judy: good evening. do not come a california burning. winds pick up in the golden state. fueling already dangerous fires as a power company falls under eater scrutiny over its role in the crisis. then, as migrants continue to the perilous truck to t southernorder, do figures reveal the staggering number of children taken into u.s. custody in the past year. in clinical trials may revolutionize treatment for a broad swath of illnesses but who stands to benefit? tackling the diversity problem in medical research. >> in this world of drug development where everything is happening at a sprinters pace, we are not taking the time to

overcome that divide. ju: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ newshour has been provided by b nsf railway. consumer cellular. supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems. small foundation.org. the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention and the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at limbo and.org. supported by the john d. and caerine t. macarthur foundation. committed to creating a more peaceful world.

and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public onoadcasting, and by contribu to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy:no there iest for the wildfire weary in southern california. a fire that exploded in life before dawn threatened thousands of homes today, and a presidential landmark. stephanie begins our coverage. reporter: a new day, a new fire outside los angeles. thisime in simi valley where winds of 70 miles an hour fanned the flames towards the ronald reagan presidential library. smoke surrounded the site but the center escaped damage. whole neighborhoods spent inanxious hours watg the fires march across dry hillsides as

helicopters d tecra plants jumped -- dumped water to slowly fire. firefightersound of the alarm overnight. >> the worst wins los angeles hareseen in years. rter: the national weather service issued rarely used extreme red flag warning's, signaling severe fire danger over we stretches of the state. in northern california's wide -- wine country the kincade fire continues to burn. trees across sonoma county were painted red with fire retardant yesterday. by this morning powemablackouts reed in effect for hundreds of thousds of pg&e customers in the north. cioffis said some blackouts could last for days. some of those forced tovacuate our coping with no electricity. >> i hate to say it. you should not be experienced in somereing like this. rter: but governor gavin newsom insblted today that kouts must be short-term.

brighter days in ture.here are i assure you. we are not allowing any of this to be the new normal and this will not tak10 years toix. i can promise you that. reporter: the dangerous winds are expected to calm by tomorrow, but the tender dry conditio will last for the foreseeable future. and investigators are looking into whether several fires may have been caused by electrical uipment that either came into contact with downed trees or malfunction. we wil have more on the fires later in the program. judy: in the latest impeachment news, u.s. house investigators ha asked john bolton to testify next week but he is saying he will not do so without a subpoena. meanwhile committees heard today from two foreign service officers. owthey hear tomorom tim morrison, the top russia expert on the national security staff on the eve of his deposition he has resigned.

he had. already been planning to leave. eth is new fallout from tuesday's testimony by an armynt lieuteolonel on the white house national security council staff. alexander of inman was o the july phone call between president trump and the president of ukraine. in his closed-door deposition he said the white house edited the transcript of the call which it released to the public, omitting references to former vice presidentn biden and corrupt in ukraine. reaction today broke mostly down party lines. >> i have read the transcripts and it doesn't change anything for me. these are the only corrections i have seen and they do not change the subject. >> they have raised whether or not the summary of the transcript icomplete. the fact it went to a secret serverls quickly te there are political forces at work here that do not want to see dewhat was in the am transcript. the state department says hel at

does not know of any attempts i president trump to have ukraine investigate the bidens. deputy secretary of state john sullivan testified today at his senate confirmation hearing to be ambassador to russia. he saiwahe was u of any pressure on ukraine. butew jersey democrat robert menendez pressed the point. >> do you think it is ever appropriate for the president to use his office to solicit stinvestigations into a do political opponent? >> soliciting investigations into domestic political would be in accord with our values. judy: sullivan said he had known that rudy giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, worked to remove the u.s. ambassador to ukraine from her post. she was recalled last march. sullivan said he did not think she did anything wrong. the united auto workers union says it h reached a tentative contract agreement with ford

after three days of intense bargaing. the union says the deal was reached wednesday night but did nogive details. the federal reserve cut foshort-term interest rate the third time this year in a bid to strengthen the economy. the quarter-point cut was expected, but fed chair jerome powell signaled that further ductions are on hold. >> i have given youwh a sense of our outlook is. it is for moderate growth, strong labort, marnd inflation near our 2% objective. oif something happens cause us to materially reassess that outlook, that would cause us to change our views. judy: the central bank had raised rates four times last year. the pentagon today released a video of the saturday raid that killed islamic state leader abu bakr al-baghdadi. the images show special forces of fault -- assaulting his compound in rthwestern syria. later, bombs destroy the site. al-baghdadi blew himself and two children died with him.

