captioning spo by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour toniilt: radical reng. as devastating floods and tornadoes tear athe midwest, we explore the possibility ofelocating entire wns after natural disaster. then, analysis of the u.s. supreme court's latest rulings on abortion laws. plus, research indicates that students of color do best when they see teachers who look like themselves. now, a college program seeks to bring more teachers of color into the u.s. public school system. >> having a teacher of color actually can move student achiement. it actually can help keep kids in school, and persist to college.

>> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs nshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin? >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> ordering takeout. >> finding the west route. >> talking for hours. planning for showers. >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan desior you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv >> for projectnd the house, home advisor helps find local pros to do the work. you can check ratingd customer reviews, and book appointments with pros online at meadvisor.com. home advisor is proud to support

pbs nehour. >> babbel. a language program that teaches spanish, french, italian, german, and more. >> bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: a string of tornadoes cut a path of destruction across parts of ohio and indiana overnight. the twisters-- including one packing winds up to 140 miles per hour-- flattened entire neighborhoods, killing at least one person and injuring 130 others. in western ohio, the light of

day revealed the devas left by tornadoes hours earlier. midnight, a line of twisters tore through indiana oud ohio. >> our is gone. the tornado just hit our house. >> woodruff: who witnessed it, described a deafening noise as the storms hit. >> within five, ten seconds, it goes from dead quiet to a jet engine taking off. the loudest noise i've ever heard. >> woodruff: more than 50 tornadoes are reported to have touched down across eight states in the midwest mond night. the area around daon, ohio, was among the worst hit. local officials there are still assessing the damage. >> we do not yet know the full extent of the damage, as crews are still working to reach affected areas, but we do know that the damage was significant and that many citizens and folks are still without basic services. >> woodruff: in vandalia, ohio, just north of dayton, francis dutmers and his wife hid in

their basement. >> i just got down on all fours and covered my head with my hands. it blew out most of the windows. you can just feel the wind gusting through the house. >> woodruff:e said their house had minimal damage. others across the region were not so lucky. in some places, rows of homes were razed to their foundations. in others, powerful winds ripped roofs off of homes and uprooted trees. emy officials are going door to door, but urged residents to check on each other. >> one thing i must as everybody is, look out for your neighbors. ou haven't seen somebody that you know, please give us a call at 911. woodruff: in industrial areas, delivery trucks were knocked over, d warehouses and businesses were destroyed. officials said millions are without power, and that

restoration will be a multi-day effort. monday's storms come just days after deadly tornadoes hit oklaho. oklahoma and arkansas are both experiencing severe flooding, as the arkansas river level rises. the flooding is expected to get worse in the coming days. back in washington, $19 billion disaster aid bill that would have brought much-needed assistance to those storm- ravaged areas has stalled for a second timin the house of representatives. kentucky republican thomas massie objected to the measure over its cost and lack of funds for the southern border. he demanded the vote be held after congress returns from its recess, next week. the legislation included money for rebuilding damaged infrastructure and helping farmers cover crop losses, among other things. we will have more on the devastation in the midwest and beafter the news summary. in the day's other news, the u.s. supreme court upheld an indiana quiring abortion

providers to bury or cremate bufetal remains. the justices opted not to weigh in on the dever a separate indiana provision that woulbar women from getting a abortion based on gender, race, se disability. we will take a clook at tuesday's supreme court actions, later in the program. the first state tr drug manufacturer accused of fueling the opioid crisis began today in oklahoma. prosecutors johnson & johnson contributed to the epidemic by deceptively marketing the painkillers. the company has denied the claim. the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention eimated that opioid-related overdoses killed more than 47,000 americans in 2017 alone. officials in iran today said that they see "no prospect" of nuclear negotiations with the u.s. the comments came a day after

president trump claimed that a new nuclear deal with iran was possible. during a press conference in tehran, a spokesman for the iranian foreign minister blamed the trump administration's terms for sanctions relief on iran, r and said the 2015 nucleaal was active despite the u.s. withdrawal. >> (tr slated ): we consider secretary of state mike pompeo's 12 demands for iran unrealistic. theyot executable. his conditions are not ptable by us, or any oth independent country. furthermore, we had not left th negotiating taat we're already at. edwe still have a basis ca the iran nuclear deal, and it is still alive. >> woodruf revolutionary guard also said today that it does nle fear a possar with the u.s. tensions between the two countries escalated after the u. accused iran of attacking oil tankers in the gulf earlier this month. a human rights group has accused the egyptian military of committing war crimes against civilians in the sinai

peninsula. egyptian forces have been battling islamic militants in the northern part of the peninsula for years. a new report out today from human rights wat describes widespread kidnapping, torture, and murder. it also blames the militants for carrying out their own atrocities. back in the u.s., stocks fell sharply on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average plunged 238 points to close at 25,348. the nasdaq fell 29 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 23. still to come on the newshour: the deadly weather in the est and south central u.s., and a sweeping plan to combat its effects. elecin europe see traditional parties give way to both the right and the left. analysis of preme court's new actions on abortion. and, much more.

