captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the trump agenda-- the white house backed down on adding a citizenship question to the census as immigration and customs enforcement prepares to start mass raids as early as this weekend. then, a conversation with secretary of veterans affairs robert wilkie on ensuring that those who served the country in the armed forces receive the care they need. plus, the green rush. oe next in our series on the changing landscalegal marijuana. how cannabis has become a multi- billion dollar industry. >> there might not be a thrger weenerating opportunity that i'll see in my lifetime again. i mean it's staggering what can be built in this industry right now. >> woodruff: all that and more

on tonight's pbs newshour. m >>ajor funding for the pbs newsur has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance anrafinancial li in the 21st century. io >> carnegie corporof new york. supporting innovations in

education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> nd with the ongoing support of these institutions:d dividuals. >> this program was mae possible by rporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trumpg says he's backwn from his legal fight to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census. the supreme court had already ruled that the administration's previous explanations did not justify adding the question.

in remarks in the white house rose garden late today, the president said he is pursuing new avenues to get that information. >> we are pursuing a new option to ensure a complete and timely count of the noncitizen population. today, i will be issuing an executive order to t this very plan into effected imtely. i am hereby ordering every departnt and agency in the federal government to provide the department of commee wit all requested records regarding oe number of citizens and noncitizens inur country. they must furnish all legallyec accessibleds in their possession immediately. we will utilize these vast federal data bases to gain a full, complete and accurate count of the noncitizen population, including data bases maintained by the department of homeland security and th social security administration.

we have great knowledge in man y agencies. we will leave no stone >> woodruff: we turn now to three of our newshour correspondents. yamiche alcindor, who is at the white house. plus, amna nawaz, and lisa desjardins. the studio. yamiche, let me come to you. the president had been, it ems, determined to add this citizenship question one way ort thr to the census. now he's backed down. why? >> this is a big loss to president trump and he's esntially admitting he ca't argue for the citizenship question to be added to the nsus without jeopardizing the census itself. the supreme courruled the administration's reasoning was essentially contriefd and they were arguing theoting rights act needed to be betr enforced, the voting right that's supposed to prevent

discrimination in voting. the president is now saying they can't do it without essentially putting at risk the census. the census is already being sresented. critics say this chilling effect because the census is tied directly to how weri dite money, how we draw congressional lines and tied to the electoral college. so there is already som people fear an effect where immigrants won't want to fill out the census. but the president is saying he can't get done what he wanted to do. >> woodruff: by asking all these government agencies to turn information about citizensn noncitto the commerce department, what exactly is the president trying to do? >> the president s asking every single agency in the federal government to turn over whatever records they have on citizenship or non-citizenship to the commerce department so they can have some sort of data base where they can make an official count of who's an immigrant andt not an immign this country. that being said, there are people who say this is about the

president in some ways spreading sphere in the immigrant community. immigration activists say this dovetails wih a lot of other things the administration is doing, it's not happening in a hecuum. so you look atdea the president is trying to change the way asylum works in this country. the president is also now eting immigrant familie more some sort of mass raid going on this weekend. so people sa othis is pa the president really trying to strike fear into the hearts o immigrants and that is, unfortunately, working. >> woodruff: yaiche, we'll try to come back to you in a minute. g to, you have been talk homeland security officials. what do we know about whether there may be massive roundups or raids of immigrant over the weekend? >>the president tweeted about mass raids like this before. it looks mre likely now for a few reasons. i.c.e. says it's targeting people who are undocumented here

and given finamoval orders, that means they came to united states, made a claim of protection, asylum or som else, that was denied and are ready to be dep there is a backlog of several hundred thousand of people. it's an enormous ndertaking to run this kind of raid. 2,000 people are expected to be targetedn cities across country. weeks of investigation to verify where they lve, verify addresses, make sure the kids won't be abandoned or not picked up at school. >> woodruff: they are families they are indeed. a seniod.h.s. oficial said the border crossings dipped last month, taking pressure off the entire system. they're no longer served past capacity in terms of detention. they believe they have the spa to get the people derrickstain them and deporthem through the proper channels. a lot of the orders are issued

in absentia, meaning people weren't in the court if when the orders were issued by a judge. people don't know if they're supposed to be deported. this happens a lot in immignt community. there is already a legal allenge tootect them from deportation. >> woodruff: the trump administration saythis is not new, previous administration haves rounded up immigrants before. what's the truth? >> that's absuty true. president obama earned the teckname deporter in chief because he depmore people than any previous president.o 2,000 ple doesn't seem like a many. it's a lot r a sort period of time. they have the capacity to do that. in detention, there have been so many concerns about these conditions, allegation of abuse, squalid conditions, how children are properly qurd forr -- cared for orot in dedepositions, there is concern about adepositionle people being brought into into i.c.e. custody

