judy: good evening. i am judwoodruff. on the "newshour" tonight -- breakdown. a chaotic first presidential debate punctuates an already contentious election and raises questions about the road ahead. then -- fanning the flames. the consequences of the president's response to questions about white supremacy. plus -- justice in art. we travel to philadelphia to witness how an unexpected partnership is changing lives. >> to be out here today and to be walking in the sunshine is an amazing experience. it's almost surreal. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪

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tonight about what happened last night in cleveland. it was billed as a presidential debate, but had all the civility of a children's food fight. amna nawaz begins our extensive coverage. amna: after a bruising first debate, campaigns were back on the trail and trading barbs. mr. biden: he did not have ideas or express a single plan about how to move forward. it was a national embarrassment. pres. trump: we are giving people what they want, law and order, which biden was not able to talk about because he would loses radical left followers. i do not think there are too many left. amna: the night before began with a social distance greeting but quickly devolved into chaos. moderator chris wallace's first question on the supreme court

vacancy set off the first back-and-forth. pres. trump: we won the election. elections have consequences. we have the senate and the white house and a phenomenal nominee. mr. biden: the issue is, the american people should speak. vote now. make sure you in fact let people know. amna: the president repeatedly sot to paint biden is a far-left candidate. pres. trump: if you say those words, you will lose all of your radical left supporters. they will dominate you, joe. you know that. mr. biden: i am the democratic party right now. pres. trump: mr. trump defended his pandemic response as the u.s. death toll crossed 206,000 lives. mr. biden: it is what it is because you are who you are. that is why it is. the president has no plan. pres. trump: if we would have listened to you, the country would have been left wide open, millions would have died, not

200000 and one is too much. amna: in up protest about police brutality, the president retued to his message of law & order. pres. trump: name one group that supports you. mr. biden: i am opposed to defunding police officers. they need more assistance. this is a president who has used everything as a dog whistle to try to generate racist hatred, racist division. mr. wallace: are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacist? amna: in one moment, the moderator asked him to condemn white supremacist, the president dodged. pres. trump: somebody has to do something about antifa and the left. this is not a right problem. amna: president trump spent much of the time tackling and interrupting the former vice president. the moderator struggled to maintain control. mr. wallace: i think the country would be better served if we

allowed both people to speak with fewer interruptions. i am appealing to youo do that. pres. trump: i am, too. mr. wallace: frankly, you have been doing more interrupting. amna: personal attacks punctuated the debate. mr. biden: you are the worst president america has ever had. pres. trump: i have done more in 47 months then you have done in 47 years. amna: building 2 a heated exchange after biden cited reports of the president calling military members losers. mr. biden: my son was in iraq. he spent a year there. he got the bronze star, the conspicuous service medal. he was not a loser. he was a patriot and i resent -- i am talking about my son, beau biden. pres. trump: hunter got thrown out of the military. he was thrown out, dishonorably discharged. mr. biden: that is not true. pres. trump: he did not have a

job until you became vice president. >> i was not impressed with the lack of decorum. amna: six voters from both -- from across the country came away feeling more frustrated than informed. >> to see the kind of behavior exhibited was very disappointing. >> very disappointed they were fighting with each other. they were very personal in some of their discussions, bringing family into it. >> i do not think either one was able to express any substantive point. it was all a rehash of things i had heard earlier. >> raise your hand if you feel like you have learned something. nobody learned anything new. amna: they issued a statement saying, last night's debate made clear additional structure should be added to the format of e remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues. vice president mike pence and

senator kama harris will debate on october 7. the next presidential debate is scheduled for october 15. for the pbs newshour, i am on the vase. judy: to give us a closer look at how both campaigns are moving ahead after last nights debate i am joined by yamiche alcindor and lisa de chardin. hello to both of you. you have been looking at some of the moments from this debate. give us a chance -- an idea where this race stands for both men. yamiche: the key moment that stands out is the one that both the biden campaign and trump campaign are focused on today and that is the president's refusal to condemn white supremacist out right. the president is defending himself and said he has been seeking to clarify and clean up his statements. he said he did not know who the proud boys we. he said what he met -- meant was