>> woodruff: we return to our lead story, the severe weather devasting the heartland. spring storms have led to at least six deaths so far in okhoma. it has been hit by tnadoes, and flooding there is nearin historic levels. i spoke by phone earlier this evening to oklahoma's governor kevin stitt. governor stitt, thank you very much for join us. tell us now where you have been in the state and what you have e'en. >> well, been all over the state. i've started. i've been touring western oklahoma an saw some of ourmr s that have had some devastation on the flood side. i've been... i toured el reno yesterday. that was the site of a dead tornado. and i've been in muskogee and tulsa, oklahoma,where we're experiencing kind of record floods right now. >> woodruff: and with regard

to tulsa, we've sideen that. is that a result of, as you say, rd rain, or is it just an inadequate water management system? o what's goithere? >> you know, it's record rain. the keystone dam, the keystone watershed, we take a lot of water from kansas, so kansas, southern kansas, northea h oklahoas had just record rain over the last 30 ds. about 11 of our 16 reservoirs are completely full. right now they're releasing 275,000 cubicfeet a second of water, and so basicallngy that's floo lot of tulsa, south tulsa, and on down into fskogee, the arkansas river, and now all thoding is going into arkansas and starting to affect their state, as well. >> woodruff: so how are you and the other officials in stthe e dealing with it? >> well, you know, i've been on the phe with the head of fema, the secretary of the army, and

then i met with the three-star general with the corps of engineers in tulsa this morning, an our biggest concern is our levee system. so the corps and our city has done a great job over the last 50 years on our levee system, but with this much water and pressure on it, that's the biggest concern is that we're going to have a levee failure. so we've evacuated some neighborhoods and we're ju monitoring that very, very closely. i've got the national guard out walking the levee s,yst helping monitor that. we have a town n wsouth around muskogee that actually evacuated cause it was underwater. so muskogee has been hit the hardest right now, and wee just really monitoring our levee htuation, because if they go, we coue some other neighborhoods also get flooded. >> woodruff: so wt do you need? what do you and local officials need at this point?

>> w need the rain to stop up north. there's more predictons of rain this afternoon in northeast oklahoma and also io kansas, which would exasperate this problem and the inflows into these reservoirs. then our corps htias no but to start increasing the release flows. so that's the problem. we're having record releases coming out of the dams. that's just flooding rivers to historic levels. >> woodruff: how are you keeping people safe? >> you know, our local emergency management folks and have done a great job with our police and our fire of going out, not only rescuing certain folks thatave been flooded out, and i got a tour on the airboat, and we actually saw, it waes unbeable, literally two-story houses with just a very top of the roof sticking out. but they're doing a good jfob o actually keeping us up to date

on we maps were showing the citizens and the police going in. if we are seeing water,ee getting people out ahead of time some we haven't had any levee breaks where you're going to have instant increase in water. it's just been a slow rise. so we've been very fortunate. we've... it could have been mu worse. we've had eight storm-related deaths since april 30th, andup a of them were in the el reno tornado. so the tornado and the flood stuff has just been a really tough couple weeks for our state. >> woodruff: certainly a really tough couple of weeks, and we certainly hope for the best and hope that the rain will let up. governor kevin stitt, we thank you. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: beyond the immedie flooding of this spring, the u.s. just experienced its wettest 12-month period on record. it comes amid warnings from many scientists that climate change is causing more intense storms which, in turn, are increasing

flooding risks for millions of americans living near rivers and along the coasts. many communities are now struggling with how to prepare for that. special correspondent cat wise has our report about a small number of towns that have taken ue approach to addressing their problem. ( helicopter ) >> reporter: midwesterners are strangers to floods. but this year's record-breaking floods, which have impacted hundreds of communities and cost billions in damages, have caused some to question the wisdom of rebuilding, once again, in floodp a different option is getting new attention: relocating entire towns. that's what recently drew a caravan of cars to a small town near the mississippi river: lmeyer, illinois. >> welcome to valmeyer. >> repter: the visitors, from as far away as japan and vestralia, were touring sel of the 20 or so towns that have moved over the past century. w thewanted to hear

