♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, the state of the race. what the results in new emocratic mean for candidates moving forward. and i sit down with pete buttigg. then, crime and punishment. after federal prosecutors resign from the roger stone case, president trump unleashes attacks on them while defending the attorney general. plus, watching concrete dry. ultra high performance concretei th the breakthrough building material that engineers hope infrastructure.ging >> it's very unique, to thepo t that we've had visitors look at it.round the wor to judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> fidelity investments. >> consumer cellular. american cruise lines. collect.

supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the ing problems.pre skoll foundation.org. >> theemelson fouation, committed to improving lives through invention anthe u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. supported by the john d. and cathe t. macarthur undation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peace il world. moormation at mac found.org. and with the ongoing support of these institions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. judy: we have two leading stories tonight. the public fight within the u.s.

department of justice over the sentencing of roger stonea confidant of president trump and a convicted felon. but first, the race for the white house. this evening, the head of the iowa democratic party resigned, following the confusion over that state's caucuses last week. meantime, last night's new hampshire democratic primary results are offering some clarity to the presidential field. senator bernie sanders, finishing fit with 25.7% of the vote. formerouth bend mayor pete buttigieg, just 1.3 points behind, with 24%, and senator amy klobuchar with 19.8% of the vote. but as amna nawaz reports, the battle for the nomination is far from over. >> thankou new hampshire amna: with a strong finish in iowa and a narrow win in newsh hae under his belt, vermont senator bernie sanders says he's just getting started. >> we are going to nevada, we're going to south carolina, and we're going to win those states,

as well. amna: the new hampshire primaryg e former south bend mayor pete buttigieg another big night, coming in a close second. >> aampaign that some said shouldn't be here at all has shown that we are he to stay. amna: and minnesota senator amy irobuchar in a surprise th >> we have beaten the odds every st of the way. amna: the democratic fieldow further wi, losing entrepreneur andrew yang and colorado senator michael bennett. and this morning, former alssachusetts governor dev patrick announced he too would suspend his campaign, something he hinted at last night. hampshire to carryforward.m new amna: but the road to the democratic convention is long, and eight candidates are still vying for the nomination. masschusetts senator elizabethwh warrenfinished fourth last night, put the early state results in perspective for herrs supporte >> we're twotates in, with 55

states and territories to go. amna: coming up on the primary calendar? bigger, more diverse states that could radically reshape the race in the weeks ahd. on saturday, february 22, the caucuses in nevada. on february 29, the south carolina primary and on march 3, 14 states hit the polls on super tuesday, where a whopping3% of all total delegates are up for grabs. former vice president joe biden, after weak finishes in iowa and new hampshire, is banking on strong support from african american vots in those upcoming state bin left the granite state before polls even closed and headed to south carolina, where he spoke to supporters on friendlier ground. of african americars whocentage have not yet had a chance to vote in america. amna: other candidates are also hoping a more diversectorate will offer them a boost. >> it is so good to be in nevada.

amna: billionaire tom steyer echoed ben, speaking last night in reno, nevada. ri >> we have a gsly diverse country, and a gloriously diverse party. and we need to make sure that every part of thatountry and every part of that party is part of our coalition that shows up in november. amna: and new york cy mayor michael bloomberg has already poured more than $300 million of his own money into super tuesday and beyond, even as he faces renewed questions for his support of racially discriminatory policing tactics kn "stop and frisk." those, after a years-old audio clip of him discussing t practice went viral on social media. yo >> 95% o murders and murderers and murder victims fit one m.o. you can just take the description, xerox it ss it out to all the cops. they are male, minorities, 16 to 25. amna: inhattanooga, tennessee today, a reporter asked bloomberg if he was concerned

-- if the recording would hurt his support from v african-americers. >> i do not think so. people look at it, and they say that those words don't reflect michael bloomberg's, the way he governed in new york city, the way he runs his company, the way his philanthropy works. i think we are going to do vll in the african american community. amna: the former mayor could be the nest face on the dnc stag next week, when the candidates gather in las vegas for thent nidemocratic debate. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. judy: early this morning, i sat down with the success stories out of new hampshire, former mayor petbuttigieg, fresh off his very close second place finish, and began by asking him to explain what happened in the granite state. >> well, what happened is thatar after a f campaigning, we were able to show, not just tell, that we could put together an extraordinary coalition of voters, younger and older,