for white supremacist groups to stand away from the issues so law enforcement can do their jobs. that is not what he set on the debate stage yesterday, but the trump campaign has been messaging that today. he is saying he does not know who the proud boys are winning 2016 when he was asked to condem david duke, a former grand wizard of the kkk, he said he did not know who david duke was and it did not know anything about white supremacist groups. the biden campaign is seizing on the president's comments. saying it was a national embarrassment. joe biden said the president essentially should not have said the things he was saying. he also had his own message for white supremacist. he said cease and desist. the trump campaign will have to talk about this issue. that means they are not talking about what they want to be talking about, including the coronavirus, the economy, health care. this is putting the trump

campaign in a tough position. they are trying to message that joe biden is bad for black america and black communities, but so far he has a lead among black voters. judy: lisa, as we are hearing so much of the focus today on what happened last night is on the insults back and forth, the angry language. you have keyed in as well on important policy points that emerged between the two of them. lisa: let's do something completely crazy and talk about policy and problems in this country. embedded in the mud of that debate you could find some important policy differences. i want to start with the coronavirus itself. there was an important but very fast exchange i think summed up one of the differences between these men. of course there are large differences over how much credence they give to which

experts, how often they talk about the death toll and what is the reality of the situation. but the question is an approach going forward. there was an exchange where you heard president trump say people want their schools open, they want things to be open and former vice president biden responded, people want to be safe. that is an important policy difference that got lost in all the heat last night, which is the priority? is it the safety of american people or the economy? a big difference. another one is health care. huge issue for the biden campaign. it is something they talk about a lot. t's look at the differences. when you look at what vice president talked about, his plan is to expand obama and add the public option, a government run insurance plan people could choose if they wanted.

what you heard from president trump last night is obamacare is too expensive, unwieldy. when asked specifically for a replacement the president did not offer a plan. he talks more about prescription drug prices coming down. did not get specifics on how that would happen. another issue, pre-existing conditions. we heard from biden. lots of concerns. he named 100 million americans which experts believe are the group that has pre-existing conditions that could affect their conditions. president trump says there is too much concern for government, too much government entering the health care arena and said biden's plan would be in the direction of social suit -- socialism. is it a concern that government would go too far, as president trump was expressing. judy: staying with you and beyond the debate there was news

today, new talks between the parties about a coronavirus relief bill. tell us where that ended up. lisa: this will be quick. talks have restarted, there are some signs of hope, but also mitch mcconnell says they are far apart. we will keep watching. judy: back to you, yamiche. where do things go from here? yamiche: where things go is both campaigns will be messaging and trying to convince voters even with the food fight brawl they saw yesterday that that candidate,iden or trump is the person that should be elected to move forward and see this country through this pandemic. lisa brought up a point that is important. these covid-19 talks continue, and the white house is focused on a proposal. the president is continuing to work on this issue, but biden

says trump is doing things to distract from the virus. he said last night should be a wake-up call to americans to show what is at stake. he said he believes president trump is focused more on himself than the american people. i want to put up a chart. the pandemic continues to kill and infect americans to the daily coronavirus death in developed nations. this is the u.s. compared to modernized nations. in march and april the two lines, the purple is the u.s., they were on the same level. but as you have seen months go on april to september, the u.s. has higher deaths per millions. the president says we are doing well compared to other nations, but this chart shows just how bad the u.s. is doing when you compare it to other modern industrialized nations.

the u.s. is losing more people than many in the same position. judy: so important for us to remember that and keep track of it and report on it every day. yamiche alcindor, lisa des jardins, thank you. judy: it has happened before with president trump, stopping short of clearly denouncing far-right extremists and racist groups and sentiments when prompted. william brangham has our deeper dive into that exchange from last nights debate. >> this is the moment when the president was unwilling to criticize racist groups in america. mr. wallace: are you willing to condemn white suemacist and militia groups and say ty need to stand down and not add to the

violence in cities as we saw in kenosha and portland? pres. trump: i am willing to do that, but i would say almost everything i see is from the left wing, not the right. mr. wallace: what are you saying? pres. trump: i want to see peace. mr. wallace: so do it, sir. mr. biden: say it. pres. trump: what do you want me to do? who do you want me to condemn? proud boys? stand back and stand by. somebody has to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem. mr. wallace: the proud boys are part of a loose network of far-right, extremist, and racist groups in the u.s., many of whom have aligned themselves closely with the president and his policies. last night, "new york times" reporter mike baker tweeted that some "proud boys" had modified their logo to include the president's words: "stand back, stand by" -- seemingly taking them as their new motto.