town's former mayor, dennis lobloch, had managed to p off one of the country's most successful relocations. >> we wanted to annex the relocation site to the original town site. to try tin the original identity. >> reporter: what prompted the town's move was the great flood of 1993, which impacted hundreds of midwest towns and submerged valmeyer under up to 18 feet of water for more than a month. today, most of those flooded homes and businesses no longer exist. >> on the right, this was all residential property. very nice, newer homes. there was nothing available, as far as any kind of reference information on how to move a town. we actually took it to the people as a vo a majority of the residents said, "yeah, we'll help you out. we want to be a part of this." >> reporter: today, a mile and a half away and 400 feet above the

original townew valmeyer, completed two years after the flood. the relocation was made possible by the federal government. e 1989, fema has provide $3.2 billion to states and local governments to buy nearly 46,000 properties in flood-prone areas. once the homesre purchased, from willing owners at pre-flood appraisal prices, th must be demolished and turned into green space in perpetuity. many move away, but valmeyer's residents wanted to stay together, so they pooled their buyout money to purchase the town's newand. >> valmeyer is really the poster child of a floodplain relocation in the u.s. they got a lot right here. >> reporter: university of california davis professor nicholas pinter was the tour leader. he's a geologist who's spent years studying a process known as "managed retreat." >> instead of building a levee, a flood wall around your town,

instead, giving nature its due, backing away. >> reporter: when is managed retreat an appropriate strategy? >> oftentimes for a small rural community of couple hundred, to 1,000 or more, it has been cost-effective and successful to rmove theher than rebuilding. there's many ways by which you uate a project like this but one is simply what fema wants to look at-- are they go disasters just by rebuilding in the same spot, down in the floodplain, and again, and again? >> reporter: flood-risk modeling done by pinter and his colleagues has shown millions to tens of millions of dollars in damages and federay-backed insurance claims have been saved because of the moves. but, he says, towns considering relocation should pay atntion to some important lessons learned.

>> one persistent failure is our ability to move businesses along with the residents. the u.s. government is willing to invest in moving home-owners, but not invest in moving the businesses within those home- owners' communities. that's a challenge we have to overcome. >> reporter: another challenge? retreating from cherished land is not always a popular strategy. that's an issue jessica simms cares a lot about. she's a program manager for louisiana state's $48 million resettlement plan for isle de jean charles. flooding is now a common occurrence on the only road into the predominantly native .american coastal communi but not everyone is supportive of the government's plans. >>s this is something that the people who are going to be moving ading themselves, it just won't work, right? you ha important to them.t's if they feel forced, or pressured in any wayust won't work.

>> reporter: that struggle over community identity is still playing ou up a long time ago.t old shawneetown, illinois, which sits on the banks of the ohio river. >> the towoods in 1875, 1882, 1883, 1884 and 1898. >> reporter: after another huge flood in 1937, many residents decided enough was enough, and built new shawneetown three miles away. but a small number of old to residents have chosen to endure repeated floods rather than move. 50-year-old lee cook, who was raised in old shawneetown and is now raising his family there, is one of those who won't leave. >> you c't get flood insurance here, as of now. i don't know if you'll ever be able to get flood insurance here. but we still choose to stay.

it's in your blood. old town is in your blood, you know? you're just going to be here. >> reporter: back in valmeyer, the s now gearing up for their annual midsummer bration. like last year, and many years before that, residents will return to their former lawns to watch a community parade. but if it starts raining, they cahead for the hills. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in valmeyer, illinois. >> woodruff: today, a collection of government leaders met in brussels to begin crucial talks to choose who will head the european union. europe has just coluded one of the largest elections in the world, with 350 llion eligible voters across 28 countries choosing members of the european parliament.

the body oversees trade deals, funds european defense, and regulates the european economy. and, as nick schifrin reports, the election revealed that europe's long-dominant centrist parties are weakening. >> schifrin: europe is at a crossroads, and the pliamentary election results leave a polarized continent more fragmented. s france, the national rally party won the mots. founded by a man accused of dethe holocaust and discriminating against muslims, it now speaks to french upset with immigration. >>translated ): i am really happy because today, we're giving france back to the french >> schifrin: in tom united kina four-month-old party whose entire platform is its name-- two traditional governing parties that have failed to delir brexit. >> we are not going to go away until britain has left the e.u. >> schifrin: and in italy, the populist lgue party won in a landslide.

its hardline leader, matteo salvini, said anti-e.u. parties winning 25% of parliament represented a refereum on europe's future. >> ( translated ): it's the sign of a europe that is changing. >> schifrin: but europe is not changing only to the right. in germany, the two ruling parties had their wors national election results since world war ii. and the centrist, pro-european green party won more than 20% of the vote, its best-ever result. >> ( translated ): the people in germany, the people in europe, have voted for climate protection and for european solidarity. >> schifrin: a green wave up to finland, over to ireland, down to portugal, and back to belgium. those pro-european candidates will combih emmanuel macron's party in france, and smaller pro-european parties in the u.k., to keep the majority of parliament pro-e.u. but it's a thin majority, and pro-european parties would need to unite, said manfred weber, leader of the center-right an people's party.

