captiong sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition president trump says he's clear to hit the campaign trail. a look ahead to confirmationor hearingsupreme court nominee amy coney barrett. and mobile outreach: a valble lifeline during covid-19. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend iibmade possle by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. cbernard and denisertz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. kl the leonard and normfine foundation. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment,

to not miss what's right i u front of at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the st of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. oueu.s.-based customer serv team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.t additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private co oamerican people. the and by contributions to your s station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. proident trump claimed with medical evidence that he is now immune to covid-19 as he prepares to head out onto the campaign trail again starting tomorrow. last night, the white house physician dr. sean conley released a memo with "the permission of president donald

j. trump" that was short n details, writing that after ten days "from symptom onset" the present was "no longer considered a ttonsmission risk thers." dr. conley wrote that with an assoment of advanced diagnostic testing "there is no longer evidence of actively replicating virus." the lnters for disease contro and prevention recommends thaitt patientssevere forms of covid-19 may need to isolate for upy'o 20 days, but dr. cons latest update came only nine days after the president publicly announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus,d st five days after being released from the hospital. this morning, president trump spoke by phone with fox news. >> i passed the highestest, the highest standards, and i'm in great shape. >> sreenivasan: about an hour later mr. trump tweeted "a total and complete sign off from white house doctors yesterday. that means i c't get it, immune, and can't give it." there is still no edence the president has tested negative for the virus and no scientific

reseo back up his immunity claim. pl. trump is scheduled to appear in-person at mulcampaign rallies in florida, pennsylvania and iowa this week. his rallies come aquestions about his finances and tax payments continue following "new york times" reporting based on mr. trump's tax returns from recent years. yesterday the "times" reported that "over 200 companies, special-interest groups and foreign governments" have patronized trump propertiese w"reaping benefits from him and his administration." in texas, e legal battle over voter cess to drop-off ballot boxes continued today.an ppeals court issued a stay last night, stopping a judgement made late friday that would have allowed more than one ball drop off box per county. october 1, governor greg abbott ordered that each county in texas would have only one ballot drop off box. the friday ruling against thate order said sinop off boxes would create voter confusion. texas attorney general ken

paxton then filed an emergency motion which was granted. appeals are expected, but the governor's order will stay in place until a higher court can rule on the matter.a ivate security guard is being held as a suspect in a fatal shooting during protestsy yesterin denver. thguard was working for a local television station as its crews covered a so-called" patriot rally" organized by right-wing protesters and ate counr-protest event called" black ves matter antifa soup drive." the shooting reportedly occurred as the events were ending and a patriot rally demonstrator sprayed ce in the direction of the guard, who then fired his handgun. therprotester died shortly a being taken to the hospital. as of this afternoon, no charges had been filed against the tcurity guardwho was no affiliated with eier protest. to worsen in several countriess today, and in the united states outbreaks are growing in the upper midwest and in the northeast, where there are concerns about a resurgence of coronavirus cases.

the u.s. now has me than 7.7- million confirmed infections and more an 214,000 people have died from the disease according to johns hopkins university. globally, there are more than 37-million cases and more than one million deaths. today india recordedore than seven million cases, making it the second highest after the u.s. despite the numbers, india's government continues to push for reopening of public transportation, markets and public spaces in an effort to improve its economy after recent lockdowns. in israel protests against coronavirus restriions and against the prime minister benjamin netanyahu contind yesterday despite a new law banning demonstrations more than half a mile from protesters' homes. the government says the law is med at curbing covid-19 infections, but critics say it lits freedom of speech. armenia and azerbaijan are blaming each other for vlating a temporary cease-fire that went into effect yestdawith renewed fighting overnight over nagorno-karabakh.an enclave of

a residential building was destroyed and officials in azerbaijan said at least nine civilians were killed and dozens were wounded. special correspondent simon ostrovsky has been reporting inu the region witort from the pulitzer center and has the latest on the resumption of hostities ther >> reporter: it wasn't long beforehe cease-fire that came into effect at noon yesterday, had been broken. these arthe scenes in the self-declared nagorno-karabakh republic where ethnic-armenian forces, backed by troops from the republic of armenia, sayil mi sent by the central authorities of azerbaijan landed in a breach of the ceaseire. thankfully nobody was hurt in the attackere, t in the azerijani city of ganja a number of bodies were pulled from the rubble of a residential building. and the azerbaijani authorities are blaming the armenians for violating the cease-fire it was reported in international media. it's a worrying development in a conflict that has alread