leaving the white house today, president trump said he didn't know who the proud boys were, but he urged restraint. pres. trump: they have to stand down and let law enforcement do their work. william but last night was just : the latest example of the president's reluctance to clearly rebuke extremi, far right groups. in 2017, after clashes in charlottesville, virginia at a white supremacist protest, where a woman was murdered, he said this -- pres. trump: you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. william: just two weeks ago trump's fbi director, christopher wray, warned congress of the threat posed by white supremacists. >> the white supremacists are the largest chunk of their racially motivated domestic terrorists. dir. wray: yes, but let me also say that racially motivated violent extremists over recent years have been responsible for the mo lethal activity in the u.s.

william: also this month, brian murphy, an official in the department of homeland security, filed a whistleblower complaint, claiming that other senior officials directed him to downplay the threat of white supremacy "in a manner that made the threat appear less severe." the trump campaign pushed back, noting the president's new platinum plan for black communities, which touches on economic and health care issues, but also calls for the department of justice to treat the kkk as a domestic terror organization. former vice president joe biden addressed the remarks about the proud boys today mr. biden: my message to the proud boys and every other white supremacist group is, cease and desist. that's not who we are. this is not who we are as americans. william: biden has said the president's words about charlottesville spurred him to launches 2020 bid. he said mr. trump's rerks last night were "a wakeup call for all americans." for more, i am joined by janai

nelson from the naacp and by kathleen, historian at the university of chicago who studies the white power movement in america. thank you both for being here. kathleen, for those who had never heard of the proud boys until last night, can you tell us, who are they and where do they fit in the constellation of white power groups in america? kathleen: the proud boys are familiar to most of us from the unite the right rally in charlotteslle in 2017. that is the rally where this resurgence of the white power movement caught public attention and reentered our public consciousness for the first time in this cycle. it includes a wide varietyf activists ranging from the proud boys, interested mostly in public safety and activism and fight club get out the vote activity to grou with a mourn

of farias character, a host of people who have been described as lone wolf actors. william: the president was asked to denounce them, but instead said stand back, stand by. what does that mean? janai: even in the most generous interpretation in which some people argued he meant to say stand down -- he did not say stand down. the white power movement heard this as stand back, stand by these activists will take that to mean standby for further action. furthermore we know they heard it that way because this phrase has been incorporated into logo design and there has been a lot of activity around these words. it is also a paramilitary movement that has been amassing in militias, training in pellet

-- paramilitary camps, preparing to do violence for a long time. when they hear stand by many will hear a call to arms and further action. william: this is not the first time the president has been called upon to denounce groups like this. what did you think and here last night? janai: what i heard was a blatant attack on our democracy. the president with all the country and world watching, stood in solidarity with white supremacy. unlike his previous comments, he spoke directly to them. he told them to stand back and stand by and last night i believe we reached a tipping point in our country. we witnessed an alliance between elected head of state and a violent extremist organization on full display.

this is precisely how democracies unravel. the failure to condemn this heinous behavior creates a clear choice for voters about the america they want to live in. he revealed himself and his plan for this country in those statements. william: can you help us understand -- when the president talks like this, how does this language matter? does it change minds, does it swell the numbers in these types of groups? kathleen: absolutely. the danger is, a call to arms statement is like a bell you cannot unring. this movement has organized across decades if not generations and many activists are intent not only on things like poll watching and voter suppression, though that has been in the playbook for decades, but they are interested

in attacks on civilians and mass casualty events as a way of provoking civil unrest. these are serious, nothing we can ignore. not something we can casually gesture to and think there will not be consequences. if trump did not know who the proud boys are, that is a massive failure of his presidency. this is something his intelligence agencies have been concerned about. we have seen several whistleblowers leaving the fbi and dhs saying white power violence is the largest threat of domestic terror, saying we are seeing these huge upsurge is and rising wave of activity. the trump administration not taking action is in many ways as good as complacency and alliance. william: one of the concerns is what happens on the election and what groups like this might do to interact.