>> from now on, those who want to have a strong european union have to join their forces. >> schifrin: and for more, we turn to heather conley, senior vice president andtor of the europe program at the center nar strategic and internat studies, and former deputy assiant secretary of state f europe during the george w. bush administraon. welcome back to the newshour. >> great to be with you. >> schifrin: let's start big picture. we saw a wkening of the centre-left and the centre-right parties at have dominated european politics for decades. does that mean the european union, the european experiment itself is getting weaker? >> well, the european unity that was once held by these tw traditional parties, the centre-right and the scentre-left, that order ending. so there is some new organic forces coming into nlplay. certthe farage right is here to stay. they earned 25% of the vote. buthere is a new exciting

force coming to the forefront, the liberals, the centrist, and the green party. there a regeneratime. what this right now is there is total fragmentation. really no one pa rty can holda majority. now it will take two, ree, even four parties to put forward a majority. and european k leaders don'tw how to do that type ofmp xity at the european level. so we are in some unchartered territory. it's exciting but probably noe t citement that those 28 european leaders thought they would have. >> schifrin: nt usually isn't these days for europe. you mentioned how the pop did get about 25%. there were fears that that number would be higher, though.o ann some ways because the pro european parties still ha a majority in the european parliament, as you and i were talking earlier, does this mean this election is a little bit more about continuity than it is about change >> it will feel like there's less change because now they will take three to fourn political grou to come together, and they will still

hold that center. there's still a two-thirds majority that's very pro e.u. but that 25% can disrupt, they can prevent the e.u. going forward. the problem is those pro e.rc have very different ideas about how to lead, what's important in trade and the econd migration. so there's going to be some very interest we saw the first one this evening when e.u. leaders met.ul they really 't agree on much some this may be a long, hot, complicated summer to gure out the most important six new positions across the e.u. this summer. >> schifrin: many of these elections, as you know, are about the countries themselves and kind of a referendum to be leaders in those countries. let's zoom in a little bit italy, matteo salvini, deputy prime minister, critics call him authoritarian. does hstemerge as morng after these elections? >> he has certainly emerged as the minant political forn italy. and what he was trying to do was

using his acceleration of popularity in italy and create basically a pan-european far right group, merging with france's marine le pen and others in the e.u. to cobble together this far-right group. it didn't work quite as to plan. and what's so hard about these groups, they're very nationalistic. they don't aee on very much. so his sort of proclaimed ocgret wasn't as great as he anticipated. but again, ahome today matteo salvini was already pushing the e.u. on its economic policies he wants to grow italian debt. he wants a lot of relief for italian banks, and the e.u.si lly said today, no, you have to stick to the rules. so he's going to challenge the e. quite a bit. >> schifrin:ny, angela merkel the glue many people believe is holding europe together. a lot of turmoilnside her coalition, but she's trying the stay in power for next few

>> yes, that glue is going through a very difficult political position. act act -- angela merkel will stay unt 2021678 he was hoping her heir apparent would be ready, but her party and the new leader is not quite ready. now markle's coalition partner is now the third largest party, could almost be the fourth party. that old prld war ii political structures are just giving way. if germany can't find a path forward, europe can't find path forward some it so important. >> schifrin: just quickly in the time we have left, that last point is so k. what should americans know, what should americans care about these lead there's we're talking about and these elections? >> wellas we prepare for president trump to visit europe on the 75th anniversary of d-day, europe is so vital to amereconomic prosperity, jobs, our economic growth, as well as to our security, which is why we have u.s. forces there. it helps ensure america's security.

