captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> yang: good evening. i'm john yang. judy woodruff is away. on the "newshour" tonight, a ne. phase begi what to expect as the house begins the next stage of its dopeachment inquiry. then, guns on thet. for the first time in a decade, the supreme court hear arguments in a major second amendment case. and politics monday: analysis of the democratic 2020 presidential race witjust two months to go before the first votes are cast. plus, saying goodbye to the city. the growing movement of millenials making small town america their homes. >> it's really important that when you move into rural america that you get out and you know the community and you show up, and you bring yours andfferent your knowledge to the table because th's what we need and

that's what we're looking for. >> yang: all that and more on tonighs "pbs newshour." bs>> major funding for the newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ no moving our emy for60 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> consumer cellular.

>> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.o. >> and with the ongoinsupport 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. >> yang: president trump headed abroad today, while at home the house moves closer to impeachment. mr. trump will be participating in a nato summit in london this

week as the house judiciary committee holds its firstac iment hearing. our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins is here to tell us what's ahead. lisa, the president w landed the london, but while he was in the air, the impeachment news kept happening here at home. what happened while he was in the air?er >> andhe is talking to important allies, but on his mind as well is the impchment hearing going forward. i want to play what the president had to say on his way to london today. he's going to remark on sm something that ukrainian president lenskyaid, we'll me to that. here's the president building his case as he left the white house today. >> the whole thing is a hoax, everybody knows it. all you have to do is look at the words of the ukrain ukrainin president that he just issued and you know it's a hoax. it's an absolute disgracwhat they're going doing to our country. >> reporter: we will continue to hear the idea from the

republicans the idea that the impeachment is a hoax ora shm. president zelensky, here are his words in an interview published in the last day. he said, loo i never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. that's not my ting but you have to understand, we're at war. if you're our strategic partner, then you can't g blocking neg for us. i think that's just aboutfa ness. there's a lot in that quote, john. pro quo is not his thing.quid i don't know if that's a leario common regulof the president. but he went farther. at stake hre, zelensky thinkss his country is at stake over u.s. poicy. so an important development. also something we need to keep our eye on for the next week, lev parnas, a known associate of rudy giuliani, who was working in ukraine on behalf of giuliani and is knowno have beehipart ofidea of a parallel track of diplomacy, he's undern

indictment, in court today, his lawyer sad he would like to turn ovea large amount of documents and electronic devices, 14 cell phones and laptops with information that he thulks house democrats sd get. that's working through the courts, but the jud gedicates they may grant that request and get that evidence mo y as. >as. >> yang: we don't know what's there but he says it could be helpful or of intert. >> reporter: yeah. >> yang: the wte house said it won't participate in the house judiciary committee patient heampleghts how does that affect things. >> reporter: this is the first opportunity the white house hade to partici they could not participate in mitteeuse intelligence com hearings, something they raised a lot of criticism about. but got this from white house counsel heading up impeachment from a legal standpoint, he wrote an invitationo an academii disc with law professors, the aring on wednesday, does not begin to prvide the president with any semblance of

a fair process. under the current circumstances, we do not intenpato parti in your wednesday hearing. i will note we have gotten the itwitness list. s four law professors, one chien by republicans, but ll the white house is saying that ' not enough. they may participate later. in the same letter the white hoe counsel is saying whether they consider calling orthowitnesses or participate at a di aerent time but there deadline for them to make that decision as well. >> where does this go from here? what's going to happen this week and what's the process after that? >> let's go to the calendar. i love it. first, let's talabout this week. again, this is the hearing on wednesday, the fourth. that is the first house judiciary committee hearing with the laprofessors. after that on friday, that isde the deadlinocrats have set for the white use to announce if they will participate aall, they want to call any witnesses or cross-examine witnesses in the f one reason the deadline is so tight is because the following week is when democrats seem to

be moving toward at least a committee vote on actual articles of impeachment, if things move along quickly that could also be a house floor vote.ho so if the whitse is going to participate, they need to aannounce that soon. after that, the important date,m the 25th chr, this has been the tool tore measure for democrats when they would like to have articlf impeachment through the house altogether. decembe more dates in that may affect everything -- december in the, when the inspecialty general of the department of jog releases ah report about f.b.i.'s handling of the russia investigation, something republicans will say show bias against mee president, so reporting it not. then december 20th, just theor deadlineovernment spending, when government spend willing run out. so that's sosmething ee members of congress and the president have to agree on in the midst of all this upheaval and very serious constitutional debate.

