captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday september 12: wildfires continue to burn in california and the pacific pand stop one on our "r"s to election 2020" series: the state next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. d. the anderson family f the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hopeuckerberg. charles rosenblum.

we try to live in the moment, to not misshat's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mciutual of america fin group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and with the presidential election just 51 days away, we're launching our "roads to election 2020" series. for the next eight weekends, leading up to the election, we'll be traversing the country to see what is on the minds of voters. as we ueconto practice social distancing, most of our coverailgebe virtual but the lehigh valley e today, from pennsylvania, we will be on

location. on this trip, we're looking fo frward to hearim viewers like you on the issues that are at the forefront of your communities' concerns. we'll start our ro trip reporting right after today's news summary today's lower winds gave firefighters a bett chance against wildfires raging across the west which have killed at least 26 people sinceid- august. in oregon, seven people are confirmed dead but dozens more are missing. a top state official said they are preparing for a possible" mass fatality event." tens of thousands of people ha been evacuated and more than one million acres have burned. south of portland, oregon, two of the biggest fires-- are expected to merge. they cover morthan 300,000 acres and are 0% contained. in california, more than two dozen major fires are burning after the hottest august on record. fithve o20 largest fires in the state's modern history are burning right now. governor gavin newsom surveyed the damage from the north

complex fire yesterday, which has killed nine people and said the fires are clear evidence that climange needs to be taken seriously. >> i'm a little bit exhaustedat e have to continue debate this issue. this is a climate damn emy. this is real and it's happening. this is the perfect storm. it is happening in unprecedented ways, year in, year out. >> sreenivasan: across the u.s., every state is contito port new cases of covid-19 with more than 47,w infections added yesterday according to the new york times. the average number of cases per day is down 17o over the past eks. deaths from covid-19re also declining but yesterd24 people died from the disea s in the unittes. globally, johns hopkins million cases since thehan 28 coronavirus pandemic began anr e than 916,000 deaths. today marked the beginning of

peace talks between the afghan gornment and the taliban insurgency--opposing sides in a war that haengulfed their country for almost two decades. the talks are being hosted by the country of qatar, where thea ban have a political office. u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo attended today's opening ceremonies. pompeo urged both sides to overcome their divisions and warnectd that the connd choices made at the peace talks could affect u.s. aid to afghantan. the issues on the negotiating table include a permanent ceasefire, the disarming of tens of thousands of militants, and thmee rights of and minorities, who faced oppression while under taliban rule 20 years ago. >> sreenivasan: we're here in rthampton county, pennsylvania, a county president trump flipped in 2016 and hopes toin again in vember. both presidential candidates and their running mates have been campntaigning freque here in

pennsylvania and in other battleground states where voters are closely divided and issues like healthare and the economy can be the tipping point that decides their vote. newshour weekend's christopher booker has more. >> reporter: the apollo grill has been a fixturennn bethlehem, lvaniafor over 20 years. but like restaurants around the country, the coronavirus forced the small business to shut its st spring. takeout orders and a paycheck protection program loan provided a life line, but the money ran out in eight weeks. since june, owner rachel griffith has beenble to reopen her restaurant under the outdoor dinialng guidelines, bringin of her staff back, for now. >> we've been very lucky that we ve had some nice weather and we've been able to expand our outdoor dining. without that, we would be in big troubt le. th looking forward, what's going to happewhen the weather ts colder? >> repr:oruch uncertainty for a small business owner has becomeommonplace in america.

but griffith's concerns are perhaps just a bit more consequthential a2020 presidential race enters its final phase. while penylvania has long been a sought-after electoral prize, both presidential candidates have been trying to convince voters that they are better suited to revitalize an economy battered usby the coronav pandemic. and nowhere in pennsylvania is that more contentious than here in the lehigh valley, a swing area of northeastern pennsylvania that includes the towns of easton, allentown, and bethlehem. what holds theost weight for voters in 2020 here in the lehigh valley? >> health care, you know, separate from e pandemic. economic issues are always there, economic and jobs. >> reporter: chris borick is and director of the muhlenberg college institute of public opinion in allentown. >> even wh the economy seemed to be, by most macroeconomic indicators, sailing along earlier this year, when we asked peoplebout the number one issue that they were looking for would tell us econmic issues. >> reporter: but this region is no stranger to hard times; th

area is known for being the home of bethlehem steel. >> reporter: so, when we think of u.s. stl, this is-- this is it. >> well, thiis a big part of . all throughout the 20th century, a good portion of it was based right here for four and a half miles along the river. >> reporter: don cunningham is the president and c.e.o. of the lehigh valley economic development corporation, and was the mayor when bethlehem steel shut down its last local fac.tory in 19 >> we had spent a lot of time talking about what we needed to the city to move forward. but there's still nothing like when that phone call com and you ovlearn that it', that the plant's going dark and the last jobs are-- are-- are done. >> ...and open hearthg are grow to feed the mills. >> reporter: bethlehem steel had employed 31,000 local workers at its peak, which had dwindled to wast over 1,000 by the 1990s. cunningham didn' bethlehem to become anotr company town left to rust.