>> woodruff: lisa, democrats in congress are pushing back. what are they doing. >> is is we're seeing democrats flex more muzzle, sort of phase two of how they're trying to confront this president as the opposition party. we saw today the house judiciary committee authorize for 12 very high ranking current and formera trump adminion officials. igis includes jared kushner, almost former cam manager corey lieu wan --wandowski. these directly talk about the zero tolerance policy and child separati at the border. these democrats are saying we have not gotten satisfying arntses from homeland security or the trump administration from terms of what is it doing, is legal and they will now subpoena these officials. the trump administration says they don't feel they need to comply with these subpoenas, so democrats are also taking another step there. next week they havounce

they did will take a vote on the house floor to file criminal contempt against attorney neral barr and also the commerce secretary wilbur ross for their noncompliance in the view of the house with supoenas about the census question. so this is kind of a a clo to clear combat as you can get in a legislative sense. now, hen that goes the courts, and this takes a long time to enforce, but democrats are stepping things up. one other note about the i.c.e. raids, you hit on a key point, republicans today, notably, are a little nervous about the i.c.e. raids because they are worried, in their community, they have seen labor shortages, even inast raids under obama affect families and communities in different ways and they are concerned how this will be enacted. i talked to multiple republicans who are you be insured and worried about how tis goes ad are watching carefully. o> woodruff: interesting. being watched fso many

different directions as if this weren't enough going on at the white house today. yamiche, i wat to come ck to you, because the president hosted something the white house taised about. s a summit to discuss social media and what is allowed and what usn't. teabout what took place there at that gathering. >> the goal of the social media summit at the house was to ue conservatives are being unfairly targeted and vatted scraitd goetz by social media giants like facebook and twitter. neither company was invited to the gathering. the president said he wants tovi them later open. the president says we don't wane to censored as pro erepublicans, people who pro-life and pro trump, their accounts are being taken wn. there are people who disagreement there are people who say this is a gathering of far riidght indls and bad actors. one person at the white house was a twitter user that spreadi

tha that kamala harris was not black enough because her motherndas indian father jamaican. a lot of people thought this wasn't a good gathering, and other people should have been more invited, it should have been a more inclusive setting. overall, there are a lot of complaints, but in a few weeks, there will be a few social media people comhog to the white e. >> woodruff:ia mix you've done reporting about the gathering and the language used today. >> some of the people who self-identify as conservative or identify by people who track extremist or dangeroushetoric as alt- right or extremist were being looked at online as well the institute for strategic ioalogue looked at a lot of the language that prly existed only really on the far right fringes has become much more mainstream, particularly through the use of social m so that was something they were

watching and a trend they have been seeing inc the world but really here in the u.s. as well. >> woodruff: disturbing. news on so many fronts today.u thank all three. amnaw naaz, lisa desjardins, yamiche alcindor at the white house, thank you. >> thanks. >> woodruff: in the day's other ne, a verbal battle simmer today between u.s. house speaker nancy pelosi and progressives in her democratic party ranks. on wednesday, aneshmen members alexandria ocasio-cortez, ilhmar, ayanna pressley and rashida tlaib against criticizing party moderates. but ocasio-cortez told "the washington post" that "it was glst outright disrespectful... the explicit sing out of newly elected women of color." today, pelosi refused to address the claim directly, but also,

refuseto back down. >> they tookffense because i addressed-at the request of my members-an offensi tweet that came out of one of the member's offices that referenced r blue dogs and our new dems, essentially as segregationists. our members took offense at that. addressed that. erw they are interpreting and carrying it to anolace, is up to them. >> woodruff: anotherog ssive, congresswoman pramila jayapal of washington state, also chided posi. jayapal said, "i don't think the speaker is used to having a group of members with bigger twitter followings" than she ha there's been a new confrontation in the persian gulf, this time, involving iran and britain. the british navy says three iranian vessels tried today to block a british tanker from leaving the gulf. john ray, of independent television news, reports. >> reporter: the oil tanker british heritage, intercepted by