>> yang: meanwhile, house republicans said they will have something to say about this, right? >> reporter: that's righ in report from house republicans. they've written their pre-butle to the imeachment hearings, 110 pages, they say the prnesident r pressured the ukrainian president and this document lays outhey will proceed. by tomorrow night, we should get the democrats' intelligence report, we expect that to be lengthy and significant. we hope that to be behind closed doors but we should getthat tomorrow right in time for the hearing. >> yang:heudiciary committee hearing is the basis for their work? >> reporter: ththinking is democrats will recommended impeachment move forward to house judiciary. >> yangahbusy daysad. >> reporter: indeed. >> yang: appreciate it ver much. >> reporter: you're welcome.

>> yang: in the day's other news, there were more demonstrations in iraq, even after parliament accepted the prime minister's resignation. women led a protest in the southern city of basra, demanding the entire government be dismsed. and in baghdad, protesters alsod insistn more chaes. want the current gent do not officials, they must go, they the young people are in a deteriorating situation, then woe begging on the streets, no medications in hospitals, enough is enough. all rties must go, we don't want any one of them. >> yang: iraqi lawmakers say primminister adel abdul mahdi will stain a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed. that process could take weeks. amnesty international said today it believes more than 200 peopli were killed an during ensuing crackdown.and the the iranian government has yet to release a full account of those who died in the protests over gasoline prices. china today indefinitely suspended u.s. military ships and aircraft from visiting hong

kong. it comes aer president trump signed legislation supporting thti-government protests i chinese territory. also today, hundreds of officera workerllied in hong kong's central business distr a day earlier, police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters. world leaders have begun a two- week climate conference in madrid. they convened today amid warnings that the 2015 paris climate accord will fall short of preventing maofr consequences limate change. u.n. secretary general antonio guterres openethe conference by criticizing global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.>> o we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned? the other option is the pathf hope, the path of resolve, of sustainable solutions. >> yang: house speaker nancy

pelosi led a delegation of u.s.a democratic lrs to the conference, voicing support for the paris accord. president trump has moved to withdraw the united states from the accord, effective next november. c back in thntry, a storm system blew into the northeast, after making a mess across the midwest. new jersey's state government largely shut down, as did schools in several states. parts of eastern new york state were under snow emergencies, and new york city warned commuters to brace for the worst. >> the fact that we've got 5-8je inches ped for some parts of the city should make everyone aware that number could go up, and it could go up quickly. d we've all ben this road before. this could fluctuate a lot. t but when i stahear 5-8, you know-- buckle your seatbel becae you're never sure whatn going to hapxt. >> yang: the storm could dump up 20 inches of snow from pennsylvania to maine. six-term california congressman lencan hunter now plans to guilty to misusing campaign funds.sa

thdiego republican said today he will appear in federal court tomorrow to change his earlier not guilty plea. he said he's doing it to protect his family hunter is accused of using campaign contributions to pay for vacations, golf trips and other personal expenses. chicago police superintendent eddie johnson was fired today, a month before he was set to retire. head been found passed out i his car at a stop sign, in mid- october. he said he had had a few drinks earlier. but mayor lori lightfoot said today an inspector general's report showed that johnson wasn't telling the truth. >> eddie johnson intentionally lied to me several times, even when i challenged him about the narrative that he ared with me. he maintained that he was telling the truth. i now know definitively that he was not. had i known these facts at the time, i would've relieved him of nthis duties as superinten then and there. >> yang: lightfoot gave nota s, but said the report may