we know the president is calling for an army of people to show up and watch what happens on election day. is that is something you are worried about? janai: it raises significant concerns, harkens back to the rank history of voter intimidation and violence against black voters that undergirds this country's history. a lot depends on what else president trump does before this election and more importantly, whether other leaders remain silent. we have asked the legal defense fund, demanded the department of justice investigate the rise in white nationalist violence. that fell on deaf ears. the department of justice is not doing its job to investigate these crimes. we have to appreciate how very extreme the president cost conduct is. this is the first president in

70 years to publicly stand on the side of white supremacy and refused to denounce racism. despite how a president may have felt privately, this public refusal to denounce it is stunning and disturbing to say the least. we have to be vocal about the fact voter intimidation is illegal. it is illegal under the voting act of 1965, the kkk act and myriad laws. those who want to follow the perilous call to intimidate voters or obstruct the election should be forewarned there are many laws, an array of laws, that can be used to prevent them from harming our election and to prosecute them. william: i want to pick up on something with regards to the department of justice and the role that federal and law and --

local law enforcement play in this. we heard reporting that certain of these militia groups like the oath keepers and 3% or's have in some cases interacted and coordinated with local law enforcement. we know dhs is aware of this, the fbi. how serious a threat is that, this possible coordination between these groups? kathleen: this is an enormous problem. sometimes they present themselves as a neutral party and say they are there to keep order, enforce the law, but they can't enforce the law. they are not emboldened to enforce the law under any governance. we see things like militia men holding protesters so police can arrest them. we see problems like in charlottesville the governor of virginia said police could not enter to keep demonstrators safe

because the militias were more heavily armed than the local police. this is not neutral. the presence of people heavily armed has real impact in timid dating and the potential for further violence. william: thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. judy: for more on last bait that was unlike any we have witnessed or read about i am joined by dan balz, chief correspondent at the washington post, and sewell chan, the editorial page editor at the los angeles times. we welcome both of you to the newshour. dan, to you first. we have been covering politics for about the same length of time. i have never seen anything like this.

what about you? dan: i agree. i don't think anyone was alive today has seen anything like we saw last night. this is a presidency that has been unlike every other presidency, and so i guess we should have assumed that this debate would be unlike any that we had seen. the president set the tone. he decided that he wanted to make this a chaotic evening. joe biden was caught up in his wake. i think that, in the end, there were probably many, many people who turned this debate off, rather than sticking with it to the end. judy: sewell chan, i saw you were commenting on this debate last night. how was it different from what you expected? sewell: in a way, i did expect trump to come out swinging, and he delivered. the biggest concern that i had was the format of the debate. i felt sorry at times for the moderator chris wallace. one of the most dramatic moments

was when wallace asked the president directly whether he was going to abide by rules to which his camign had agreed. it seemed out of control. my fears are for viewers at home, whether they feel that the whole thing is so disgusting and so sad, that they just feel tuned out of politics altogether. judy: no question that is on the minds of many of us. you said the president set the tone. desi bear the main responsibility, do you think, for what happened last night? dan: i do. he was the aggressor. sewell said, we expected that to be the case. he was constantly interrupting, talking over vice president biden. he was not willing to abide by the rules that chris wallace was trying desperately to enfoe. i think you have to say he was responsible for the overall tone and tenor of it. people will judge his performance vs. biden's performance partly through partisan lenses and through other ways. but i think that you have to lay