>> and there are enrogh examples pennsylvania and the rest of the industrial belt of northeast and midwest o towns that have just-- had just kind of stayed stuck in its past. we wanted to ensure that we didn't do that and-- and people reacted to it, resnded. >> reporter: but the sight of downtown bethlehem contradict the story of the lehigh valley. yes, the end of steel hurt, but the region had a backstop-- the medical industry and higher education, commonlydalled "meds eds." with three hospital systems and a dozen colleges and unsiives, po-steel life hasn't been nearly as painful as it has been for other areas who saw their industries disappear. >> wre better off today without the steel company tn we were. we have a more diverse economy, cleaner air, cleaner water. while it's a proud part of our history, economically, we're better today than we were 50 years ago, and that's something nobody would have believed at that time.

>> repoforter: parhe region's success is due to companies like flexicon, an equipment manufacturerhehat moved toehigh valley in 2001. dave boger is an executive vice president of the companve why did you rom new jersey to pennsylvania? availability of land, location of curre employees, and we decided that pennsylvania was a good home for us. >>le reporter:con creates manufacturing equipment for companies in 77 different industries, and during the pandemic their work was deemll essential, aing them to retain their 235 employees. >> we need to keep people fed. we need to keep producing hand sanitizer. so, a lot of those-- and not only just the equipment itself, but it's the parts to supply the machines and systems that we already have out in the field. so, it really was essential for us to remain open. >> reporter: the lehigh valley hacome a booming region with a gross domestic product of

$41 bill 300,000 people.re than manufacturing companies like flexicon account for 34,000 of those jobs, but the biggest sector is healthcare, which has only grown during the pandemic. >> we're going to be expanding our current facilities. t--his will be one of the buildings that we'll expand in, yes. >> reporter: and this is all for the coronavirus test. >> it is completely. >> reporter: stephen tang is the c.e.o. of orasure, which normally makes h.i.v. tests. t>> ss is our oraquick product platform. it's currently used for h.i.v., hepatitis-c and ebola. you read in under an hour by yourself, it means that you are positive for covid-19. so, the benefit t, it's rapid. you can administer it to yourself. you get a result witho any strumentation or laboratory personnel. so, our goal is toe able to test anybody anytime and anywhere. an>> reporter: who went to school at lehigh university, says the area has changed

dramatically since he s a student decades ago. >> you see a complete revitalization in those city centers. bethlehem, easton, allentown in particular, has really transformed itself. so, i think tt's-- that's go clearly for the economic health and-- and the cultural health of the region, and it's still maintained by a vast meds andno eds ec engine. >> to all the people of pennsylvania, i say we are going to put the miners and the factory workers and the steelerwoback to wo. we're bringing our companies back. >> ret porter: buspite the economic transformation, president's trump's call to "make america great again" by bringing jobs back, like those lost in the steel industry, has resonated. one of the region's two counties flipped in the 2016 election teom obama to trump. is it a mthat the message that the lehigh valley had diversified is not reaching everyone? or is it a matter that large grobeups of people arg

overlooked by this new economy? >>you know, even in 2016, for example, if we looked at anything, by most indicators, the valley was doing pretty well. you ow, housing prices were going up, you kn, the economy s good, unemployment was pretty low, andhe president's message still resonated even in that time. so, you might ask, well, what w it in the kind of the broader economic landscape of t that?gion that allowed some of those med- and ed-driven gavains't been shared equally, and some of the folks that might, oh, years ago had stronger buying power through their-- through their manufacturing jobs could feel that they've been left behind. >> reporter: and these are the voters that both president trump and former vice president joe biden are courting. in july, biden made one of his first in-person appearances since the start of the pandemic, near his hometown of scranton. president trump has gone on the offensive in the region, as

well, making campaign stops in biden's home county. a rgcent morning call/muhlen college poll gives biden a four- point lead in pennsylvania but shows northeastern pennsylvia, which includes the lehigh valley, as trump's biggest area of support with a 61- to 28-poies lead. the ent, as everyone knows, ran on the idea of bringing jobs back and resurrecting older industries. and i'm curious how that message actually resonated then and how and if it still resonates four years later. >> it's-- it's fascinating. one of the things i most-- you know, as you look back at 2016 and althe president's rhetor devices, the tropes that he turn to in places like the lehigh valley or in on, you know. and he's up in scranton, he's talking about return of the coal industry. the coal industry hasn't been there in 75 years, but it sounds great. you me that pitch in the lehigh valley. "hey, we're going to bring steel back." steel hasn't largely been here in a quarter of a century at any-- at any level. it wasn't coming back for