they initially said three chdren were killed. in syria, state run media reports that government troops have clashed with turkish forces in northeastern. it happened near a town that turkey seized from syrian kuish-led forces this month. meanwhile, turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan said some turkish fighters are in a so-called safe zonebolong the er. he warned them to withdraw or face a new kurt -- turkish assault. facebook says that has removed dozens of pages and accountsf that were part a russian disinformation campaign in africa. the company says they were linked to a russian oligarch accused of interfering in the 2016 u.s. presidential electn. in washington,r fbi directo christopher wray told a congressional hearing that russia means to metal again in next year's election. >> some of the things the russians have tried in other countries, we expect them to try to do here as well. which puts the premium on the point i was making before about our working with on the foreign

influence side, working with social media companies to get them to keep upping their game as part of the defense. judy: in its announcement, facebook said it took down nearly 200 accounts with more than one million followefr across eightan nations. twitter announced today it will ban all political advertising on its service starting november 22, eliciting criticism from the trump campaign, which tonight called it a quote, very dumb decision that is an attempt to silence conservativ. the company said such ads on social media make it too easy to spread misleading messages. chicago and its teacher union may have a deal to end. school stri the union says it will submit a tentative agreemst to its memb tonight if the city agrees to make up lost schools days. teachers have been demanding better pay and smaller classes. still to come on the newshour with judy woodruff, california burning.

the danger grows as the wind picks up. thelarming number of child migrants detained by the u.s. over the past year. 2020 democratic hopeful pouille and castro on why he is seeking the presidency. and much more. >>'s is the pbs newshour from onwashin and in the west from the walter cronkite school of lism at arizona state university. it is a very diyeicult day again and much of california. fires are burning throughout several regions. power isof out for hundred thousands of people and some are becoming worried that this kind of routine could be the new normal. sthanie sy is back to look at those questions and she joins us from the newshour west bureau in phoenix. stephanie: firefighers are --

in the northern part of the state, progress is being made against the kincade fire. but life has bn severely disrupted because of forced power outages that have become frequent. michael has been following all of this closely. he's the dirtor of the climate and energy policy program at the stanford would -- he joins me from oakland. thank you for your time you are in northern california where i understand even though the threat was great in theast few days, they have gotten a better hold on that kincade fire. the urgency right now is ior southern cala with those infamous santa ana winds creating a lot of fire dangerous there tonight, ar dealing with these conditions basically an open-ended challenge now for the state? guest: i think it is fair to say that they are. the emerging science on the late fall events is that as thes

climatee warms, w are likely to see more and more of these very dangerous moments in the late fall, where it is very difficult to control fires. stephanie: even with these fireu burning inern california, and one is burning close to the ronald reagan presidential library in simi valley, we do not see the same kind of blackouts there that you have up north. why is that? gues that is true. wen ave s smaller degree of safety blackouts being utilized by the southern california, utilities, although i think that may change. two of theeires that h occurred in recent weeks in southern california appear to have been caused by utility lines that were left on. so, it may be the case that moving forward we see or excessive utilization. to some degree, southern california utilities have made investments over the last decade or so that make them more resistant to the high wind events. high wind events like the santa

anna's are a more cmon feature to the southern california landscape for longer than the northern california weather that led to the kincade fire. stephanie: how i ist that forced power outages for millions of people has become a go to response during risky fi whether? guest: i think the fire we face in is that we built a power system, poles, wires, power plants that was safe to operate during the 20th century. and unfortunately we have encountered a situation where the conditions have really changed. at the same time, as more and more people are living in the dangerous areas. and what that means is instead of having safe and reliable power, now we have atw choice n safe or reliable power. in california is reallyg ust beginn grapple with the consequences of that. stephanie: what about the ?precision of the blackou a number of people pointed out to meom when i was reporting northern california that despite the power outages, the kincade

fire, which was likely started by a transmissionow -- tower that was left on by pg&e, still happened. guest: pg&e is still learning how to do power shutoffs in the most effective way, in a surgical way rather than with a hammer. they are stillliearning which s they need to turn off, which lines are at risk. by contrast, san diego is a standout in this. been working for over a decade to improve their rilience to high wildfire risk periods of time. so they can turoff power only where the conditions are most risky and leave it on where things are safer stephanie: this is really hitting a lot of people in their pocketbos. and not everyone can afford a generator or to install solar panels. who should be responsible for a fbackst people during a black out?