urban, rural and surban, coming together, believing that i need to turn the page. that, in order to govethe future, but also in order to beat donald trump, the time has come to set asi the politics of the past, look to the future and deliver on bold changes that americans can get behind. i see an opportunity right now to take some of the biggest stepsat forward merica has in a half century and crucially, do it in a way that can actually unify, not divide, the american people. it's clear that despite all of the odds and predictionsv thion was powerful enough to propel us to top two finishes in the first two states. now the challenge is to go on to nevada, south carolina, and beyond, and continue growing thacoalition. judy: these are different states, a lot more diversity. nevada has a lino population, t for examply make up, i think 20% of the democratic primary. how do you appeal? >> i'm very much looking forward to further reaching out and engaging with latino voters and african-american voters in both

nevada and in south carolina. that's part of our outrch strategy, part of our media strategy. and we've made sure througgut that we're offer policies that are going to make a difference in the everydayve of diverse voters. this is an opportunity for us to demonstrate how on everything from economic empoweent to delivering health care, tomb ing discrimination, reforming immigration and dismtling systemic racism, w can pull together and get big things done. judy: so are you ying your message doesn't change? >> well, the values don'tan . we're not going to, you know, have one face forward to one set of voters and a different set face forward in a different place. but it's certainly the case that different concerns are being raised. for exple, in nevada, we're hearing a lot more about concerns related to immigration and hearing a lot from union workers, including hotel and service workers with hard won, hard fought battles to get their health care plans, who are notse interested itor sanders

vision of eliminating their private health care. we're also getting a lot of questions from black voters about a vision an an agenda for black americans at a time when we have seen all of the ways in which systemic racism has persisted a led to a different american experience for so manblack americans on everything from how you experience the economy to the health ce system, to the criminal legal system, to our democracy itself. judy:p you, of course, bring south carolina. african-american voters could be as much as 60 percent of the primary there. right now you are pulling very low, 2%, 3%, 4%. that is a big leap for you, isn't it? y >> well, that's exacat we need to do. what i've heard from a lot of black voters is that our plans are appreciated. the frederick douglass plahe most comprehensive plan offered by a presidential candidate to tackle systemic racism. but before anybody cares what's in your pns, they want to know if you're a serious contender. and i think up until we had the results we did here in iowa and new hampshire, it was difficul

fous to prove it. w, the process of proving it is underway. and for voters who are laser focused on ensuring d that we win, wnot have the luxury of pursuing ideological purity over an inclusive coalition for victory, they are going to be, i think, very pragmatic and very demanding about demonstrating that the campaigns have a plan to defeat judy: as you know, there are as mayor of south herer record you've had difficulties with the african-american leadership in 'ur community. why shouldt you expect your opponents to really tough queions now aboute how you deal with not just african-american voters, but the african-american power structura in the demc party? >> well, i'm not just bringing receipts, i'm bringing allies. the majority of black leaders from my community who have gotten involved in this race are llsupporting me. and i'nvite them on the trail with me to explain why, to tell our story. when you are a mayor, you don't get to just opine on these

issues or lk about what should happen. you're on e ground trying to get things done. and in the results that we've delivered, cuts to the black unemployment and black porty rate faster than what happened around the country, national recognition for our work, real refm and in the areas where we have major struggles and we're we're about everything that went well and why and what we learned when things did not. ju : ideological purity. some people have put at label on bernie sanders. but th mdeerates in the cratic party who are searching, you've got a lot of competition in amy klobuchar and virtually everybody else in the campaign. how do you distinguish yourself? t>> well, i think the wt we have advanced to the front of that group is by offerg a vision that's not just clear in terms of policy, but tablishing the sense of belonging in our campaign that reflects the belonging we want build in the country as whole. and let's be clear, the ideas that i'm putting foard are bold ideas. they would make me the most progressive president we've had in a half

century. but i'm also building them in a way that is inclusive. this is not the timeli for cs of my way or the highway. if your only choices are between a revolution and the status quo, that's a vision tt aves most americans out. and i think challenging that vision with a more clusive one is how we have been able to get the results that we had both in iowe anhampshire, across different age groups, different kinds of communities. now weme take thaage forward. judy: money. your opponents have come after talking to millionaires and billionaires, raising money for your campaign. you're not a wealtoy person. you've gon others who are wealthy. there's every reason to believe they're going to continue to make that argument. can give to the american people about how you are not dependent on the wealthiest to keep your campaign going? >> look, the vast majority of my time is spent engaging voters and the vast majority of the support for my campas come

from the grassroots. we have hundreds of thousands of donors to this campaign. over 2 million donations, and i think the average is l than $40. we're following the fundraising practices and holding ourselves to the same standardthat democrats and democratic presidential candidates have in order to make sure that we build a powerful campaign organization that will be prepared to go up against donald trump in the fight of our livesi'm not defining my campaign by whose help we reject or o we turn away. in ord to compete against a president anhahis allies who raised astonishing sums of money in order to keep their grip on power, we need to go that we've gott with everything judy: final question, in washington, i'm sure you know, in the last day, a huge story about what's happened adethe justice rtment in the roger stone case. he was found guilty of lying, obstruction, sentenced to six to nine years. the attorney general apparently

