>> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" toght: sexual assault and the military. accutions against a nominee for a high ranking job raise questions of how allegations are handled in the ranks. then, taking the stage. what to look for as the next round of democratic presidential primary debates gets underway. plus, second chances after serving time. how thinking outside the box is giving youngjudults in the nile justice system a path forward. >> what's needed is yes,rk rce skills, job skills, academics.ca but yot do that if you haven't been able to go through and deal with the hurt. deal with the pain. deal with the lack of trust.

arts allows us to do that. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> advice for life. life well-planne learn more at raymondjames.com. >> text night and day. >> catch it on replay. >> burning some fat.ha >>ng the latest viral cat! >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv >> babbel. a language program that teaches spanish, french, italian, german, and more.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.an by contributions to your pbsn statom viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trump is claiming widespread support from black himself, "the least racist person in the e rld." that cday, as he defended his attacks on elijah cummings, the baltimore congressman leading investigations of mr. trump. the president before an event in srginia that black lawmak boycotted. as his helicopter roared, he insisted it's voters that count. >> they are happy as hell. so you may have a couple ofbo politicianott but it's all a fix. it's all a fix. the fact is african american

people love the job i'm doing cause i'm working for them, i'm not working for the politicians. >> woodruff: in fact, a recent "gallup" poll found only 8% of african americans support mr. trump. meanwhile, he was briefly heckled in jamestown today, at the event marking the start of self-government in america in 1619 the first african slaves arrived that same year. for their part, black virgia state legislators gathered in richmond, where a slave jail once stood. one tearfully urged spectators to reclaim the nation's soul. the number of central american migrants crossing mexico to the u.s. border has dropped nearly 40% since may. the mexican government announced today the number fell to 87,000 in july. and, the american civil liberties union said u.s. officials have separated more than 900 migrant children from their families since a federal judge curtailed the practice last year.ta we'll get s, later in the

program. a seattle woman had her initial court ap data breach at capital one financial. paige thompson allegedly hacked credit card applications from more than 100 million people. the datancluded credit scores, bank balances and social security numbers. capital one says it is unlikely the data was actually used for fraud. it appears north korea has carried out new missile launches, for the second time in less than a week. south korea reports the north fired multiple, uniden projectiles into the sea, early wednesday. north korea's kim jong un agreed last mon to revive talks on scrapping his nuclear program. pro-democracy protesters ihong kong have clashed with police again tonight after 44 people were charged with rioting on sunday. hundreds swarmed a police station where the accused were being held, and police in riot

gear fired pepper spray to try toisperse the crowd. earlier, demonstrators blocked subway train doors, rnsrupting the g rush hour. still, some of the commuters supported the effort. >> ( translated ): this is what the movement is tryi achieve. the government is not addressing y,the problems in our soci such as political issues, police violence and suspected triad gangs. that is why now hongkongers have no choice but to use different creative approaches to remind people what is happening here. woodruff: the protesters have demanded an independent investigation of police actions e government in mainland china blamed the west again today for stoking the protests. af afghanistan, a united nations report finds thaan and nato forces have killed more civilians this year than the taliban has. more than 700 people hed in afghan and coalition military operations including air strikes

and night raids on militant hideouts. taliban attacks have killed 531 civilians. the u.s. and the taliban are currently holding talks on a peace settlement. back in this country, president trump warned china not to delay a trade deal, waiting to see if he will be re-elected next year. he said he will be "much tougher" after t election. the two countries resumed tradea s in shanghai today. california will mandate that presidential candidalease their tax returns to qualify for the state's primary ballot.ov democraticnor gavin newsom signed the new law today. it is aimed at president trump's refusal to release his returns. newsom said states have a legal and moral duty to ensure that the nation's would-be leaders meet minimal standards. and, on wall street the dow jones industrial average lost 23 poin to close at 27,198.

the nasdaq fell 19 points, and the s&p 500 slipped seven. still come on the newshour: how sexual assault allegations aimed at the top of u.s. military command raise questions on how they are investigated. what's on the line for the democratic presidential candidates squaring off in tonight's debate. second chances for young adults caught up in the juvenile justice system. and much more. >> woodruff: the confirmation hearing for general john hyten, who is the four star general nominated to be one of the highest positions in the u.s. military, was upended today when an active duty colonel again accused general hyten of sexual assault ing to the senate immediately outside the hearing. william brangham has the story.h