so europe is very important. we have lost so much blood, so many treasure. it's a project we have to keep fighting for. there are a lot of ghosts that are coming back that we don't want to see. >> schifrin: heather conley, a former state department official in the george w. sh foundation and the center for strategic and rnational studies. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: the need for more teachers of color in the u.s. education system. this year's death toll for climbers seeking to summit mount everest hits 11, as crowds bu and, the late tony horwitz on icronicling his journeys across the am south. elbut first, new dments today in the legal fight over abortion rightstin the united es, and how it took a surprise turn today at the u.s. supreme court. lisa desjardins has that. >> desjardins: for all of the

recent attention on this issue, therne key question that looms over the debate over abortion rights and access: what will the supreme court do? today, new clues... ybe. the justices resolved a legal dispute over aboion restrictions in indiana today. and, marcia coyle of the he"national law journal" i with us to break it all down. marcia, a fascinating ruling here today. the justices broke this law into two parts.do let'that here, as well to, help our viewers out. first let's start with what the justices concluded on the aspect of the law that dealt with sposing of fetal tissue from abortions. >> okay. this is the indianaaw that was signed by then-governor mike pence in 2016. the part we're talking about said that abortion clinics have to dispose of fet remains either by cremation or burial. and the cour today said that it otherarlier said in

opinions that states have a legitimate interest in thepo proper dl of fetal remains. the lower court in this case, according to the justices, erred in failing to recognize that legitimaerest. the only question that was left for the supreme court, the justices said,was whether the law was rationally related to the state's interests. the justices found, yes, it was, d they upheld thatart of the law. >> desjardins: so going forward, in the state of indiana now, abortion clinics will be required to disose according to the law. the justices ruled the other way on the rest of the indiana law. indiana was attempting to ban any abortions based on the gender, disdisability, or race of the fetus. >> that's correct. the law made t illegal r an abortion provider to knowingly perform an abortion on those basises. the court didn't do the opposite. what the court did is it said it

wasn't goingo decide because only one court, the court in this particular case, had considered that issue as to prohibition was constitutional. and the supreme court said it's ordinary practice to wait until a number of addional cour consider the issue. the justices like these issues to percolate in the lower courts so they have the benefit of the analysis of the lower couforts they actually jump in. >> desjardins: so the effect ofotthat decision to rule essentially on that aspect is that the indiana law in this regard is overturned, does not go into place, is that right? >> that's right. that part of the law has been blocked by an injunction by the lower court, and the injunction will still stand as to that part. >>esjardins: so much interesting language in this. notably justice thomas wrote a 20-page concurring opinion. i want to read some of that

here. he spoket length, he wrote at length about eugenics and ortion. he said, "although the court declines to wade into these issues today, we cannot avoid them forever, having created the onstitutional right to an abortion, this cou duty bound to address its scope." he says, "having created that constitutional right." can you talk about his language and also that of justice ginsburg in response? >> you write with a 20-page actualing opinion, the opinion of the court was only three pages. he used his con curbs toace basically he tied together birth contro abortion, and eugenics, and he said that abortion in particular was rife, his words work the potential for eugenic he used the term "supposed constitutional right to abortion" in part of his opinion. justice ginsburg, she would have turned away indiana's appeal in its entirety, and se used

constitutional protected right of a woman to have an abortion, and she also called out justice thomas in a footnote. he had spoken about the mother's right to terminate her pregnancy. justice ginsburg said, "a woman o terminates -- who exercises her constitutionally protected righ terminate her pregnancy is not a mother." so there is this battle over the language, and it does reflect how they view the nstitution right. >> desjardins: finally, what does this tell us about where the court is on thisvery larg issue? >> well, i think it shows once again that they are divided, that there are justices like justice ginsburg and justice sotomayor also wouldturned away indiana's appeal in ivi entirety, wh these type of restrictions as an undue burden on a woman's right to an abortion. justice ginsburg used that term. that is the current test for

whether state restrictions vie late the constitutnal right to an abortion. on the other hand, you have someone like justice thomas, who obviously feels just as deeply that the right to an abortion is made up, that it does not have a tutional basis. it was made up by the supreme court. d supremve a divide court, and we will all have to wait until more cases come. k w they're coming. in fact, there are right now at ale supreme court three additibortion-related cases. any one of them could possibly bring up roe v. wade if the justices are so inclined, and also ilithe pipne, there is the alabama and the missouri recent bans. they'll take a while to get to the supreme court, but they will come one way or another. >> desjardins: when we hear about those cases, you'll be hear to talk to us about them. >> i hope so. >> desjar: dircia coyle, thank you. >> my pleasure, lisa.

