captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the numbers keep rising. as another week comes to a close, covid 19 claims more lives and shows signs it won't go away sog . then, feele pain: the april jobs report shows an economy in freefall. unemployment nears 15%, the worst the u.s. has seen since the great depression. plus, hitting home-- how places in the western unitees are handling their coronavirus cases and efforts to reopen. and it's friday, mark shies and david brooks break down the justice department's dropping of the michael flynn casethe ongoing pandemic response and more. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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situation in stark relief today. and, the human cost continued to mount, with some 77,000 dead. amna nawaz reports on this day's developments.ng >> nawaz: ines at food banks and empty restaurants. snapshots of a shattered economy ravaged by the covid19 pandemic. the labor department reported more than 20 million jobs were lost last month, driving unemplment to 14.7%, its highest point since the great depreson. bartenr sara barnard was amongc. >>of thought it was like kin just a joke. i was like, "well this is goingd to last a weekhen they're going to be like, okay, everything is settling down you can go back to work." i had no idea that it would be two-plus months and like still we have no idea of when we're going to be able to open. >> nawaz: among some minorities, already hard hit by the pandemic's health crisis, the

on dire.ec t among black americans, unemployment jumped to more than 16%. for hispanics, the figures are even more jarring. with unemployment hitting 18%. according to one recent poll, 61% now say they've experienced so sort of household incom loss. that's compared with 46% of americans overall. president trump reacted as the numbers rolled out this morning, during a phone interview with" fox and friends": >> those jobs will all be back, and they'll be back very soon. phenomenal year.'ll have a >> nawaz: but many economists have warned that repercussions will be felt for monaybe years to come. and even the president remains vulnerable to the pandemic's reach. the white house confirmed todayh a staffer for vice president mike pence tested positive for the virus. >> i'm not worried. onok, i get things done, i worry about things. i do what i have to do. 're taking very strong precautions at the white house, but again, we're dealing with an

invisible situn. >> nawaz: also today, lawyers for dr. rick bright, a heah and human services official ousted from his post, said a federal watchdog found he was removed in retaliaon for opposing the stockpiling of a malaria drug touted by the president as treatment. oooki at the small business administration's first rollout of billions of llars in aid said the agency didn't sticko congressional rules and set restrictions that could actually hurt borrowers.ta meanwhile,s across the country continue to wrestle with how to mitigate the financial fallout. in califoma,ororay, s including ginger lee's los angeles florist shop, pack with the mher's day rush. >> everybody wants to get back >> yeah, it'been a struggle, but i think we're going to be okay if we all follow the rules and maintain, like they say, wear the mask, social distance. th okay.

>> nawaz: in texas, new safety, measurcludince shields and glass barriers, were put into place at nail and hair salons before re-opening. >> i'm going to keep myself behind my client, never in front of my client. >> nawaz: businesses are now navigating how to safely re-open in me than half of all u.s. states, moving to ease pandemice king thoseteps without meeting white house benchmarks. others, are moving more cautiously. new york governor andrew cuomo: >> you can pull up the countries that reopened because they had political pressure and then saw that infection go rirough the roof and then they did a 180 degree turnaround two weeks later: whos, we made a mistake. i don't want to "whoops we made a mistake." >> nawaz: but governments across the world are weighing when and how to accept those risks. in south korea, recently relaxed restrictions led to a new cluster of cases, all linked to nightclubs in seoul.

officials ordered them closed for a month. the country had seen it's lowest daily spike in cases earlier this week. but now, even plans to reopen some schools next week could be delayed. for the pbs nehour, i'm amna >> woodruff: back in this country, a new oversight committee in the u.s. house of lge, public corporationstoday rn fun ived from rece a program designed to help small business.al and,street shrugged off the dismal jobs report, as investors bet the worst is over. the dow jones industrial average ined 455 points to close at 24,331. ane nasdaq rose 141 points the s&p 500 added 48. as we've heard, today's jobs report detailed a picture of devaating employment nationwide not seen since the great depression. let's look at its findings and economy up and rungain.ng the