>> we ju a four-star general get in front of the american people and in opennt testimony in ff the senate armed services committee, and make false official ents, under oath.xu he lied about ly assaulting me. >> brangham: an unprecedented accusation. tive duty army colonel kathryn spletstoser alleged general john hyten, the air force general tapped by presidt trump to be the pentagon's second in command, lied to the senate today about sexually assaulting. her in 201 she spoke to reporters immediately after hyten's h confirmatiring, where he again categorically denied her allegions. spletstoser alleged that during a 2017 conference in california, hyten came to her hotel room, kissed, touched,nd pressed up ainst her until he ejaculated. she says he was infatuated with

her and had touched her inappropriately several times before. the air force investigated the allegation for several months, and found "insufficient evidence to support any finding of misconduct against general hyten." spletstoser said there was sufficient evidence to charge hyten. since the allegations emerged, the senate armed services committee conducted its own investigatrun. >> the is that general hyten is innocent of these charges. >> brangham: both republicans and democrats today praised the committee's handling of the probe. >> thank you to chairman inhofe and ranking member reed for conducting a very thorough, andi a veryinquiry. >> the fact this has been such an exhaustive, extensive, professional investigationol speakses. >> brangham: there was also bipartisan agreement that hyten was innocent othe charges. perhaps most notably, from arizona's republican senator martha mcsally. she's an air force veteran, and revealed this year she was raped by a superior officer years ago. >> i didn't take coming to this conclusion lightly. i knew the message it cod send to sexual assault survivors, who

haven't seen all the informati on the case that i have.ju the process witnessed was strong, fair, and investigators turned over every rock to seek justice. >> brangham: notably, two of thn democratic sors who've been critical of how this investigation unfolded, kristin gillibrand and elizabeth warren, were both absent because of their democratic presidential debate. throughout t hearing, as he has since the allegations emerged, general hyten denied the charges. >> it has been a painful time for me and my family, but i want to state to you and to the people in the strongest possible terms that these allegations are false. >> brangham: but spletstoser, t who was room for his hearings, said hyten was lying, and his confirmation will deter assault victims from coming forward. >> this moving forwards tells everybody, every sexual assault survivor, victim, whatever you want to call them, that they need not bother to report. they won't be taken seriously.

despite having a flawless record, they will always be questioned, they'll be the ones investigated, they won't see justice. and hey, in the end, senior officers are allowed to sexually assault people, and we'll just give them promotion instead. >> brangham: the armed services committee does n make public its report on their findings on the allegations. they're poised to approv hyten's nomination. >> brangham: for more on today's hearing and what it says about the way the military investigates sexual assault in the ranks, we get two views.l retired colon christensen had a 23-year career as a lawyer in the air force and has prosecuted many sexual assault cases. he's now president of protect oudefenders, an advocacy organization that defends sexual assault victims in the military. and retired lt. col. rachel vanlandingm had a 20-year career in the air force as a lawyer and has also prosecuted sexual assault cases. she's now a professor of law at southwestern law school. thank you both for being here.

don christensen,'d love to start withou first. you represent an advocacy organization that looks out for people in the services that have been assaulted or harassed. ahat do you make of these allegations and do you make of the investigation that was done into thelselegations? >> well, the allegations are extremy troubling. colonel spletstoser has been consist. she has made herself available to the senate, osi, the media. it was incredible that she talked to the media right afterward.co there are no iistencies in what she has said. the investigation itself seemed to be rushed, but thehing to remember about a sex assault investigation in something like this, and we heard the senate say there is no corroboration, she never said anybody else was win the room. th most sexual assaus,

there is no one else in the room. i don't know what they wat for corroboration. do they think general hyten was stupid enugh to send an e-mail and say, hey, sorry i sexually assaulted you. >> yang:>> broangham: pssor, wht do you make of this in. >> well, neither of usav scene or read the investigation. we have only seen what has been released in the meandid has been articulated by the senators from the senate armed services committee, but investigations are contention actual, so it buld only be rushed if there had been quite t of evidence to uncover, and it does not seem to be the case in this situation. there was, in fact, what this case and what this situation tells me is that no one is above that even a four-star general in the united states air force when serious credible allegations of sexual assault are lodged against him or her is going to be investigated and is going to be investigated quite thoroughly. there have, in fact, been two

investigation, as well there shoulde, both the air foce office of special investigation, and then as we just heard on that clip, the senate armed services committee conducted their own investigation. so i have been abe to ascertain from the news reports that there were over 50 wtnesses interviewed, and thousands of pages of documents. so i'm nosu really quitre what hasn't been done here. i don't know what else can actually be done to corroborate an accusation in which there is simply no other evidence to support it. >> brangham: don christensen, let's pick up on this. professor vanlandingham bethlies was sufficient and there was an appropriate investigation. i know some questions have been raised as to whether it's appropriate to have a four-st general, which is general hyten's rank, be investigated by officers whfe are inor to him, not directly under his rank, but who are clear below rank. do you think that's appropriate? >> well, there's definitely a perception problem in this case.