this on the president of the united states for having decided, for whatever his reasons, that this was going to be the way he wanted to conduct the debate, and everybody else on the stage had to live with that. judy: and, sewell chan, how do you see the cause of it going off the rails? i know that some of the voters who my colleague amna nawaz talked with overnight were saying it was both candidates. they felt the entire atmosphere was extremely unpleasant. how do you see the cause here? sewell: i believe trump has the majority of the blame. he did more interrupting, as chris wallace pointed out, and his just general demeanor from the outset was one of aggressive confrontation. that said, biden was not innocent. he called trump a clown, called him a fool, called trump the worst president america has ever had, and at one point told him to shut up. i thought that that was exceptionally coarse and exceptionally troubling coming from a leader who's trying to project himself as more of a

statesman. i do think biden did manage to come across as calmer, more presidential. but, nonetheless, the level of discourse reached a new low yeerday. judy: dan, i saw in what you wrote today in the washington post, you called it an insult to the american people, a sad example of democracy. expand on that. what are you saying? dan: well, judy, we're five weeks away from what many people regard as the most important election in our lifetimes, and maybe longer than that. and this was the first opportunity for all of the country to see these two candidates on the stage together and, frankly, for the rest of the world to look at these two candidates. and, if you look at some of the commentary that has come from overseas, some of the newspaper reportage on the debate, and some of the punditry coming about the debate, what you see is people looking at america through a different lens, looking at america as a country that is totally inward-looking, incredibly divided, unable, in a

sense, to make its democracy work in an even mildly harmonious way. so i think that, in the overall tone and tenor of the debate, that was the view of a lot of americans who were also watching. so, i mean, these presidential commission debates that are run by the commission on presidential debates have served the country reasonably well. i know there are people who criticize this or that aspect of it. but these are events, three presidentials and one vice presidential, every four years in which the format is designed to let people make some judgments, both about where these candidates stand and who these candidates are. on where these candidates stand, we did not learn that much. on who these candidates are, i think we did learn a lot last night. judy: sewell chan, should the debates continue? i mean, is there more the american people can learn from

these debates? the commission is saying today it's going to change the rules in some way. what do you think? sewell: i think as senator kamala harris said yesterday, it's unlikely that vice president biden would choose not toarticipate. it will remain an important opportunity for him to communicate directly to the american people and the voters and he is unlikely to pass up on that airtime. that said, the commission on presidential debates has a monumental task in front of it. how do they devise the rules when you have one or more participants who don't want to play by those rules? i think, short of adopting an automatic kill switch to cut off the mic, or the moderator raising his or her voice, it seems very difficult. this is a norm-defying president, so it's no surprise that the commission's norms have been defied. i think the biggest question going forward is, what will the commission do, is the format adequate can it sustain this , level of deviation from the tradition? judy: dan, what about the basic

question, is there more to be learned through these debates and for the american people, should there be more debates? dan: judy, there is more to be learned, because, in most of the segments that chris wallace laid out last night, there was never a real discussion of the issues that he was trying to get the candidates to talk about. i don't think either candidate fully gave people an understanding of where they really want to take the country. the debate was too chaotic for that to happen. there is a lot people can learn, but only if both participants, and particularly the president, frankly, agree to tone it down some and have if not a civil debate a debate in which each , candidate has an opportunity to speak uninterrupted. i believe the commission is looking hard at this question of what do you do about somebody who interrupts all the time and can you cut off the microphone and whose responsibility should that be?

these are all very, very difficult questions when you you're dealing with an incumbent president, a former vice president who wants to be president. yes, there is much more to be learned, but only if the format and the candidates agree to make it happen. judy: sewell chan, what do you think the likelihood of that is? i realize this is beckley -- speculating. sewell: the commission on presidential debates is a nonprofit independent organization doing work since the late dan points out that, 1980's. generally, they have produced very high-quality events. i personally think they should be open to more radical changes in format, perhaps a longer debate, perhaps longer intervals of speaking time, perhaps multiple moderators, including people with really a policy expertise, because, let's face it, i mean, chris wallace, i think, was trying his best. it is hard to be a moderator if you are also trying to be a babysitter. judy: sewell chan, dan balz, we thank you very much. we will see what happens. ♪