>> woodruff: racial disparities in academic achievemenins one of the leading problems in american education-- and that's true as well at the college and university level. a number of studies show greater diversity in the teaching profession can address some of those concerns. hari sreenivasan has a look at a teacher training program that is aming to increase diversity in the classroo improve results all the way through college. it is the latest story in our paecial series on "rethinking college," and rt of our regular education segment, "making the grade." >> sreenivasan: francisco martinez will earn his teaching certificate this month, but the b-year-old teacher-to-be wants more to his students. >> my goal is to be a good role model. >> sreenivasan: martinez, who was born in the u.s. to immigrant parents, says that his own teachers in school overwhelmingly white. he hopes his background will

resonate with elementary school students in fresno, california, where the districts' enrollment is 67% hispanic. >> i feel like some of the experices they're going through, i've seen myself, and i guess in a sense, ovcan kind of reanother ear, or another person to on. >> sreenivasan: martinez may be right. cassandra herring heads alliance that helps prepare teachers for diverse student classrooms. >> we know from research that ving a teacher of color actually can move student achievement. it actually can help keep kids in school and persist to college. >> sreenivasan: according to the enter for education statistics, more than half of all public school students in america are racial or ethnic minorities, and that number is only rising. at the same time, 80% of their teachers are white. experts in higher education are trying to fix that gap. >> we need to make sure that every single ed prep program is training every single teacher

candidate to bring about student achievement gains for all learners. >> sreenivasan: while minority students have made gains in went years, an achievement gap still exists bet the races. according to the u.s. department of education, in some grades, eme gap in reading and math achievt between whites and their hispanic and black classmates remains in the double digits herrings' alliance, called h anch ed, launched a new initiative wlleges across the country to improve teacher preparation programs. >> when we go into o classroom, capture what you see and hear teachers doing. >> sreenivas: this month, the alliance met in fresno at vang pao elementary school to observe student teacher candidates from calirnia state university, including francisco martinez' class. >> how many of us ought that was false? raise your hands. >> sreenivasan: observers used a rubric to assess the role of diversity in teaching and learning.

>> by looking through the lens of that tool, it gives educators, these faculty, the opportunity to reflect back on what they' campuses. their own >> from our observations, we want to process the information, then go deeper with it. >> sreenivasan: one observation came from nykesha williams, an assistant professor from north carolina a&t sta university. >> there was one black female in the classroom. she did not participate, in sharing out, and i didn't hear that girl's voice in the classroom at all. there's research that supports this marginalization of blacle fe particularly as it relates to math, and it struck me that, as a teacher,hink about how you can be more inclusive. >> sreenivasan: does teachingas need to changeur demographics and as our country changes? >> i think it does. i think thlorace-blind, blind, language-blind,

culture-blind educationasystem of the past is failing us. it's obsolete. blaecause ourrooms are becoming so diverse, to not equip teachers to know h to really leverage that diversity ev a positive way, to move forward student acent, is only going to increase the shhievement gap. >> sreenivasan: a ift toward what's called culturally responsive teaching, or cultural proficiency, is gaining traction among educators. to better serve students of color, teachers create conversation about inequities and cultural relevance. >> the time she got on what? >> the bus. >> sreenivasan: francisco martinez uses spanish references in his lesson plans. ma for example, there was one lesson i lead once, we were idrking with distances, so i i so and so wants to go get an horchata beverage. how long does so and so have to walk to get that beverage?

so the students found it very engaging. >> sreenivasan: while california state university at fresno has inen successful at recruiting many mity teacher- candidates, enrolling african american males is still a challenge. >> we do need to improve on how we recruit african american tis. i think wide, that should be at the forefront of the discussion. >> sreenivasan: laura alamillo is the dean the school of education at the university. she recently visited local black churches to try and attract more african americans toward a teaching career. >> it's time to reach out to this particular community, to see if maybe it could spark some interest. it's not only the presence of a teacher of color, it's the lens,

it's the mindset. >> sreenivasan: ultima cultivating great teachers is likely to be the best recruiting tool of all. " most teachers, if you ask a teachey did you become a teacher?," their "why" is because they had a teacher, one teacher, that inspired them, that encouraged them to be the best that they could be, and push them. >> sreenivasan: for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan fresno, california. >> woodruff: mount everest immains the ultimate achievement for many mountain rs. and the number of people who try it just keeps growing, far above the levels of even two decades ago. may is the month when many try to reach the summit. but, as amna nawaz tells us, this year has had a numberf fatalities once again, and those deaths are prompting questions about whether there e too many

climbers, and how nepal is handling it. >> nawaz: judy, i'm sure many ke our viewers have seen this picture over the w, tweeted out by a climber. the summit of mount everest essentially had a traffic jam this past week. once upon a time, this kind of crowd was uniminable. but now, there are even more troubles ascending and descending from the top. at least 11 people have died this climbing season. most recently, an american attorney from boulder, colorado, who died on monday. for more on what it takes to make it to the top of everest, and the crowding, conditions, and the deaths, we t alan arnette, a mountaineer and climbing coach who summitted everest in 2011. he is the oldest american to summit k-2, the second-highest mountain in the world. and he joins us via skype from fort collins, colorado. alan, welcome to the newshour. we hear this wd "crowded" a lot in reference to what we're seeing. there why is it so crowded on