believe general hyten was the second or third most senior general in the entire united states air force athe time of the investigation. and there are only about 13 four-star generals in the air force. if there was going to be an investigation for perception issues, it would have been muchf better offone of the other services criminal investigators had looked at this. but the thing reember about investigations from the o.s.i., contrary to what the air force and the deptment of defen keep spinning this with, the investigators do not reach a concsion whether or not these allegations are true. all they do is uncover facts and get interviews and track down evidence. they do not make a suggestion. they don't reach a conclusion. so it would be much better to go off to somebody else, but let's remember, he was not cleared by an investigation. he was cleared by a fellow general officer. >> brangham: prossor vanlandingham, what do you make of this? this wasn't a true exoneration. this wens simply thrying to gather the facts, and we still

don't necessaril that evidence is saying? >> well, we do hav professional -- the air force does have professional ders,tigators and fact fin and don is absolutely correct that they reach factual conclusion, not legal conclusions. those legal conclusions, however, where i disagree with don io the concl of whether or not a crime was committed or whether any knd of adverse administrative action was warranted by the actualen ev was made by a senior officer in the united states air force, senioto generalyten, as well as was made by the senate armed services coittee individuals today. so the investigators themselves weren't reaching those conclusions, and they shauldn't be ching those conclusions. if there was any doubt regarding either the comprehensiveness of the investigation or appeances of partiality, the senate armed services committee could have easily hadthe lead investigator come speak with them, and to the best of my d knowledge, thid

not. instead they have the vitim, the colonel herself, they spoke with her to assess her credibility to ensure they were doing their due diligence. >> brangham: don christensen, colonel splesstoser says if the general gets this promotion, vivorsill mean other sur won't come forward. >> i absolutely agree with that. approximately 75% to 80% of people are who are sexually assaulted in the miitary wn't come forward and report it because they fear retiaon in the military. what has happened to her today m, a classic of example of blaming the vicmearing the victim it sent a terribly negative message to the force that even when credible evidence is brought forward that a gentle officer will still be promoted

after sexually assaulting someone. >> brangham: professor vanlandingham, same question to you. if hyten is confirmed, does this cause a >> this does not cause a chilling effect. in fact, it sends a message at all allegations of sexual assault will be taken seriously, even ifou are a four sar or a major or even if you're a staff sergeant. in fact, that individual who accuses someone of sexual assault is invited to congress and gets to sit downith senators to discuss their complaint. that's not -- if that's not something being taken seriously i don't know what is? >> brangham: proacfessorl vanlandingham and don stensen, thank you very much. have a yet day. >> woodruff: as we reported earlier, the american civil liberties union says the trump

administration has continued to separate migrant children from their parents at the southwest border, amna nawaz hasur report. >> nawaz: judy, lee gelernt is the lead attorney for the american civil liberties union, representing the sep families, and can tell us more about today's court filing. welcome backo the news hour. t's start with that number. the exact number is 911 children. you have identified in this court filing as having been separated from their famies bejune 28th of last year and june 29th of this year. start with that. how did you arrive at that number? what's that based on? >> that's right. that's not a number that we discovered on our own. we wouldfave no wayoing that. those are numbers the court ordered the government to give us, and the latt numbers we got from the government are11. we have an excel spreadsheet uat shows the separations. they have been goip monthly. the shocking thing about this i the governmentaiming this

they're doing this for the children's benefitreecause the s have a criminal history. what we expected to see from tha governme very serious abuses against the children themselves, but it turns out they're separating children for things as minor as the parent's old traffic offense. in one case a misdemeanor offense for $5 or disorderly conduct or d.u.i. it's shocking they're doing this anrfor such minorime, and what we have also found out is that the children are younger than even first time last summer, little babies and toddlers are being separed on the pretext that the parents are a danger to them.: >> nawwant to dig into those more, lee, but let's start with the acting secretary of homeland security has said. he has testified that separations do co but only in extraordinarily rare circumstances and only as you me ioned when it is in thst interests of the child. when the child is in some way at risk. we know there are cases out there. i have seen them myself, well

documented cases of child smuggling or ause or neglect. how many of those 911 cases fall under thatategory? re.there's a lot in the let me pull it apart. i think that the administration is really being misleading in those statements. to begin with, you can look at r percentage-wisou can look at how many children are being separated. we now know ove0r 90 since the junction and these are little children, even one impermissiblb separation woutoo much. i'll let the public judge for themselves whether 900 little atildren being sep after the court's injunction is too much. the second thing i wat to point out is it's apples and ons to talk about trafficking here. these are cases where the government admits it's the parents, but says we still need to separate because of danger. yewhen we look at the government's reason, we are seeing things like traffic offense, misdemeanor, theft, disorderly condut . and the laint i want the stress is that we told the court from day one, if the child is a

