tv PBS News Hour Weekend PBS August 2, 2020 5:30pm-6:00pm PDT
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captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this editioau for sundayst 2: negotiations over the emergency relief bill conthis week. tropical storm isaias heads north along the east coast. and, re-imagining back to school, in the good ole outdoors. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newsho weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live inhe moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at ubelieve taking care of tomorrow
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can help you make the most of today. mutual oerica financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to cellular s been offering no-contract wireless plans, dmoigned to help people do of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. anadditsupport has been provided by: heand byorporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. politicians debated what should be included in another round of coonavirusconomic relief legislation today, as tens of allions of americans begi new month without emergency unemployment aid and worry fbout evictiond aid and health care. treasury secretary steven
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mnuchin argued the anal federal unemployment insurance of60per week, which expire on friday, needs to be reduced, to encourage people to go back to work. >> we want to fix the issue where, in some cases, people are overpaid, and we want to make sure there's the right incentives. but, again, let me just emphasize, we put on the table a proposal. let's extend it for one week at the same rate while we negotiate, so we don't hurt the american public. >> so-- so you do think it is a disincentive to find a job, if you have that extra 00? >> certain cases, where we're paying people more to work-- stay home than to work, that's created issues in the entire >> eenivasan: a number of recent studies have shown the payment is not keeping people from returning to work. houskee spnancy pelosi blamed president trump for theps unemployment benefit, and rejected the republican proposal to reduce it by two-thirds. >> we have been for the $600.
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they whhave a $200 proposalh does not meet the needs of america's working families. and it's a condescension, quite frankly, because they're saying, really don't need it. because they make more money at $600. >> sreenivasan: staff members worked on details today on capitol hill. negotiations amonghite house and democratic leaders are set to resume tomorrow. in portland, oregon la police officials declared a protest outside a police stati unlaul after they said bottles were thrown. it was the first violence after two days of largely peaceful demonstrations with no arrests. at the federal courtuse in downtown porand, protests were peaceful. that site was the focus of nightly, often viont, confrontations with federal officers deployed to protect it. on thursday, the trum administration and state officials agreed to reduce the presence of federal agents. since then, protests have continued, but with a minimal law enforcement presence. there s some fallout yesterday froe m thcontroversial
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deoyment of federal officers to portland. a senior official at department of homeland security was removed from h following reports that he compiled intelligence on journalists and protesters in portland. brian murphy was the acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis. he was reassigned on friday. the "washingtopopost" first ed the intelligence thering on thursday, and acting homeland security secretary chad wolf has asked teche department's inr general to investigate. spread in the united states, with california now the first state to have more than 500,000 confirmed infections. across the s., there were more than 58,000 new cases reported yesterday. compared to two weeks ago, daily new infections are down about 5%, on average, according to data compiled by the "new york times." there are now more than 4.6 million infections, d nearly 155,000 deaths. the number of deaths is expected to rise sharply, as that count lags behind reported infections.
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a new projection from the centers for disease control says the death toll in the united states could rise by as much 30,000 in the next few weeks. globally, resurgences of the virus are forcing some places to reimpose restrictions. authorities in the australian state of vtoria declared a ate of disaster today, and imposed a night-time curfew, after a spike of new coronavirus infections. and in india, which has been an epicent of the pandemic, the interior minister, amit shah, unced today that he ha tested positive for the virus and is hospitalized. there was no word on when he last met with prime minister narena di. india reported more than 54,000 new infections yesterday, just short of a daily record set on friday. tropical storm isaias is slowly moving along florida's east coast today, bringing rain, storm hsurges ah winds. the storm lost its hurricane late saturday afternoon but officials are still warning residents to prepare for power outages and flooding.