himsel stepped in, reducing the sentence. it's not clear why this has happened, but four of the prosecutors in the case ha now resigned. should there be a special prosecutor? what should happen at this point? how serious a development to you see here? >> it's very serious. what kind of country is this if somebody can escape justice because the prident or presidential appointee puts the squeeze internally on the ocess of jdeliveringtice? this is not america. this is no way to run things. although we're also, i think, not that borprised that a trump administration, ened by the result after impeachment, sort of thing. ultimately, while i certainly believe there ought to be an investigation inthow this happened, ultimately, i think the most likely remedy is the one at we're in the midd of pursuing right now. as i often remind voters, you know, last week the senate was the jury, but now the verdict is up to us. we, the arican people have the final verdict on this president and an awful lot of

the senators who protected thisd prt. let's make the absolute most of this moment and put together the majority that will win so big that not only is trump a one term president, but trumpism goes into the history books and even republican tsenators are reunited wiir conscience. judy: so just qckly, no special prosecutor. >> i think that would be appropriate. i would be astonished if it hapbut the bottom line is that there needs to be wholesale change. and in order to deliver that, we need a new president and we need an awful lot of new congressional leaders. judy: mayor pete buttigieg, thank you very much. judy: we'll look at the state of the democratic race going forward, a little later in the program. ♪ stepmnie: good evening, i' stephanie sy at newshour west. we'll return to judy woodruff latest headlines.ram after the a big spike in the number of coronavirus cases reported in china, wre it's thursday

morning. in hubei province, the epicenteo of tbreak, 242 people died on wednesday, the highest numbef eaths in a day since the outbreak began.ta the number of deaths is now more than 1,300. meanwhile, the number of new cases spiked up almost 15,0, bringing the total number of cases to more than 60,000. but chinese officials attributed tthe jump in reported casa new method of diagnosing patients. earlier today, the world health organization expressed some optimism about the virus'sre outside the worst affected areas. >> it is very hard though to predict, but we definitely see thathe behavior of the virus outside wuhan and hubei and the rest of chinand outside china. it doesn't at this point appear ha be as aggressive or as accelerated, an'a good si. stephanie: meanwhile, ina's president xi jinping promised tax cuts and other measures

today, to limit damage to the chinese economy. and an update tonight in the u.s., a seconderson in san diego tested positive r the virus, brining the total number -- bringing the total number of cases in this country to 14. in northeastersyria, government supporters attacked u.s. troops today, and the troops in turn shot and killed one of the syrians. state tv showed people throwing stones as a u.s. convossed through a checkpoint. then, some of the men fired automatic rifles at theic amers. the u.s. military said the troops returned fire in self-defense. an investition is underway. the latest negotiations on peace in afghanistan may be reaching a crucial point. taliban officials say they have offered to curtail attacks for one ek, but they threaten to walk away if the u.s. does not respond. the timatum comes as u.s. officials have signaled an agreement to end the 18-year war may be close. meanwhile, the u.s. military ys limits on money and manpower have curbed its fight

against terror gups across west africa. a report by 3 inspectors general finds the focus in the sahel f region has movm attacking insurgents to containing their spread.at he same time, the report says extremist violence in the region has spiked. r pope francused today to ordain married men in der to address a shortage of priests in south america's amazon region. bishops from the area ha proposed the move. it would have been a dramatic sht in the roman catholic church's centuries-old policies. a top cardinal at the vacan said the pope favors other ideas instead. >> he looks to the bishops, for example, to send more missionaries. he would like every diocese to have a good proportion of their priests spending at least some time in the amazon. within this range of possibilities, there will many ways of responding to the needs for the eucharist and the sacraments throughout the amazon.