genuinely endanger, if there is objective reason to believe the child is in daenger, w, of course, want you to separate the parent and child. that's not what's ging on. we've had independent experts look at these cases and say, ate most t a handful of cases that might warrant further investigation, thatov whelmingly these are cases that should never have been considered for separation. parent and child for -- because the parent has a disorderly conduct offense in the past. imagine how many amerintn pawould lose their children if those are the kind of offenses that would warrant iyou losing your chld. >> matt: but i want to pick up what you said. about a handful of casebase on the experts who reviewed them think those could have been in the best interest of the child. overall for some cot,nthose 911 separations happened at the same time that over 430,000 people crossed the southern border. that's just for some context. tell me, thoaugh, wht we know about those children? how many of them are still in u.s. government custody? how many of them have been reunited with families?

do you know? >> we don't know. that's one of the troubling things. i think that's one of the partst of thiy that needs to be told is that we are not getting the information. rvice providers for the children are not getting the information, in many cases thedr ch's facilities are not getting the information. so we don't know how many have been reunified. we know at many have not, most have not, and some parents have even been deported witut their children. so what we are going to be asking the court for is to clarify the standard by which you can separate a childnd also that there be more information flow, because we need to know when these separation os cur where the parent is. duoften the child will bep entered a facility and the service providers won't even be toldhe parent is inthe u.s. much less the reason for the separation or where the child was placed. >> nawaz: a lot of questions still to be answered then. >> or where the parent was aced. >> nawaz: lee, thank you. >> thngnk you for hame.

>> woodruff: when donald trump won michigan by fewer than votes in 2016, it marke the first win in three decades by a republican presidentialca idate. the state is among democrats' top targets in 2020, and the democratic national committee's choice for the next round of candidate debates. they have come to detroit is week on a mission. 10 candidates tonight, and 10 more, tomorrow night-- all wanting a ost out of this second set of democratic presidential debat. two progressive stalwarts are standing center stage tonight: vermont senator bernie sanders and massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. on either side of them are two of the field's youngest candidates: mayor pete buttigieg of south bend, indiana and former texas congressman beto o'rourke.

farther out on the wings are many of the field's more moderate candidates: minnesota senator amy klobuchar and ohio congressman tim ryan, former colorado governor john hickenlooper and former maryland congressman john delan and at each end: author marianne willmson and montana governo steve bullock, another moderate who missed out on the previous debas. while those 10 hopefuls are on stage, some of the otherid caes are looking to catch attention on other fronts.ck a super-pac ing washington governor jay inslee, who's debating wednesday, bought airtime for a tv ad criticizing the five candidates topping national opinion polls. >> but democrats aren't making climate change the number-one issue. >> woodruff: meanwhile, a political group founded by billionaire philanthroom steyer, who did not qualify for the debate stage, is out withn ad whose focus is

special counsel robert mueller, president trump, and impeachment. >> you belie that you could charge the president of the united states with obstruction of justice after he left office? >> yes. >> woodruff: that ad is part of a push by candidates to highlight specific iss s ahead of this week's debates.ia cali senator kamala harris was in detroit yesterday defending the health care plan she rolled out ahead of her wednesday debate. >> my medicare-for-all plan will allow private insurers to be ar part of an if they play by the rules. but let's be clear about the rules. they're not going to be able to do business as usual. ed woodruff: but some of her rivals pounced iiately. vermont senator bernie sanders, who's in tonight's debate, told cnn this, in a phone interview: >> i like kamala. she's a friend of mine. but her plan is not medicare for all. >> woodruff: a campaign spokeswoman for former vice president joe biden also

criticized the harris approach, saying it "pushes the extremely challenging implementation of this plan ten years into the future." biden and harris will meet again at wednesday's debate. he has made his own contribution to the current rush of policy roll-outs: a criminal justice plan he announced last week: >> i think we need to shiftfo the whole s from what we're doing in terms of incarceration to rehabilitation. >> woodruff: but biden's announcement drew criticism from another rival he'll debate on wednesday, new jersey senator cory booker, who's tar biden's history on these issues: >> woodruff: the new trade proposals from massachusettsse tor elizabeth warren are among the other policy ideased unvey the 2020 candidates over the past week-and-a-half. of the other debaters tonight, klobuchar and o'rourke rolled

out plans on housing and k-12 education, respectively. delaney wants to build a program around a mandatory year of service for young americans. and williamson proposes a cabinet-level agency to focus on policies affecting children. new york senator kirsten gillibrand, who bates tomorrow, has released her own sweeping plan to combat clime change. for many of these democrats, this week's debates may truly be make-or-break. they have to reach a higher i threshold,public polling and donations, to qualify for the debates this fall. we turn now to dallas, where two programs are trying to shift the conversation around juvenile justice. one is bringing young people