dacome public later. a new study out finds one in four young adults aged 19-34p is living wi-diabetes. the report comes from the centers for disease control and prevention. it also finds men are almost twice as likely to have the ndition as women. pre-diabetes causes blood sugar levels to spike, and can lead to a"type 2" diabetes, as weto kidney and heart disease. in economic news, president impose tariffs on steel andl re- aluminum from brazil and argentina. in a tweet, he aused the two nations of manipulating their currencies to undercut u.s. farm products. the president had expted brazil and argentina from the tariffs, in march of 2018. and on wall street, december got off to a rough start amid new worries about trade tensions with china. the dow jones industrial average lost 268 points close at 27,783. the nasdaq fell 97 points.

and the s&p 500 dropped 27. still to come on the "newshour," arguments before the supme court in the first major gun case in a decade. amy walter and domenico montanaro break down the week's top politiadlines. why young americans are waving settling down in small towns. plus, trees take center stage in r "newshour"-"new york times" book club pick "the overstory." >> yan today's supreme court oral arguments were highly anticipated-- the first in control caa decade. it was about a now-repealed new york citlaw that limited where licensed gun-owners could carry their weapons. second amendment advocates saw

the potential to expand gun rights. it appears the issue may have to wait. marcia coyle is chief washington narrespondent for the "nat law journal" and was in the courtroom this morning. thanks for joining us. why does this highly anticipated moment seem less than hoped for. >> cases are controversy. after the neyork city repealed its law, the question arose, is there still live controversy for the court to resolve. so the arguments todeaayy were dominated by questioning both sides, the city's lawyer as well as the lawyer for the again rights organization on whether there still is something here r the jusces to decide. >> yang: and even on this issue was this ideological split on the court evident in the estions you heard? >> reporter: absolutely were. you had justi ginsburg, for example, saying to the lawyer

for he gun rirhts oganization, what is left of this case? she pointed out that the challengers to the city's law had receiv all that they sought in the initial lawsuit that they had filed, and you had, for example, justice sotomayor saying this cityhe through inowel here and what are we to do with this? you're asking us to op on the old law when there's the new one in place. then you had t other side justices gorsuch and alito who pushed back, their questions were geared more to see were there still issues left unresolved. justice gorsuch was -- the court doesn't like it when, after they grant review, one of the parties takes an act to get rid of the case.so ustice gorsuch called this a herculn late-breaking attem to moot the case. and justice alito also called this an extraordinary step to keep the case from gettg to the merits of the constitutional

challenge. so they continued to probe the still something that they could decide. >> yang: why was ito significant that the court took this case in the first place? porter: first of all, it was the first case in almost a decade in which they were going to take up theme second ame. gun rights organizations have been very frustrated with how the lowerourts have been applying the second amendment to local and state regulations of guns. what they really wanter the bottom line is, they want the supreme court to announce a standard, a teslthat the er courts have to use, a test with teeth,hey claim, that will probably work more to their favor than thus far they have had very little success in the lower courts in knocking down gun regulations. >> yang: the court rled in 2008 and again in 2010 that there is an absolute right t

own guns. >> reporter: non aof our righe absolute, john. the supreme court in 2008 said there was an individual right that a firearm in t home for self-defense but it wasn't abss lute, there om for regulation and that's where the battle is fought, over how mucgu tion. >> and even if they don't decide this case on the merits, as they say, on the issue, will there be an opportunity for it to come up again? >> there could be. weee almost eveterm at least one gun rights challenge coming to the court and, as you pointed out, it had been a decade since they took one. these challenges will continue to come. already this term, the court had three cases. they turneaway two and took the new york city cse. >> marcia coyle of the "national law journal," thank you so much. >> my pleasure, john.