stephanie: i am stephanie sy with newshour west. we will return to judy woodruff and the rest of the program after the latest headlines. more progress after the covid relief bill winding its way through congress. steven mnuchin said direct payments would be part of the new deal, but he also said the ginsburg two point2 $2 trillion package.2 democrats are proposing is too large. failure to reach a broad pandemic relief package has led to more pain in the airline industry. united and american are moving ahead with tens of thousands of employee furloughs beginning thursday when federal aid expires. they said they could recall the furloughs if congress strikes an agreement. several rulings came down today in favor of voting access. a federal appeals court in wisconsin refused to suspend a

ruling that lets absentee ballots counted up to six days after the election. a federal judge in indiana struck down a state law that said mail-in ballots must be received by noon on election day. there were similar victories for voting rights activists in montana and alabama. the elections chief in pennsylvania reported the discarding of nine military ballots was a mistake, not intentional fraud. president trump has repeatedly mentioned the incident. in the latest on the fight to fill the supreme court vacancy democratic senators sent a letter to lindsey graham objecting to the timeline to consider president trump's nominee. the letter says they will not have time to adequately review judge amy coney barrett's background and question her. james comey faced a new grilling in a senate hearing on the trump-russia investigation. democrats pointed to problems on

reports to eavesdrop on carter page, former aide. comey said he was not -- defended the broader investigation. lindsey graham sharply disagreed. >> if it happened to us, it can happen to you. every american should be worried about this. this is not just on abuse of power against mr. paige and the trump campaign. this is a system failure. you could be next. stephanie: a justice department inspector general found no evidence of bias. in india a court acquitted all 32 people accused in a 1992 attack that destroyed a historic mosque. the structure dated to the 16th century. its demolition sparked a wave of violence that left 2000 dead. hindu-nationalist leaders will acute -- were accused of

inciting the violence. muslim organizations say they will challenge the verdicts. a federal judge in california block fee increases for citizenship, and related procedures. the jge found the hikes cannot be enforced because they were issued by an acting security -- the nomination goes to the full senate. boeing's 737 max jetline a step closer to getting back in the air. hundreds of their planes have been grounded since march of 2019 after two crashes which killed nearly 350. steve dixon took a two hour evaluation flight near seattle and reported progress. >> we are going to make sure the progress -- process is completed. we will be demanding on those we regulate, but we will be fair.

i completed a number of test profiles today to examine the functionality of the aircraft. i liked what i saw. stephanie: the faa has come under criticize him -- criticism. >> of earning a government shut down at midnight. it means congress must return in a lame-duck session after the election to pass a new funding bill. australian born singer helen reddy has died in los angeles six. days after the election. -- los angeles. she was 70 eight years o. califoia burning, how the saga of wildfires is devastating lives. searching for justice, why art may be the answer to help fight

crime in philadelphia and much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios and walter cronkite university. judy: in northern california, wildfires are again devastating wine country, destroying dozens of homes, burning thousands of acres and killing at least four people this week. more than 8,000 wildfires have already killed at least 29 people in the state overall this season. the fires have destroyed more than 7,000 buildings, burning nearly 6,000 square miles. stephanie sy has the latest. stephanie: in napa and sonoma counties, the nights are lit up with huge flames. firefighters in some cases battle blazes house by house and are confronting a fire that quadrupled in size in less than two days. there's been little relief for

more than 2,000 firefighters involved in the effort and not much progress yet against the glass fire. it broke out sunday and quickly merged with two other fires. the zogg fire to the north in shasta county has consumed another 50,000 acres. tens of thousands of people have evacuated and at least 80 homes have been destroyed in the glass fire. >> it's a very sobering thing to find out that all you have worked for and all of that your parents have worked for in a moment is gone. >> we lost our home. home, where we go and where we get together. stephanie: some residents have stayed to try and save their homes. today, authoritiesarned evacuees not to return too quickly. >> i just want to remind people that the evacuated zones are dangerous. there is still active fire. there are trees falling without warning. there are power excuse me

