ngcaptioponsored by wnet >> hill: on this edindon for , december 27: unemployment benefits run out, and a government shutdown looms. more covid-19 vaccinations roll out as officials urge caution for the new year. > i> for me, a guaranteome is about building economic resience, because, awe >> hill: and, one city's pilot for universal basic income gains traction. next, pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii f the andersily fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

barbara hope zuckerberg. thleonard and norma klorfi foundation. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. tual 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. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a pl that fitsou. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. adrtditional supas been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your fr pbs statio viewers like you. thank you. >> hill: good evening, and

thanks for joining us. the countdown to a possible government shutdow and the wait for president trump's signature on legislation that includes $0 billion in covid-19 economic relief, continue, as of late this afternoon. the stimulus bill is attacd to a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill which keeps the federal government operating through next september. if the president does not sign the bill bmidnight tomorrow, or if congress does not pass another stopgap funding bill b then, some pas of the government will shut down. the president is atis mar-a-lago estate and played golf again today. he has repeatedly tweeted and said he will not sign the billu nless congress increases direct payments to individuals from what he called a "measly" $600 to $2,000.l awmakers, including republican senator pat toomey of pennsylvania, have urged the president to sign the bill as it stands. >> i understand he wants to be remembered for advocating for big checks, but the danger is

he'll be remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behaviorl if hws this to expire. i stthink the hing to do is to sign this and make the case folar subsequent legon. >> hill: house speaker nancy pelosi said on thursday she wobiulbring a stand-alon to increase direct payments to $200 to a vote on the hous floor tomorrow. but support for such a bill has not gained momentum in the repubcan-controlled senate, which plans to return to session tuesday. mr. trump has already vetoed the annual defense authorization bill, which passed by large senate.ies in the house and both chambers have to vote override that veto. it would be the first veto override of mr. trump's presidency. the 27ations in the european union launched their covid-19 vaccination programs today. ( applause ) from barcelona to berlin and

across europe, there was applause as the vaccine programs began. elderly residents of nursing homes were among those to get the first doses, along with prime ministers and frontline health care workers. the coordinated roll-out is the start ocif plans to vnate 450 million people, and part of the e.'s effort to send a message that the vaccine is indeed safe. the e.u. nations have recorded at least 16 million coronavirus infections and more than 400,000 deaths during the pandemic. and now a new variant of tis coronavirupreading. the new strain-- first seen in britain a more contagious, but not more deadly-- has turned up in several eseuropean countnd in canada and japan, prompting restrict britain.travel from today, japan expanded its ban to all non-resident foreigners beginningro tomorrow h the end of january. in the united states, the sease control and prevention reported that close to two million people in the u.s. have now received a covid-19 vaccine.

new cases of the coronavirus and deaths slowed nationally, but californiaontinues to see huge increase in new infections. the "new york mes" reports the state averaged more than 40,000 cases per day over the past week, a 33% increase over the average two weeks earlier. today, nashville police named a person of interest in the bombing that rocked the city on christmas morning, according to the local newspapethe tennessean." the newspaper reported the city's police chief confirmed that 63-year-old anthony q. warner is a person of interest, but did not say if authorities had located warner. esterday, federal agents and local police searched a house in a nashville suburb wherwarner reportedly lived. they also visited a local real estate office where warner hapreviously worked. this morning, nashville mayor hn cooper did not comment on warner or other details in this ination of the explosion

of the parked r.v. he did strfes the need for ral assistance in repairing the damage from the explosion, ofespecially in lighhe pandemic. >> the businesses that were bombed of having a covid recovery. again, it's part of needing respoe by the federal government both from the bombing and for covid also. hill: at a news conferen today, nashville police officers john wells and amanda topping described the moment the r.v. exploded. >> i just see orange, and then i hear a loud boom, and as i'm stumbling-- because it rockeme twn hard, i started stumbling-- i just tell myse"stay on your feet, stay alive. >> i'll never forget the window shattering after the blast, all around me. it kind of oked like a big prop from a movie scene, all the glass breaking at once. >> hill: for more national and international news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> hill: with the covid-19 imulus bill in limbo and

unemployment benefits expiring, millions may be facing economic uncertainty as the year ends. even before the pandemic, inequality created housing and food insecurities, with many he brink of poverty. two years ago, the mayor of stockton, california, piloted an effort to provide some economic relief to members of his community through a universal basic income prntram, sending ly assistance checks to some households. and the idea is gaining populaity. more than two dozen mayors across the country are expanding heiversal basic income in cities through private donatio, providing monthly assistance checks that help local families weatc r the econofects of the pandemic. mayor michael tubut histockton program, and his thoughts on the stimulus relief bill so much has been kicked around over the last week or so about americans across the country and