>> yang: tre are twists and turns-- two in, two out-- and now two months to go until thete first yamiche alcindor brings us up to speed on the race to the race hous ( cheers and applause ) democratic field, in flux. candidates on the rise are shoring up weaknesses. >> mass incarceration must end, it's that simple. >> reporter: candidates whose campaigns are lagging are looking for a second wind. >> and what are the challenges for you as a small business owner the days? >> reporter: and still other candidates are droppg out entirely. today, it was montana govern steve bullock who left the race. he said in a statement, "it has come clear that in this moment, i won't be able to break through to the top tier." yesterday, it was former pennsylvania congressman joe sestak, a retired rear admiral. despite walking the width of new hampshire to try and boost name recognition, he failed to find national support. south bend, indiana, mayor petee butthoped to build on his weekend church visit in northa

carolina with the reverend today, he announcew tv ad aimed at boosting south carolina support. >> when i say we've got to unify the amican people, it doesn't the same.ending that we're all it means unifying around issues from wages and family leave to gun violence and immigrati f. >> reportemer vice president e biden spent the holiday weekend in iowa, where his su steam.s been losing he also kicked off what he has dubbed the "no malarkey!" bus to. he stresd his number-one priority: defeating president trump. >> it's aptly nad. the reason we named it "no malarkey!" is because the other guy's all lies! and so we want to make sure there's a contrast in what we're talking about here. >> reporter: the "hawkeye state" is also key for california senator kamala harris. during the holiday shopping weekend, she spoke with small business owners. yet she is still dealing with the aftermath of damning "w york times" report on the state of her campaign. the story quoted one forme campaign aide as saying "i have

never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly." meanwhile, a new campaign ad from minnesota senator amy klobuchar will be also targeting iowans, with a heavy emphasis on health care: >> why do drug companies make billions of dollars getting people hooked on opioids? the big pharceutical companies, they think they own washington. >> reporter: and iowa was a focus, too, for new jersey senator cory booker, who said this on cbs's "face the nation." >> we see my favorabilities now number three in net favoowbility a. it's working, it's not translating to people choosing me in the polls. this is why we're pushing more >> reporter: the tenor was different at a weekema iowa stop foachusetts senator elizabeth warren. an attendee questioned whether she ever felt not accepted by someone she looked up to. warren responded with onal story: how she told her mother that h first marriage was ending. >>in heard the disappointmen her voice. i knew h she felt about it. but i also know that it was the right thing to do.

and sometimes, you jusgot to do what's right, inside,nd >> reporter: a quiet, deeply personal moment-even in the rush to the stats "first in the nation" caucuses, just two months away. and now it's time for politics monday. polical news, amy walter ofk's the "cook political report" an host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." and domenico montanaro. he's a senior political editor at npr. thanks so much for being here. amy, this is the democratic fiod, still in flux for months away from the iowa bus tours, there tv ads.having how wide open is this field >> well, you laid ut pretty well in your opening list, the fact that you have two candidates really focusing on their weaknesses this week. so joe biden is ahead in all the national polling and has had a pretty consistent lead for the entirety of the cmpaign. it narrowed since he first jumped in, but his big problem

spot is iowa, the first state that kicks us off where he's somewhere send, maybe thi, but certainly behind pete buttigieg. pete buttigieg's problem, as he pointed out, is not with iowa where he could win and even do well inps new hre where he's moved up in the polls, his problehe the states come afterwards, states that have a more diverseanlectorate,y more african-american voters, many more voters of color where he still has not been able to pick up mupoch sup, and he's not just in north carolina, he's spending this week in alabama, which is also, i think, a super tuesday state, and in >> if you have half to. two-thirds of deratic primary decided on the race, they don't have minds made up, and that leads to volatility.wh so that' you've seen spurts from some candidates and decreasing back down. the most recent and maybe the biggest development ofhe campaign has been izabeth warren's surge and collapse when

it comes to her talking abut medicare for all as a replacement to private insuranc that has been a very diffsiult on for her to try to defend. i think a lot of democrats actually very curious why she went that far when, honestly, the way the senate is curently, there's no way that that would pass anyway. so why go that far and take thai on when she could have put it as a goalpost and say this is a goal but not wat we're going to do right away when i get in n to be president. t sohere's a lot that could come and we're in the final stretch now until iow y wheu're going to see voters start to really make up their minds. >> you're talking about elizabeth warren having a peak and then crashing. amy, you're lking about this idea that the former vice president who had all this name recognition is nowgg stng in iowa. but domenico, do you think there are clear to tier candidates etch though the democrats haven't made their minds up right away. >> i think this is the time of the year we need to talk ab