neel kashkari is the president of the federal reserve ban minneapolis. he was assistant secretary of the treasury under in 2008 and 2009, where he oversaw a major part of the governme's efforts to stabilize the system during the 2008 financial crisis. neel kashkari, wcome to the "newshour". what words can you use tot' describe wgoing on right now with our economy and what's happened to people's ilivelihoods? s devastating. as you said, the official unemployment rate isn't 14.7%, but if you digelow the numrs i think it's around 22% or 23%, when you consider the teno millions who have lost their jobs. that data is a couple of weks old. it's probably higher than that. a couple of months ago, i was optimistic and hopeful maybe we would have a v-shaped recovery, shut things down, clamp down on the virus and have a quick recovery. we've learned in the last couple

of months the virus is continuing to spread, tragically many are getting it and others are dying. i think we're in for, recovery rather than anlong immediate bounceback. >> woodruff: i want to ask you why you believe at because just this morning we heard president trump say, and i'm quoting, those jobs will all be back, they will be back very soon and net year we're going to have a phenomenal year. >> well, as governor cuomo mentioned and your reporting, we look around the wrld where e virus is spreading, when they relaxed the controls and social distancing, it tends to flare back up again. this virus came to america when one person had it, we didn't know it andit endedp spreading through society and can spread again. when we study past penches, the flu pandemic of 1918 came in the spring, created a vt of ha in the spring, went quiet over worst was behind then itt the

flared back up again and the devastating damage was done in e fall. obviously, we have to avoid that. we know the end po a vaccine or therapy, but the he'll experts say that'sly prob year or tw. soe he to len w too ayivaweth his virus, reopen in a smart manner whilpreserving means a muted, a me gradual recovery. >> i read one economist sid today there is no safe place in the job market today. no plce that's safe from job cuts. do youhink that's correct? >> i think that's correct, but we know that these -- unfortunately, what's so tragics odisproportionately falli service workers, lower-income, lower-wage and lower-skill service workers. so women are beiffected more than men with the jobs cuts, minorities are beingffected, and the less educated are being more affected. so the people who n least afford to have their incomes get hammered are the ones who e

disproportionately being affected by this, and that's what's tragic about this. the good news is congress is acting very aggressively, the federal reserve is acting very aggress lf. i think the u.s. government is going to fully stand behind onr y, but, unfortunately, there's nothing they can do to speed this up, it's going to take time. >> reporter: i want to ask about that, but quickly, when you talk about the fairness of how this is hitting people at the lower end oecf theonomic scale, does that mean it's going to be harder to come out of this? >> it is. you know, in many cases, those workers were the last ones to recover from the 2008 crisis. after ten yearswe were just beginning finally rebuild our labor market, put americans back woto and here comes ts virus andwage, targets and hammers them. that's what's so unfortunate out this and why we have to do

everything we can to get them the assistance that they need until the healthcare system canc up and get control of the t'rus, ultimately solving the virus is whagoing to solve our economy. >> woodruff: that's what i want to k you about, neel kashkari. what is it going to take? iean, how much more money is it going to require the federal vernment to provide for the american people, for them to get through this?>> ell, first of all, we have to spend whatever it takes to therapy development andm widespread testing. any dollar we spend there will more thapay for itself in needing less money to support the economy. so that's the first par the second part is i think we need to sta reopening businesses where you can actually socially distan, where you can wear masks. some businesses lend themselves to that. others like a movie theampter don't. then we start to focus the economic assistance on those workeroand folks that need t

socially isolated indefinitely. we know that younger wokers are at lower risk than older workers and tho with pre-existing conditions. i think if we shift toward targeting thassistance to those who are most vulnerable, i think we'll be able to get into a place whe wen sustain this for a year or two because we'll be able to need to sustain >> woodruff: but are you t sayi government's pockets are empty -- don't have a bottom, in so many words, so that the government can do what's necessary for people who are going to have no income or very little income for a long time to come? >> i think, you know, our chairman of the federal reserve talked about the great fiscal power of the united states of america. i think that's right. i think the vernment has the resources to support the economy through it, andmore we can get focus it on those who need the most assistance, the longer we'll be able to do it. but then, of course, we have to

defeat the virus in our healthcare system, that is a vaccine, that is a therapy, to get this behind us and get the economy back on its own two legs, so to speak. >> woodruff: neel kashkari, president of the fednkal reserve ba of minneapolis. thank you so much for joining ouus. >> thankor having me. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, two white men in georgia made their initial courtce appearn the killing of a black man, ahmaud arbery, a case that has sparked national outrage. face murder and assault charges. they say they thought arbery was a burglary suspect. they were arrested last night, after video emerged of them shndting arbery in february, after the state bureau of investigation got involved.