claimed hundreds of lives and began on september 27 wi an azerbaijani offensive on areas that have been controlled by ethnic armenian forces since with the internati community consumed by global pandemic and bitter u.s. election campaign, the world seems to have turned its gaze away from the fighting here and put little real pressure on the twsides to bring a halt to the war. to bring the two so thethe most negotiating table, but efforts have so far failed. fighting for the latest national and international news visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: tomorrow the senate judiciary committee will begin hearings on president trump's nominee-- judgamy coney barret- to replace the late supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg. senators will speak r several hours before judge barrett makes her opening statement. her remarks were released today

and include her beli that government and not the courts should make policy and that the courts are "not designed to hsolve every problem or r every wrong in our public life"" for more about the nominee and what's ahead in the hearings i a spoke wi howe, co-founder oi "the scotus blog" who jned us from washington, d.c. amy, in any her world, the supreme court nomination would be front pagevabove the fold y day. passing of r.b.g.'s death, this story has gotten eclipsed by so many other this. what can we expect tomorrow? >> so, they're going to kick it th statements, introductions from indiana senators and from patricia o'hara, who is a former dean ofe notre aw school. and then we'll hear statements from judgearrett herself and from the senators on the senate judiciary committee. after that, they will move on to

questis for judge barrettrom the senators on the committee, which is really where the meat of the hearings will be. and then we'll hear teimony from legal experts and people from judge barrett's life supporting her nominion and probably some opposing her nomination. in>> sreenivasan: at this if anybody's watched any of the previous two nominationyo hearingshave the team that supports the justice. that party asks easy questions. and the team that opposes the nominee asks ver ones.cult given the composition of the senate, it's sort of foregone conclusion at this point. >> it certainly does seem that way. the republicans would need several senators to defect, and there's no sign ofinhat at this there are two senators, senator lisa murkowski of alaska and senator susan collins of maine, who had said that they wanted e publicans to wait and not vote on a nominee befe

election, but i don't think that either one of them has committed to not voting for judge barrett. so it does seem like she has the votes at this point. but at the same time, i think that there's going to be discussions. it's sort of an opportuny. it's a little bit of a civics party that is oppohe which the nominee in particular can use the senate confirmation hearings as an opportunitto, sort of, educate the public about the nominee. because, remember, unlike the senate, the supreme court proceedings are not televised.w, and right e're actually hearing them because of the pandemic live audio, but we don't see the supreme court in action, sort of. so we learn a lot more about this person. >> sreenivasan: if the senate and the president have their way, this nomination wraps up right before the election. wh are the big cases that e's going to face? >> there are two very big ones that she would face almost immediately. the day after election day, the supreme cot will hear oral

arguments in aase called "fulton versus city of philadelphia." balance between resabout the beliefs on the one hand, and anti-dcrimination laws, particularly anti-discrimination laws against l.g.b.t.q. people, on the oer hand. and it's a, sort of a second round of cases.f manyur viewers may remember from a couple of years ago a case involving a colorado baker who refused tocakes for a same sex wedng. and the supreme court in that case ruled for the baker, but in a very narrow way that didn't resolve the b question of how do you balance someone's religious beliefs against anti-discrimination laws? and so, the question is back in a caserought by catholic social services in philadelphia philadelphia, which won't now give contracts to catholicso al services because catholic social services won't work with foster care pares who are same sex couples. >> sreenivasan: hmm.

>> and the second one is a week after election day, and that is the challenge to the individuaof mandathe affordable care act. and that is a case that back i 2012, again, many of your viewers may remember, the chief justice, john roberts, joined the court's then four more liberal justices in upholding the individual mandate. a couple of years later, the congress changed the manda. they reduced the penalty for not getting health insurance to zero. and so, texas and some other so-called red states went to court, said, well, if there's no longer a penalty for not getting heath insurance, it can't b tax. and they said if the mandate's not constitutional, the affordable care act has to go with i and so, that is obviously a very consequential case that is going to be argued on november 10 at e supreme court. >> sreenivasan: onthing a lot of people are curious about is what if the election, similar tf 2000, ends up nt of the supreme court?