paths to the nomination and not the time of the year they talk national polling is a barometer of how well somebody might do or how well people feel about them but it's not national rae. if that were the case, hillary clinton and rudy giulian have been the 2008 nominees and ran away with it, youave have a path. as amy is laying out, joe biden has a path still, even if he is a fraured quarter of the democratic party, if he were to win, place or show in iowa, top ree, still be in the game in new hampshire, he can retain 60% of african-american support n d if he can do that, he has a shot of winninge south where black voters make up the majority o democraticoters. put that doesn't mean some other candidate can't come along and take other voters away. that could completely collapsea, his momentum if there was any. >> yeah, we could absolutely be

oking at the possibility that there is a different winner in each of the first four states, which would be incredible, and then lead us into super tuesday, whereby the end of march 3rd, 40% of all delegates will have been selected. so we could get into the discussion of is anyone able to coordinate. >> and then we'retalking about michael bloomberg who spent $50 million in his first two weeks of advertising to get his name i.d. out. he's not even competing in thefi t four states. nobody's ever done that before. it.s got the money, he can do still, putting that in context, i mean, that's 20 times what every town spent in virginia, a group that he backs for gun control and, remember, thke were able to ack the virginia sta house and the senate just based in many ways because of that $2.5 million that every time was able to pour in and ouspend the n.r.a. which only spends about $00,000.

>> i saw this weekendaten john kennedy on "meet the press" defending prhesident trump. 's what he had to say. >> i believe that a ukrainian district court in december of 2018 slapped down several ukrainian officials for medaling in our elections in violation of rainian law. i didn't report those facts. reputable urnalists reported those facts. does that mean that the ukrainian leaders were more aggressive than russia? no. russia was very aggressive, and they're much more sophisticated. but the facthat russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that president poroshenko actively worked for secretary clinton. >> we know ukrainian medaling i6 lection is a bebunked claim pushed by russia, the intelligence committee has not backed the thyory. they sussia meddled in the

2016 election. tsat's going on? seeps like democnd republicans can't even agree on the facts. republicans, and we're seeingat this, i think, also, in this report that they just released today from the house intelligence republican report, that the president's interest in ukine wasn't just about joe biden, and it wasn't just about digging up den his rival, that there are real reasons the president had to be wary of ukraine. there's lot of corruion in ukraine. there's a lot of political sort of malfeasance and it's very murky, and intng that element into it is also making the case for the president to say, look, all i was doing when i was making theose calls ukraine was to say you guys got a lot of problems, you got a lot of corruption. i was absolutely right to question thak,t. >> lhe truth is the truth, though, and the fact is the u.s.

intelligce communityhas d that ukraine was not who was pushing a government-led effort to, you knw, hack an to interfere and to put out memes and, you know, try to get people, you know, voting for donald trump. that was russia. rust did that. y an know, we have a president of the united states who doesn't believe his own intelligence community because it doesn't suit his needs. yes, there were ukrainian officials who were upset aboutum president potentially being president, but a couple of op-eds and tweets aren't the same as a government-backed effort to get somebody installed as preside. >> the impeachment inquiry contues to move throu the hous amy, what do you make of republicans spending a lot of ney on ads, air dpiewg imimpeached or removed?'t be how vulnerable are democrats who are moderate and how vulnerablee arblicans who are moderate? >> like you, if you were

watching tv, wherever you were for thanksgiving, was watchin live events and seeing a lot of adds that were in south carolina where there' freshman member of congress named joe cunningham, democrat, lot of advertising from republican groups encouraging thifreshman democrat to voe againsthm impet. so i look at the districts where you do have fresh phendrat phendemocrats -- fresh men democrats, republicans spending between 300 and $500,000 urging the democrats to vote impeachment. innd tei don't think they will sway democrats. but even when i ked to republicans today, the take on this is, look, are we stale still going to be talking about impeachment by the time we hit the november 2020 elethion? i don'k so. i'm under the same impression. i believe this is quite remarkable that the is going to be an impeachment for the president for only the third