things: one are facts and theev ly app the law to it. if the law says what the facts are is a felony murder then we take the warrants foit. i'm very comfortable in telling you that there's more than sufficient probable cause in this case for felony murder. >> woodruff: in brunswick today, a crowd of hundreds gathered outside the county courthouse, on what would have been arbery's 26th birthday. the c.e.o. of boeing says themp y now expects to resume production of its 737 max jets this month. david calhoun said today he isen confof meeting that schedule. the 737 max was grounded in march of last year, after two overseas crashes that 346 pele. and, the eastern u.s. is getting an unwelcome visitor for mother'say weekend. a late-season polar vortex, dipping down fm the arctic, is bringing unseasonable cold. snow began falling today acrossa parts of new e.

the system could also bring record low temperatures as far south as the gulf coast. still to come on the newshour: a report from the american westo as approacheeopening vary widely.d- awnning local news outlets struggle to survive the pandemic. mark shields and david brooks break down the government's response to the pandemic. plus much more. >> woodruff: the toll of covid- 19 has been focused on the nation's hot spots, from new york and new jersey to uisiana, michigan and cafornia.e but there ny counties in states across the rural west where case numbers are in the

single digits, with no deaths. stephanie sy takes a look at the "covid divide." ve reporter: protests across america ointed to a dilemma state officials have been grappling with since the coronavirus outbreak eegan-- how munomic pain should business owners and employees endure to protect the public from covid9? in urban areas, where people live and work in close contact,t there's less d but across parts of the west, in towns of only a few thousand people, th question can be more complicated. >> we are so remote and rural, there wasn't a lot of risk here. >> reporter: jennifer ramsey owns the iron bar, a gym in pinedale wyoming. the surrounding county, called sublette, s recorded one case of covid-19, and no deaths.>> eople were doing their part and social distancing. people wand to open up, they were worried about their

livelihoods. r >>orter: with that in mind ramsey defied the statewide order and re-opened, only to be shut back down. >> this business pays for everything, my mortgage, utilities at home. i ended up getting an eviction tice. i was pretty stressed out about that. >> reporter: with locknow relaxing in wyoming, she was allowed to reopen in recent daya with pions in place. lyross town, the cowboy bar is also open, parti space to a barbershop and a restaurant in the building. er all three of us have su from it. i don't think wyoming should have been shut down, let alone sublte county. >> reporter: she found a workaround to keep her business op-- serving food and drin outside. wae county health officer said sh't violating the state's order. >> he said he didn't hava problem with it, but we had to keep at least six feet social and a bartender brought drinks

and another one took money then we could do this. >> they found a little loophole. >> reporter: dr. brendan fitzsimmons is the health officer in sublette county. his fear is erwhelming the region's health care facilities >> we dove a hospital and so we're dependent on some of the surrounding hospitals to take our patients with the virus. you don't know where you are today, you know where you were two weeks ago. if we had a cluster of cases in this county right now, 30, 40 people who are very ill, it could be very difficult for us to deal with. >> reporter: sublette countyco issioner chair dr. david burnett cautions that these >>wns are not bubbles. ven though we're small, isolated and rural, we have lots of traffic through this area. we're impacted by seasonal workers. we have the oilfield community th bonrings mina people from tf visitors wanting to come to our county. >> reporter: nearby in eastern

idaho, rigch mayor jason dson argues the one size fits all state order doesn't work. >> we have some pretty clear that in all southeast idaho, we have had zerdeaths. our county, we've had four cases. we don't face the sa thing e, o whecerefa wr e vedo bn'sete that community spread that you're seeing there. >> reporter: richardson says the closure of non-essential businesses in rigby, the principal town in the county, has devastatedeople's finances. >> what i hear outside the news are stories about families that aren't able to make their payments. car insurance their health insurance, their morages. those difficulties pile up and they become just as dangerous and you know, fearful as the pandemic itself. >> we're ready to open any time. >> reporter: from his empty mexican restaurant near idaho falls, juan herndez says he and his wife have lost 75% of their businessnd should be

able to welcome customers now that they've taken necessaryur me. >> we can take tables out so we can separate it to show people that they don't have to be close to each other. we do a lot more cleaning.s, we use gloe use masks to show people that we clean. >> reporter: but some idaho residents are unsure. >> i'm cautious, but not paranoid. i think we're kind of doomed for pea second go-round, if weup and get too close too quick. >> i don't know if i'd be comfortable because i'm kind of at high-risk, you know with diabetes and a couple other auto-imme disorders. >> reporter: in montana, there have been no known cov cases in nearly half of the state's 56 countie officials say, in part because governor steve bullock, started shutting down businesses a week after the first cases cropped up. with oy a million people spread out across a state three times the size of new york, many