everest right now? >>ell, it's the highest mountain in the world. for many people it's the minute cal, it's the dream. they grew up watching national gee graphics orc!mj document watching documentaes on pbs ilout climbing everest, and it's a chdhood dream. as the world improves and middle classes have more money, 're arting to see more and more people try to go there. >> nawaz: so more and morele pealan, want to get to everest. the nepalese government has also issued more permits than evfoer bere in history. is it the fact that it's more crowded that we're seeing more deaths? >> that's very true. nepal issued a record 381 permits to foreigners. they also require that each foreigner hire a sherpa guide. so that meant there were 800 people attempting the mountain this year. now, that in and o itself is not a big problem, but the problem was that the jetstream, the high winds aloft, normally move off of the mountain in mid-may. last year they moved off and al wed for 11nsecutive summit days and a record number

of people summited with the normal, sadlyto say, the normal five deaths. e is year that summit window, thre only five of them. so you had roughly 800 people trying to squeeze through a three-day window, and on may 23rd, it was the worst-case scenario. it all came togeter in ry short period of time. >> nawaz: so more people trying to summit in fewer possible days. look, we've heard a lot of people who are coming off the mountain talking about what it's like up there, what the conditions are like on the heound. you have been . they've talked about chaos. they have talked about stepping over bodies. they have talked about it being like a zoo. what is it like when you're up there in the moment? >> so i thinkhis year again, what people were experiencing was the worst case,he but is another phenomenon going on. there is a new generation of guide services which are e fering everest at $30,000 instead of rmal $40,000 $50,000, $60,000. that low price is attracting people who haven't had the

experience ty need to ha before attempting a mountain like everest. they don't know what they don't know. when they're up there, they don't realize that they're suffering from altitude sickness. the support staff that they'r with hasn't been trained in the medical aspect. so they don't know when to turn people around. so that's what's getting most people in trouble, and also, that's influencing the chaos that we're seeing, and this idea that people are jostling to be able to stand on top of the summit, eerienced mountaineers would never do that. that tells me that this year we have a lot of novices up there that horestly needed support and more experience before they arrived. >> nawaz: alan, help us understand, less than a minute left, by i'm hoping you can provide some color for us here, when you're there and you've spent tens of thousands of dollars to do thisnce in a lifetime summit, what is that prussure like? bewe hear about people who are willing to pass by other ulimbers who are having diff. what are some of the unspoken rules when you're trying to summit everest? >> well, this is a tough on

when you climb a mountain like everest, it really comes down to self-preservation. you're in what's called "the death zone" where your dys degrading. you're running out of oxygen. when you get into lines owhere burn up the limited amount of oxygen you have, you're hanging ono the edge. if all of a sudden what should have been a 12-hour summit day turns into a 20 and you run out of oxygen, you die. if you get low on oxygen, youov may di altitude sickness some the ability to help other people becomes very, very limited to those strongest people on the mountain, and those are typically the most experienced sherpas up there. it's not the normal person that's climbing. it'someone like myself. >> nawaz: alan arnette who has himself made it to the top of mt. evere, thank you so much for being with us today. >> thank you. >> woodruff: finally tonight, we remember, and hear from, author and pulitzer prize-

winning journalist tony horwitz. he died suddenly yesterday of an aprent cardiac arrest. horwitz was best known as the author of "confederates in the attic," a look at modern-day wauthern attitudes about the civi and the people who re-enact it. ale book was a best-seller. as a jout, he covered conflicts in the middle east, herica and the balkans for "wall street journal." he won the pulitzer in 1995 for a series on income inequality and low-wage jobs, including working at chicken processin plants in the south. a number of horwitz's books are ough the narrative of a first-person account. that's true of hist book, "spying on the south." william brangham recently sat down with him about it. here's that interview. >> brangham: almost 160 years ,go, with america on the brink of civil wa young writeer from connecticut was sent south to file regular dispatches om the so-called "cotton kingdom"

of the slave-holding states. that reporter was frederick law .le. st he later designed central park in manhattan, the capitol grounds in washington, and many other famous sites. a erw years ago anoriteer from the north, pulitzer prize winner tony horwitz, recreated olmsted's trek state by state, often using similar modes of transport and painting similarly indelible portraits of the pe pye resulting work is called g on the south: an odyssey across the american divide." tony horwitzoins me now. welcome back to the newshour. >> thanks for having me again. >> brangham: i haveqsu this book wa a surprise, as a former new yorker and now ngsomeone who lives in wasn, d.c., i have spent many, many hours in the genius creations of frederk law olmsted, and i ha no idea that he was a writer and a good one and a gopood rer. >> uh-huh. >> brangham: how did you find this story and decide this is w what yted to do?