guest: that a ieally important question to ask. the reality is we are likely to have these power shutoffs at least for the next few years so we need to think about keeping the lights on,ven for low and moderate income people who cannot go out and buy a generator that cost thousands f there is a role in ensuring the impacts of climate change are not disproportionately borne by those who cannot support it. sthanie: the ceo of pg&e says residents shoul expect more -- a decade more of these blackouts before they can get their equipment in order. the governor of california governor newsom said today he would not allow pg&e to take 10 years. so what can be done? guest: i think there are possibilities for accelerating the effort. they depend on returning pg&e to a better state of financial help.

tbu there are also important limitations on how fast the work can occur. mostly because we just did not have enough skilled lineman to send up the poles to make the changes necessary. it is a very lge system. hundred 25,000 miles of overhead line. making it safe will take years. hopefully not 10 years. i think things can be done to accelerate the process, especially the slow process of improving. at the samee time, i thinkre going to need to think about solutions forme cus, for small businesses impacted, residents most likely to be power of one sort of another. stephanie: there ino question that patience is wearing thin after three weof these power utdowns. director of the climate and energy policy program at the stanford woods instivite for the ennment, thank you. guest: thank you for having me on.

judy: we hav a clearer picture tonight about what has unfolded at the u.s. southern border over thpast year. new numbers reveal a record number of migrants apprehended they are fiscal year 2019. u.s. customs and border protection says that total was more than 850,000 migrants, the more than beuble the year re. that includes a record number of unaccompied migrant children detained by u.s. border officials.a fo closer look at those numbers and the turmoil at the top of thegency responsible for securing the border, i am joined by almond the vase who has been storing -- following the story for a long time. eye-popping numbers. what do we know? amna: we have beeng reporn this for a while. we know for most of these families they are coming from

central america from el salvador, honduras and guatemala. largely claiming -- fleeing economic instability and violence. when you look at that one big eye-popping number, about three hundred thousand's of t sse migrants agle adults. the largest group was family units. that wasos a 500,000, adults traveling with children. and unaccompied minor children number come over 76,000. that family unit number, that is what has been taxing the system. ourystem is not designed to handle families and children in that way. ind that unaccompanieds number is children largely arriving unaccompanied. that is higher than any number esen that the obama minist and had to manage. a lot of people are asking what happened to all those children. it is important to point out they go into the care of another government agency and that agency said they had a record number of sponsors coming

forward. vented family and friends who come forward to claim the children. so most of those children are judy: you have reported on this, this is a systethat was never designed to handle families, to handle children. these numbers appear to be unsustainable. what is going to happen? amna: it is unfair for the customs and border patrol officers on the front lines. its unsafe for familiesoming throug the system. put the numbers have been coming down in recent months. you look at the southwest border apprehensions over the last five months, may of the last fiscal year was a hh point. over 130,000 migrants crossing. thatth came down month after m until september, the last month of this fiscal year, down to out 40,000. that is a low for the entire year. why? a couple things. the trump omission ration h putnto place a lot of new policies that prevent peoplein from comin the u.s. and

they have struck deals with those countries of origin to keep people from leaving. that kind of set off another set of concerns about whether people are allowed under human rights law to leave their country and passed through mexico on the way here. we know it isls unsafe in a lot of those mexican border towns. over the weekend a twa-year-old bo killed in ait-and-run. he and his family were waiting states.y enter the united he is the 20th child to die at the border in the last year. it is not good conditions people are being forced to wait in. judy: s concerning. and while all this is going on, the agency that oversees all of this, the department of homeland security, hundreds of thousands of employees, they have had an acting secretary. he announced earlier he is what do we know abat is next? amna: his last day is supposed

toe tomorrow. he will likely have to stay because the president has not yet med a successor. he has run into one problem under the federal vacancies act which is someone cannotold two acting positions at the same time. the top two candidates for this role are both acting heads of dhs agencies at the moment. they are ideologically aligned with the president. one them may end up getting the b at right now it is difficult because of the federal vacancies act. what turmoil at the top, under this president there have already been four heads of dhs. we do not know for the broad mandate dhs has beyond immigration, we have no idea whn will be g it next. judy: to go from acting to acting to acting. what do we say? na thank you very much.