iranian patrol boats, which tried to force her into iranian waters. to the rescue, according to the same ministry of defense a accounoyal navy "hms montrose" escorting the tanker. she put herstween the two sides, trained her guns on the iranians and radioed a warning to back off. >> obviously very concerning d developments, but i'm pr the yal navy. and the ro they played in keeping british assets shipping safe. continuing to monitor the situation veryvery carefully. >> reporter: it is the latest ratcheting up of tensions. just last month e iranians shot down a u.s. drone over the same stretch of sea. the u.s. blamed tehran of attacking six oil tankers in may and june. and last week british royal marines stormed an iranian tanker near gibraltar, suspected of breaching syrn sanctions. an act, as this last drama

unfolded yesterday, iran's president hassan rouhani warned britain would pay for. from washington tonight, the president tweeted "it seems the brits and french and germans are p ming around to the idea that the iranians are no good." the u.s. is now planning a multi national force to monitor thegu , britain must decide what role it might play in an escalating crisis.dr >> wf: that report from john ray of independent teleision news.ie iran has dthe british wlegations, and says it made no attempt to interfeh the british ship. the man chosen to lead the u.s. military argued today leaving afghanistan, as president trump wants, would be a mistake. army general mark milley had his g senate confirmation hear his nomination to chair the u.s. joint chiefs of staff.

he told senators that he and other military leaders will eak plainly to the president, even if that means telling him that he is wrong. h >> arlington is filled wr comrades.we annderstand absolutely full well the hazards of our chosen profession. we know what this is about. we're not going to be intimidated into making stupid decisions. >> woodruff: if confirmed, lley would succeed gener joseph dunford as chair of the joint chiefs. the nominee for vice chair of the joint chiefs, air force general john hyten, is facing allegations of sexual misconduct. the associated pressts that a senior female officer exsays hyten made unwantedl advances, and tried to derail her career when she refused him. the air force has found insufficient evidence to take any action. but it is unclear if the nomination will move forward. tropical storm "barry" formed off louisiana today, and forced

evacuations of up to 10,000 people. the slow-moving storm could hit land as a hurricane south of nen oron saturday, dumping up to 15 inches of rain. louisiana's governor john bel edwards said today he does not expect flood waters to top levees. but w orleans mayor latoya cantrell warned the city's pumping system could be overwhelme >> we cannot pumthour way out of water levels and the waterfalls that are excted to hit the city of new orleans. we need you to understand this and again be prepared to shelter in place. >> woodruff: the storm could se the biggest test yet flood-control measures made in new orleans after the hurricsae "katrina" er, in 2005. the white house today abandoned a plan aimed at cutting drug costs for people on medicare. it would have lowered out-of- pocket costs by letting consumers have rebates that drug

makers now give to insurers. the proposal foundered on fears that it would drive up medicare premiums, and end up costing nearly $180 billion over 10 years. on wall street, the end of that white house drug plan helped health insurers, and the broader market racked up some new records. the dow jones industrial average gained 227 points to finish above 27,000 for the first time. the nasdaq fell six points, but the s&p 500 gained six, and also hit a new high. and, a japanese space probeul succes landed on an asteroid today, for a secondan timecollected samples. touch-down came on a space rock, 180 million miles away. the probe settd in a crater it created to get at underground debris. the "hayabusa-2" already collected top soil from the asteroid. it iset to return to earth

next year. still to come on the newshour: secretary of veterans affairs, robert wilkie on the challenges of caring for those who served. making sense of the billions of dollars pouring into legal marijuana, and much more. >> woodruff: last month, the u.s. department of veterans affairs launched its community care program, a major expansion designed to give veterans access rivate doctors to decrease wait times for health care. but veteran's rights groups say the program's goals are unrealistic, and offload the department's responsibilities tv the e sector. the $51 billion measure signed t by presidemp builds on hogislation passed in 2014 called "veteranse", which allowed veterans to seek private

e re. that came in respo a scandal at the phoenix, arizona, mecal center where at leas40 eterans died waiting months for appointments. the department of veterans affairs is the govnment's second largest agency, with more 20an 300,000 employees and an annual budget ofbillion. ernning it all is robert wilkie, the secretary of vs affairs. and we welcome you to the hprogram. >> tk you for having me, judy. >> woodruff: so you stepped into this job, you were at the ved over to the v.a., you haveou been there now coming up on a year. have you been able to make significant progress? >>i hope so. ink what we've seen, and i sink validating those changes, thid, v.a.'s been pretty quiet. we're embarking othe most transformative period, at least going back to the g.i.