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the storm tck shows it may make landll tonight or tomorrow, and continue to move north over the nexteveral days. coastal flooding and high wind warnings are in effect from florida through the carolinas. in california, a growing wildfire has prompted more than 7,000 evacuations in riverside county, east of los angeles. as of this afternoon, the apple fire has burned some 20,000 acres and was zero percent contained, according to the california departmenof forestry and fire protection. the riverside county fire department tweeted that one home and wtwo outbuildine destroyed. the fire began friday evening and grew quickly overnight saturday, forcing additional evacuations. no injuries were repord. a representative for the american red cross said covid-19 protocols are inlace for evaces. the cause of the blaze remas under investigation. sa astronauts robert behnken and douglas hurley splashed down in the gulf of mexico this afternoon on board the space-x tocapsule that carried thehe international space station and
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back. with parhutes deployed, the capsule landed in waters offshore from pensacola, florida. >> splashdown. sreenivasan: it was the first splashdown return from space in 45 years. during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft had il slow down from its orbital speed of 17,500 per hour to just 15 miles per hour when it landed. rescue ships and helicopters took the astronauts to a recovery ship with a 40-person medical team on board. behnken and hurley will be flown to houston after check-ups. the mission marks the first time a private company has launched people into orbit, and it is also the first time nasa astronauts have lifted off from the u.s. in nearly a decade. for more onhe space-x mission and other national and internatioal news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: there are still ma questions over if and how school districts across the
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country might be able to welco students back to classrooms this fall. many are contemplating teaching remotely. at the same time, the american academy of pediatrics "strongly advocates" for the "goal of having students physically present in school." one coalition in california believes they can offer a solution. newshour weekend's christopher booker has more. >> reporter: as every parent america knows, there are no easy answers when it comes to whether their children can or should retu tschool in just a few weeks. even if schools are lowed to openthe jority of america's schools will only be able to ft an estimated 60% of their enrolled students in their usual classrooms under the required soc mial distancisures, according to the national council on school facilities. but tre are those who argue, schools are looking at their space problem in the wrong way. >> we're asking schools to consider space as something that they actually have infinite access to, if ty just walk out their door. >> reporter: associate director for learning ancteaching at
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.-berkeley's lawrence hall of science, craig strang is part of a team that helps shape the science curriculum used by an estimat one in four american students. but since march, strang has been working to convince school maine to take their classrooms outside. >> getting ks outdoors, not r ten minutes, not for a half an hour, but for whole school days whenever possible, really needs to be taken into consideration. >> reporter: as a co-founder of the national covid-19 outdoor learning initiative, the all-volunteer effort of hundreds of education experts have been working to develop "a guidfog framework r how schools and districts can reopen in-person classes safely using outdoor spaces." >> it's not a new idea. it's not a new solution. it's really a different way of thinking by current school leaders >> reporter: it's not a new idea. at the beginning of the 20th century, schools across the country werheld outside to otect students against tuberculosis, and then lar, the spanish flu. cl wsese held on front
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porches, on rooftops, and even olrry boats, throughout the entire scear. >> schools have a lot of potouential to use their s that they're not yet tapping. >> reporter: sharon danks is the co-e.founder of the initiat trained in environmental city planning and landscape hitecture, danks has spe the past two decades running green schoolyards america, an organization that works with scho grounds into green spaces. >> so in this case, in the covid plenty of space outside that can augment the inside space when they're looking to spread kids out for social distancing. >> repter: consisting of educators, epidemiologists, landscape architects, city planners, the group is offering distric a "how-to manual," free of charge, on everything from curriculum development to infrastructure planning. >> it should be the first and it is super simple. you can bring your existing furniture outside tomorrow. you can buy picnic tables and they'll be here next week. and the gl is to be able to help a school district that
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says, "great, let's do this!" and then theyay, "how do we do this?" and so we have-- it'll be the "how-to manual," online, and it does have individual piece modules in it that will hel with thinking about different ways to sit outside and be comfortable in different climates, cost estimates, helping them think through where they're going to store sulies outside, how the-- the logticsf of the--e infrastructure. and also some of the modeling on the stathat's-- that would go with it. >> reporter: how do you answer the question about weather? obviously it rains, it gets hot, it snows. pending on where you are in the country, the weather is very different. definitely. and i think it's possible in every climate to do the work that we're suggesting we have great examples from canada and from northern scaninavia, where they can g outside in the winter. and actually, in chiemgo, in the pa in 1918, the tuberculosis and spanish flu pandemics, they did go outside even there, all winter in someol