judy: stay with us. coming up, beirut and baghdad on the brink. the latest from the protest movements in lebanon and iran. clinical trialstened thein effectiveness of medical research. an latest pick for the now read this book club. adam winkler's "we the corporations." julian castr made his debut on the national stage in 2012 when he delivered the keynote aress at the democratic national convention as the mayor of san antonio, texas. he later joined the obama administ housing and urban development. today, he is one of 17emocrats vying to win his'partys presidential nomination. joining us from his hometown of san antonio, julian castro. welcome to the newshour. >> great to be with you.

i want to start with a question i have and asking all th candidates.why you? why are you and a better position? why are you more qualified than everyone else to be the democratic nominee? >> that is a great question and probably the question that those ofams on theign trail get asked the most. look, i think people are lookigs for three thhis year. number one they want someone with the right experience to be they want someone with a strong compelling vision about the future of our country. and ofey course want someone who can beat donald trump. i am one of the very few candidates with strong executive experience. i have been in arge of something andogotten things . i was mayor of the seventh and i served as secretary of housing and urbanevelopment under president obama, managing a department chat 8000 employees, offices across the country. i have a strong track record of executive experience. i also have a strong compelling vision for the future.

i want to make nere that ever counts in this country. not just t 37% of country this president considers his base, but everyone. i have outlined a blueprint for everybody to be able to prosper in the years ahead. and i can beat donald trump. judy: a number of things i want to ask you about. u one of the issues ve stress is immigration. you have falorite decriming border crosses. what does that mean? does it mean open borders. julian: it does not. it means that crossing the border without perilssion would be against the law, but we would treat it like we used to eat it for more than 50 years under democratic and republican presidents. when it offense.dered a civil the reason i believe we need to go back to how we used to treat it and what effectively is that when trump came in, he weaponized one particular section of the law that was passed in 1929, but was not enforced for more than five decades.

and he is using that misdemeanor crime to incarcerate migrant parents and to te them away from their kids. what i have said is that iav believe we can accountability, we can have a secure border, but we can do it was -- with compassion instead of cruelty. i do not that tool to be in a toolbox for a future administration witthe trump administration to separate families. i am trying to end family separation but still keep an orderly immigration system. judy: some of your opponents disagree with the. joe biden says people should have to wait in line. anvernor steve bullock of mosaid this would lead to an explosion of people at the border. my question is, would you offer tthem free health care ony came across? julian: let's get something straight. under donald trump, our immigration challenge has gotten worse, not better. a couple months ago wead hundred 44,000 people that showed up at the southern we have had more pthat are coming because he did not do

what i have said he shouldh do wh, for instance, 21st century marshall plan for honduras, el salvador and guatemala so people can find safety and opportunity at homein instead of h to make the dangerous journey to the united states. we need to engage in some preventative action so we will at the southern end of ourw border. with regard to health care for undocumented immigrants who are everybody inhis country should be able to access health care. why do i say that? nuer one, if you are a taxpayer out there, you may hear that and wonder, what are you talking about? you are already peeing --paying for people's health care. it is called the emergency rule. -- room. that is the most costly way we can doealth care. if i were president right now i would allow folks if they are undocumented to buy into the exchanges so they are contribute

something into the system and able to get preventative care. i think that is a smarter and cheaper wa:to do it. ju health care for all of us, your proposal is to automatically enroll everybody into a medicare plan, but give than the chance to opt out if they want to keep their private insurance. joe biden has kind of a mirror image of that. he would have people have to opt in if they want to join medicare for all. why is your proposal better than his? an: the difference is that my plan would ver everybody, whereas joe biden's plan would leave 10 million people uninsured. if we are going go through all of the battle that is involved in reworking our health care system, it makes no sense to leave 10 million people uninsured at the end of the day. if we are going to do it we need to do it right. judy: staying in the race, you made a desperate appeal for

money about nine days ago. you tweet out a message saying if you could not raise $800,000 by october 31, tomorrow, that your campaign would be silenced for good. are you going to make it? julian:e believell. we are not quite there yet but we have gotten grassrootsom contributions ll over the country. people putting in $5, $10, $15. i am proud to have one of the highest rates of small dollar contributions. our average contribution last quarter was $18. it is americans from all walks of life. i am not taking pac money, moyle from big executives. itths powered bpeople of this country. i believe we are going to make it and we are going to fight like crazy over the next two weeks to get on that debate stage in novemr. i will be in iowa on friday at the liberty and justice dinner. i will be in iowa for a few days. and in some of these early judy: the new york times ran a.