into the kitchen, the other aims to address trauma through art.at john yang has tory as part of our occasional series" chasing the dream," on povert and opportunity in america. >> yang: it's a friday night in downtown dallas and cafent mome is buzzing. in the dining room, waitersir thread tay between tables. in the kitchen, workers churn out dishes. a watching over : executive chef and founder chad houser. >> say, you know, "we'll have a table for you in about 15 minutes, if you'd like to wait." >> yang: butafe momentum is far from an ordinary restaurant. all the waiters, and a lot of the kitchen staff, have recently been releasefrom juvenile detention in dallas county. they're here on year-long paid internships.s >> you gme in, you guys helping us. we feed you guys, you guys go me happy. >> yang: 18-year-old de'monica dean, who goes by dee, first got in trouble in 2014 for stealing her sister's car.

at cafe momentum, she does a bit of everything. >> it gives me another chance. it's shown me that, you know, there are more people out here in the world that wants us to have another chance. >> the most important thing that we do in this physical restaurant is prove to our kids and to the community that these young men and young women can and will rise to whatever level of expectation iset for them. >> yang: across town, another program with a similar mission, but a very different approach. this is creative solutio, a seven-week summer arts program for dallas juveniles on probation. byron sanders is the preside and c.e.o. of big thought, the non-profit that runs creativeso tions. >> what's needed is, yes workforce skills, job skills, academics. but you can't do that if youbl haven't beento go through and deal with the hurt. deal wit wthe pain. deh the lack of trust. deal with the things that have en barriers to empathy. deal with own self-worth. arts allows us to do that.

>> yang: in texas, more than 60% of juvenile offenders end up thin trouble again within e years of probation or release. for creative solutions, that number is just 13%. for cafe momentum, 15%. here in dallas and across texas, juvenile justice officials areki reth the system. since reforms in 2007, the number of young offenders sent to big state run detention centers has plummeted. the focus has shifted to local programs closer to hom university of texas at dallas criminologisalex piquero. >> people were really concerned at the beginning of that because, "oh, crime's going to skyrocket." people we know, "all these kids are going to be on the street." you know, "you're letting out all these kids who should be locked up forever." and we didn't see that. in fact, just the opsite. d that i think is what we call the texas miracle. >> yang: darryl beatty directs

the dallas county juvenile department. >> we, as, as a departyou know, we have our funds that we can do things with. but it's really the community, and community programs, that are vital to provide the necessary services that sometimes we as a department can't. >> yang: hours before cafe momentum opens, interns sit down for family dinnest a staple in rants. here, though, they usually begin with an activity led by a staff member. today, it's a game of telephone, to show the importance of communation. >> yang: the seeds of cafe momentum were planted more than a decade ago, when houser taught eight kids in the dallas juvenile justice system how to make ice cream. >> that experience was very humbling for me. i learned that the difrence between their lives and my life at their age was literally the difference in choices that were made for them-- and made for me-- before any of us were ever born. >> yang: he launched a serieof pop-up dinners and then, in 2015, opened cafe momentum.

the program has workh more than 750 kids-- each, houser o says, with the "unique starting line." >> welcome to cafe momentum. ( laughs ) >> yang: server mar'twan darden, now 20, first got caught shoplifting when he was just 13. the last time he was locked up, he came to a realization. >> i was just, remember staring at the ceiling, just thinking,u like, "do nt to live like this for the rest of your life?" and, nah. i was like, "nah, man. i've got to get it together." so when i got released, i made a promise to know, i'm going to value my freedom. >> yang: creative solutions has worked with some 14,000 dallas youth over almost a quarter century, and since 200 southern methodist university has hosted the summer program, where participants choose between creating art for an exhibit or performing in front of an audience. sasha davis is creative solutions' theater director.

>> they'll come in oftentimes as a brick wall, not rey to quite say or experience whatever that thing is in their past or whatever led them to this moment, and then they'll take a poetry class andwnrite it all and then something clicks. >> yang: frankie zuniga had been incarcerated for more than a year when he entered creative solutions-- very reluctantly. at first, he didn't trust the instructors.he >> in my mind,re like "oh, you're just here to get a paycheck." and yeah, i don't care. but over time, i'm like, dang, like, they do care. i learned to open up, and then they're like, "here, just try this, do this dance move, try to write this, perform," and little byeittle, it, like, to help open up. >> yang: zuniga-- who now works at big thought-- recently got ate's degree, and wants to be a nurse or a physical therapist. while both big thought's sanders and cafe momentum's houser are focusing on getting juvenile ofynders back on track, the say their ultimate goal is

keeping young people out of trouble in the first place. >> i've got to continue to push as hard as i can, to push that conversation further, so that we as a, as a whole country are talking about these injustices enat we are forcing on a population of chil i think out that every day. >> we had one of our alumni ask a really stronquestion, which is actually guiding a lot of our work. moving forward, he s did i have to go to jail before i got something that would change my life?" that's the question we should all be asking ourselves. and then we need to act. >> yang: action that may start with a work of art, or a good meal. s.r the pbs newshour, i'm john yang in dal