by our reform is not libertarian v.a. it is not me giving a veteran a card and sayining go ou the private sector and prosper. what it does do is puts veterans on theme plain as neighbors, giving them access to emergency care, keeping thoiment to have emergency rooms andromoting holistic care by doing that. the other thing it does, is offers terans the option of going into the private sector only when we can't provide them what theyed. >> woodruff: as you are aware, a number of veters' advocacy groups are saying the intention may be good but what is happding, many veterans may up in the hands of private healthcare providers wcare is not as consistent, not as, frankly, as competent as wa they might get at the v.a., that the v.a. needs to do a better job of overseeing all this. i hink we are. we don't allow people into our system unless we have fully vetted them. >> woodruff: you mean in the

private sector? >> in the private sector. w druff: okay. e have just certified 4,500 urgent care facilities across the country, my goal is to certify 7,000. but what we are seeing is veterans voting with their feet. ve seen the explosion in requests for urgent care. i haven't seen an explosion in requests for other med in the private sector. our statistics show us that our veteran satisfaction rate is at an altime high, about 89.7%, so they're voting with their feet to stay with us. woodruff: but, at the same time, you have veterans'yo groups -know, we talked to them -- >> right. >> woodruff: -- a number of them saying the responsibility here ultimately lies with th varntle and they want to make sure the v.a. isn't trying to pushhe responsibility off on somebody else. >> well, it's an interesting argument because it's variation on the privatization argument which is raised when isssion was brought up in the congress, and ts an act that only had four negative

votes in the united states senate. i just presented the largest sudget in the history of thi department to the congress, $220 billion, calling for 390,00employees. that's a very strange way to privatize care. i think we're expanding care and we're expanding care in a good way. >> woodruff: mental health, a big part of this story that we're talking about h mentlth problems for veterans are enormous in thisi country, sll. suicide rate among veterans has been at a disturbing number, 20 a day. why has that been sohard to tackle? >> i think it's been hard to tackle because the majority of those veterans who are taking their lives are not part of the v.a. system. now, some of them ar on active duty, some are in the guard. a significant number come from the envonnt -- from the vietnam era and have had no nntact with us of their

volition. our job is to, number one burks again a national conversation, and if we just focus on the lasa tragt in a veteran's life, we'll never get anywhere. we have to look at mental health. we're not even at the sputnik stage in this country when itme to talking about mental health. the other thing we need to do is take a hard look at adiction and how we treat those who need tare for pain and make sure tha they're not addicted to the ced sin that's -- to the medine that's supposed to help them e. we know president trump signed a proclamation, made ves with regard to suicide among veterans last spring, but still this is an entrenched problem. should president trump make a high profile seech and rase the visibility of this? >> i think he has. i think by calling attention and calling forth a whole of government approach to suicideh in a wayat we've never had it, he is raising the profile ou this is i sit at the head of a task

force that includes h.h.s., h.u.d., n.i.h., indian health, and the goal is to have this c nationversation at the end of the process, open the aperture in terms of financial in all locions of the countries, tribes and elements to help us address this issue. one thing we've done that'sd, chane provide same-day mental health services, we've spent tens of mels of dollars of outreach. >> woodruff: homelessness is one of the ways those with mental illness deal with what they're going rough. president trump made a comment not lang ago talking at homelessless broadly, he described it as a new phenomenon, almost poitically aimed at him. do you agree with his

interpretation? >> i spree homele is part of this continuum we have to deal with when it comes to not t oning care of our veterans but also in addressing. suici it's knew? >> no, i wouldn't say it's new, but i will say the numbers have gone down. several years ago, we were looking at hundreds of thousands on the street. today we're look at triage tragically about 40,000. but cities like atlanta, houston, new orleans, have eliminated veterans homeless tbhises getsing in touch with charities and non organizations. most of our homelessness is concentrated on the west coast. >> woouff: and you feel progress? >> much progress. 40,000 compared to thes hundr of thousands a few years ago is progress. but we still have to work at it. >> wooendruff: womthey are the fastest growing demographic in the u.s. military. more women serving in combat e thr before, more women

becoming veterans, coming under the purview of the v.a. what we're hearing from some of the veterans' groups is women veterans say when they go into a treatment center they often fel disrespected, even hostility toward them. a month ago a w stuas done by an intern watchdog group thatre found harassment of women and men at the v.a. over a recentp two-yeariod than any other government agency. pull thatogether. >> well, if you look at that study, the harassment is not coming from v.a. employees. i can't change the perception of older veterans who are not used to seeing women in uniform. what i can say is that, in this budget, nine and a half billion is set aside for women's care. each one of our hospitals has a women's clinic. the culture is changing rapidly. the notion that i as a youngster would have ever seen women wearing the red beret of my