story today noticing that even though the democrats are fielding the most diverse group of candidates ever this that the candidates who seem to be at the top are all either whiteth mene of them, or a white woman. and at the candidates of color, you and others, are not there. do you have a theory about why that is? julian: people tend to gravitate right now towards this idea that you have to go with a safe choice, or a certain profilof candidate that they think can win in pennsylvania or ohio or michigan. bu i think we should turn that over on its head. big was with barack obama won because he assembled anen unprecd diverse, young working-class coalition of people that rose up, they got off the sidelines and into the voting booths. i am confident i can do that if i am the nominee. judy: julian castro, y tha

very much. julian: thanks. judy: are interviews with democratic candidates continue on friday, whel i trave iowa to sit down with former vice president joe biden. judy: tonight in baghdad, security services killed at least two and wooded hundreds of protesters who are challouging the veryation of the government. meanwhile in lebanon, there is a caretaker government today after the prime minister resigned yesterday. nick schifrin is here with a look at the protest movements and what is next. nick: iraqi and lebanesh protesters eok to the streets for local reasons. they are united in arguing their in iraqi spark with a firing of a popular general. rathis into this demonr

demand fundamental change. >> iraqi people are not looking we want the resignation of this government. nick: in lebanon the spark was a lack of services and attacks on popular app. the protester's catchphrases not all of them, is in they want all politicians to go. >> from the beginng we said all of them means all of them. we are staying in the stiares they all go down. ? the presence of other -- nick: for more we are joined by a journalist in baghdad and our special correspondent in beirut. thank you. we have now seen a month of protests and extraordinary violence on the streets. 240 plus kild. what is keeping people in the streets despitceall that viol guest: i thi people have gotten ta breaking point in terms of the corruption of the government antipoverty -- and

the povertyhat is present in iraq. for them, either it is protest or they thi there is nothing in the future. nick: we have fundamental calls about economic fears in baghdad. we certainly have seen very similar aspects in beirut. resigned yesterdayinister does that answer protester's demands? guest: it answers the protesters to a certain extent in the sense that they are jilant they have been able to bring down the prime minister himself. but politics in lebanon is very complicated, because it is not just one person. and that is why as you said the protesters have been saying al what they mean is they want all of the political elites to step down in this country. because it is a compl web of sectarian and divided up power here in the country. and getting red -- rid of one leader cannot bring down the system tt people here really

want this mental. a system that has caused widespad corruption, a financial crisis, and basically the quality of life in trbanon to be ely low for many people. so it is a start, but the protesters are saying they will come back onto the streets if they do not see cabinet minister's replaced with technocrats. they want to see those old faces they considered symbolic of their past removed so they canbe replaced by people they see as lesko left -- corrupt and more represented if of the population. nick: part of what unites these protesters are the economics, the from the mentals both of you have been talking about, eyt also that go beyond traditional sectarian divisions. why have economic fears in iraq become more important than sectian loyalty, and why does that mean so many are calling fo' iras influence to decrease? guest: i think we have to look at who are the main .ople protesti

they are very young. they are from a generation who do not see themselves as ruled by sectarian differences. the main thing that conceths them is t did not really have any opportunities. they don't have a good education, they don't have any work. so for them they say we don't care if you are shieh or sunni, we just want someone who is iraqi to govern iraq. when it comes to iran, iran influences the current governme very much. and manyeople believe that iran's influence on the government has led to the rruption which has created the economic situation within iraq. sohroughout the protest yo see people saying get out iran, we want someone iraqi to come and rule iraq. nick: you talk about the complicated system of government in lebanon. sectarianism is written into the government itself. how do the protests and the prime minister's resignaon going to affect iran and lebanon