time in history, it is both remarkable and predictable inr this very san era we're in, and by the time we hit next summer, blwe prowill have moved on to something else. >> tala little bit about the democrats' time line here, amy saying this might not be something we're talking about when the 2020 election rollsnd ar >> look, the fact that democrats want to get this out of the way, the dominant issue.t this to be you have half a dozen democrats who are in the senate who would have to sit for a seate trial. they don't want to ve to be doing that the middle of,ou know, campaigning in iowa ore new hampsh elsewhere. democrats want to get this out of the way. they do feel, though, that at least it hast hurt them, that pushing for impeachment, they haven't lost independents,hey gained some and it's firing up the base, south a win-win andew basically the of president trump are as locked in as they ever were. thank you so much domenico montanaro of npr and amy walter of the "cookolitical report," i appreciate you both beng here. >> thank you.

>> yang: for years, rural and small towns have bee experiencing a "brain drain" as some of their most talented young people moved to more urban areas. but recent census data has shown that millennials-- those born between 1981 and 1996-- are increasingly choosing to live in suburbs and smaller cities.n jeffrey browaveledo >> i have to talk strategy with you for a minute. >> reporter: for karoline rose, it's just another day at the office. >> yeah, a link that says "fall 2020" and production sales and you click on it and it pulls up >> reporter: the 27 year-old is the founder of a digital consulti and agricultural marketing company near toston, montana, population 108. >> the town of toston isn't if you blink, you kind of miss it. >> reporter: n a typical

setting for a millennial c.e.o. perhaps, but wients across much of rural america, she's not only surviving, but thving, in a place where cows outnumber people. rose sta ied "krose company" 2015 and began using social media to do what her familhas always don sell cattle. >> so we listed them and they sold it inbout six minutes. and i called my dad on the phone and i said, "i have something." >> reporter: her dad, john rose, a man who has sold cattle in montana since the 1980's, wap initially cal. >> agriculture's still very much a handshake business. and she came home and said, "we're just going to put them oe ok or the internet and we're going to sell cattle." and i said, "there's no way that's going to happen." i said, "it just is not what agriculture in the west is."h, and she said, eah, we can

do that." >> reporter: karoline's success is no surprise to ben winchester, a researcher at the university of minnesota. he's been documeing rural population trends for more than 25 years and says young adults are increasingly coming to these areas for the cheaper cost ovi and new opportunities. >> you can be a doctor in amm rural ity. you can be an editor for a newspaper in a rural community. you can be a book publisher, you can be electrical engineer. while not every town will have that diversity of employment or cupation, when you start putting together 5-7 counties,ot you'vehe same diversity in a rural region that you find in >> reporter: and ang to thlatest census data, millennials are no longer finding metropolitan areas as attractive as they once did. collectively, large u.s. cities lost nearly 30,000 millennials in 2018-- the fourth consecutive year their population of young adultseclined. and it's not just millennials.

a 2018 gallup poll found that while 80% of all americans live in urban areas, rural life is most desired. all is is fueling migration to places like bozeman, montana, now one of the fastest growing cities of its size in thena on. dr. meghan johnston grew up in montana and settled in bozeman aftefinishing her residency in seattle. >> my daycare is five minutes from here so i can... my nurse will tell you that i run out of here at 5:20, i can pick up my dids and go home for dinner be home at 5:35. live in seattle that,iendshat logistically, is so much more challenging.so think the quality of life here is just easier. >> reporter: dr. johnston alsotu trains medicalnts like sekial sharples, who has another reason fying: nearly 80% of rural america is classified as "medically