would she play a rolin that? >> i think that is definitely aa questionwe are going to hear asked at the hearings in a variety of different formulations, and i don't know s at her answer will be. i think that shekely to play a role. anand i think the presiden some republicans have suggested that that is, fact, a reason why we need a ninth justice on the supreme court in advance of the elections. certainly any litigation arising t of the elections isn't going to arrive on the supreme court on, you know, november 4, right. it would take a while to bubble up to the suprurt. but, sort of the broader question i think she is likely to play a role >> sreenivasan: amy howe, "the scotus blog." thanks so much. >> thanks for having m >> sreenivasan: yesterday, we brought you a story about the

pressures small and independent businesses in maine are under due to the economic uncertainty caused by the cor.avirus pandem that uncertainty has increased the need for social services, especially for the homeless, who, due to covid-19 restrictns, don't have the same access to resources as they did before. newshour weekend's christopher booker reports on what is being done to help fill in the gaps. >> reporter: meal preparation for the preble streeresource center in portland, maine, is a big production-- chopping vegetables, cooking s, assembling sandwiches by the hundreds. >> we're going to do over a million meals in 2020, which is mind blowing tus. >> reporter: a million meals in 2020? >> yeah, a million meals >> reporter: in their 35 years, the homeless and low-income support ceer has never had to make this many meals. mark swann is the executive director. i ean, we feel pretty good about keeping people from starving, but we are also soial workers. so, we're trying to get people, get the people who are sleeping outside into shelters, accessible shelters any way we

can. inwe are trying to find ho we're trying to offer eatment options for people with substance use disorder. we're trying to help people reconnect with families. but maine winters arharsh, and we got to do something right now to be ready. >> reporter: like every other organization during the pandemic, prebble street has had to make big changes. precautions against the coronavirus means the social welfare agency cano longer offer indoor meals in its soup kitchen, the social workers cane no longe with clients in their offices, and shelters have to decrease capacity. for the past couple months, the solution has come with this truck. at first pass, it's a food delivery service, but it's also providing a lifeline between prebletreet and its clients. >> we've always met people where they're at in a relationship and now we're meetople where they're at physically in the community, wherever they're at. >> reporter: ali lovejoys a social worker with preble street. >> we're addressing people's food insecurity, but we're also looking at all of the other needs that, that we have. w we have somebo comes up and says, "i don't have any-- ic don't have anylothes for this weather.

it's srting to get cold. can you help me find a coat? can you help me find dry socks?" >> reporter: with its mobile outreach, preble street provides clients with two meals a day, in the spring, preble street opened two new shelters, and they are currently trying to purchase another building, but swann expects they will need even more space-- as evident in the number of people visiting >> when food pantry numbers go up, it's usually followed pretty soon after by shelter numbers going up as well, as people will do anything to pay the rent, including scrimp on food little bit or go to a food pantry to help get a few days worth of food. but the rent is the last thing to go. and so, shelters need to be ready. >> reporter: and has that come to pass? >> is starting to. >> reporter: in april, maine's state housing authority started ogram to help mainers pa their rent. executive director daniel $20-million provided by the state is already gone. >> we received the lastti allo of coronavirus relief funds just a few weeks ago, and we've had to stop the program as

we head into october. we'rhoping tt there'll be more federal assistance coming from congress. >> reporter: the program r providtal relief to more than 14,000 households in maine. >> the need is big. we've had 125 applications a day average coming in. >> reporter: obviously, these are 125 applications. be head of household people. this isn't-- this isn't this could be 125 es. people, >> and usually, what, 2.5 people per family? >> reporter: bnnan says the pandemic exposed already existing problems. theraren't enough houses ine, mand the houses that are available are old-- which ironically are currently in high demand as eager buyersout of state scoop them up, putting an extra level of pressure on maine's w wage earners. there's a strange duality at play. se one hand, you have incr housing insecurity, but there with people moving from out ofom state. now that more and more peo rple can wootely, they're looking at places like maine and the portland area. because these are really attractive places. >> exactly. it was, it was a very strong housing market at the beginning.

you've got a record low interest rate environ more affordabilityt, butot at the same time, you've got a tremendous amount of demand coming in. >> reporter: this all happening moratorium on evicnds and financial support has ended. >> you know, some of the folks that we're in touch with who are renting apartments are people that used to be homeless, people that, you know, we used to work with, or maybe we still do, but theye been in housing for months or years. and now, because of circumstances, we expect to see some of those people coming bar through ors. >> reporter: absent another relief bill from the federal government, there is littlert nd, or the state of maine, will be able to offer in e nancial assistance. >> i understand essures on municipal and state and federal government, but this is a time to support people who have nothing se. you know, the most vulnerable people in our community.