and the has apollo group? guest: thesa leade theyup? support the protesters and principal. they support their calls for orruption, their calls f reform in the country. they have also been saying they should not be blocking roads, causing disruption. what we saw yesterday were extraordinary scenes in beirut where hundreds of hezbollah and supporters pouring into the streets, defying police, racing towards these protesterg and attackinem with sticks, bottles and rocks, beating people up, and essentially tearing apart the protest camp that had been set up. hezbollah has a lot to lose if this governmt were to collapse completely, because the protesters keep saying all of you. that includes the head of hezbollah. he is not technically in the

government in lebanon, but people want all of those political leaders to step down. for hezbollah supporters that is a step too far. hezbollah are experiencing to a it an identity crisis because of these protests. ysthey have aliewed themselves as a party of the people, of the working man, dd the downt. like it or not, they are seen by the people as a political elite. he is seen as a political elite. nick: some of the fundamental reforms that the expertsayre necessary in iraq, cutting public sector paythlls, nurturinprivate sector, liberalizing oil profits. t government capable and willing to actually institute some of those reforms? guest: that is a hard question to answer. i would say that what a protesters here have been saying the government has had about 16 years to institute tho reforms and have utterly failed up until this point.

many othe people in government have been the same politicians innt diffeositions for around a decade or so. and n they have yet been able to institute reforms. despite iraq being a void -- a very oil-rich country, the basic services are still lacking. itanoes not seem likely that the very bloated public sector could go away anytime soon. nick: just quickly come expand out a little bit for us. for tio r what is the impact of these protest movements, and that these two governments are being fundamentally challenged? guest: it is a big statement for the region in terms of what people want. the fact they are defined sectarianism and traditional politics, and what we are hearing is a louder and louder voice that is to a certain extent reminiscent of the arab spring of 2012 different and

that is more focused on economic reerm. what we seeing now is a younger generation that have lost patience with the results of corruption and sectarianism and there are -- they are a lot more focused on what they want, which is a more modern and acceptable standard of living for young people. nick: to both of you, thank you very much. judy: the country's divsity is becoming ever greater, but medical research that could keeping pace.opulace is not a recent review of government cancer research studies found all racial and ethnicinies were considerably underrepresented. it also found fewer than 2% of these clinical trials focused specifically on the needs of minorities. there is

the problem and there are new and promising efforts to correct it. our special correspondent has the story, part of our regular coverage of the leading edge of science and medicine. reporter: brittany was not supposed to here in 2019 on the campus of sacramento state,e studying to be doctor. >> same mechanism. >> same mechanism. reporter: in middle school she was paralyzed. her doctors told her treatment for the large-scale cancerous tumor pressi into her spine d failed. she would likely be dead within months. her only hope? a game changing clinical trial her mou santa monica, nearly 400 miles from home. >>ss the became how are we going to get there every week? for the first month we had to go once a week, tn after that we uld have to go once a month.

and we do not have any extrak funds to dve down there and to support the household. ndporter: brittany and her mom needed some helphey got it. from this woman, dana. she runs a nonprofit in the bay area. >> we might want to just consider -- reporter: the fill a gaping hole in the cancer treatment ex a low income patient travel needs to get to a clinical trial. >> it says that you are looking for assistance with parking, tolls, and gas. reporter: and that simple fix may help solve another gaping >> unfortunately many minority communities are grossly underrepresented in clinical trials. because they cannot afford to get there. in ts world of drug development where everything is happening at a sprinter space,

-- sprinter's pace, we are not taking the time to overcome that divide. reporter: brittany is now ngcancer-free tto the clinical trial. but she was lucky. according to the fda, only about 30% oclinical trial participants for cancer drugs come from minority gups. e rest are white. in an e where precision medicine -- diversity is essential becauan some diseasedrugs impact racial groups in different ways. george has been part of the push to reverse those numbers. he could not wk during five grueling rounds of chemo for camp -- patriotic cancer. a -- pancreatic cancer. his bull has been taken care of.