stephanie: pope franci dismissed a recommendation to let catholic women serve as deacons in the amazon.it n has announced it will give government regulators the power to sanction social media companies for harmful material on their platforms. it could mean nes for failing to take down content such as child abuse, cyberbullying, and terrorist propoganda. facebook and youtube said theyth supporproposed regulations. and a standard poodle named siba isathis year's top dog the westminster kennel club show, thnation's oldest. the 3-year-old poodle took best-in-show last night in new york, beating out favoritesa "daniel," lden retriever, and "conrad," the shetland sheep dog. it's the first time a standard poodle has won at westminster since 1991. still to come on the newshour with judy woodruff, crisis at the the department of justice, exert his personal influence. the shape of the race for 2020 after bernie sande claims a

narrow victory in new hampshire. and much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: ultimaty, it's for a judge to decide, but the wrangling in the u.s. justice department over how much jail time a convicted trump confidante should receive has led to a second straight day of turmoil. yamiche alcindor begins there. yamiche: today, outragon capitol hill over the justice department's new sentencing reccomendation for rog stone. >> what is more swampy? what is more fetid, what is more stinky than the most powerful person in the country literally changing the rules to benefit a crony guilty of breaking the law? yamiche: congressional democrats

aren't alone. yesterday, four career prosecutors withdrew from the ca seemingly in protest. the problem? the doj decided to reject their recomendation of a seven to nine year prision -- prison sentence for stone. the president sounded f from the oval office today during a meeting with the president of ecuador. >> he was treated very badly. nine yearsme reced by four people that, perhaps they were mueller people, i don't know who they were, prosecutors. it is a disgrace and frankly they ought to apologize to a lot of people whose lives they have ined. yamich stone, a longtime friend and ally of president trump, was found guilty last november on 7 charges, including witness tampering and lying to congress. the charges all relate to russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. critics of president trump say he unfairly interfered in the case to help friend. this morning, white house deputy press secretary hogan gidley denied interference. he defended the president's

right to voice his opinions on the case. >> the president didn't have a conversation with the attorney general but he has the right to do it. just becauseomeone happens to be wrapped up in a two and a half year investigation that cost the taxpayers 40 million dollars doesn't mean the president has the right to comment, whether he knows them or not. yamiche: senate minority leader chuck schumer called on the judiciary commtee today tot cond emergency hearing on the case. a judge today rejected a request fromtone for a new trial. hi sentencing hearing is scheduled for next week. now, are the moves by the justice department justified, or is the agency crossing a line?d mary mccrved for nearly 20 years in the office that prosecuted the case against roger ste. she later became the department's top national ivcurity official. she is now with georgetown sity's law center. and james trusty. he was previously a federal prosecutor in maryland before becoming t chief justice department's organizedcrime section. he is now in private practice. thanks to both of you for being

here. mary, i will start with you. what do you make of what has happened surrounding the sentencing of roger stone and what you think it might do to the credibility of the justice departnt? mary: thiss causting damage to the credibility and reputation of the justice department. the prosecutors here signed a sentencing memorandum with the recommendation in it, and the is entitled to rely o those representations as the voice of the department of justice in this criminal case. and under department policy, in any high profile case, decisions such as sentencing go all the this would have been discussed with the deputy attorney general's office,ttorney general's office before any recommendation was made. to have that pulled back and undermined and a new filing come the next day is very unprecedented, and hard to explain other than it being in

response torehedent's tweets and the president's displeasure and dissatisfaction so that ismi really h theence. credibility of the justice department in the eyes of the courts and the eyes of the american people. yamiche: james, what do you make of what she is saying that this could harm the agency cost credibility? is the dojmmune to politicization back of james: that is what you want, and a political entity. you have to keep in mind the president and attorney general can be as chummy as he gets. one president picked his brother to be attorney general. but question is whether the relationship and any nversations trickle down in wme on toward way,hether that jeopardizes the notion of rsuing small j justice. en you look at this case, although it is playing out openly which creates a real circus and all sorts of political aspects, the real narrowwh issue i is fair in the case of this guy named roger stone. lots of people would look at the

guideline calculations that started this and say, they are really going hard to come up with t seven, 8, 9 year range instead of something like two or ththree or four. e is a narrow factual dispute underneath that the drives the guidelines, which drives the recchmendation. ya presidentd trump cal these prosecutors mueller people, referring to robert mueller. that being said, 4 prosecutors seemingly resigned in protest. how unusual is this? james: very unusual. no matter the merits of the end of the day,e know tha for prosecutors felt very strongly. one or two left the department of justice. bonce i will hek to baltimore where i have been working so that is not quite the same level of sacrifice, but there is clearly a communication break, clearly problems in terms of the line attorneys, the supervisors and maybe crossing yamiche: i want to go to you, merrick, for the hypothetical

people think happened, what if pres attorney general and say, my friend is possibly ing sentenced, can you lower the sentencing recommendation and possibly said yes, because the president's friend is facl g this, we wwer the sentencing? is the president's call illegal and is the department of justice responding to the president illegal? mary: it is not. the torney general and the president can be as chummy as they want. the attorney general is an executive branch ofcial who reports to the president. historically, and for good reason o, the departme justice and the white house have had strict policies that bar in most circumstances communications bweenhe white house and the department of justice about individual decisions in individual cases. threason for that is that they want to maintainde the ndence of the department of justice, to assure t american people to the