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sc >> reporter: in addition to outdoor plans and design the initiative encourages districts to couple their outdoor classes with a curriculum that boosts students' environmenl literacy, an effort that craig strang says could be bolstered by the consortium of outdoor educators currently idled by the pandemic. >> so these outdoor science and environmental educators work in organizations ke nature centers and residential outdoor schools, where school groups go for a whole week of very intensive, immersive natural history in nature-based science education, and they're really expert at connecting children with nature. >> reporter: in april, the lawrence hall ofce conducted a survey of nearly 1,000 outdoor organizations acss the country. the 1,000 organizations that responded to our survey estimated that they were going to lay off or furlough over 30,000 employees. and these are passionate, trained up, skilled outdoor
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educators who could immediately be re-deployed to wor small groups of students in socially distance safe contexts, in face-to-face learning experiences, really high quality learning experiences, outdoors. >> rorter: what's preventing is group from being deployed? >> i think that deral support, in the form of rief funds, specifically targeting the outdoor science and enhronmental ed community w encouragements and incentives to partner with school districts, would make a huge difference. the same thing could be happening at the state level, within state departments of education, and it woul certainly help if the u.s. department of education made a statement that utilizing outdoor spaces is the key to getting our skids back ool. >> reporter: obviously, districts are not built identically, and districts are not funded identically. into this conversation and this
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effort? >> this idea of taking kids outdoors in every school is an opportunity to start chipping away at some of those historical inequities. the lre aal parks within ten minutes, 15 minutes walk of many city schools, and many city school yards can be very easily and inexpensively greened with a very small amount of infrastructure support. >> we need to consider all options, and this one is a time-tesd option. we know it works. the barrier istyot the difficf setup. it's adults just thinking slightly differently. we know-- we know that everybody has had huge amounts of stress, both parents and kids in this time and we think that the outdoor environment is the best place tb bring kids bacause it does have a therapeutic, calming, stress-reducing benefit. d so we want to be able to provide that effecfor kids to
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return. >> sreenivasan: a study by the kaiser family foundation found that nearly 1.5 million teachers in the u.s. are at greate of serious illness due to covid-19. recently, the american federation of teachers, the country's largest teachers' union, announced that it would support any local chapters that strike due to their schools reopening without proper safety measures. two weeks ago, i spoke with the union's president, randi weingarten, for our sister program, "amanpour & company."an here'n-aired portion of that interview where weingarten addresses school safety concerns and what must be done to make teachers feel comfortable returning to the classroom. so, at what point would you advise your union membernot to go into school buildings? to continue to teach, but from home?
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>> so, look, most of the districts at we are working with are starting-- are coming up with really smart se ategies, beca're workg on the front end to try tassure that schools or-- or education is both safe and we're meetg the needs of kids. if there are districts that are jeoparding the health and safety of children and of tehers in defiance of what parents want, in defiance of what teachers want, then nothing is off the table. but right now we're stiltrying to get it right. and so, you know, that's why we've been, you know, very much focused on "how do we engage p tarents and teachers se conversations? how do we follow the science?" fst in terms of community spread, spacing, resources. and-- and how do we get the resources? as school districts get closer and closer to starting date, nothing will be off the table
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except one north star, which is, let's make sure we are not jeopdizing the health and safety of children and of educators. >> sreenivasan: do you have an idea of how many of your members would fall into tee high-risk ries? >> yes, about-- kaiser family foundation actually projected that is about 25%. 20% of teachers arever 55. we knothat about 30% of principals are over 55. but, you know, we knowesjust like theof the population, you know, lots of people have pre-existing conditions. the polling results that we t back that said, "if it's safe, if we have these, you know, physical distancing and masks and cleaning and ventilation, with a reasonable accommodation for those who need it"-- 76% of my members said, "yep, i want to make a difference in the lives
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of children. i know that it's in school, it's better than rete, and i'd be comfortable in that circumstance." sreenivasan: there's >> sreenivasan: so, finally, when does this end? i mean, we have epidemiologists saying tt this virus will become endemic. it will be like influenza. it will circulate through the human population over time. how do we prepare for this? how do we ma sure that teachers and students and everyone else has the confidence to walk back into school buildings? >>no so, you i think that tr sust, aence are going to be key. we're going to need to lift up exe amples of wh's safe. we're going to have to share that. we're going to need to-- to-- to hope that the scientists get to a vacci possible.ly as there's ts of things that we can do in terms of reimagining health system, what education
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needs to be, to-- to meet th needs of-- of individual ildren so many people during this period of time, have ensured that the country has been fed, the country has been protected, the country has been engaged. and so, one of the things that i, in-- in moments of darkness that i really relon is the essential good of working people in america. they want america to work. and i think that they are the ones, who, if do this step by step with safety very much key in our mind, embedded in our mind, then we can see a way of moving through this crisis and reaching and meeting the needs of our kids, as we must do. >> sreenivasan: randi weingarten, president of the american federation of tesohers, thankuch for joining us. >> thank you.