gas, tolls, and hotel stays, while he participated in the trial. they also paid for airfare for ose traveling long distances. those seemingly small interventions have helped them access cutting edge care they otherwise would not ha >> hopefully it improves and it will be a drug that will be here a long time. reporter: the randomized control trial found the financial assistance can have a big impact. minority participation in studies was 78%, com sred to nationtistics for minority groups in cancer oncology trials. the fda's recent report found just 15% were asian, 4% were black orfrican-american, and 4% were hispanic. lack of diversity is a problem that extends well beyond clinical trials. basic resech has also been ng dominated by people of

european ancestry. >> this train is speeding out of the station. and the african-erican community does not seem to be on it. it is not getting the representation it deserves. reporter: daniel is head of the liber institute for brain the train he is referring to is once again the revolution of precision medicine. >> thiss how we store over 3000br samples of human n tissue. and this keeps expanding. reporter: this institute, which has an affiliation with johns hopkins, has built one of the cworld's largestlections of postmortem human brains devoted ln understanding mental ils and brain development. so far, most of the brain research here and elsewhere has been a centeredund people with european ancestry. that is because their genomic code is newer and simpler than other groups, including people with african ancestry. earlier y thisr a study found

a full 10% of the african genome is missing from the famous reference human genome, mapped by scientists the turn-of-the-century and is widely used as a baseline for researchers. >> it was like a wake-up call. 10% missing? how was that posble that this has been overlooked to this degree? reporter: the liber institute has collected some 500 brains of erafricaicans in recent years. but there has not been the funding to study them specifically. he says that lack of research is a big problem. >> we have known for a long time that many mtricines used to t psychiatric disorders are metabolized differently in african-americans. and many of the studies have shown that they do not respond as well to some medicines in part because they are metabolized differently. are not going to be able to make the personalized insights that we can make soar. in caucasians. kind of researche johnsap this

hopkins campus is sensitive business. this is, after all, the institution that harvested cells from henrietta lacks without her consent in the mid-1900s, creating an immortal cell line still used by researchersoday. events like that and the rumors that followedtr led to mist of the medical establishment which mains high today. >> johns hopkins had this kind of spirit running over that you did not want to walk by at night because they were using people for spare body parts. reporter: that is reverend al iohathaway, spastor of the ptunion bat church and one of the most influential voices in baltimore. he was skeptical too of a group trying to collect brains. >> as i began to work with them, when i realized is the funding is slanted towards a european i said wait a minute, that is not really bias. that is just accessibility. so i did not see it as something

that was structully wrong. i saw it -- is something we could correct. reporter: in collaboration with the liber institute, hathaway and a oup of fellow clergy members have created the first african-amicaneuroscience richards initiative. their goal is to specimens on hand to fill in genomic gaps and create a publicly accessible data set that would speedd oth research dical innovation. those involved in the project are proceeding carefully, knowing that science haseen used in the past to emphasize racial differences in earmful ways aloit minority communits. as more becomes known about migedifferences between racial groups, some are concerned that could happen again. >> no genome is without its advantages and its disadvantages. git is true of everyome. this is just a matter of identifying them and coming up with ways to make them less debilitating. reporter: back in california,

on his feet with the support of his wife. >> we held each f other a few moments then he stopped and said look at me, it is ok. we are going to get through this. it is just another bump in the erroad. report more than three dozen friends and family members came out for a recent cancer fundraising event. with a #on all their backs, no one fights alone. and the hope that the research of the future will move closer to that goal as well. judy: as the month comes to a close it tse for the latest conversation of our book club, now read this, in partnership withor the new times. and stick around for whambto read in no. reporter:ou the 2010 supreme

ruling citizens united shocked the country, effectively granting corporations the same free speech rights as diduals and further opening the floodgates of money into our elections. many saw citizens united as a dangerous new development, one that blurred the line between citizens and corporations. but a ucla law professor demonstrates in his book it was just the latt in a very long line of victories largely corporations fought for and won sweeping civil rights protections. "we the corporations" is the book. adam winkler is here. welcome. i have to adm, this book was a revelation to find out so many of these things that i really nohadea about. and many of our viewers it seems after reading this 200 year history of corporate rights many of them bad.law, it made

one of them wrote in saying her blood was boiling at what was document it. can you sketch out the kinds of rights that corporations have won for themsels over the cades? adam: sure. they have been fighting and winning rights and the supreme court for over 200 years. ev though the supreme court over the years to not really protect the rights of womor or racial mies unti the 1950's, throughout all that time the court was often siding with corporations and corporations were granted the right to sue in cour in the early 1800s, were granted rights of equal protection and due process in the late 1800s. corporations today have one most of the criminal protection rights that are in t constitution, as well as in more recent years rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. william: we all remember when mitt romney made that commen about corporations are people too. and people on the left diculed m for that. but as you document, there is really this long legal history