department isn't just the arm of the predent, for him to wield however he wants for his political purposes, particula ay when we taut criminal prosecutions, but to establish that we maintain this type of independence. when that is broken down, whether it is through direct phone calls or conversations or through publicly making statements as the president has done, excoriating the recommendation and calling on j leadership to do something about it, then thanking them inr doing someabout it, either way, that sort of violates ese internal guidance -- guidelines that are there for good reasons. if i may, i would quarrel with jim sing thissue here is the sentence. i think reasoble minds can differ about whether a sentence in the guideline range of seven to nine years is too harshor this conduct. i'm sure reasonable minds did differ about that. to me, what is so dramatic and

outrageous about this case is the fact that the department appeared to have responded to a direct, either direct or indirect request from the presidt to change recommendation so that he could do a favor to one of his personal friends and someone who had gone out in the 2016 campaign andll r welcomed interference in th election. that is the al story to me. yamiche: parof what mary mccord talked about was the president's public statements. he has been going after the judge. i want to put up t he sent out. the judge will sentence roger stone. he tweeted, "is this the judge that put paul manafort in solitary confinement, someone that not even al capone had to endure? how did she treat crooked hillary clinton? asking how paul manafort w a former chairman of the president's campaign as -- and is ifederal prison for financial crimes." should a

president be going after a judge that the american bar association says, that is not the right thing for pu dic officials james: iave been in the justice system for 27 years as a , prosecutree in private practice and it always feels unseemly. it is never happy to see iticism of a judge. we have all had tough cases where we get frustrated and say we have the wrong car the wrong result. you go home in the backyard and you mutter to yourself and get over it. itrm is a different plathen a president has the opportunity to personally criticize these judges. he has a lot of legitimate frustration i think in the terms of the last few yea but calling out judges by name isn't particularly helpful toat despthe criminal justice system and the respect people have for the system. yamiche: this isn't the first timeas president trumpone after a judge. thank you for beinger. i really appreciate it. ♪

judy: stay with us. coming up on the "newshour," engineers develop a concrete solution for the nation's crumbling infrastructure. and the latest pick from the newshour bookshelf, isabel allende's "a long petal of the sea." but first, we'll check in on the state of the democratic presidential primary, and what to expect as candidates set their sights on nevada and south carolina. in give us a sense of how are shaping up, lauren chooljian of new hpshire public radio, joining us from manchester. ta sa eaddy of south carolina public radio, joining us from columbia. and jon ralston of the nevada independent, joining us from las one of the moderators at next wednesday's democratic debate. welcome to you all. lauren, i will start with yo

here we are, the day after new hampshire. you had a chance to look at it. tell us what we should know about turnoutnd in general, what voters said about the candidates. >> theut tur numbers are getting finalized but what we can say for sure is that the turnout did exceed 2000 and numbers in the democratic party and the democratic primary. republican numbers were quite high. the question is how the numbers of eligible voters changed and whether that indicates there was actually like a the percentage of turnout or not. we do know that bernie sanders did what he was hoping to do, which is really turning out voters in student towns like durham,lyuth, keen, where there areth big schools. is what he hoped to do and that is what h did. pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar are fighting it out for the moderate voters. we have talked about this progressive versus moderate split and going forward, they ll try to the each other out for the moderate voters in the next coming states. judy: jon, the next state's

nevada. that is on the 22nd of february. tell us, you are talking to voters, talking to folks in the democratic party of a time. how do they read the respsts in new hre? >> i don't think they are iowa.ised ter what happened in the real issue h te ist joe biden has been ahead in the polls since any polls started to be taken. there haven't been any in a while, but i suspect that joe biden only getting 9% in new hampshire is a real problem for his campaign here. bernie sanders has a great organization. you know what a small state wed are so that is a huge number. mar pete is next with about 100. i think bernie sanders, who almost won in 2016, has an even better organization this time, has been doing prettn well the polls, is the clear favorite now. judy: south carolina, let's talk

about joe biden. he was said to have a big advantage among african-american voters in south carolina. is that going to hold? >> we think so, the voters i talkednk to to. joe biden and his wife were here in columbia yesterday, and at what they were calling a launch party. right off the bat, he had a high gyenthe people had a high energy but right off the bat he told f supporters that theht to and donald trump was just beginning and the only heard from two states out of 50 and we haven't heard from what he cal the parties most committed voters, and that, ofe, cou is the african-american voters in south carolina, they make up out, over 60% of the par here. a lot of people are still very excited about what joe biden can do here in south carolina because of the really deep connections and deep roots he has here in the palmetto state. judy: lauren, on new hampshire,