>> the true story is that it happened while i was cleaning house. my wife and i live in an old farm stead in massachusetts where everything sags. and ourg overflowoks don't help, and while sorting through them as we were fightinovg shelf space, i rediscovered "the cotton kingdom," a book that grew out of olmsted's reporting that i had been assigned in college. i dove back into it and was just instantly captivated by his vivid writin tg about south. >> brangham: can you give us a sense of what was th it was reporting. we know where america was roughly on t cusp of the civil war. but he was doing this for a northern audienc what were the stories, what were the dispatches he was sending back north? >> wellhe was sent by "the new york times," which had just opened shop, and saw itself as the temperate and measured voice of reason at a time when papers

were very overheated and rtisan. and so they wanted quite a sober , alysis of the south's economy and societ olmsted is this very intrepid anuradves fellow who is constantly wandering away into whatever he was curious out. so he wandered through the open door of a black churchin new orleans, and then he would write about the service that he witnessed. or what it was like staying at the homes of poor whites where often lodged on the road at night. he would just knock on the door and pay them f1 food and lodging. so he really wrote about the everyday fabric of life in the south. that was the strength of his writing. >> brangham: he wasn't an anti-slavery crusader, right? he did report on the gruesomeness that he saw, but he tsn't there to try to convince the north e rightness of the cause. when he sets off he'sby no means an abolitionist.

he's actually quite in line with lincoln at that time. in the course of hijourney, his views harden when he sees slavery up close and he sees the intransigence of slave holders who he realizes are willing to fight rather than give an inch. so while he doesn't become an abolitionist until the civil war, his views become harr and harder as he travels the south. >> brangham: so you rediscovered these works, and isu decide, i'm going to do too. what were you hoping to do? >> well, one, i identfied with olmsted. i was a newspaper --ism wander off your beat all the time. >> for many years abroad and at home i complained about my desk anmy blown-out expense budget as olmsted does in his personal letters. i liked his spirit of just approaching strangers and ordinary people rather than, you know, so-called experts and other sources that journalists

often rely on to just sense what he called the drift of things. and i like that, and i thought, well, here we are at another moment of national fracture. i will retrace his journey to see what he saw then and what i see now at another moment of polarization. >> brangham: if you say he's setting off wh the countris on the cusp of civil war, we're obviously not that, but as you write, i want the read a quote from here, this is 150 years later. you write that you found inescapable echoes of the 1850s, extreme polarization, racial strife, demonization of the other side, embrace of inflamed opinion, oerreasonned dialogue and debate. obviously we'rave changed. in the at war, but do you see those similarities that strongly? i think all of those things hold. they're real echoes of the 1850s. you know, obviously entirely different eras, different

issues, so i wouldn't want to overplay itt, you know, we're really shouting at and past each other in a way that is quite reminiscent, and our government seems paralyzed by its divisions, as it was in the 1850s. loss of faith in our institut so i don't think we're on the cusp of violent breakup, and i certainly hope not, but i certainly think there are warnings to be found in what olmsted described in the 1850s. >> brangham: we had jared diamond on the show a few days ago. he was arguing that political polarization is one of the greatest threats to our democracy. but you're more optimistic abt e ability of the country to get past these division, right? >> well, i think the divisions are certainly exaggerated, both by people who wantexploit our differences for political or other gain, but also bsocial media and the ways that we

inhabit our separate silos and precincts. when you do as i did, go o for a long period and meet people on barstools and in churches and workplaces and their homes, we viy have very differen, but we can sit down and discuss them in a civil and even friendly manner. does that solve the problem? no, but i think it lowers the icmperature on our conflict i do think can get am find by our media and politics. >> brangham: the book isyi on the south. tony horwitz, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: that interview was done only recently. tony horwitz died yesterday at the age of0. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruf join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> the problem is, we don't have any time to waste. >> is bipartisanship the answer to our climate crisis? democratic congressman te deutch shinks so. he tells me the world can't wait for a new president to take action. .hen, the life and times of frederick dougla pulitzer prize-winning author david bligh digs into the life of the former slave who some call the greatest figure americ has everoduced. plus, the ceo who looked death in the face and was spired to improve the lives of his employees. our hari sreenivasan speaks to him.