vaous macroeconomic reasons, but it still was a pitch to individuals that might have hearkened to different days, different types of lifestyles. now, we'll see in the midst of economic turmoil just how erwerful that message may be in 2020 and how dit it might be received. >> reporter: but like so much of the amnoerican e, economic health may well be in the eyof the beholder. do you feel confident in the economy or are you worried? >> i feel good about it. i think that we were in a position where, yo tknow, a lot es you have an economic doturn, and there might be either aie v of reasons or reasons are de and varied and have more, i don't know, economic factors associated with the decline. this is pretty monolithic. thersewas one thing that c the chan shift in-- in the need for

people to produce goods. so, i'm optimisc. >> reporter: but this optimism i not being felt by everyone. >> you know, thustry is-- is suffering severe, severe difficulties right now. i mean, literally-- and i'm quoting another restaurateur here when i say this-- "we are on life support." >> reporter: how do you think this changes or challenges how people are feeling about the election that's coming? >> i'm not really sure. where-- where people feel their faith can be. you know, i mean, we are-- we have been relying on our government to guide us and support us and to be there for us, especial. but i don't necessarily feel that the american people feel that we ve that government behind us right now. >> sreenivasan: join us on our "roads to election 2020" by sharing with us the issues you want candidates to address i your state. send an email or a short video

to nhweekend@wnet.org. >> sreenivasan: for atre on the of play here in swing state pennsylvania i spoke with public media partner whyy's p roliticorter katie meyer. so, kheatie, how have demographics of pennsylvania been changing? and do either candidate-- does either candidate have a advantage? >> so, it's been getting less white, and so, specifically, ws e've seen notable increa the number of latino people livingn pennsylvania, the demographers will hem-- white non-college voters, which is a large portion of president trump's base-- has been declining in pennsylvania, and that, of course, translates into differences in how pare voting. but i always like to couch that in that new immigrants to the u.s., which is what we're seeing in pennsylvania, it takes time for those populations to start voting in great numbers. and so, that is always something wher se these demographic shifts, but they don't translate

right away into changes in how the electorate behaves.>> reenivasan: so, how have the campaigns positioned themselves? messages to try to make sure that their base of registered voters does show up? >> in joe biden's case, you know, he grew up in scranton. he left when he was 10, but it is really big part of-- and always has been a big part of his political sitioning of himself. so, you know, you saw in 2008 when predent obama introced him at the d.n.c., he called him the "scrappy kid fromtcranton," ant's a line that they still use today. and so, that, you know, is notabpole symbolitioning for biden. scrantf on also was sort the of an area where trump d really well in 2016. so, that's northeastern pennsylvania. traditional, it had been a center of union support, you know, nylortheast pennia d western pennsylvania. you tended to see that strong

working class, historically blue areas, and trump made really big inroads there. so, for his part, he is also trying to, one, discredit biden's pennsylvania roots a say, "you know, i am the peon who you voted for in great numbers in 2016." and, you know, he wants to maintain that level of support. so, for trump, it's about sort of shoring up margins in areas like the sort of more working class, northeast and western parts of the state, and also inu thrbs outside of philadelphia and pittsburgh,ea where he did okay but not as well as other republicans have done. and so, those are ing to be really big factors. can he get more support in those areas where he did well? can he get better support in areas where he was a little bit more middle? >> sreenivasan: i'm s suming that jare on top of mind for people in pennsylvania, especially after the cos.naviru have they feltf?economy doing?

>> i mean, jobs had beenpeop of mind isylvania for a long time, and not just because of the coronavirus. we're a state with a channg onomy. so, you know, for decades, manufacturing has been in declieaneere, andy nothing has risen to take its place. one of e biggest and most you know, consumer services,, customer service, an those are ofbs that don't pay very well. so, you'll see joe biden sang things like "we need to raise the minimum wage, we need to strengthen unions in this state." whereas you see trump saying, "i'm going to bring back mining and manufactu" and pointing to a couple specific examples of factories that have either come o pennsylvania or are still in so, certainly jobs is a big, big issue. >> sreenivasan: katie myer from whyy, thanks so much. >> thank you.