father's 82nd airborne division would have been unheard of. today, they are. i think the militaryas a whole, is changing with that culture, and v.a., now with 10% of those werve being veterans and having those clinics in all of our hospitals, is changing with those times. >> woodruff: but how do you change those atthudes? >> we ge that by it's a cultural change, and you also change itti by confr those who engage in that kind of behavior. again, it's not our employees. it's people who come in. and there are still elements in this country who refuse to accept that the times have changed that women are warriors on the front line in numbers that we've never experienced before. >> woodruff: and what about the the harassment inside veterans -- ee it, we act we on it, and i've read that report.t again, an instance of people who have not caught up with the times, but it's certainly not a part of ouree

emplakeup. >> woodruff: robert wilkie, who is now coming up on one year as secretary of veterans affairs, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. thank you very much. >> woodruff: now, the latest in our series "the green rush as marijuana legalization hasun swept the y, investors are seeing green. in califora, new companies are scaling up operations while some smaller businesses are fighting for survival. economics correspondent paulto solman has the, part of his regular reporting, "making sense." >> so we have about 60 to 70 different strains at ann gime. >> reporter: at "east of eden" in salinas, california, pick your cannabis flower. any flower, labeled by brand and t.h.c. punch. >> berry o.g. is 29.7 so you can get really high off of this, i take it.

>> anything above 25 will sell out almost immediately. >> reporter: paul henderson, formly with goldman sachs, n c.e.o. of grupo flor, which owns two dispenries and will open 18 more within a year. >> we'll do around, now, about 1.3 million a month in sales. >> reporter: right here? >> this store alone, yeah. >> reporter: and grupo flor isn't just retail. in a few years, the firm's become one of california's largest cannabis companies: from retail, to cultivation... to manufacturing... and distribution. cofounder mikeitar had been in commercial real estate. >> i just happened to stumble across cannabis and saw how lucrative it was and realized we should get in the business. w >> reportee you a user? >> no. i didn't see the difference, unfortunately, between heroin and marijuana. >> reporter: well, he soon did. by 2016, when californians voted to legalize recreational adult marijuana use, bitar and partners had already snapped up one and a half million square feet of greenhouse space-- lying fallow since the cut flower

hbusiness emigrated to so america. they'd grow caabis instead. there might not be a larger wealth generating opportunityat th'll see in my lifetime again. 's staggering what can be built in this industry right now. >> reporter: $18 billion was invested in cannabis last year alone. and, says industry researcher john kagia, big time players are moving in. he>> constellation brands, world's largest alcohol company, and altria, the world's largestb tobacco companh making but you've also seen companies like molsocoors, lagunitas brewing company, c.v.s. and walgreens getting into this space. >> reporter: this the "green rush," chasing an estimated $350 billn in annual global sales kagia thinks a trillion within 15 years. in santa barbara county, acres of white structures house some of the biggest grows in the world. grupo flor is rushing to keep up. >> welcome kendra! (applause) r

>> reporter:ent operations meeting: new employees, new dispensaries. >> they're targeting this location to be the location for celebrities. >> reporter: and, over speakerphone. >> greetings from colombia. >> reporter: new operations overseas. >> we incorporated grupo flor colombia in february...we e also looking at mexico and last but not least we've been looking at asia as well. >> reporter: in salinas, fences block the product from public view while razor wire and guards protect the high-profit plants from thieves. >> a farm like this is ever flowering. we're always cutting and always oprvesting. >> reporter: five a year in this greenhouse, says grupo flor's gavin kogan, versus just one or two this is one of the firm's seven california sites.t' >> right now whappening in inlifornia is aggregation. companies are acquother companies if wdon't cultivate, lose our supply chain and we can get crushed out. >> reporter: crushed out like oliver bates.

so you've been cultivating marijuana for 25 years, now out ss business and broke? >> now out of busind broke. te reporter: bates grew cannabis for years in the my county hills near big sur. but wi legalization came rules and regs. >> outside investment came in and lobbied their interest and made sure that in the new regulati that only commercial greenhouses were allowed to grow cannabis. >> reporter: so you cannot have an outdoor farm in monterey county? y yes. i've been giving aed. all my weed. i can say a pound of mine thde it tgrammys and it was a big hit. >> reporter: but it's not legal yet. >> not legal yet. >> reporter: what are you dog for a living now? >> reporter: i'm actually notin making a lright now. >> reporter: how are you surviving? >> i'm broke, day by day, you know and really help, help from friends at this point. >> reporter: further north in humboldt county, outdoor is okay, but costly. lan mattole had to run a licensing steeplechase.