residents outside the main cities are already pretty isolated. our curve, our projected surge was effectively >> reporter: dr. mark williams is chief physici officer for bozeman health and was involved in the state task force that evaluated stay-at-home directives and phased reopening. >> when you look at eastern montana, those counties have not seen a single case. so two or three weeks ago, when it becry obvious that the health care facilities in montana would be able to maintain or be able to take care of the surge, then it became much more logical and reasonable to talk about reopening i businessa phased fashion, especially in those areas whichg hadn't seen a case. >> reporter: is there a warning that should go along with that as well? >> we have to avoid that false sense of security. in 1918, montana was ravaged by the spanish influenza. if we can reflect back on how similar epidems have affected

unvecoryra clemmar.s, even if the likelihood of an outbreak is less, the access to health care resources is als less. >> reporter: but dr. williams admi that while saving lives is paramount, for many, so is saving livelihoods. >> just recognize that when people are wanting to reopenbu theiness, they're doing it for very good reasons. if we can all get on the same page and try to understandhere we each are situated, those conversations become much easier. it's a matter of honesty and transparency. >> reporter: wisdom that could be applied across the country, divided by the pandemic. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in phoenix. >> woodruff: local newsrooms >> woodruff: local newsrrems big winner this week when the pulitzer prizes were

announced. it underscored the value of local reporting at a time whenin newsrooms co to lose journalists and papers have been foosed ogutted. a recent estimatd that since the pandemic ban, more than 35,000 news media employees been laid of furloughed or faced pay cuts. jeffrey brown zeroed in onhis neth a "air t onchorage rsdaily .news"he prestigious pulitzer for public serve for a year-long investigation into sexual violence in the state and a two- tiered justice system that leaves rural communities at risk. the paper collaborated with the news organization, pro-publica. in louisville, kentucky, the" courier-journal" won the prize for breaking news reporting for its coverage of outgoing governor matt bevin's last- minute pardons of hundreds of people, including perpetrators of violent crimes.th just two among examples of honors for local reporting this

year, at a time when localews organizations around the country face huge economic challenges, and now more cuts amid the pandemic. joining us are joe sonka, political reporter at the "louisville courier-journal," tod kyle hopkins, special projects eat the "anchorage daily news." kyle, i want to start with you. your organization clearly put a lot of time and sources into s why is story so important? >> well, i think for us, it wash a stor we've been meaning to tell for a long time. you know, these are stories that ein some ways i feel like should have done 10 or even 15 years ago. and we were looking for the heght way to tell them and right partner to do it with. and the thing that we moor wanted to exwas alaska's high rate of sexual abuse and sexual assau, especially abuse of children. and we felt like we couldn't really tell thattory without telling peop about what's happening with criminal justice at adeeedes stlong, generationsd

inequity when it comes to how justice and public safety is delivered. if you live in the city and how it's delivered, if you live and grow up in village that's hard to reach, you know, off the road sy to take a plane to get to.sthaemhavend o >> brown: and joe sonko, you had a very different situati is was breaking news, what made this an important story pursue? ed by the nature of some only of the crimetrs that pageoplwere onvict ed of a veryrd long, very long sentences for crimes of murder, child rape. but they were also outraged by the fact that none of these many of the prosecutors were no rned. many of the victims were not warned at all. this was a total surprise to them. and then also our report wasle o find some of the political connections that the families of those individuals had to matt bevin, one person

who was convicted in a fatal home robbery, his brother and family had hosted a big fundraiser for matt bevin the summer before and raised over $20,000 forced to retire debt from his previous campaign. so i really drew outrage acaoss the polispectrum. doing this kind of work.re bot has the landscape has shifted so much for local news, kyle?s whate situation where you are and how do you manage to continue to do this kind of work? i >> welike to say that our newspaper, the "anchorage daily news," we've been through all the things that small newspaperr nd the country are experiencing. you know, we've been through it all. we are on it. our ownership has changed a couple times. we went bankrupt. had to survive the bankruptcy. we almost didn't exist. you know, more recently during the pandemic, like lots of small newspapers, we got hit pretty hard by a loss of revenue. and so a lot of reporters here temporary pay cuts and see their hours reduced.

