that whitman kept while he was working as a volunteer nurse during the civil war. at the moment i am working on a new opera calledid ese which i am writing the with the playwright stair rule with her play. a string quartet, a big ambitious orchestral piece, and i cofoan ensemble called the american modern oera company. i try to bring anra exubee to my music and my words, a willingness to be unself-conscious in the pursuit of joy is something that unifies my work.

♪ >> sreenivasan: tomorrow on the newshour join us for the launch of the new arts and culture series "canvas," with a report on the oscar-nominated film" vice." that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari srnivasan. thanor watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and ene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin.

the cheeiryl and philip mil family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is providedua by mof america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station om viewers like you. thank you. was funded in part by...

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