so forth. $600, kicked around and approvey ongress. ultimately, the president came out, said $2,000 per person would b.e more appropria what's appropriate? what's needed at this point from your pe >> what's appropriate is what's been suggested by senator harris, senator sanders andse tor markey six months ago, and that's $2cu00 a month rering during this pandemic. decimated our small businesses. we know that covid-19 has made ople unable to go to work because they're told to stay at home and shelter in place in quarantine for 14 days. we alsknow that people's bills have stayed in place, that people's bills haven't stopped being sent to homes and demanding payment. so we know that each and every month, the american people need an income floor. it's a way to build economic resilience. it's the only way, th my opinion we'll be able to bounce back from this covid-19 crisis stronger and healthier n maybe we were before >> hill: mr. mayor, you make it sound like such an easy

thing to do. it's cohaon sense. whit been so difficult? >> michael, that is the question of the ag. i mean, thomas paine in the late 1700s had talked about the need for an inco country.n this or. king talked about this in the late '60s bhe passed, about the need for a guaranteed income. guaranteed income beforethe covid-19 because even before this pandemic, one in two americans are $500 away from an emergency. and covid-19 has really exerbated what we've known was a weak economy for working peopleil. >>l: mr. mayor, your universal basic income includes $500 a month for 125 people in stockton. is that enough? are people responding to this? at's the community sayin >> well, michael, i started the project actually as a skeptic, more curious than like "this is the answer," but more curious about finding an answer to the issue of economic insecurity. whai d is aouple of things. number one, that the $500 didn't replace work.

it didn't make people stop working. stockton didn't change overnight into a different form of government in a different country. but actually, people worked harder. people were able to take time off work, particdoarly jobs that t have paid time off, to interview for better jobs. and wthen during covid-19, i how this has really been a lifeline, where recipients have told me that the $50 it so tha when they showed symptoms, because if they were going to go two w and without even kwing if there are positive or not, that would be a choice that they would have madegoo continue to o work and possibly infect a bunch of people, that the $500 has been a lifeline as folks have waited for thenemployment benefits they paid into. but be inefficiency, it takes a while for those payments to come. and theh $500 a mos been left for people to feel that they can breathe. and alsoit's helped me recognize that there's inherent dignity in our people, that dignity can't be attached to work.

because what about folksho are disabled? what about people who work from home? what about caregivers and domestic labor? usually women-- the work they do that isn't necessarily a job. but it's hard work. and an income floor doesn't solve all those problems, but it solves a lot of them and it helps create the foundation for the other things we need like paid time off, paid family leave, affordable child care, aff eordable housin. >> hill: and this is all privately funded. what's the feedback from the community? are peopleaying, "well, you know what, this is money that might be wasted?" what are you findingpen terms of hole are spending this money? they're using it for basic needs, bacessities? >> yeah, mike, what's crazy is that they spend money the way m you and i speey, because, like i tell people all the time, these are people like you and bome, they're our nei, they're us. so they're spending money on poilities, on necessities, on delayed medical tments, on dentures, tutoring for their kids, paying off credit card debt and maybe splurging a littleit, too, and enjoying

life, spending it, when they could travel, on a trip for take time off and enjoy life. and i thk that's also been-- not a surprise to me, but it's been surprising for a lot of people that we can trust people who are struggling economically with money, just like we trust billionaires with money, that folks with money aren't poor most of the time because they don'know how to manage money. they're struggling economically because they don't have money to manage, because of structural issues. or a high school diploma or a college degree in this case doesn't go as far as it used to, where waveges ot kept up with inflation, where all the growth of this country continue to go to those who already have and hollowing out the middle class or even those on the bottom with nothing to stand on. >> hill: the mayors for guaranteed income. it's an idea thatro catching on the country. i believe some two dozen mayors are considering implementing this. i know the mayor of newark, the largsest city in new jersey, baraka, s been talking about this at least a ye t or so.

why s catching on? why is this garnering the kind of support that you would think that it would? >> it's catching on because covid-19 has made it very, very clr that you could play by all the rules, that you could be working, and that sty not be enough. it'sexacerbated the existing issues. i mean, in 99% of our counties in this country, a minimum wage full-time job is not enough to apartment anywhere in thisom country. nd i think as mayors, we're on the front line. we're hearing constituents who are stressed about their bills, who are worried about evictio moratoriums expiring, who are terrified about car bills, who are scared to go to the doctor, whose kids are home all day now. and utility bills are going up and figuring out all these bills are going up but my wages, that my wages have decreased. and we also understand that in 1935, when we faced a simila economic crisis in the great dethession, f.d.r. came out