>> brown: and what and what's the situation for you, joe? well, we've been i've been i haven't been to the newsroom in all working remotely.en this is my office right here. but we're also our reporters are also on furlough now.ll e on furlough next week and then next month i'll have another week of furlough. you know, we're the newspaper industry h been hit just as hard as other industries throughout the economy right now. and with the changing nature of ase news media, the move away from advertising revenue to subscription based revenue really makes subscriptions to local papers even more important now than it ever was in order to keep us doing the work that >> brownyou know, i we spoke to one of the other winners, luke broadwater of the "baltimore sun," and he told us that on sunday he took a pay cut. on monday, he won a pulitzer prize. thayou ran in. joe, it when people wonder now about the value of local news, this kind of reporting. >> wl, i think with that, we

showed the value of local news by how much how many resources to be devoted to this project and uncover things that might not have been known to taxpayers if we didn't have our whole team working on it. we put out dozens of stories in the following month and found out some really incredible things about somof the pardons. inso that's the power of h local people on the ground who, you know, the situation and can uncover things and really shed doing.on what their government's ro ban>> all kinds of resources. but i guess so a lot of thoseth gs can go on without much of a spotlight. >> that's true. i mean, there's you know, alaskc is a resrich state andt there's not a people, but there's a lot of money to be made here. and what we think isif there's no one, there's no one playing watchdog role. you know, you can imagine who's

going to get elected. you know where that cney's going e from. and then what they're going to businesses that wacomeow, here and make a dollar regardless of how it impacts the land in alaska. mentioned that you didhis in a partnership with pro-publica. i just wonder briefly if you thinabout the future. is that kind of partnership or what you see? >> we felt like this was a kind of a proof of concusfoepu knr , we didn't have much money. t we just don't and we don't expect to have much money in the future. and so how can we do work that we're proud of? but that takes a lot of time. and that's where we needed a partner who could help. you know, that my salary was paid for by propublica last year. so that allowed me to spend all my time justn this one project.so an think we're looking for more opportunities where we can you know, we know we have stors to tell. we know there's good stories to be done in alaska. but we don't always have the

resources and the band with to do them. so who can help us d? and in this case, it was g,opublica which came in and helped with editelped with research. you know, they have data experts doesn't have.m like ours and so i think there's a real pehopeful future in those of collaborations. >> brown: all right. well, congratulations to both of you. h once again, kykins at the "anchorage daily news." joe sonko at the "louisville courier-journal. congratulations. >> thanks so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now to the analysis ad elco sromnndisdst maokrk b ields and "new york times" columnist david brooks.ó witeh h administration, the department of justice asking a federalr judge to t out the case against michael flynn, the

esident's former national security advisor who had pleaded guilty to lyibng aout his contacts with russian diplomats. we're going to see what the judge does, but right now the president is praising this. he's saying the f.b.i. ps full ple acting in bad faith. >> judy, jeff sessions washis? essentially fired as attorney general for not being donald trump's in-hou lawyer. donald trump said he always r wanty come to be his lawyer. bill btor is living up that job description. hard to believe bill barr would want his epitaph to be heas donald trump's roy cohn. general flynn who twice pleadedi guilty spoke to the judge and to the court apologizing for lying to investigato, promising the

grace of god to make things right, d here we are, he's walking free. and the villain in the piece is american law enforcement. institution.erated and con there was no waterboarding, no third degree that i know of that has been alleged in the confession coming forward, but that's e impression that is left. >> woodruff: and, david, not only this, the premssident se to be promising more to come. we're not sure what that's a reference to, but it certainly caught everybody'sattention. >> yeah, there are a couple of things true here. the first is that flynn confessed, so he pleaded guilty. i take him at his word that he lied. the second thing is tthe justice department has become ai hyperpn institution and we can't have faith in its judgments. the third thing, though, is that the f.b.i. might have screwed up

here. bloomberg is a good journalist, has been making th argument several months now, and the documents that have come out em to clear with lake's long-time argument which is that the original investigation into flynn by the f.b. didnot reveal anything and they kept the investigation open, they ato leassidered the possibility they're keeping the investigation openot to convict him of something but to induce him to lying. so don't know how to balance these two facts. i don't myself have the expertise to say whether the f.b.i. really screwed up the investigation, whether therywere reallyg to hound him audit out of the job, but it's at least a possibility, and the core problem here is we do have a set of authorities where we could completely trust on s,thi and, frankly, i have been trying to find news organizations whoan really giv expert opinion on d e f.b.i.'s behavior, and i've ouble getting to the bottom of that, just to the journastic outset.