let's look at one of the interesting bits of information about these voters. there is so much to pore over. there was a survey looking au age and if look at the youngest voters, this is the democratic 18-29, look at rsw bernie san cleaned up with almost 50% of those voters. 30-44, he was in the lead. 45-64, he is sharing it with pete who to judge, amy klobuchar antthe oldest voters are sp among the top three. at does that tell us abo these candidates? >> we certainly saw that trend, the older voters going for gbuttig early in the new hampshire campaign and as klobuchar did well and surged late in the game, she started to pick up some of those voters. they both did very well in hampshire, some of the morew affluent communities. nki tt means that when bernie sanders goes to nevada

and south carolina, he will have try to expand beyond the youth turnout and see if he can play in new were voters other than focusing on where he knows he can do we. judy: what about his message, you said he seems to be in strong shape. he will have amy klobuchar coming after him, pete buttigieg, nearly -- neither one of these cans is going to sit back and let bernie sanders have it. >> what is happening after the first two states is that you see bernie sanders not being given the mental of front runner, which is really something else considering he won the first two states. the real story being, who is going to be seen as the alternive to bernie sanders, voters, who can appeal toderate and aities of color klobuchar making a good showing in the debate, then in w hampshire, but not having much of an organization here at all, has suddenly bought a bunch of telesion. mayor pete had aga robust

zation here hoping to take advantage of exactly the scenario that is playing out. what is really something is how elizabeth warren, who a few months ago was being talked about all over the place as the surgg candidate, has dropped out of the conversation. so she, and warren has a big organization here as well, was first on the ground. llis is ra last stand i think for warr and biden in nevada going into south carolina. whatever strength biden has in south carolina isn't going to be the same if you lose is the first three states and is an also ran in the first three states. judy: sinteresting to contrast where the candidates are. you talked about joe biden and at this point, you are saying it looks like he is song in the african-american community. the other candidates coming out of new s hampshireong, bernie sanders, amy klobuchar, pete buttigieg, what kind of ganization do they have in

south carolina? what does it look like for them right now? talks when it comes to bernie sanders, he has don a really good job of laying out a good grassroots effort in south carolina. coming uthis weekend, he, his campaign will have what they call a 900 vthunteers switch weekend, knocking on a lot ilof doors. hebe back in south carolina this saturday. he will be in the greenhill -- the greenville area. we will see what he has laid out when icomes to communities peppered across the state. when it comes to mayor pete, pete buttigieg, he is getting a lot of big name recognition by association, if you willn'. he 't done well in the polls in south carolina, but he has a lot of people with great roots in south carolina working for him. e of the campaign ads th are running on televisio w stations herare seeing his association with congressman

clyburn, his grandson is working with him. the grandson of another civil rights icon was very pivotal in busing children to schools back in the day and in traveling across the state and registerian african-ameroters to vote. it will be interesting to watch those two campaigns really try to dig in and gain more african-american voters here. judy: thether candidate i to bring up his mike bloomberg. he is not competing in these four states. buhe is looming out there, spending a ton ofon in the states, the 14 states that are coming up right after south carolina. are you seeing any evidence of him in nevada? >> no. juhe is invisible here. no one has ever tried to do what mike bloomberg is trying to do, which skip the first four states and then hope hshcan make

a spn super tuesday. of course, nobody has spent billions of dollars tryingo do that, either, so it is an outlier but also, there is that construct that we have now in the democratic party. is bernie sanders going to have all this momentum after the first four states, and then who is t anti-bernie caydidate? will pete be able to hold onto that mental? can joe biden resurrect himself does the democratic rty turn its lonely eyes to mike bloomberg as the alternative to bernie sande? i think it is uncertain out there. it is not going to hurt ioomberg if he does well on super tuesday, bis a real, that is a real, to use the vegas lingo, that is a real gamble. judy: you get the last word. any sign of mike bloomberg in south carolina? >> i agree with what he just said. not that much.