>> woodruff: now, jeffrey brown has a conversation with the o auour july pick for "now read this," the newshour's book club in collaboration with the "new york times." this report is part of "canvas," our ongoing coverage of arts and culture. >> brown: it's the final day of miguel de la cruz, "big angel" the dying patriarch of a mexican. >> american family. larger histories unfold in a novel of boty h comd sorrow. "the house of broken angels" wal our july balkub pick. arthur luis urrea is here to answer some of our reder's questions. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having . >> brown: i'm going to go right to our first question. it goes to the title and at you were after. >> the title fits so well with the concept of this book. d you have the title in mind before you began writing? or did it fall into place ater

finishing the book? >> good question. i didn't know that it was a book honestly. know, my big brother died of cancer, and, you know, thev family had him a farewell birthday party, and my family attended. they had never seen anything like it. think my wife really had the idea that i should write a book about it. he hadpassed away very soon after this party. and oddly enough, jim harriso the great --. >> brown: writer and poet. >> had been aero of m for a long time. we had an opportunit to have supper one night.e he asked me, me about your brother's death. when i told him, he saisod, times god hands you a novel. bu better write it. i thought,etween jim and my wife, i better do it. so that's where it came from. >> brown: okay. t's go to our second question. it continues that very theme. >> i was wondering if the

character little angel is based upon the author himself? >> reporter: so there is big angel, who is dying, and thett agele is the brother who is somewhat estranged. >> for e purposes of the novel, if you're going to have a rupture that in some ways maybe represents the border, my immigration, immigration, to have one brother who is from a different mom who happens to be american, who doesn't ite kno how to penetrate that incrediblw ween world of the primary family. >> brown: but this is you, product of a mexican father and a white american mother, university professor. >> that's me.>> rown: that's you. >> and author. so, yeah, i mean, it gave me a palette that i could paint that characth, because i could understand everything i think that he felt or any doubts he may have had whenreas i think some of the other characters who may have been based on real

gfe, i had touess a little bit and hope for the best. ng>> brown: you were tele before you started you had to go to your family, some of them, and say, okay, it's based on you, but here's whattion is. fiction is not the truth. >> right. after my brother died,i went to the family, threw littl dinner and n san diego, and his widow, and i went, and we wer all talking, and she just kept staring at me across thtable like this. and i said, what? she said, do you have something ito tell me, lus? i said, nah. what's there to tell? she said, you have something you need to tell me. i thought,oh, my god. >> brown: word wasout. >> i had been outed by my niece. i said, okay, yeah, i have baed this novel on what happened to us and what happened to you, bu it's fiction. it's fiction. it's a lie. i made it up, you know, i'm making things up, and i'makg a movie, and sometimes you have to act in my mind so i can

write. and she just stared at me like that. she put her finger up. shansaid, i just to know, are you, you know, paying respects? are you honoring my husband? and i said, well, of course i am, yeah. that's all i need to know. >> brown: okay. let's go to our next question. >> ovne of my faorite passages in this book is when big angel remembers his father saying to him, "tjuhis seconst became the past. as soon as you noiced it, it was already gone." the concept of time comes upn again and ag this book, and i was wondering if you could talk about that. >> time. >> brown: i love that question, because time is an essence of the book, also making fun of mexican time. >> right. big angel is obsessed with time. and that comes directly from my own father. people used to call my father

"the german,"ecause he wa punctual. in fact, he was early to r.erything. so that bled ove and that line that big angel's father has said toim was something my father said to me. to me the ticking clock in thish is that we kn's going to die. he knows he's going to die, and he only has so much time to tryn to rectifything that he may have done wrong or any problems inhe family, which i think any of us who are parents, you knowe who were n our 20s ana no longer there, you know, we t all think aboese things as time passes, what can we do, how can we negotiate our time. >> brown: okay. next question. >> "the house of broken angels" has showed me that every moment of life is fresh. when you set out to write thdiis bookyou intend for this to be a central message? >> yes, i did, actually. o intended that. you know, i mayt have known

it until i staed crying. >> brown: crying to yourself while you were writing? >> there were a few passages ithat my wife cndy had the type because i couldn't deal with them. yi just walked around cing saying them, an she typed them r for me. so theealization i think of time passing and everne you love leaving some day, it's been a lot o loss in or family, but that was -- that became a kind of an osession to me. >> brown: you can't read this book now without thinking of the times we're in, the situation at the border, you know, the conflict over immigration. ilu sprinklresolutions in and out occasionally -- y sprinkle illusions in and out. what's the rule of fiction? >> if you areg writort of social realism to pay attention to what is going on. but also, you know to,