>> we're probably into it ,0out $1. $ >> reporte0,000 and how much of your time? >> well about three years of full time. >> reporter: really? >> absolutely. for many people it wasn't even possible to be compliant in the sense of dealing with the regulatory requirements forro s, water, grading, even operating a small homestead farm for many years it just it wasn't it isn't feasible to move on. >> reporter: what's more, sin the 1960s, rural, rugged, way out-of attracted government-leery homesteaders who grew pot illegally. to no one around here does regulation compliance come naturally. >> a lot of the, you know, as we would call them legamers here have been doing this for a long time, generations, and the culture was to keep your head down, mind your own business. >> reporter: and having nothing too with the man, right. >> but having nothing to do with the man. >> reporter: there are thousands of cannabis farms in humboldt but just a tiny fraction have been licensed.

>> where this is going to end, i couldn't say quite yet but it is a it's a it's a void and a vacuum that is not going to be readily filled. there is not a huge economy in humboldt county currently outside of cannabis. >> reporter: and small farmers like mattole, licensed and now growing above board, face other hurdles. >> there currently still is zero banking in the cannabis industry. so imagine trying to start a small business from the grounden up funding irely on your own without credit. >> reporter: grupo flor's gavin kogan sympathizes. >> this is really difficult to do. a lot of capital. regulations are heavy. we're overtaxed. and so where i really feel the pain coming for small s is that they're having to face the obstacles we face without the catal and without the peop and the business know-how to really do an e>>ective job. reporter: and without the cost advantages of the black market from which they've come.s nikki lastreendocino farm is now legit. but most of her neighboringfa

ers aren't. and they pose as much of a threat as her corporate competitors, she say >> right now they're able to sell at 1500 where we're gete ng after all penses involved, the taxes cetera and the packaging about 900 a pound. >> reporter: and if you're a seller on the blk market you don't pay taxes >> you sell it on the black, you just do like the old days. you just grow it in seclusion, hope the cops don't find you, and find a buyer and they come right up. they pay cash. d it's out tr. >> reporter: no permits. >> no permits no licenses no taxes. the only the disadvantage the black market has is of course like the old days they have to worry about the cops. they have to worry about hecopters circling overhea getting busted. >> reporter: you're in the odd position now very odd of rootinr for the helico >> it's difficult though because you know they're our friends, they're our neighbors. it is what we used to do.so ow can i judge them. >> reporter: back in montereyer county, whe only greenhouse growing is allowed, oliver bates lobbies to makleoutdoor grows l.

and what d new operations like grupo flor? >> i am furious that they had no respect for the people brought this to them. >> reporter: the people who paid their dues? >> the people that paid their dues, the people that spent ves hiding in the bushes from helicopters feeling like they were criminals, and for that i'll be fever furious >> reporter: lawyer and grupo flor cofounder gavin kogan is conflicted. >> i spent most of my spent most of my time as a cannabis attorney representing small growers. it affects me, to be seen as a that and someone who is against their interests because i don't conceive of myself that way. >> reporter: but he is a threat, due tohe economies of scale of industrial production as prohibition comes to an en for the pbs newshour, this is business and economics correspondent paul solman in northern california. y

>> woodruff: sth us, inming up on the newshour: the cartoonist bthe only nationally run comic strip about a latino family. and a grammy-nominated artist gives her brief but spectaculara on finding her identity through music.fi but, the record-setting wave of women elected to congress was a defining feature of the 2018 midterms. but of the 36 women sent to the house of representatives, only one was a republican. and the party's efforts to court more women hit another setback this week, when political newcomer joan perry lost her g.o.p. primary race in north carolina. capitol hill correspondent lisa desjardins is back she spoke earlier with republican congresswoman debbie lesko of arizona's 8thistrict. >> thank you for joining us, congresswoman. first of all -- >> thanks for having me. >> reporter: what do you think happred in no carolina and how significant was that?

>> well, you know, i really want to sumport republican en. we lost ten republican women in the last election cycle. since i'm a republican and i'm a woman, i'm really going to try to work hard to recruit more women anmake sure they get elected, and, so, i had donated to joan perry, but i congratulate mr. murphy, and i think he's going to win. i look forward to working wit him and getting to know him better. >> reporter: i know you've heard the nuers before, but want to look at the republicans in the house now. if you look atall the women in the house of house of represent, it's a record number of women, 89 democrats, just 13 are republican women. then if you look at the composition of each political caucus or conference, 42% ofal the democrats in the house are women, but for republicans it's just 7%. >> i know, it's sad. we need to increase the number. >> reporter: wy is that well, i'm the bipartisan co-chair woman of the women's