at non-candidate event mwhere we haveture of people, i a lot of peopl talking about mike bloomberg. when people tell me they are undecided or they are leaning towards a candidate, but they still want to consider other candidates am a mike bloomberg is not one that comes up. he has the support of the capital city mayor steve benjamin, the firstfrican may -- african-american mayor of the city, but even with the popular mayor behind him i'm not seeing a lot of people talk about him. judy: i can't leave without asking about the wave of democrats choosing their favorite democratn w nevada votes on the 22nd, and that his caucuses. they had trouble with them in iowa. what does it look like in nevada ? >> iowa is a low bar to get over in nevada. so they are trying to do that, andhey are obviously worried, because of the optics of what happened intowa, the fact t they were going to essentially use the samey, technol which

they have discarded. they are trying to simplify everything and the state barty may be tt in the country. they are that talented. but it is a caucus, things are going to go wrong. throw i the play they are doing, early voting this time its starts saturday for four days, and those votes hav to be properly placed in the right precincts so they get the right viability nuers on caucus day, there are lots of crossed fingers in democratic party headquarters. judy: sounds releasable to me. i'm sure it is goingo be, i'm sure it will go down smoothly. we shall see. so good to have all of you. thank you. >> thanks, judy. ♪ judy: every day, millions of americans cross one of the 47,000 bridges in the country in need of repair. many are made of concrete, onein

of the mosemand materials on earth, second only to water. special correspondent cat wise looks at a new type of concrete that some have called a w game changn it comes to upkeep. her report is part of our breakthrough series, d the latest in our look at the leading edge of science, technology and health. cat: this quiet stretch of farmland in northeast iowa doesn't get a lot of visitors,s but several tiyear, buchanan cnty engineer brian keierleber drives down a gravel road here and pulls over above a small creek. from the top, the brido he's come tspect looks pretty typical. but after a short trek down below, keierleber pointed out what is very different about this bridge. >> that's completely out of the rm, to be using a four inch thick deck. most decks are seven to eight inches, even with beams underneath them. and if you're 2 not using beams, 18, 20,ch

on your slabs. cat: in other words, it's much thinner than normal. that's because it's made with a new type of concrete called ultra high performance concrete, also known as uhpc, that's embedd with steel fibers. it's about fi to ten times stronger than standard concte. >> it's very unique, to the point that we've had visors come from around the world to look at it. cat: there are now 9 projects usinthis material around iow which was the first in the country to build a uhpc bridge in 2006. keierleber says iowa was an early adopter beuse there's a big need here for infrasucture innovation. the state has the largest number of structurally deficient bridges in the country. >> theridges are deteriorating a lot faster, because we put a lot of salt the roads in the wintertime. the chlorides will eat up the pavement, but it really eats up the bridges, too, and the concrete that way. sre shortening the life when we need --to be lengthening it, an cat: uhpc, which was first

ped several decades ago western europe, is not just stronger than traditional concrete. it's also much mored durable ss brittle, and the material is nearly impenetrable to water and chemicals like deicer. uhpc has now been used in bridge projec in 28 other states and the district of columbia, but mostly on a small scale. one of the main reasons? cost. traditional concrete is roughly $100 per cubic yard. commercially available uhpc costs about $2000 to $3,000. uh pc's curnt price tag makes it unaffordable for most government funded infrastructure projects, but researchers around ae country d here in io now working to bring the costs down. >> so give me an upd to where we are with the sands. cat: brent phares is an associate research professor at iowa state univeity, which has been at the forefront of uhpc research. >> there's no doubt at ultra-high performance concrete has properties that are far and

above anything else that existsa cat:s and his team, in collaboration with several other universities and the u.s. department of transportation, are developing non proprtary blends they hope will be about half of the current cost ouh pc. another goal is to determine how the material can be used strategically to extend the life aging bridges. >> what we're doing here is taking these beams, damaging them to simulate some ion, and then using ultra-high performance concrete to patch them. cat: and what have you seen so sr? >> the research wing that targeted use of this relatively expensive material can be a way to be really effective at repairing our existing infrastruccare. during our visit, engineering grad student quin rogers conducted a comparison compression test. under an increasing amount of pressure, a cylinder of traditional concrete, seen on the left, burst after 2 minutes at 6,000 pounds per square inch the uhpc sample, oright, took more than 8 minutes to crack at nearly 25,000 psi.

>>ans you see, in the regular concrete, it just burst apart. but with the high performance concrete, the sel fibers were holding the sin and that is what gives it the strength. cat: uc is now being studied and used, in the u.s. and abroad, for a variety of other applications including building features. another research team at iowa state is studying its use in wind turbine towers. while scientists continue their lawork in the others are looking forward to the day when bridges are safer and more reliable. like randy francs, a hog faer in buchanan county. >> we really rely on our rural infrastructure here in northeast iowa on a daily basis. cat: he says local bridge closures in recent years have impacted his farming operaboon's om line. >> i think going into the future, we are going to need better technology in our idges, to counteract the demands that they're going to have from the farmers, and the