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>> sreenivasan: since the may, legislators aiceyd back in departments have moved to ban the use of neck restraints, which has long been contrersial. one of the country's largest law enforcement ageies, the severely restricted the technique back in 1982 after the use of neck resaints by police caused a wave of deaths. los angeles cardiologist dr. richard allen williams recalls an unsettling phone call that ultimately contributed to the change in police policy. his story part of the kcet series, "i was there" >> my name is dr. richard allen williams. i'm a cardiologist. and i'm on the faculty at u.c.l.a. school of medicine, where i've been for 45 years. i want to take you back to the year 1982, when i had received a
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call from a. police chief dary sl gates, whiprised me. chief gates was a very forceful and aggressive police chief. he actually established what one might think of as a militarized poliarce deptment. so, on weekends in particular, he would send 500 or 1,000 peifle into spec sites of l.a., and the police would simpoply descend upon these who were out in the street at nightes, and start mass a, bring them in, and lock them up. >> aggreive doesn't mean the use of force. aggressive means tt we move into crime situations and deal with them. ere he got my number from, but in any event, he said, "i'd like to discuss ad very delicateal manner with you." and chief gates asked me if i could verify the fact, or according to him, the fact thatf
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rican americans were very susceptible to chokeholds because they had aanatomical defect in their necks. and so he was suggesting that blacks were not normal in regards to their neck anatomy, and that therefore it was their fault that they were dying. not the fault of the police. agree with him.f i would and i told him, "no, chief gates, i don't agree with that. i think that this is something the real reason is that there were morehokeholds being plied to blacks. over a period of a few months, 16 men wo were taken into poliro custody died f chokeholds, and 12 of those were african american, or black. there s a good deal of controverutsy in the city a
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this at that time. well, there actually were two cheholds. there was one that was called the bar hold, and then there was the carotid chokehold, which reduced the blood flow to the brain and caused the individu to pass out and die. >> andhen these holds are applied properly, it is our feeling that they are not life-thratening holds. >> ultimately, the l.a. police commission had decided to eliminate all chokeholds in the city of los angeles. and that'ifornia, there's anmb as bill which is-- is pending right now. if that passes and is signed, then the chokehold will no longer exist throughout california. but that's just one state. george floyd died from a chokehold with a knee to his neck from the pice. and ere was also the case of eric garner inew york city in
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2014, where the chokehold was apied. we are able to see racism live and up close, and this should propel us to do something definitive, and at this point, finally, to ecara that. i think elimination of the chokehold is the first step in that process. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, wilford brimley has died. e actor, known for his distinctive mustache, appeared in movies such as "cocoon" and "the natural, for nearly two decades, he was wfor nearly two decades, the face for quaker oats commercials. he was also a spokesperson for diabetes, a disease he was diagnosed with in the late '70s. he died saturd in utah, where he had been hospitalized for a kidney ailment, according to his agent.
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brimley was 85 years old. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. than for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >possible by:ur weekend is made sue enand edgar waim iii. the anderson family fund. rternd deanard nise s the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara he zuckerberg.
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charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in frt of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you me the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. asudditionaort has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for corporation funded by theate american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.
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(choir singing in foreign language) - [jeff] southern utah is like adult nature disneyland for me. it's where y di that connect them. the red rock, blue skies, and hidden canyons er'sream. but finding places that don't look liusy sunday swap tmeo sn a few shots can be tough in spots like this. unless you're willing to dch the crowds, embrace a small sense of adventure, and turn offighway, and into a place like cottonwood canyon.
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