caucus in congress, and, so, yeah, it's a little one-sidedto because i tr get all my republican women to our different events, but there'loa more democrats. you know, i don't know the answer. i think one of the ansrs is recruiting republican women for heavily republican districts because we had a lot of women that lost that were in swing districts and the democrats, quite frankly, tried toake us out, so that they could ntinue the narrative that there's mor males in the republican party than women. >> repter: you know, whatever narratives you are looking at, the numbers especially from the cof women and politics from rutgers, they looked at who was r last year, and just on the ball los, democrats had four times as many women running, and i know from covering republicans for years, being there, grassroots, women are doing the work in the republican party, they are there on the local level, i e them. my question to you is why are

they not getting on the ballot? why are they not running? >> you know, i don't know the enswer to that, and it may hav to do with recruiting or just showing people like me and trying to t moe republican women in leadership positions. i mean, liz cheney is in ati leadership po right now, and maybe as more women see that it's possible and that there's republican conservative women out there, then i think more people will join our. ran i sure hope so because, you know, can get a little lonely over here, i've got to recruit more republican womenwho are conservatives. >> reporter: i've heard you and others say you don't think there should be an advaage to being a woman, people shouldn't vote for someone just becau they're a woman, but could there be a disadvantage to women in politics that they need to make up for? >> when i served in the arizona state senate and house, i really

saw no difference beween how i was treated as a woman versus a man, but i have to tou, there is a little bit of an attitude here that i found with some congressional members, both on -- well, mostly, quite frankly, that i worked with on the democrat side this time, that are kind of con descending to me in different roles, and i pointed it out to them, and ino di let them get away with it. >> reporter: on the republican side, coering klast year was hard not to notice when republicans were in charge just three out of 21 imhity chairs were women, and many of your strongest female leaders left the house for positions elsie. do you feel like the menn th house republican caucus promote women enough? is thepace for you too lead? >> i think we just need more of us. just need more women and, as that happens, we'll naturally have more republican women in leadership and in chairmanship roles. if any of the republican cohervative women are outre

listening, please, reach out to me, i'd love to talk to you. >> reporter: congresswoman debbie lesko of maricopa county, arizona, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the comics can be a pleasant diversion from the headlines on the front page. but john yang introduces us to one comic strip writer who sass he duty to reflect reality. it's parof our ongoing arts and culture series, "canvas." >> yang: for hector cantu, saturday mornings begin in a coffee shop near his home in suburban dallas. it may look like he's just passing time with his wife, linda, reading the newspaper. but he's really hard at work, looking for ideas for the comic strip he writes called "baldo." >> most everything you see in

the comic has to be generated in some kind of way that i see sos many elememing together. tether it's newspaper stories i read, stuff i see books ntm reading, real life eve >> yang: since "baldo" debuted in 2000, it's been the only onally syndicated strip about a latino family. it centers arod baldo bermudez, a teenager who's into girls and cars. he lives with his little sister. >> gracie is a smart young girl. she likes to read, she likes knowledge. g: their dad, a widower. >> dad is the conservative, traditional dad.>> ang: and their great aunt, tia carmen. ic pau. yang: cantu is m-american. he grew up in south texas, crazy about comics. while working as a magazine editor, he took a shot at his dream ofoing a daily cartoon. was it always going to be a latino family? >> oh, yeah, absolutely. it was an area that i thought i

could write about, a family that i thought i could write about in the comics page where no one else was like that. >> reporter: over the years, latino fans have told him how much it means to them. >> i was at a comic-st year when some young lady came up to me and she said, "are you the guy who does 'baldo?'" i'm like, "yeah that's me." and she couldn't belve it. she pulled out of her bag a sunday comic that had been clipped out of the paper andbe said it ha on her wall >> her and her dad would read the comics together and her dad had passed away. it meant so much to her- athe characte the connection with her dad and how she grew up she started crying and it was just such a touchingaloment. and i ed that comic strips can touch people in a pretty siificant way. >> yang: because comics have to be quickly understood with little explanation, cantu says they rely on stereotypes. >> it's a tricky thing to do. thmean we we decided early on to stay away from justaco jokes or the mexican food jokes. it does take away some of our s in that tool chest whe