larger equipment, and the more stress that we are going to be s.putting on to those brid cat: iowa is planning 14 new uhpc b coming year and iowa state engineers hope to have their less expensive uhpc mix ready in ure next year or two. for the pbs newsi'm cat wise in ames, iowa. ♪ fijudylly tonight, jeffrey brown has a conversation with the much-honored writer isabelal nde, whose new novel, "a long petal of the sea," draws upon historical events spanning from the spanish civil war to the 1973 coup in her native chile as inspiration. it's part of our ongoing series on arts and culture, "canvas." jeffrey: in 1939, the chilean poet pablo neruda, then serving as a diplomat, commissioned a ship to help 2000 spanish war

refugees make their way to chile. that and other historicap odes and figures over the next 50 years formed the backdrop of the new novel, "a long petal of the sea." isthor el allende experienced some of that history herself, an internationally renowned writer. her books have sold han 70 million copies. in 2014, she received the presidential medal of freedomrom barack obama and she joins me now. nice to talk to you again. >> nice to talk to you. jeffrey: writing a big, sweeping, multi character story. you have done this before. that's not ne but this one is grounded in a very particular history, right? >> in one event, yeah. and this is the journey of a ship called the winnipeg, a cargo ship that transported 2200 refugees from the civil war in spain to chile. jeffrey: and what drew you to this story? >> i heard the storyhen i was a young kid. i was born in 1942, and this

happened39 in but some of those people were friends of my family. so i knew heard the story from one of the passengers when i was living in venezuela. jeffre there were real people >> yes.d. jeffrey: and you created the characters. i created the fiction, but the historical fact are so perfect for a 'vel that i d't have to invent anything. it was a book, easy to write. everything was there. it wrote itself jb: that's how it felt. you typed? ia: i just typed. yeah. jeffrey: so tell us about the two main characters, though, they are refugees and forced t leave and mair way to chill a. tell me about what happens to them. >> when they cross the border into france as refugees, they end up as prisoners practically in a concentration camp. the day fron go -- franco

tacked barcelona, the last bastio rof theublic, half a million people walked to the border of francen a terrible winter day. eventually let them in and put them in a concentration camp. it seems like a familiar story. jeffrey: it does seem one like one. and one can't read this without thinking about it goes even to today. thearrative against t immigrants is now the same as it was 80 years ago. and then they come to chile where they have a life. and then in 1970ad a gornment, a democratically elected government, center left, which was with a socialist , presidt, salvador allende. three years later, the right wing helped by the cia topple sthe government. but in t -- and many peoplet, w again, into exile as refugees. among them, some of the ones that had, in the ship many years before.

so life goes in a circle, you know? from a historical point of view this is fascinating. jeffrey: how much did you rely on research and how much of this is your imagination? >> i have written several historical novels and i researched the facts very much. so i want to be absolutely sure that that part is true because that's the foundation. if i have a solid foundation, i can create the fictional story on top of it and it is believable. my first responsibility is a fiction writer is for you, a reader to believe my story. so that'where facts come in. and they are real facts, not alternative facts. me earlier that this book almost wrote itself, right? >> yes, because the story stands for itself. jeffy: but in a sse come are the characters writing themselves, or are you creating the characters?

wr>> i think thee themselves and they are pushed by their events. they need to get on the ship. so i need to marry them. and those things hpen in the process, that the events around their lives, most of them are out of their control, decide what they do in a way. and i feel that that'y s my lif. infe, all the crossroads, all the moments when everything has changed, has been completely t of my control. my only choice has been how i feel about it. for me, it is easy to understd the feelings ofisacement, of leaving everything behind, of starting from scratch or always looking back, thinking that you will go back someday. jeffrey: there is another real character in this book and that is the poet pablo neruda, a very cially eaged and committed writer. you use lines from his poetry at the beginning of each chapter, and it madee wonder how you feel, or do you feel a kind of

responsibility as a writer, as an artist, to look at our times and address it? >> it comes naturally. i don't want to deliver a message. i'm not a sociologist or a politician. i just want to tell a but sometimes, the stories are in the air. we hear so much about refugees and migrants and displaced people that my three last books deal with that in one way or other, because it's there. it's in the collective consciousness right now. jeffrey:he novel is "a long petal of the sea. isabel y allende, tha very much. judy: so interestinat and's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and write here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour,se thank you anyou soon. >> major funding has been provided by - >> before we talk about your investments, what's new? >> audrey is expecting. >> twins.

>> pretty close to twins. >> at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the heplan. >> w it comes to wireless, consumer cellular gives customers a choice. no contract lands give much or as little talk, text and data as you want and are u.s. based customer service team is on hand to help. go to consumer cellular. tv. >> collect. american cruise lines. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwe. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪

>> this program was made possible by the corporationcaor public broing and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> this is pbs newshour west rhumb weta studios in washington, and from our bureau rat the walte cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ lidia: buba giorno. i'm lidiianich,

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