>> woodruff: mark, what do you the f.b.i., these disclosuresm about what the agents were talking about before they went to interview michael flynn? >> i think, judwey, wha have here, no question a this occurred -- michapeakingti with invtors kislyak of the russians, the day the 35 russian spice were banished from the united states by the obama administration, and the assurance was don't act, don't overreact, we'llet back to you, and this will be okay. and thas he story, and it's pret damn clear that it was a condoning of russian intervention in the 2016 election, it's a green light to russian fuerrther intntion and

subversion of the 2020 election, and, you know, when the president of the united states calls the f.b.i. scum -- and the one charge i think that stands is the investigation ofarter page, which was inappropriate, was wrong, but, you know, iju st think this is right or healthy or in any way helpful to this country, and i think thet presidands responsible. >> woodruff: and, at the sayo time, davidu do have democrats and you both refer to this saying thece jus department has just become way too politicized in a way that's unacceptable for the country. >> well, this is a story f may and april and march of 2020, the need for institutional entuctures in our gover that we can trust and rely upon

and, in some cases, that's just a weak response on testing and other things, but, in this case, it's the long-time erosion of authority of the justice department. the justice department s always been teetering on the brink, going back to maybe evene robert ken, but in this administration, it's over the brink, and, so, even in a case where, you know, i can't belve i'm defending michael flynn but bying to kislyak, don't be alarmed, this wi okay, that seems to be representing trump's clear policies which is sympathetic to russia. so, to me, it's not neces convicting, but i have no authority as a citizen to go to to thiesnk, okay, thguys are department under sident trump doesn't seem to be on the level. >> woodruff: so much to -- mark, go ahead. i want to ask you about something else. so go ahead. >> on the justice department, i attorneyder ed meese and other

were oned questions, we have been had attorneys general who operated honnably and i iclude robert kennedy in that. >> woodruff: david, i want to turn both of you to th president and the pandemic. it'swlear in the last fe days he talked repeatedly about we need to change the focus more to the economy, worri more about getting people back to work. today, he was asked about will some people be affected badly, yes, but we have to get our country open, and we have to get it ope soon. is he making the right call here? >> i don't think so. there's a clear tradeoff beten our safety and economy and if we're winning he would be justied but we're no winning. the death rates are about 2,000 a day. eeit's been after week --

week after week of this. the curve is flat but it's not going down. the death rate is terrible. people mod lic modeling things o people wwill die. i don't see the evidence of that looking at the data, and neither do people who know more about this than me, the heah experts. so trump seems to be wildly premature in doing this and frankly, the american people seem to be a little premature. over the last week, even as then health data tinues to be terrible, people are loosening. the travel is up, gatring is up, and, so, i think just as fellow citizens, we' got to try to hang in there a little longer till we can get some sense -- a better sense of downward slope which we do not see now, especially when you take up the new york data. the rest of the country is seeing an upward slope.

>> woodruff: mark, the president seemed determined to let these states do what they want as we know more than 30 states are loosening -- are opening up at differen-- a different pace. but he does seem determined to r let thn its course, to let them do what they think is right. >> yes, and the responsibility is with the impror opening up, andhe president can distance himse politically if there's an out. given the numbers today reportee onloyment which, if anything, were probably lower the percentage than reallare at risk and suffering as a result of this tgedy, that the economy, which was the issue on run for reelection, is the only hope for relection which, quite than two months ago.ts seem less

i think he is almost determined to wilthe economy to be recovering heading into the campaign and the election of the fall. i don't think there's any question about it, and he's trying to have it both ways tha the governors are the ones making the decisions, d i think that's the political reality. i think it's that simpl and that straightforward. >> woodruff: i want to ask both of you, onla little time left. david, were you going to say something? go ahead. >> quickly. i'm not sure the geernors having an effect. the american people shut down before the governors acted and the american people opened up before the governors acted. so a lot of this is on us. we'rnot following the governors' rules, it's our own society that we're running and we havo to be more self-disciplined. >> woodruff: quickly to both of you quon this estion of white house interference.