a bold new deal that included unemployment insurance. it is now 2020, our covid-19 red sponse cannot just be ba 1935 concepts, but i think we all understand that 2020 demands an extension of sorts on that, and some sort of income floor for most, if not all, people to maksu we're keeping up with the spirit of a meeting this moment, a moment, again, of real deprivation for a lot of our sma business owners, a lot of our residentsa lot of the essti workers who are really putting their health on the line. >> hill: would we need a stimulus bill, stimulus law at this point, if we had universal s basic income acre country? >> we would need some sort of t stimulus bill, but note extent that we're spending now. and thank you for raising that aupoint, b for me, a guaranteed income is about building economic resilience, because, again, we live in a ti of pandemics that in different parts of the country, fire, it'sd, it's

a hurricane, it's economic disruption, it's off-shoring, it's automation. and we can't ke going with this emergency response. it's the things we know are going to happen. think the guaranteed income represents smart contingency planning and ensuring that everyone has a floor so that when, not if, a pandemic occurs, that people are able to feed their families, are able to go to the doctor, are able to pay their bills, able to keep o economy going. >> hill: mayor tubbs, we will be following your progress there. and we certainly thank you for the time and wish you a lot of luce,k in the futir. >> thank you so much. happy holidays. >> hill: same to you. >> harill: at end, we like to introduce you to some of the producers and reporters behind the tories on our broadcast. hari vasreen spoke with producer sam weber about some of the road trips theykeere able to n the lead-up to the election.

>, > sreenivasan: s are one of the few teams that were able toe go out this year, and actually decided to take the whole show on the road because we weren't in the studio anyway. so, one of the places we went, north carina-- refresh our viewers on why we went there. >> it was a really fascine ing time to the state. early voting had already started and we concentrated on the race that was a little bitoff the beaten path, the race for the state agriculture commissioner, anfocused on a oung challenger who was really putting climate change at sort of the center of her campaign, and running against an incumbent who'd been there for a long time. itte was a really sting race to follow because climate change was so much at the front and center of that race. and north carolina is a state that really has felt like it's reffally feeling thets of climate change already. and one of thehings that we focused on in that story was hurricane florence, which was only two years earlier and had massive effects ross the state, including the flooding across really huge swaths of the eastern half of the state.

>> sreenivasan: and this is a topic that when we asked viewers of newshour weekend what they wanted to hear more of, an overwhelming number of audience members said climate stories were incredibly important to them. >> that's exactly right. and i tnk that was really something that we really tried to keep in the front and center of our minds as we were going forward with our election coverage and thinking about what was out there, what-- what were otheinr people cov and what were really the things that we felt was important, but also, as thought was really important. >> sreenivasan: and just a reminder,he did not win, is that correct? >> that's right. jenna wadsworth was a soil and conservationistrict supervisor in wake county. she did not win. steve troxler endeup winning that seat, it'll be his fifth consecutive term. >> sreenivasan: another ecace weided to go to: ohio. why? >> well, this was another place where a really tradition swing state nd, of course, there's a lot of different stories happening in that area. but we really went there to focus on the story that was happening all over thelace,

which s how municipal finances were being affected by the covid-19 crisis. we did two separate stories looking at two different cities. one, dayton, which is sort of a democratic stronghold, a little bit of a bigger city on the western half of the state, that had really felt the pinch fro, covid-and it was really, in the absence of additional federal help, is really concerned that even its police and fire numimbers ght potentially go down next year. and then we also did a story in lancaster, ohio, in much more conservative area southeast of columbus. and there-- there was a campaign to actually encourage voters for ththird time-- it was actuall iy the third ti was going to be on the ballot-- to get them to raise their own income taxes. >> sreenivasa and third time was the charm? >> third time was the charm. it did pass by about seven points. >> sreeniva ssan: a, just for our audience's understanding, give thet an idea of wnds of safety precautions you and i, and anody else in the field, a taking when we go and do these stories. >> we all took tests before we

left. i drove to both ohio and north carolina in an effort to sort of make sure that we were able to sort of stay a socially distanced as possible. i mean, we're basically masked the entire tme, with the sort of the very exception of when we're ready to literally roll in inrview. d then wre, of course, tested when we come back. and i think, you know, zoom interviews like this have been tremendous in being aban to really ethe reach of the number of people that we're able to talk to and the places that we can go. but they're really, both visually and rlly also to really get a sense story, it really does, i think, mean a lot to actually be there on the ground with people, even if it was a little bit of a schlep in the car. >> sreenivasan: all right, sam weber, thanks so ch and happy holidays. >> thanks. thanks so much. you too. >> hill: in another of our yearnd interviews, hari