power poles that are down, wires on the ground. stephanie: some, like laura colgate and her husband, have been fortunate. their home survived, but their neighbors have not been so lucky. >> it was so surreal, and we had no idea the house was still there. so, when we drove up and saw the house, we were kind of like, oh, my god, this is a miracle. but just looking at everything else, none of the neighbors were left, the lady across the road here gone. all these people's things were gone. i mean, it was just like pure devastation. stephanie: sonoma and napa communities already have been grappling with major wildfires this summer. >> this is a slow-moving, creeping fire, if you will, at this point. but it is literally on our doorstep. stephanie: that's chris canning, the mayor of calistoga. his entire city of 5,000 residents is under mandatory evacuation. he says the winds have died down. >> no wind is good, but no wind is also bad, because it doesn't allow the smoke to clear, which doesn't allow air tanker support to come in at this point. stephanie: talk about the fire

behavior you are seeing. is there anything any more concerning about this year's season than last year's or 2017's? i mean, the last four years have all been bad. >> they have. and every year, unfortunately, seems to get worse and worse. and we're setting new records. this year, our fire season started very early. first week of september, we had our first significant fire out here. here we are again. it's not even october, which is traditionally the fire season, our peak of fire season, if you will. and these fires are faster, larger. stephanie: this part of northern california suffered devastating personal losses and property damage back in 2017 from the tubbs fire, 22 people were killed in one of the most destructive fires in california history. >> when our house burned down in 2017, it seemed like the kind of firestorm disaster that might happen every 50 or 100 years. stephanie: brian fies is an artist and writer whose home in santa rosa burned down in that

fire. he wrote a graphic novel about thatxperience, and had just rebuilt his house when john yang visited him in 2019. despite anxious moments in this past week, he does feel safer in his current house, which was built with new codes in place. >> i still think rebuilding was worth the risk for us. and our new house is sort of a testament to that. i'm not going to say it's fireproof. nothing is. but i think a repeat of 2017 in my neighborhood is unlikely, although i wasn't that confident last sunday night, when i was packing up in case we needed to evacuate. stephanie: scientists say climate change is making conditions ripe for larger and more intense wildfires. forest management practices have also left too much fuel for the fire. but people continue to bui in areas that abut wildlands. fies says the events of just the past years are leading some people to rethink their assumptions. >> a lot of our neighbors and friends are talking about trying

to find somewhere safe. but with climate change safe and , risk are moving targets. where is safe? >> people can have the debates they want to have about climate change. we are experiencing it firsthand. this is not normal, but it's becoming repeated year after year after year. we have to make changes. stephanie: firefighters have their work cut out for them, as the forecast calls for winds to pick back up, along with hotter temperatures over the next several days. for the "pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy. ♪ judy: we look at the culmination of an unusual project exploring the criminal justice system through art. jeffrey brown traveled to philadelphia where this unexpected partnership played out. i know, parts of the story were shot beforthe pandemic. it is part of our searching for

justice series and our ongoing canvas arts and culture coverage. >> portraits of people on all sidesf the criminal justice system prosecutors, victims' , advocates, formerly incarcerated individuals. they are the work of james hough. does it feel unusual to be taking a walk like this? yes, it does. >>yes, it does. to be out here today and to be walking in the sunshine is an amazing experience. almost surreal. >> in 1993 hough, then just 17, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. in 2012 the supreme court ruled such terms unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. hough was re-sentenced and, last year, after 27 years in prison, released. in january, along the city's "rail park," he showed us a large mural he'd helped design and create while in prison, a work he never thought he'd see in the outside world. >> when we began to work on

projects like these, they changed our lives. they showed us a different way. brought me peace, a different satisfaction. >> art helped change hough's life and brought him to a different side of the justice system. last november he was named "artist-in-residence" for the philadelia district attorney's office. it was a project believed to be the first of its kind and da larry krasner wasn't sure what to make of it when he originally heard the idea. >> at first i was confused because it was a new notion like what is that? i have heard of the arts, but this is also the prosecutor's office. it seemed like an interesting notion. the more i thought about it and spoke to people about it, it seemed like a good idea. >> krasner is no stranger to controversial ideas and approaches. a lifelong defense attorney and activist for criminal justice reform he was elected in 2017 as , the city's top prosecutor, vowing to change a system he sees as wasteful of human lives and public resources.