>> sreenivasan: every year, the .s. open tennis tournament typically draws hundreds of thousands of spectators to the blijean king national tennis center in flushing, queens. but this year, as with many other sporting events, there will be no fans in the stands wh'sen the womnd men finals take place this weekend. i recentlspoke with michael dowse, c.e.o. of the u.s. tennis association, about this year's to-1nament and how the covid pandemic is impacting the growth of the sport. in the pandemic, are more people niaying teis? >> yeah, hari, tis actually one of the sports that's coming out of the pandemic stronger than ever. we know last year, bas market research and data, that tennis since spring 2019. we know thisear, just over 10% of the population's playing tennis. so, everyone's finding tennis is perfect that, you know, it provides the social activity everyone missed over t last

few months, physicalctivity; it's also intellectually mpimulating and, maybe most itantly is, it's a lot of fun to play tennis. >sa> sreeni so, what happens to, i guess, the business of tennis? i mean, we're coming off of the u.s. open here, which doesn't hadsve anybody in the st i mean, that has to impact your revenue. >> yeah, there's a couple of components to the-- kind of the economics of tennis. specific to the u.s.t.a it's challenging. our revenue, or net operating inctoome, is goine down 80% this year without fans in the gate or our sponsor revenue that we generate here on site. but having said that, you know,w ere fortunate enough. we still have reserves that weable to nearly match last year's total compensation. and more importantly, we can continue to ndur mission, which is to promote and grow the sport. and we've contributli over $50 m this year to that grassroots initiative. >> sreenivasan: how are the playedarsing? is this easier for a player to play in an empty stadium? >> it's been a real mixed bag, hari. honestly, some of the players i thinkth are struggling withou

fans behind them, where others have been able to focus and dial in more. so, it's really been a mixed bag. and frankly, it probably goes back to whether they're winning or losing, their commentand their feelings about it. >>an sreenivwhat kind of precautions did you take, and how did it work? >> the precautions he been unbelievable. i was looking at some numbers today. we've been in this controld environment just under four weeks. we had over 12,000 tests, and we've actuay had no positive tests during the u.s. open. we had a couple of positive prior to the u.s. open. we've actually-- a statistic that blew me away, we do daily health checks-- we've taken over 49,000 daily temperature ecks over the last 30 days. so, again, out of an abundance of caution, we'rthrowing everything we can at it through these daily health checks, testing, et cetera. >> sreenivasan: what do you think the key was? because it seems, for the n.b.a. or the n.h.l., it's to keep everybody in a bubble. >> essentiay, that's what we

have. we call it a contained environment. our environment's a little different than the n.b.a. in that we have players coming in from over 60 different countries. isolate them for two weeks before they started competing. so, that's where we worked closely with the stand of new yorkur medical experts to devise a testing system that would catch a positive testal right away anw us to isolate it and prevent any type of breakout. and, h knock on wood, wo days to go, it's been working wonderfully. >> sreenivasan: michael, while it is hegreat to watch some of greatest tennis players wift tournament aer tournament, inso ways, it gets a little boring, and you want to see who's coming up. this open, the way that it's happened, we're actually seeeng some new t >> oh, it's exciting. before semifinals on the men's siof, nonhem have won a grand slam the past. so, we will have a new champion at the grand slam coming out of this tournament. on the women's side, we've seen equallyber of new players coming into the semifinals. so, it's an exciting time for tennis and a lot of new players,

kind of a changing of the guard, for that matter. >> senivasan: so, how do you make sure th tennis becomes more accessible, that we're able to find talent that a 10-year-old today that might noe onsidered tennis as an opportunity or a possibility for themselves? >> yeah, we call it player development. ultim development is getting more players. if we have a million new players playing in our sport, or a million new children playing our sport, then you'll see ahat many morericans competing at the highest level. but our mission is all about promoting and growing the sport, and that's constantly what we're doing. we ve7 sections throughout the united states reaching outpo to diverslations to attract, engage and retain new people to our sport on a daily basis. >> sreenivasan: all right, michael dowse, thanks so much. >> thank you, hari.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend from the lehigh valley in pennsylvania e'll continue our coverage from here tomorrow. for the latest ne updates visit www.pbs.org/newour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored bwnet captioned by gbedia access group at wgbh access.wh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: d sue gar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation charles rosenblum. the jpb foundation.

we try to live in the mo mnt, to ns what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of muday. tual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 cears, consumer ular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans,ednd our u.s.-bustomer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provideby: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a privaton corporaunded by the american people and by coributions to your pbs station from vieu.rs like thank you. you're watching pbs. - [narrato this program was made possible

by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank yomo - th common thing that i personally have heard from a musicusxec is that i was tooal. "dumb your stuff down so that the masses can digest it." and as a creative, that's jail to me. (upbeat music) - [amna] hi everyone, this is beyond the canvas each week, we'll feature stories of artists and creators whose work inspires us every day, and in this episode, it's all about the music. ♪ so many girls i see are wild and lovable ♪ now, you just heard from the songwriting duo louis york, who spent the first half of their careers behind the scenes