sreenivasan spoke with newshour weekend producer connie kargbo on some of the stories she produced forhristopher booker, as the coronavirus dinated the news cycle. >> sreenivasan: connie, one of the first things that we noticed, a ns hospitals york and other places began to be overwhelmed by covid paents, is that elective surgeries were shutting down. and you took a look at the fact that, well, elective is really just in the name, that some of necessary.retty >> absolutely. elective surgeries ome really a mi when you think about it. it's really just emergency surgery versus non-emergency. and so when you think about non-emergency can be, it could run actually doing. you're >> so i was supposed to have a cervical spine fusion, or a cranial cerval fusion. so, it fuses my skull and... to a few of the verbrae in my cervical spine. and because of the number ofc coviasesn new york city,

the hospital that i would be having the surgery at is really overflooded with covid patients. >> siller found out late last month he surgery would be postponed indefinitely. that's because it's consided elective. >> we spoke with a number of people who were actually delayed surgeries, and thesareir surgeries that would help in terms of a better quality of life. and they simply, you know, spring, as this pandemic was unraveling, it wasn't possible for them to get into hospietls at all to hese necessary surgeries. >> sreenivasan: you also had a story peaboule that we often overlook in this process, which are the careegivers-- how they dealing with this, how they're procesomsing it, howimes they're dealing with the worst possible outcome. >> we spoke with caregivers who are taking care of people with disabilities, so it could be intellectual or developmental disability. and we've found doat as we were ng the story, and a lot of it was filmed pre-pandemic, but still had a lot of implications

during the actual pdemic that wehave been experiencing. and the issue is that, as they get older andhey continue to provide care, the question now becomes what happens when ey're no longer around? and so as we think about deathsh that apening due to covid, it becomes an even more critical question as to how do you get this care to this population when so often it's been given by family members. na>> kent can't walk ussisted and has very limited verbal skills. >> kent, what are you up to now? >> and for the past 51 years, it's been his parents, ron and virginia, caring for him in rural wisconsin. did you think you would still beis caregiving position at your age? >> absolutely not. >> i didn't think i'd be. >> well, i didn't know who else was going to do it. i always said, you know, 70s, that's about it. you get to be 80, ver. well, then you get to be 80 and you say, well, maybe, maybe 90, it'll be over.

>> in wisconsin, where we filmed a bunch of the story, what you deup finding out is that non-profits are really stepping in to be like, "how do we prepare for when you're no longer around?" and that could be getting a will together, that could be designating a guardian for someone who may have one of these disabilities. let's have something in place so when you're no longer around to,rovide that care, your s your daughter, your sibling will be taken care of.on >> sreenivasan your most recent pieces was about vaccine hesitancy. why? >> when i was looking at some of the poll numbers, in terms of the african american co punity rticular, there is significant distrust, especiall compared to other communities. and i balanced that along with what i was hearing in my own life-- my family, my friends, they were skeptical. they're like, "i'm not sure i want to take this vaccine. that it's really been tested, you know, to make sure it's reaay effective?" nd so ultimately, for me, that made sense to me. if i have people around me asking these questio, then i think it's valuable for me to go and look for the answers. and as you go into the history of why there is this deep-

setated skepticism of not j vaccines in general, but also the medical system, you find th it's rooted in history. you know, african americans have been experimented on. you know, they have had situations wre they were used as guinea pigs. so it's really important for me to speak to these issues that i was hearing in my community. and i think that in speaking with virologists and speaking with doctors and people who were also part of clinical trials, i hope i was able to answer some of those questions that some of fily have had and people who i've been speaking with in general. >> sreenivasan: connie kargbo, thanks so much and happy holidays. >>to happy holidayou, hari. >> hill: finally tonight, a clarification on a story we red last weekend on palestinian refugees in lebanon. than 450,000 palestinianre refugees are living in lebanon. according to the united nations

and works agency, more than 470,000 are "registered," while fewer than 200,0 reside there; and 45% of those live in the country's refugee camps, not "most," as was reported in the segment. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm michael hill. thanks for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson famy fund. bernard and denise schwartz. e eryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine

ti foun. charles rosenblum. . rosalind p. walter we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we beliwe taking care of torro can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and vestments. additional support has been prided 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 you.staon from viewers like thank you. you're watching pbs. - [narrator] this program was made possible

by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. - the most comlln thing that i persohave heard from a music exec is that i was too musical. "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 from pbs newshour; i'm amna nawaz. each week, we'll feature stories of whose work inspires us every day, and in this episode, it's all about the music. ♪wio many girls i see ar and lovable ♪ now, you just heard from the songwriting duo louis york, who spent the errst half of their cabehind the scenes