>> sreenivasan: coinuing our "roads to election 2020" series, we turn now to the state of w minnesota,re a closelyss watched congnal race is heating up in a district that has been represented for 15 terms by a democrat, but voted overwhelmingly for donald ump in 2016. twin cities pbs reporter kaomi goetz has the story. >> reporter: congressman collin peterson angles his single engine bchcraft bonanza plane above his home in detroit lakes, minnesota. >> reporter: those pilot skills come in handy. the 15erm use democrat and chair of the ag committee has one of the largest and most rural districts in the countryso it's also dly red. >> well, it's got more trumpha stickersyou could, >> reporter: oh, i see. i see. four years ago, trump won the district with 62% of the vote. peterson won too.

but it was no fluke- there's a reason this hubert humphrey mentee and conservative has ayed in office here for nearly 30 years. and he's the only current house democrat who voted against bo arcles to impeach president trump. >> i don'tun with anyby, i didn't run with obama, i didn't th anybody. i try to do my own campaign, keep independent. it's the way i've always done it. i'm still o-life, still pro- gun, and people know that >> reporter: values his rural constituents support. but he's fed challenges. and this election, the longtime incumbent is being targeted byal natiepublicans. house democrats are trying to hold on to their majority. >> well, there's no question, since trump got into polits, running for president, he has cut my margin, he's cut into the people who split their ballot. >> reporter: challenger llc fischbach has state name recognition.

most recently she seed as the first female president of the minnesota senate, and as the state's lieutenant governor. >> after my term as lieutenant governor ended, i was at homi e anarted getting calls from folks around the seventh district asking me to run for the seat and saying we need a rong candidate against collin peterson who will be a conservative voice for us in washington, d.c. reporter: fischbach says she's campaigning to get the economy moving and to strengthen law and order. t y want to see those tax breaks that were put into place in 2017 made permanent and even expand on those, because, you know, we did have shutdowns in minnesota. and the president had thy econving. >> reporter: but clearly a main campaign strategy is to link peterson with the more progressive-leaning members of >> collin peterson is vulnerable in that he's vulnerable because of his connection to nancyli pelosi and thest agenda they're pushing. >> reporter: online news site 538 shows that peterson has voted with trump about half of

the time, though in the last ye that percentage dipped 25%. wheat and soybean farmer don loeslie has been drivior combines f4 years. the republican from warren says he's sticking by peterso. out here, he says everyone is connected to farming, and heys hey know peterson has their backs.he >> well,'s that oldl politiiom that you're either at the table or you're on the menu. and nothing can happen in ny committee unless it goes thrgh the chairman. we have the chairman, and we do not want to have that chairmanship transferred to another state. >> reporter: loeslie, a p tt president national wheat grower's association, says he trusts the congressman to deliver from smart trade to farm bills. and he's turned off by the kigative political ads att peterson.

>> pelosi and om are not in this district and will never be ab this district and there's nothing we can dt them, but that seems to be who they're running against. >> reporter: fischbach s peterson is also running negative ads. her supporters see her election as a chance for new ideas. >> i think the democrat party has changefrom when collin first took offic what, 30 years ago or so? and now he got to deal with keeping this group on the far left extreme, the socialist left, he's got to deal with them. >> reporter: peter balega lives in peterson's hometown and has be active with the local republican party. he says the congressman's influence on ag issuess not a given. >> his chairmanship depends on holding the hous so, we're kind of assuming that frany, i think that ifand

michelle is elected i think she'll end up on the ag committee too. and i think that will be a function of how hard she works. >> reporter: though trump is expected to again win in minnesota's seventhco ressional distric pundits say the house seat is a toss-up. i don't need a job, you know, i've done this for a lot of years, and ihink i'm good at it, i think ve done a good job d the farmersct obviously because i'm chairman of the committee, they want me to continue. >> it is very important to me ta go tington and fight for the people of the seventh dirict because we need to take next 30 years and we need to make sure rural minnesota is growing. >> sreenivasan: newshour will have live coverage of this week's hrings on the nomination of amy coney barrett to the supreme court on air and online beginning at 9:00 a.m tomorrow. that's all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." for the latest news updates

visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm ari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet ne captby media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is may: possible sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. a the cher philip milstein family. barbara pe zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation.

charles rosenblum. we try to ve in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of arica, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. nmutual of america ial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been 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 likeu. yo thank you. you're watching pbs.

♪ narrator: on the 1h of october, 1997, at monterey airport, california, nger john denver took off to test his new plane. denver had thousands of hours flying experience, and it was a simple leight on a clo day. but over monterey bay, something went wrong, and john denver's plane plummeted into the sea. he was killed instantly, age only 53. ♪ you fill up my senses ♪ like a night in a forest ♪ like the mountains in springtime... ♪