underserved," and sharples says his hometown of chinook in northern montana remains without a doctor.ma >> all these towns are either single physician or no physician towns. and so, that experience growing up really gave me this drive to go back and kind of be part of solvinthat issue. >> reporter: ben winchester sees a pattern. >> millennials especially, they're starting to hit the same trends that we had seen in other generations which is, as you age and you start to gain some stability that you start to question some of the facts of your life. >> reporter: of course, moving to a more rural life hardly guarantees success. >> you know, you have some towns that "succeed" and other towns that fail. and what we find is that really the biggest differential in communities is social capital. and it is how well do ople work together. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: another factor: cultural life. bozeman y not have the nightly

high-profile music and arts scene of a larger city, but it does have "live from the divide."it >> i startedthe intention of just creating a place for songwriters to have a place where they could play their songs and people would respect that and listen. eporter: 35-year-old jas wickins is a singer-songwriter from central montana. he lived briefly in nashville, bue,decided to come back hom and now runs a music venue where national touring acts can playti to small, te crowds. so when did you realize that you could give it a go herin montana? >> if you're in nashville or new york or l.a., it is rd. i would say it's a lot harder, depending on what your-- >> reporter: harder because it's expensive? >> it's expensive, it's way more cutthroat. you have to really be a hustler, and there's nothing wrong with any of those things. for me, i had no interest in

even trying to make it workwa there because ed to be back in montana and back in the culture that inspired me in my music and do the things i wanted to do. >> reporter: back on her family's ranch, karoline rose says she's now buying, sellinget and mag cattle to more than 300 clients in 12 states. and she has this advice for those who might want to try making it out here: ha>> it's really important when you move into rural america that you get out and you know e community and you show up. but also that you're different and you bring your skills and your knowledge to the table because that'st we need and that's what we're looking for. >> reporter: for the "pbs montana." im jeffrey brown in >> yang: and we'll be back shortly th richard powers, the

author of our "now read this" book club pick"the overstory." t first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs statn. it's a chance to offer

>> yang: next, "now read this." our monthly book clubp partnersth "the new york times." november's selection takes us n into theatural world, through fiction. jeffrey brown s that, part of our ongoing arts and culture coverage, "canvas." >> "the overstory," the most exciting novel about trees you will ever read. s while it is about trnd perhaps more, it's about people from different walks of life who become aware of their place inna thral world, see its destruction, and begin to take the book won the pulitzer prize. author richard powers is here to answer questions from m our readers. and thank you very much for doing this with us. >> oh, it's a great pleasure to be here. >> let's everyone, readers and nonreaders here, it's an interesting mix of trees and out people. what were you after? what's the story? >> id, wan guess, to recover

a lost kind of drama that's falon out of literary fiction. we're very good at tellingo psychological ries, conflicts inside individual people.e we're alsolly good at telling sociological or political stories, conflicts between two people where both sides are equally defensible and admirable somehow but not. compatib >> yeah. we'v more or less in recent years in the west forgott about a third kind of drama, which is we human bengs may want something that the rest of the living world is at best a indifferent d may be hostile toward or at least incompatible. with i wanted to tell a story that brought people and n-humans back together into the same negotiating space. >> that's were interesting, sitting onheas programre we're talking about these things a lot, but you wanted to bring it into the wor of fiction.

>> yeah. to create a novel that is vocalized through people but ha non-humans, a central protagonist in the story, but they're not there jst for window dressing, they are what's at stak. so we like to think about people and nature at two separate things. this book is precisely a book that challenges that notion of human separatis >> so we meet a number of people along the way with their own stories, a you slowly bri them together. many of our readers wondered about the mix of fact and fiction and e level of research, because we learn a lot about the life of trees here. >> would you comment on the mingling of factual tree science or the history of tree saving activism that inorms the development of the characters in this utterly surprisinand impactful story? >> what a lovely question. whatever i prosent in the bok as scientific fact was, to the

best of m ability at t time of publication, verifiable, consensually repeated and reed upon. so i did not play fast and loose with any of these extraordinary discoveries about ees that have been made over the last three or four decades. the fact tht trees communicate to each other over t air with chemical signals,a wrning about predation and sharing an immune system, if you will. i was absolutely astonished, while researching this book, to discover how little primary or growth forest in te united states is left. the number is somewhere between 2% and 5% of th forests that inexhaustible, ant's basically the heart and soul of this story, the attempt to stave thatast little irreplaceable bit of national patrimony that