>> what i and we are all trying to do is get away from this very, very ineffective, entirely retributive system that does not make us safer, but gives us things like mass incarceration, does not fund our schools but funds a whole lot of prisons. we cannot solve all of our problems by locking people up, putting them in cuffs. it does not work. we know this. >>'s actions today, including seeking little to no prison time for some offenses have garnered wide attention, praise and plenty of opposition. but how does an artist in residence program fit in? >> he is a suspect. >> krasner cites culture -- movies, tv series, music -- taking on serious issues of criminal justice and, perhaps, changing hearts and minds. he sees the arts project as a new way to reach the public.

>> you said you wanted a lot of data. has anyone shown you the data lab? >> no. he was quick to insist there was no public funding involved. the money comes from an outside foundation. he vetted james hough -- his crime, his experience in prison and, of course, his art work. >> this is not propaganda. there is not necessarily an obvis message, something that's something that tells you what to do. to me there is a deep talent behind this and it was supported by 20 years of developing his artistic abilities. >> james began drawing and painting as a child, but it was in prison he became a serious artist, part of turning his life around. older inmates advised him, make this your university, not your casket. >> i felt like whatever i could do artistically would only matter in the larger sense, as a human being in a society, if i became a better person. >> in 2006, at the state correctional institution at

graterford, pennsylvania, he joined a program run by mural arts philadelphia a group known , for using public art to both beautify and address social issues in the city. hough and other inmates created works on fabric, that were later transferred to walls around philadelphia, like the one by the rail park, which involved help from prominent artist shepard fairey. it's called "the stamp of incarceration." jane golden is the founder of mural arts. >> there is something about redemption. i think art has a transcendent power and somehow it's lifted something for so many of our stakeholders. james will become a contributing member of our society. >> this year, hough spoke directly to many in and around the criminal justice system, some virtually and used those , interviews in creating the portraits. i asked what message he wanted to get across. >> individuals who commit acts

that destroy the public trust, that armand -- other individuals, there is a social price that must be paid for that. however, there is also a redemptive quality to human beings we can never forget exists. if we foreclose on that, we foreclose on our society. >> several of his portraits will be on display at the da's office and other sites around the city through october. for pbs newshour, i am jeffrey brown in philadelphia. judy: so important to be reminded of that. thank you. our september pick for our "now read this" book club was steven greenhouse's "beaten down, worked up," which traces the rise and fall of labor unions and the larger impact on american workers today. greenhouse, a longtime reporter for the new york times, recently spoke with jeffrey brown about the declining political influence of unions inhe united states. here is a brief excerpt.

>> here we are in the midst of an election. i wonder, when you look at this rough the lens of labor history and where we are with labor and unions, wh is your political analysis? one of the big reasons trump won is that he won wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania by a whisker. i explained in my book union membership -- if union membership in those states had not declined so much, he likely would have lost all three states and thus the presidency. a lot of union members supported trump. trump promised them change, said he would turn things around. a lot of union members i have been speaking to our disappointed wages have not gone up much. income inequality has continued to get worse. the pandemic has not been handled well. unemployment has gone through the roof. people in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, minnesota, unions

are much more active. judy: that was author steven greenhouse speaking with jeff. you can find the full conversation on our website, pbs.org/newshour. our october selection will look at another subject on the top of many americans' minds amid the pandemic, ildhood education. journalist paul tough, who has done extensive research on this topic, will join us to discuss his book, "helping children succeed," as thousands of students adapt to a remote learning environment. we hope you'll read along with others on our website and facebook page for "now read this," our book club partnership with the new york times. that is the newshour for tonight. i am judy woodruff. join us online and again tomorrow evening. from all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, stay safe and weill see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years consumer

cellular's goal has been to provide cellular service for people to connect. our u.s.-based customer service team can find a plan that fits you. >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that is fidelity wealth management. >> johnson and johnson. financial services firm raymond james. bnsf railway. the ford fndation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoingupport of these individuals and institutions.

♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and for contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> this is pbs newshour west, from weta studios in washington and our bureau at the walter cronki school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪

lidia: buon giorno. i'm lidia bastianich.

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