universalize the story.i annnot help but think if i give you this familyat maybe quite different from your family, after a while you'll realize they're not that different. you know? there's love there's regret. there's life. there's death. there'sexuality. there's religious faith. the entire book is a parable i think for grace. >> brown: we're going continue this discussion online. for now, luis urrea, thank you very much. >> thank you, thank you. >> brown: and before we go, we're going the try somethingr did gust. mny of us love nothing more than to return to a beloved older book for asummer rereading. so we decided to ask one of today's top writers to slected a personal favorite, a become that continues to inspire and entertain her. celeste ing is author of the bestselling novel "little fir everywhere." her pick for us to read "the woman warrior," the acclaimed memoir by maxine honk kingston.

celeste will sit down with us next month. join us on our facebook page for the now read this book club in partnership th "the new york t f: >> woodrith the new school year fast approaching, john yang is back to report on a controversial stactice some cts use that puts children in the middle when schools go after money owed by parents. it's part of our weekly education series"making the grade." >> yang: every school day, s llions of children acrose county sit down to lunch in their cafeterias whether it includes a scoop of tater tots or a tray of fruits and vegetables. about 20 million students-- those whose household inme is at or below 185% of the povertyi -- are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, subsidizedf by theeral government. but when other students show up

without enough money to pay for lunch, school districts end up picking up the tab. some 75% of school districts reported carrying meal debt at the end of the017 school year, some running as high as $865,000. some schools pressure students, in order to compel their parents to settle upa practice known as "school lunch shaming." a federal report said that, in 2014, nearly half of allchool districts had policies that singled out students for unpaid scol lunch balances. in may, the warwick, rhode island public school district f announced on iebook page that any student with an unpaid balance would be served a "sunflower butter and jelly sandwich" instead of the school's regular hot lunch. that sparked national outrage and an outpouring of dns to help cover the district's $78,000 school lunch debt, including $40,000 from the cbs

show, "the talk." >> no kid should ever have to feel shame. >> yang: and nearly $50,000 from the founder and e.o. of the chobani yogurt company. >> we need everywhere, everywhere around the cotry to eliminate this for a, forever. yang: and earlier this month, the wyoming valley west school district in northeastern pennsylvania sent letters to about 40 families telling themdr their ch could be sent to foster care if they didn't pay up. f yang: the pennsylvania school board has apologiz the tone of the letter and accepted a local businessman's donation to wipe out the $22,000 debt. the board president had initially rejected the, saying it was the parents' responsibity. crystal fitzsimons is director of school and out-of-school-time programs at the od and research action center, an advocacy group that targets hunger and undernutrition. crystal, thanks so much for

yjoining us. g:>> thanks for having me. >> yang: we heard a couple of retions from school districts in that piece. give us some idea of the range of policies that schoolv districts around the country to deal with school lunch debt? >> right. there are a group of kids who get free school meals. they get free breakfast a lunch. but other kids don't qualify for free school meals. so school districts really do have to figure out how to cover those costs. so they set fees. kids who are eligiblfor reduced price can be carged 30 cnts for breakfast, 40 cents for lunch. the other kids are charged thee majority of st of the meal. ehen families don't pay those school meal fee, the school district has to figure out how to come up with that money, cause otherwise it is actually charged to the school district's general account. so it is a real issue for schools. >> yang: what do they do? what is the range of things that schools do to deal with that debt? >> well, i would say the vast majority of schools are not school lunch shaming. there are schools tat do

practices around, you know, stamping or stickering, saying owe school lunch money. there are school districts where they say, we're not going to provide any meals to kids who have school meal debt, and sohe whenhild goes through the cafeteria line at the end of the linerbecause they have debt o they don't have cash to pay for the meal, they will take the lunch away and throw it in the trash because the food cannot be reserved. in fact, the first time i ever really heard about unaid school meal debt was when we had a grandparent who alled and her granddaughter had just started kindergarten in michigan. they had taken her lunch away because the school district had not processed her schoomeal application yet. so there are lots of kids who fall through the cracks within the school nutrition program, and we rally think that it's important for schools, if a family is falling behind inc unpaidhool meal debt, it's really important for schools to take a will be at whether not the family is actually eligible for free school meals. >> yang: yourood, the food and research center, frac, as