we have been losing so raidly. >> i want to go to the next question from the viewer because it goes to tiexperience. >> did you have any idea how much this book could change the reader's perception and emotion relative to trees? i e never experienced anything like this. >> the reaction? lah. and i fclose to the story, and the subject matter lla lifted me up, but to go to these events ancome face to face with people who, you know, will stay till all hours of the night in order to tell me a personal f storom their childhood or from their adulthood and todo obviouslo with great emotion. it's very unusual for me to co away from an event like this and not have experienced some deepth linkage eople who have responded to the subject of the story in a deeply emotional way.

>> part of that response that also came ouwith our readers t is a callo actions right, because that'sa big part of the story, to have novel. so let's look at one more estion here. >> does the world need to take more immediate and dstic actions toward climate change and what can we as citizens do? >> you know, we are living at an extraordinary moment. the outpouring of emotion t people have toward this subject matter, any book thasattem to bring in that question of what we're doingo the living world is triggering sympathetic grief in people, terror, fear of what's happening. >> i want to ask you one more personal question, because you tolde before you started thmoat yod because of this book. >> the book moved me across the >> yeah. over the great smokey mouains? >> yeah, i was livingnd working in silicon valley, teaching at stanford university when i got the ida for the

book. as i was reading about how little overgrowth forest was left, i kept reading, if you want to see what an eastern broad leaf deciduo l forest lookke before europeans came, you have to go to the smokies beuse that's one of the last large contiguous chunks of full growth. i went there strictly as a research outing and walk intoe owth, looks like that moment in the wizard of oz where everything changes color, i thought here is what my country looked like. it was such an overpowering, such a visceral feeling, the look, sound and smell of it, eight months later after the research trip i was thinking about the place and i bought a house there and moved and have been living there ever since. >> that's a personal reaction to the book. >> yeah. we'll leave it there and have more available on our now read

this facebook page. for now, ricrd power thank you very much for this. >> very grateful. our december pick. make this as always, you can reaalong, join in discussions with others and get insight from the author herself. it's all on our facebook page called partnership with the "new york times." >> theenate tonight confirmed dan birette as the new energy secretary a form ford motor company lobbyist and sved as deputy secretary since 2017, replaces rick perry who resigned amid scrutiny over his role in .-ukraine policy at t

center of the impeachment probe. and former president jimmy carter has been spitalized agn, this time for urine tract 95inction. thyear-old was admitted to a hospital in ahmer cues, georgia, over the weekend. in a statement his spokeswoman says he is feelingert and hopes to return home soon. mr. carter just had been releasedrom a hospital in surgery to relieve pressure from bleeding in his brain caused by a recent fall.ch d powers shares books that helped him write "the overstory." cover a wide range of topics from the disappearance of the american chestnut to the mysteries of forest activism. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm john yang. in us online and again h tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newsur, thank you and see you

soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i have some questions. was ding my job. do you have any idea who might have put that package there? >> no, sir. did you plant a bomb in centennial park? this is a capital crime he.re >> my son is innocent. h do ye any case against me? >> i report the facts. you've ruined this man's life. >> i didn't do this. richard jewell, a clintm, eastwood fiated r. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology,v and im economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur

foundation.d commit building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org ortand with the ongoing su of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs statn from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour produio, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

[ theme music plays ] ♪ -♪ think i'm home ♪ i think i'm home to♪ how nice ook at you again ♪ ♪ along the road ♪ along the road ♪ anytime you want me ♪ you can find ing right between your eyes, yeah ♪ ♪ oh, i think i'm home ♪ oh, i thi i'm home -today on "cook's country", julia and bridget civive a traditionape for wey fudge cake, adam reveals his top pick for immersion blenders, and bryan makes bridget a southern specialty, chicken and pastry. that'sokll right here on's country". -funding for this program