you have the scientists at the department of healthuman services saying he was removed because he wanted to work on vaccines earlier this year. tonight we just are reading an a.p. report on white house efforts to bury a c.d.c. recommendations on opening up. quickly, mark, and tn you, david, is this something americans should worry about? >> we should, judy. i mean, it began with -- first we saw was colonel vindman, then ambassador sondland, anybody who faced their responsibility answered truth testified openly, reaped retribution. we saw it with michael a atkins, the insctor general at intelligence, all of whom got the gate when they didn't do what the president wanted. >> woodruff: david.

tell the truth, and this administration is not lling the truth. telling the truy th is to pandemico plicy. >> wdruff: david brooks, mark shields, sying safe. thank you both. >> woodruff: as the week nears an end, we again want to take ai few minutes t to share the stories of just some of the extraordinary americans who have lost their lives in this devastating pandemic. philip kahn always carried his could tell his story. fm so he an ace co-pilot in world war ii, kahn was in the battle j of ia and helped take aerial surveys of the damage wrought by the atomic bomb after the war, he was an electrical foreman on the construction of the worltrade

center. more devastating than the war,ft philip said, was the spanish flu pandemic, whic killed his twin brothein infancy. phil was 100 years old. lysa dawn robinson never went anywhere without a set of drumsticks known to fans as "lady rhythm," the philadphia-born drummer toured the world with soul singer billy paul, andlayed with many more artists, including pi. lysa was a go-to source fo advice for her two sisters and nieces, who describe her as witt charming, and a good listener. she was 55 years old. harold is spent most of the past two decades mentoring chicago high schoolers, offering them paid opportunities to repair school auditoriums while keeping them out of harm's way. direct and outspoken, harold exposed inequalities on his

radio show "the butt naked truth," where he had a reputation for asking tough questions and holding local politicians to account. harold was 63 years old. new jersey's gerry genuino greeted every student lked on his bus with a smile. funny, thoughtful, and humble, the 58-year-old was alwaysnd g a helping hand to a friend or stranger.l, last fe heroicallyulled his bus over on the highway to help extinguish a truck fire.hi adored btwo daughters, gerry d his wife mary jane would have celebrated 25 years of marriage next month. for activist josepha eyre, her refugees was largely inspired by her upbringing in nazi-occupied holland. in 1989 josepha, or jossy, founded the women's bean pro

in denver, colorado to create long-term solutions for homeless women rough work and counseling. over the years, she welcomed people in need into her own family. she waactive and tenacious; an inspiration to her children and grandchildren. jossy was 89 years old. now to a different type of remembrance: 75 years ago today, nazi germany surrendered to the es in europe, in a red schoolhouse in rheims, france. more brutal months in thethr pacific, but six years of horro and holocaust en ended in europe. here's special correspondent malcolm brabant, with veterans in their twilight, as the globe faces a new and differentle chale. >> repter: despite the covid

19 lockdown, they were deteayined to celebrate v.e. d esin bracknell, 40 miles wof london, and honor 98 year old neighbor stanley booker. squaon leader booker, a navigator on a bomber, was shot down over frce in 1944, betrayed to the nazis, tortedth edical experiments in the buchenwald concentration camp, and was in a germaprisoner of war camp on this day 75 years ago. >> the germans had just gone and left us. they'd made a holen the fence with an armoured vehicle and we were shuttered. thd manned the watchtowers we were shut in there and there was no mention of v.e. day. >> reporter: the squadron leader's heroism was supposed to be recognized with a low pass over his house by a spitfire, the great british wartime fighr plane. >> the heroes are those lads we left behind. we are the survivors. we are the lucky ones. but to represent them i feel very honored ifjust hope they don't have as

muchculty finding us as we used to have during the war when we used to fly our bombers home. >> reporter: booker lined up ont the desi flight path, but the spitfire pilot strayed off course. no navigatorn board, complained the old airman.s joe cattini so in germany 75 years ago, in the northern >> in germany on vy we were still fighting. >> reporter:an youal rl >> we had a pocket of s.s., who wouldn surrender. with the war over, as far as they were concerned it was death for them. we had to shell their barracks and eventually they did surrender. >> reporter: cattini landed in normandy on d day in june 1944 and fought his way across europe. >> i am not a hero. the heroes are the ones who died. they are the heroes. we were >> reporter: what do you think your legacy is?