you call it, is bkic legislation in congress right now that would address this issue. what would the legislation do? >> right. so we're very excited about a bill called "no shame at school" introd omar and senator smith. and that would actually this a number of things to impre the situation. first, it would make sure that there was no sharming embarrassing activities happening in the school. and second, we think that all the communications arod school meal debt should actually go to the parents or the guardian as opposed to the child. we think the cafeteria really should be a positive experience for alkids. and then for the kids who are eligible but somehow were missed in being certified for free meals, if the school district has to reach out and let families know hat they can apply, and if the child becomes eligible, the bills wou provide retroactive reimbursement for school lunch and breakfast.ay thatthe schools would be made whole. the kids would no longer haveth debt. and then kids who need school meals would actually be able to tap into them. >> yang: one thing the

legislation won't do, as i understand it, it won't address alternative meals. the school districts, if there esn't enough, they don't hav enough money to pay for that lunch that day, give them an ternative meal, not the regular hot meal. why is that not in the legislation? >> well,o because the federal government doesn't pay for all the meals serv in school, which i think this whole issue does shine a light on the fact that that is a problem, that we do want kids to ben classrooms healthy and well nourished and providing fre meals toall kids is a wonderful way the make sure that happens, but the federal vernment does not pay the cost of the meals for the reded price or the paid, so they can't tell schools that they have to provide a meal to those children. and so you know, if a school district that is reangy struggith dealt, i would say that it's probably better to make sure that the child has some food, and i wou also sny that there are ways to provide an alternative meal that are less embarrassing, you know, if

the cheese sandwich or the sn butter sandwich is part of the regular school lunch and any child can take it, then it's not embarrassing for a child to have it. but when it's done in a way that is public that is humweiliating, eally need to make sure that's not happening in school cafeterias across the country. >> yang: crystal tzsimons of the food and research action center, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: finally, new york city is known for pizza, but you've never seen a pie prepared like this one. our science producer nsikan akpan visits columbia university, where engineers are lighting up neways to cook a slice. >> reporter: the new york pizza he world knows it has been around since the 1930s. that's when frank mastro, an italian immigrant and salesman,

invented the gas decoven. this simple innovation turnediz new yorkza from a laborious item that could only be made in bedroom-sial ovens into the easy-bake, grab-and-go food that you find on street corners worldwide. but, just as new yorkers rarely sit still, the pizza o continues to evolve. up awn at columbia universit lab is crafting ways to improve nutritn by 3d printing pizza and cooking it with laser beams. that's right, laser beams. >> it's very easy for a machine to kind of layer in different types of nutritious elements into your food without you even knowing it and without the taste changing too much. >> reporter: jonathan blutinger is a grad student in hod lipson's creative machines lab where this tech was invented. >> so the printer has an array f d cartridges, where in each one of these cartridges, you can have a different material. so, dough, sauce and cheese, for example, as three different

thgredients. an on this cartridge, our machine can pick up one o ingredient, extrude it o platform, that's moving around in a 2way and then they can pick up another ingredient and do the same and follow this over and over again. >> reporter: once the cheese and tomato sauce are spread-- or should i say squeezed-- onto the dough, everything gets tossed into their mini oven. there, lasers shine at two mirrors, which are angled in certain directions by commands given through custom built software. this selectively cooks parts of the food with much greater precisio that's good for inted food because the ingredients are packed close together, and their final pizza is millimeters thin. >> so the pizza you're going to e, yes, it is very small it will naturally scale up as we kind of improve the printing process, and we get morewi efficien it. with the cooking process with >> reporter: the end result is delizioso. in truth, it tastes much more like a crunchy pizza bagel.

but in many ways, their approach mimics the thinking behind that original pizza on. much like mastro's invention, 3d-printing could make pizza even more personal. >> the biggest value is the fact that you can customize nutrition thr someone. a big space wher could be a great value, is in hospital settings where people maybe have certainutritional deficiencies and nepplement that either with medicine or with certain vitamin additives. n >> reporter:asa has invested in 3d printing pizza for deep space missions, but blutinger sees stellar prospects for this tech closer to the ground. he thinks digitizing food can help people stay healthy. imagine a printer and an app that learns your eating habits. it could schedule the preparation of your meals and improve yo diet. >> in five to 10 years. we think this could be a cleary. possibil the technology's there is just a matter of time and marketing itr inight way for people. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm nsikan akpan-- noshing on some za. >> woodruff: and that's the

newshour for tonight.uf i'm judy woo join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at t pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language program that teaches spanish, french, italian, german, and more. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the ford foundation. v working wiionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie rporation of new rk. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.th

>> and witongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> if i had a 2% chance of losing the election, i think china would probably say, let's wait. let's wait. maybe trump will lose and we can deal with another dope. >> another round of u.s./china trade talks as washington hands out billions to help its farmers. what's the game plan? a rare conversation with senior advisor peter navarro. - plus >> police detain more than 1,000 protestors inoscow and in afghanistan is the taliban smelling blood? is the u.s. too eager to akthdraw? i s with top foreign policy expertsbout theweekend's worrying developments. and -- >> who has