where the courts have viewed corporations as people. can you explain how that happened and why that happened? akam: no issue is more concert virtually in theof citizens united then this idea. of corporations as people. bu the idea of corporate personhood is actually deeply embedded in the law. that is just the idea that a corporation is its own inspendent entity in the e of the law and it is separate and distinct from the shareholders or the employees or the investors in thatompany. that is why if you slip and fal at atarbucks, you have to sue the starbucks company. you cannot sue the individual investors. corporate personhoo enables to hold corporations accountable when they commit crimes or torts. when we sue bp for the oil spill in the gulf, we are relng on corporate personhood to give us an identifiable body that we can sue and hold responsible. i think what has gone awry perhaps in the supreme court in recent years is that the court has extended rights that do not em to fit the business corporation of today. things like a right to influence

elections, or freedom of religion, and giving corporations the -- the ability to opt outs of certain kds of laws, things that don't seem ioke they are part of that long history and tradof corporate personhood. in the hobby lobby case, c the supremrt says corporation has religious liberty then we have to protect the religobus liberty of lobby's owners. william: this was the green family who said the affordableme care act requi that they provide contraception to their employees violate rtheir personigious beliefs. and you are saying that the courtat misconstrued dea in that case? adam: what the court did is itrp pierced the ate veil. it did not base the case on the heght of the corporate entity but on rights of the family behind the corporation. when we understand th i terms of what corporate personhood should really mean, which is a stri separation between the business entity on the one hand and the people behind the business, we canee that hobby lobby rejected the principle of corporate personhood rather than truly embraced it. william: yoube right at the

nning of your book that you do not mean this to be a condemnati or even really a critique of this growing corporate rights. but c ter of your book does have a wadded up copy of the constitution on it, which implies the constitution has been damaged here. how do you wait that? adam: it is an arresting image on the cover so we love that. in some ways we might think the the involvement of aorporations rican constitutional w has had some bad effects. citizens united might be a perfect example of that, expanding corporation -- at the same time corporate rights have also had a positive effect in some examples. for instce in the 1930's when newspaper corporations were trying to fight back against censorship imposed upon them by the democratic -- they could only fight back because they have the first amendment right of freedom of theress. willia a lot of readers ask ugquestions that seem to se with this idea of, is this

trend, ie?it irreversi do corporations now have these rights and that is neve? going to cha what is your sense from studying the long history of this? adam: there is a movement afoot to amend the constitution to eliminate rights for corporations. more than 19 states have endorsed some kind of constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united. and if that amendment really gathersheteam, we might see corporations actually lose some of these constitutional rights that they have gaid. i think we have to approach that issue with some nuance and at least some hesitation, in the sense that we do not want to deprive the new york times company of its right of freedom of the press, for instance. and we do not want to done i any otr company -- to deny any other company that has property rights over its inventory. and the come and for instance, seesndoca-cola's recipes make their own coca-cola without paying compensation. we want to think about the role constitutional rights play in limiting government power.

sometimes that means protecting corporations. lliam: the book is "we the corporations." adam, thank you very much for doing this. we will continue this conversation online where you can find it later on. before we go, i want to introduce our now read the spec for november. the winner of the 2019 pulitzer prize in fiction. it is a novel about trees, our relationship with the natural world, and about activism an resistance.it is call "the over" it is a 12 book from richard powers. as always we hope you will join us and read along with others on our website and facebook page, now read this, which is a pbs newshour's book club partnership with new yortimes. judy: on the newshour online right now,me the trump p minister asian has touted its efforts to build hundreds of miles of new borderl w the end of next year. we take a closer look at what has been done far, and whether the new designs nature of immigration.g

that is on our website, pbs.org /newshour. and that is the newshour for tonight. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here, thank you and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. >> consume cellular offers no contract wireless plans that are the things you are -- that youf enjoy. our customer service team is here to find a plan that fits you. >> bnsf railway. and with the ongoing support oal these indiviand institutions. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is pbs newshoues from w eta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

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