it's like a cheap laugh, it's an easy laugh. but i've kind of discovered there are jokes you can do that don't poke fun at the culture, they more lebrate the culture. >> yang: and cantu feels aty responsibili to have baldo inhabit the real world. in a two-week storyline in december 2017, baldo's best, friend, reveals he is a" dreamer," brought to the united states by his parents illegally when he was a child. >> we have baldo and cruz walking down the street." cruz, are you undocumented?"" i'm a dreamer."" how old were you."" i was five when my mom and dad said we had to leave."" and you couldn't stay home alone on your playstation?"" uh not an option." >> yang: cruz tells the story ot how he came united onates. >> i't remember much about getting here. i remember walking a lot, sleeping on the ground and i remember my dad's promises. when we get there. i'll get you an ice cream, i

y omise. the stcontinues." dude, i've been learning about my rights since i was ght.i d to know exactly what to do if i came home from school and my parents had been taken away"" on the very last day. baldo and cruz are walking down the street.¡ i feel bad for my eyrents. maybe ade a mistake. it was hard but they chose to come here because they lovthis country. and now this is my home. this is where i'm from. i'm american and that means i'm a survor." politics, like immigration and the dreamer issue, is so much a part of so many people's lives, to me it has to be a part of the comic strip. if there's a sense of duty, that may be it: of reflecting what a lot of people in this country go through every day >> yang: even more dramatic was the 2007 april fool's day strip: immigration and customs

enforcement officers wrongly accuse tia carmen of being in the country illegally and take her away i >> it was just meant to be a gag. but we got so many emails from people saying, ¡how could you is o tia carmen? she's such a lovely lady.ke she's friend, she's like my next door neighbor.'he and the moresaid that, the more i said.¡ exactly-that's the point.' >> yang: "baldo's" illustrator is carhes castellanos. ives in florida, cantu in texas. they collaborate over the internet. they've onlyet in person about a half-dozen times. the comic strip appears in nearly 200 newspapers across thi country, inc the "new york daily news," the "washingtone post" and uston chronicle. >> i just realized the other day that we've been around for 20 years d there are kids out there who are 18 and 19 years old who have grown up with baldo their whole lives. they've grown up with these characters in the paper every

day. >> yang: characters who don't age a day ov the years: frozen in time on the comics page-- and in hector cantu's imagination. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang in richardson, texas. >> woodruff: raised in mumbai, singer-songwriter falu came to the united states to pursue her career in music, which includes a mix of indian classical and american pop-rock. her latest work, "falu's bazaar," was nominated for a grammy this past year for best children's album. in tonight's brief but s spectacula gives her take on finding identity through psic. >> i first startforming when i was around 18 yld cause in our culture i would teach, don't let us perform unl you're almost ready.

so i stu a day for 10 years before even seeing the microphone. ♪ ♪ my american influences in music arg.very subtle but very str so although i udied indian classical music. my music is a xture between indian classical and american pop rock. and we have created a genre called indie, hindi. ♪ ♪ i grew up in a city called mumbai in india. i had a huge culture shock when i came to america because i ew up in reach additional family and when i came to new york, my entire universe has changed. i felt like i came to et different pl when i came here instead of thinking in my own native lauage, i it's something

clicked and my thoughts became in english and that's when i started writing songs in english even though they were based on 5,000 year old indians scales, call the ragas, lyrically they were all in english. ♪ ♪ my son, wh he became four or five years old, came home and asked me questions like, mom, why is our food differspt or why do wk a different language at home? to give him s identity at such a young age, the only way, the only answer i had s through music. music was something that could tell him very clearly that it is okay to speak a different language. fit's okay to eat differed. it's okay to draw from both cultures and have your own identity as an american indian child growing up in new york city. ♪ ♪

♪ i was nominated for the 2019 grammy for best children's album. going to the grammys, being the only indian woman, that really meant that i was welcomed in this country. my culture was welcomed. my south asian roots were welcomed. my story was welcomed. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ my name is falu and this is my brief, but spectacular take on finding my identity through musi >> woodruff: you can find additional brief but spectacula episodesr website,/b pbs.org/newshoef. on the newshour online right now, we take a closer look at ae new statrtment commission tasked with examining the globai deon of "unalienable rights," and what that might mean for human rights around the world. that and more is on s.r web site, g/newshour. and that's the newshour for night.

i'm judy woodruff. join 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.ua a la app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> his program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contrutions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. >> does it give you some kind of comfort that you critics are coming from both sides? >> no, because i could still be wrong. >> this is not how border crossings people coming into the u.s. seeking asylum what it looks like, but this may be her beth chance to get pase guards now. >> plump won the congressional district overwhelmingly by 20 points. the question is whether the enthusiasm for president trump will convert into enthusiasm for a different republican. >> if a presidency that interferes in a 2016 election and possibly a midterm has an attack on democracy --

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