>> we have had 75 years of peace without fighting in europe. >> reporter: this may seem like a strange question but do you mi i your war? as glad when it was finished. i wouldn't like to go throh another war like that when you wake up in the morning and you n't know whether you will be able to go to sleep again that night. you may not be alive. ultimate victory was the d dayor invasion of normandy 11 months earlier. at last year's 75th anniversaryn medal of honorr ray lambert summed up the achievement. >> there's no greater feeling ter a soldier than to libe country.wh an you see those people so grateful and get their homesyo back, andrive the enemy out, that makes us all very proud that we were part of that. >> reporter: seven vet accompanied president trump as heeaid a wreath to commemor those who laid down their lives to defeat the evil of adolf hitler third reich.

and tonight on television in britain, singer kaerine >> never give up, never despair. that was the.essage of v.e day. many people laid down their lives in that terrible conflict. they fought so we could live in and tonight on television in britain, singer katherine jenkins triggered a wave of nostalgia duetting with wartime heroine vera lynn along this classic number, "we'll meet again." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> those days, songs had meaning. >> it more or less nearly brings tears to my eyes when i hear it. >> reporter: health workers applauded squadron leader booker as he resumed his covid 19 lockdown, ending a moment of respite in this new world war. for the pbs newsho, i'mol

mabrabant in bracknell. >> woodruff: in this time ofg, social distancrtists, athletes, musicians all over the ncountry are trying to fi ways to channel their energies. william brangham brings us this portrait of one artist in california w's tryg to help people who are sick, many with it's part of our ongoing arts and culture series, canv. >> you know, thicrisis that we're facing is really twofold: it's a health crisis, but it's also a crisis of isolaon. my name tucker nichols. i'm an artist based in san rafael, california. for anyone who's been very sick before, that-- the actual itself incredibly isolating." flowers for sick people" is a

really sple project where i send flowers, paintings of flowers, to people who are ill right now, from their loved ones. i have a simple website," flowers for sick people," where you just send me the name and address of someone who is sick and i will make a small flower painting and send it off to them. and it's-- there's no messages.' from, and who it'sho it's it's a totally free service. it just arrives in the mail, tiannounced. right now, i'm s putting them all in envelopes and hand addressing them.i buy move to postcards if i can't keep up with the requests. increasily, the requests that i'm getting are more and more related to the vus, and the people who are sick and suffering from the virus, so

it's really become this portrait of what people are going through, and how cut o they feel from the people who they're trying to take care of. i realize you can't really send flowers to everyone who deserves them. so i started posting images of flower drawings on my website and on social media to-- as sort of tributes to different segments of society at large. flowers for the ventilator operators. flowers for the hospital janitors. flowers for the bare handed mail carrier. and then also ones that were also kind of about everyone's flowers for the neighbor who sits in her window on patrol. flowers for elastic waistbands. flowers for the dishwasher. flowers for you if you are the dishwasher. the flowers i've been posting are really an attempt for me to connect to other parts of the p world; othple out there

who are thinking the same thoughts i am. flowers for someone who left in an ambulance, but still no upte. flowers for the kids who are realizing none of the grown ups out. howhis is going to play flowers for the frazzled woman at the post ofce directing the other customers to maintain their six foot perimeter's while ntrying to keep her place line. just sort of say, hey we're all in this together, we're all having some common experiencesre even while wo isolated. we're all experiencing that,'r all waking up and thinking, what do i? how do i do this? flowers for new york city. flowers for anyone in any flowers for your mother. flowers for anyone stuck at home without flowers today. >> woodruff: one additional note: all the video for that

story was filmed by tucker's adolanir, ni-year- olch and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. thank u, please stayas you remember the mothers in your life this weekend, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been prided by: n' >> life isa straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpecte with financial plannan >> the william and fewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing ipport of thetitutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. station from viewers like you. thank you. caioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by wg media access group at access.wgbh.org

tonighon kqed newsroom, despite concerns lawmakers are back at work in person after two months thaway as state faces a massive budget deficit. anbastriking a nce between safety and livelihoods, some retailers are beginning to ca reopen afornia moves to stage 2 of the pandemic recovery. plus, a long-running asian american film festival goes virtual for the first time.we will preview the linell. and welcome to kqed newsroom. is it week eight of sheltering in place in northern california, and statewide, some restrictions started to lift todae lifornia state assembly headed back to sacramento following a two month hiatus ronavirus pandemic. e among